The Selfie

6:00 p.m - same day

Diana woke up with a pounding headache. She felt like someone was repeatedly hitting her head and side with a hammer.
As soon as she opened her eyes, the white light blinded her, making the headache worse.
For a minute, everything was blur. But she could vaguely make out that she was in a hospital. And she realised that there was a girl sitting next to her.
Diana screamed. "Why? What do you want? Why are you trying to kill us? Get away from me! What did we do to you that you are so hell-bent on hurting us?!" She yelled, thrashing in her bed.
The girl held her down. "Dia! Diana! Its me, Prithvi! Oh my God, Di, what happened?" Prithvi said, tearing up as she saw her generally calm and collected friend in such a broken state.
Diana's vision cleared up and she realised that it was, in fact, Prithvi.
"Oh, its you. I thought..."
"That it was Atisha, right?"

Diana paused for a moment. She wanted to deny it.

"She had something to do with this, didn't she?"

Diana wanted to deny that too. She wanted to say that she tripped and fell, and that it was her own folly.

But the incident kept rushing back to her and every single time, her nerves tingled because of the fear that came back with the memory.

She hadn't believed that Atisha was back. Now she did. Before, she had believed that even if she really was back, she wouldn't hurt her friends. Now, she wasn't so sure. What with Prithvi's accident and now this, she found it very hard to believe that spirits had any emotions.

"Di? What happened? How did you fall?" Prithvi asked her, snapping her out of her reverie.
"Before I tell you how, can you tell me how bad the damage is?"

Prithvi hesitated. "Well... You broke an arm, displaced a shoulder and twisted an ankle. Oh, and you have twenty stitches on her head and your skull is kind of fractured too. Nothing major." Prithvi said with a weak smile.

It was then that Diana became aware of the pain. Yes, she was on painkillers but after hearing about the damage, the pain suddenly hit her.

"So, Di. Tell me what happened."

Diana tried to recollect everything. "Well... I don't exactly remember everything but... I think I was somewhere near the stairs when this happened. Like, I heard something so I went near the top of the stairs. Then somebody grabbed me from behind; I don't know who it was. But I clearly saw Atisha's ring, so I'm pretty sure its her, though I can't explain it. So well, I struggled against her grasp and I don't know if she let go or pushed me, but the next thing I know, I'm falling. I vaguely remember hitting my head on something. Yeah, that's how much I remember."
"Oh." Was all that Prithvi said.

Before anyone could say anything, the door opened and Ankit, Mr. Rao, Hiya and a nurse walked in.
"The broken head is awake! Yay!" Ankit said, coming over and giving her an almost-hug, knowing that if he hugged her, she would feel the pain.

"The broken head? That's all you could come up with?" Hiya chastised him.
"Think of something better then." Ankit challenged her.
"Um... How about the Horrible Hallucinator?"

"Hallucinator? Is that even a word?" Ankit asked her.

"Well, it is now." Hiya replied, smirking.

They all laughed, and the tension dissipated a little. The nurse left after leaving the food tray in the table.
"So... How did the 'Horrible Hallucinator' end up like this ?" Mr. Rao asked Diana.
Diana looked at Prithvi, too tired to answer that question again.
Prithvi nodded and then turned to the others, telling them whatever Diana had told her. Once she finished, they all pursed their lips.
"I don't understand... Why is she trying to hurt us? It's not like we did anything to her. So why is she after us?" Ankit asked, after a moment of silence.
"That's exactly what even I was wondering. We haven't done anything to her, so why is she trying to harm us?" Diana replied.

"Are you sure you haven't done anything to her?" Mr. Rao asked, and then quickly added, as he noticed the glares that he was getting. "I don't mean to say that you did it purposely, maybe you hurt her without knowing that you did?"

"That's not possible." Surprisingly, it was Prithvi who spoke up. "Atisha is very close to all four of us, and even if she won't completely open up to me or Ankit or Rudy, she would definitely open up to Diana. And if Diana says that we haven't hurt her in any way, then we haven't." Diana nodded in agreement.
"By the way, where is Rudy?" Diana asked after a few seconds.

"He had to get some work done, so he said he'll drop by later." Ankit replied.

Diana sighed. "He's so busy nowadays. I don't even recognise our boy anymore. Its amazing how fast he grew up after getting that job, don't you think?"

"Yeah. But I think it's good for him. He can't goof around and live on his parent's money forever, you know." Prithvi said.

"True that. But I don't think his parents have been funding him in a long time."
"How do you know?"
"Let's just say that I don't get those envelopes anymore." Diana said, smiling a bit.
They all burst out laughing. The envelopes were a standing joke in their group.

Initially, when Rudy had moved to their city, his parents had told him that they would send an envelope with a letter and some money each month. Diana and Rudy turned out to be neighbours, and their apartment numbers were inversed. So when Rudy was giving his address to his parents, they had somehow ended up with the inverse, that is, Diana's apartment. The rest of the story goes unsaid.

The door opened and Kalki walked in. Diana tried sitting up and immediately gave up, because her head wasn't cooperating. Kalki came over to Diana's side. "How are you?" She asked her.

"A few broken bones, nothing big. Did you get the results?"

"Yeah I did."

"Whose fingerprints were on the note?" Diana asked eagerly.

Kalki hesitated, looking at Hiya. "That's the thing. There weren't any fingerprints on the note."

Diana's eyes widened with surprise.
"What do you mean, no fingerprints?"
"I mean that the person who wrote that note was smart enough to use gloves."

Diana couldn't believe it. She thought she was finally getting a break through in the case. But now, she was just as confused as she was before, if not more.

                             *    *    *

A few kilometres away, Rudy came out of an office building, yawning. He had finally finished up with his work and was very tired. Today had been especially hard. But he wanted to make a trip to the hospital to see Diana.

He walked to his car and got inside. He put on his seat belt and then looked up. His breath hitched.

On his windshield was a note with a very elegant writing.

You're next.