With the final exams on, most of the students carried a book wherever they went. It was more of a tradition than any useful resource. Classes had been suspended and students could be seen lazing around in the sun almost everywhere, of course, with a book in their hands. And also came the festival of paper planes! Rohan watched a group of juniors from the Auditorium balcony as they flung paper planes off the Stadium Steps. The Field was littered with waste planes; every now and then someone would run down to fetch one and re-throw it from the steps.
The play party now spent the entire day in the hall and this meant being cut off from all their friends. But new bonds had been made in the past few weeks and all of them, except him, were enjoying a cricket match in the Basketball Court. Rohan was alone in the balcony, but he liked it that way. He felt low. He just wanted to be alone. It was past noon and he savored the full heat of the winter sun.
"Hi!" Chandni was back and was beaming at him.
"Hi," he replied. "When did you return?"
"Just this morning. Here," she held out a small box of Ferrero Rocher.
Had it been some other time, Rohan would have tuned a somersault off the balcony, but somehow, neither the chocolate nor her presence did anything to brighten his mood. "What is this for?" he asked.
"To apologize!" She waited for him, her fingers unconsciously curled around her sleeves. It reminded him of the time he had first seen her.
It's fine that was what he would have said, even if she ripped his heart and stamped on it. "What were you doing in the hall that night?" he asked, ignoring the still held out chocolates.
"Excuse me!" Her face hardened.
"Or rather, why did you come down to the hall that night?"
Rohan half expected her to turn around and leave, or rather, tell him to turn around and never show his face again. She didn't like being questioned, at least by a junior. But she just held the chocolates out for him. "You won't understand."
"Really? So you expect me to understand by accepting these chocolates?"
Chandni immediately withdrew her hand. Rohan at once knew he had made a mistake. Her mere presence had begun to pacify him. She seemed as perfect as she had always been; and he was almost intimidated by her beauty, fueled by the guilt of his obnoxious thoughts. "Look, I did not blame you," she said. "You don't know what I went through. I was only trying to defend myself."
"And that is why you said I played a prank when you fell down from that chair, just to defend yourself, to hide your embarrassment?"
"I never mentioned that to anyone. Why would I say such a thing?" Chandni raised her voice.
"Because we were screwed for that. All four of us."
Chandni opened her mouth to speak but stopped midway. Apparently, she had no idea that they had been beaten because of her. "I am really sorry about what happened. I did not know about it. But I never meant to drag you into this." She turned away and watched the juniors on the Stadium Steps. A paper plane was gliding above the Field, slowly coming towards them, till a sudden gust of wind swept it away and crashed it into a wall. "And I was not embarrassed," she said after a few moments, "I was scared!"
"Of what?"
"I told you, you won't understand. And I don't want to explain either." Her voice had lost its softness. She was deliberately looking away from him. "Where are the others?"
"Look, I..."
"What time does the practice start?"
"I am sorry." He didn't know if he had actually been rude or whether her indignant behavior was justified. But he knew he had annoyed her. "But don't you think, after all the beatings I took because of you, Ma'am, I deserve an explanation... and of course, these chocolates!"
Chandni passed him a smile. But he knew it was fake. She had been faking it all along. She seemed troubled, her eyes gave her away. Rohan too leaned on the railing beside her and watched paper planes flying over the Field.
"I don't know," she broke the silence at last, still avoiding eye contact, "but..."
"What is going on, Chandni?"
"I am scared." She paused to study him. He remained grave, listening closely to everything she had to say. He, somehow, understood her. "Something terrible happened at this place."
"Yes I know. There is a story that a girl disappeared from the Green Room."
"Kajal."
"What?"
"Her name was Kajal."
"What do you mean?"
"It is not a story."
"What do you mean? It actually happened. She just disappeared? And no one went looking for her?"
"No. She ran away into the forest... and a leopard took her away."
Rohan thought of the screams he had heard in the Green Room. There was a wide, unguarded entrance to the forest below the back door of the Green Room even now. "But how do you know this is true?"
Chandni hesitated for a moment, and then whispered, "Because I saw her!" She studied his reaction again. He still believed her. His eyes were wide, yet comprehensive. "I didn't believe it either. But I saw her again and again. Something happened here. These school people are trying to hide something."
"Hide what?"
"When Kajal died, her body was not found. There was no trace. She just went missing. There was a rumor that a man-eater had been spotted in these forests and some believed that she had been taken away. A forest officer was called from Jim Corbett and he confirmed it. A few weeks later a guard shot down the leopard near his village."
"But how do you know all this?"
"I went through old newspapers and contacted a few people when I went home. But there is more. The then principal, what was his name... Adam Smith Williams, yes, Mr. Williams... resigned after this incident... in 1989. And a few years later, I think in 1993, he died."
"How?"
"Road mishap. His car fell into a lake. He couldn't come out."
Rohan felt a splash of cold water. He was drowning, going deeper, as she sat next to him, watching him...
Sirrr...
1993. It was the same year the play had been cancelled.
"Even the forest officer died that very year," Chandni went on.
"What happened to him?"
"Committed suicide." A moment's pause. "And this does not end here. The guard who had killed that leopard died this very year!"
Rohan did not ask any question this time.
"Killed by an animal, probably a leopard. He was returning home, but never made it. His body was found in a forest outside his village. The animal attacked a fully grown man, but left his dog alone. And it was not a man-eater. It did not eat him... just ripped him apart and left."
Rohan did not need any confirmation from Chandni. These creepy accidents were related to the death of Kajal. He looked back at the door to the hall. It was black and all of a sudden he was scared of it. The juniors in the Stadium Steps had left. They were all alone. Everything was quiet. "Why did you come here at night?" he whispered, scared to disturb the silence.
Chandni lowered her head. She was uncomfortable. "I don't know" she said, "I saw her in my room... and I followed her."
"Followed her?"
"I had seen her many times," Chandni's voice rose in defense. "Felt her... every time I entered this hall. That day I fell, I saw her in the mirror; actually, I saw myself as her!"
Rohan tried to say something, but the horror of what she had just said made his mouth dry. He tried to imagine it, looking in a mirror and seeing someone else stare back at you.
"And that night, I saw her standing by my bed. There was a thick fog all around. I don't know why I did that... but I followed her. It was strange. It was as if something was pulling me. And then all I knew, I was on the stage. It was pitch dark. And suddenly, Kajal was screaming. I couldn't hear anything else... only her screams. I was terrified! And I think, I fainted."
"But I had locked the Auditorium."
"I don't remember how I opened it. Anjali had given me her key when she went away. Maybe that's how."
Rohan observed her. It was certainly terrifying. He had himself been there once. She tried to maintain her composure, but again, her eyes gave her away. He wanted to comfort her... hug her... but he stood rooted to his spot. There was a long silence. A troop of monkeys was creating havoc in the tress along the Field. A black dog was hopelessly chasing them, barking at the swaying trees.
"I woke up in the Infirmary," Chandni continued. "I was surrounded by people. I didn't know how to explain. So I told everyone that I had dozed off in the Green Room and when I woke up, the doors had been locked. What else could I have said? There were so many people around me. I was nervous, rather, freaked-out! Mr. Lawrence believed me. He suggested I take leave."
"Did you try to talk to Lorry?"
"I did. I tried to talk to him about these incidents during our practices, and he immediately came up with a solution."
"What?" So these people were actually doing something about it.
"Throw you out of the play!" Chandni grinned. Rohan sighed and looked away. "But chill. He won't. Here," she offered him the chocolates again, "let's not think about all this. Just half a month left. It will be over soon."
The smile on her face lifted his spirits. They shared the chocolates. She was more charming than he had ever imagined and he simply loved watching her speak. He tried his best to make her laugh and, surprisingly, she did, even at his dumbest joke. The sky grew dark and students began to sprinkle in. The practice started and it was time to depart. He left her with Anjali and took a seat at the back of the hall and quietly watched her from there.
Chandni sat in the first row pretending to read a novel. Anjali had decided to attend to other characters that night. She could have gone back to her hostel, but her heart totally disapproved of it. She couldn't see him, but she knew he was watching her. She enjoyed the warmth of his gaze. She somehow liked his company. And she was even embarrassed that, maybe, she had started to like him. She had decided to resist. But then that day, he gave her a chocolate. She knew he didn't do it just because the girls were teasing. He had always looked at her with respect. But that day, there was a strange spark in his eyes, and it made her heart melt. And the way his eyes had popped out when he saw her that night; it was as if he would have pounced on her any moment.
"Oh, damn!" she heard Anjali curse, "I forgot my bag. Rohan? Please come here."
Chandni tried to ignore his footsteps and concentrate on her book.
"Yes?" Rohan asked.
"Please can you go to my house and bring me my bag?"
"I don't know your house!"
"It's in the girls' campus. Take left from the main gate... Never mind! I'll send someone with you."
Chandni's face became warm. She was the only girl free. She buried her nose deeper into her novel, pretending not to have heard anything and waited for her name to be called out.
"Ma'am, can we go with him?" It was Surbhi and one of her friends.
"No, you still have your part on stage."
"Ma'am, please! We have to submit an assignment tomorrow. Our teacher said he will grade us on that for our final result."
"But I had planned to work on you girls today."
"Ma'am, please!" The girls began to plead.
"Okay, fine... fine!" Anjali turned to Rohan, "I'll write you a gate-pass. It's probably on my dining table... brown leather bag."
Bitch! Chandni threw Surbhi a disgusting look. How she wanted to lock her in the Green Room with that pretty doll! Rohan left and she furiously turned the page of her book. Her face was burning. She felt like marching up to Surbhi's dormitory and stripping her locker bare... or punish her for wearing her kohl too dark... or... What's wrong with me! She turned her attention back to the novel.
Five minutes later, with not another page turned, she heard Anjali complain again. "Oh dear! I forgot to give him my key."
Chandni held her breath.
"Chandni, are you free?"
"Yes, Anjali?" she looked up, as if awoken from a deep reading session.
"How careless of me! Can you please give this key to Rohan?"
"Ma'am, you can call the guard-room and ask them to return, or they can arrange for a spare key," Akshay interrupted. "They might not have reached the main gate by now." He looked at Chandni, expecting appreciation for rescuing her. But she didn't look pleased at all. No, she didn't, for she was glaring at him, her fingers clenched. If eyes could kill, she brutally slaughtered him. "But I don't have... number..." he gulped and trailed off, trembling under her gaze, wondering what went wrong.
"Can you please go along and give Rohan this key?" Anjali turned back to her.
Chandni let out a sigh. "Sure!" She stood up and casually settled her dress.
"Thank you so much!" Anjali beamed at her. "There are some sweets in my fridge. Feel free to have a few!"
It was very cold outside. The path to the main gate was deserted. She kept her eyes down, not daring to look around. She had expected to meet him midway but only dark trees awaited her, standing gloomily away from the light cast by lamp-posts. Something moved. She looked up. The Art Block loomed to her left, its gaping dark windows watching her. To her right, the mountain rolled down gradually to a small settlement. She could see a few lights below. The path went up and turned around a boulder. A dark figure stood there. Chandni stopped dead, her heart racing.
It was her!
She looked back. The Auditorium was out of sight. All she saw was murky trees towering above the lamp-posts. The figure took a step towards her. She stepped back, she fingers curled around her sleeves. She felt too weak to run. Her eyes began to water.
"What are you doing here?" the figure spoke.
A guard! Chandni let out a breath. She quickly wiped her eyes. "I was going to the Girls' Hostel."
"Alone? You aren't suppose be wandering alone at night. Let me see your gate-pass." He held out his hand and came forward.
Chandni raised her eye-brows. She wasn't sure whether it was her face he recognised first or her golden badge, but the next moment he jumped to a side to give her way. "Yes, sure... sure! I will escort you," he muttered. Relieved that she now had company, she followed him.
Rohan was waiting outside the guard-room by the main gate. A guard was talking on a phone. "Hey!" he greeted as she approached.
"Looking for this?" She dangled the key in front of him.
"Oh, you brought it." The guard hung up and came out. "We were trying to arrange for a spare."
"No need now. Where are the girls?" she asked.
"They left. Too busy!" Rohan held out his hand.
"Never mind! I'll take you along."
Anjali's house was small and cozy. Chandni opened the door and an exotic smell greeted them. The dining table was right in front of them. Other than that, her house was thinly furnished. Rohan spotted the bag on the table. And then he noticed something else. Resting behind the bag was an annual magazine.
1989.
He didn't have to search. It was on the very first page. He saw a picture of a girl... an extremely beautiful girl. It almost pinched to look at her.
KAJAL KHANNA
1972-1989
May her soul rest in peace.
She looked familiar. Wasn't she the same girl he had seen in the Vice-Principal's Office?
K. Khanna. That was her name. Kajal Khanna.
She was the one he had seen near the Swimming Pool. Rohan picked up the magazine. She was dead. He felt sorry for her. The fact that she had killed three people should have terrorized him, but it didn't. Chandni's presence did not refrain him from gazing at her. She was his age when she died, savagely eaten by an animal. He heard her screams and they chilled his core. And then, he saw her earring. It was star-shaped, intricately designed, studded with white stones.
"You have seen her too, haven't you?" Chandni was leaning behind him.
Rohan nodded.
She picked up the bag and gently pulled him. "Come. Let's go!"
Neither Rohan nor Chandni said anything on their way back. She walked close beside him, but left him to his thought. He had her earring. It had been in his gown pocket all along. He had taken something of hers. Was that the reason why she was haunting him? He had to give it back. "Hey, I have to go back to my dormitory," he said once they reached the Auditorium.
"Are you all right?"
"Yes. I am fine."
She knew he wasn't. Nevertheless, she went inside. Rohan ran all the way up to his dormitory. Boys roamed in every corridor, studying, playing, smiling, worrying... living. It was a different world altogether. He did not give anyone a chance to talk to him. He stopped only at his locker, panting, and pulled out his gown. There was something cold in its pocket. The silver earring. He loathed it. It was no longer beautiful. It was evil. He had to get rid of it.
He ran down to the front quadrangle and flung it over the Chapel into the forest beyond. Having done that, he leaned against the parapet to catch his breath. He had thrown it away. He felt lighter, as if he had just got rid of a heavy burden. But the pity... why did he still feel sad for her? Shivering a little, he closed his eyes and hunched over a flower bed atop the parapet. After a while, he opened his eyes. He saw glimpses of hazy mountains and starry sky through the strands of flowers and leaves. And he could not close his eyes again.
He had dinner with the rest of the school. Now that he was spending most of his time in the Auditorium, he had loads to catch up on. The warden haunted this part of the school. He punished and humiliated students for slightest violation of discipline. He recently made two juniors dress up like waiters and serve lunch to the school as punishment for cheating in an exam. Students were angry. Everyone refused to eat. Then prefects came into action, threatening them of severe punishments if they did not eat. The administration simply refused to accept that the steps taken to enforce discipline were way too harsh.
The other boys from the play returned to the dormitory by midnight. Rohan was in his bed by then. He was thinking about Kajal. He fought with an ever growing desire to look at her photo again. He was embarrassed. That girl had died even before he was born and there he was, infatuated.
She had been killed by a leopard and it was still unclear how. He had heard her screams in the Green Room. Chandni had heard it too and Anjali knew about it. He imagined her struggling, desperately fighting for her life. It was a painful death. The leopard must have dragged her into the forest. But, there was no trace. The authorities would have known for sure what had happened with her, unless they themselves tried to hide it. Chandni had said that she probably ran away, or rather, gone out, like him, to explore the wilderness. That was plausible.
He felt thirsty. It was too cold to step out of the bed, but he had never felt so thirsty before. He looked around. Everyone was asleep. He crept out of his bed and went downstairs to the water purifier. The cold water lashed his sleep away completely. He headed back, rubbing his slipper on the edges of the stairs to remove a chewing-gum. He sensed something unusual and looked up... and came to an abrupt halt.
An extremely thick mist awaited him in the corridor, swirling... snarling at him. He could not see his dormitory on the other end. He gulped and took a step down the staircase.
THUD... THUD...
Someone was coming towards him, deliberately stamping on the wooden floor. The mist seemed to be advancing. He took another step down.
THUD... THUD...
It was almost on him. But the mist revealed nothing. It just danced its terrifying dance. Something else caught his attention now. At first he thought it was a locker. Then the mist lightened.
THUD... THUD...
It was rectangular. A door? And what was the ghastly thing above? Rohan retreated. He had recognized what it was.
A human skull!
THUD... THUD...
He saw something move – something on the floor. Eyes wide, he looked down.
Pug marks!
Something pounced on him, something invisible. He felt it. A heaviness. In his desperate attempt to get away, he leapt down the stairs... and fell with a crash.
"Who's there?" asked a voice.
A familiar voice. He got up just in time to see the warden emerge from a dormitory, his hands deep in his pockets. "Yes... Sir," he managed to speak, breathing heavily, "I was going to drink water."
The warden studied him. He realized he was sweating and holding his knees. "Sorry... I slipped and fell." He looked up the staircase. The mist had vanished.
The warden continued to stare at him. There were movements behind him. Rohan turned around to see two prefects coming towards them.
"You called us, Sir?" asked one of them.
"Yes!" replied the warden. "Let's get over with it." With that he led the prefects to his dormitory. "You," the warden ordered him, "go and stand by your bed."
What's going on?
Rohan quietly followed them, relieved to have their company. The warden switched on the lights and roared like thunder, "Wake up!" and the boys leapt out of their beds like lightning. Rohan stood by his bed, wondering what he had done now. Nevertheless, with the lights on and so many alive faces around him - faces and not their skulls - he felt calmer, safer. The prefects began pulling the laziest ones out. Within minutes, everyone was standing by his bed, sleepy, puzzled and shivering.
"Now..." the warden paced up and down, "I have been informed that one of you is in possession of a mobile phone," he paused meaningfully, letting his words sink in.
Rohan relaxed. The boys were not shivering in the cold because of him. He gave a nervous glance towards the corridor. Only wooden lockers facing each other. No mist. No skull.
"I will count till five, and I want that boy to step forward."
Most of the boys were still recovering from their sleep.
"FIVE!"
What! He just decided to skip to five?
"FOUR!"
Oh! A count-down!
"THREE!"
Rohan knew no one would own up. But like others, he too looked around innocently at everyone else.
"TWO!"
The prefects became alert for any suspicious exchange of looks.
"ONE!"
The warden paused for a moment. "No one? Okay. Strip their beds!" He ordered the prefects while he went to raid their lockers. The boys watched in horror as their cosy warm beds were stripped down to bare, while they stood shivering in the cold. The raid lasted for an hour, but the phone was not recovered. How could it be? It lay charging above a tube-light fixture in the ceiling. Everyone knew about it, even the prefects.
The warden was furious. He began inspecting every individual. Ayush somehow found this very amusing. The warden had proved himself to be a lousy husband, if he ever got married. Who on earth would spend a night as cold as this recovering an 'illegal' mobile-phone?
The warden stopped in front of Ayush. "What is that?" he pointed at a Playboy deodorant poking out from his blanket. Oh boy, a lousy way to open his file!
"That is a deodorant, Sir!"
The warden examined it as if he had never seen such a thing before. Would it make a strong case to be put into his file? Or was he staring at it, fantasizing...
"It's only a deodorant," Ayush said, faking innocence, "not the magazine, Sir!"
Suppressed giggles rippled across the dormitory. The prefects turned their heads or covered their mouths. But the warden did not realize that he had been taunted at for staring at the Playboy logo. He continued to eye the bottle in awe. "But why do you keep deodorants?"
Ayush just eyed him, his mouth open. The only excuse for this question was sarcasm, or maybe alcohol, but the warden neither joked nor drank.
"You people should be taught to stay clean, and not use these to hide your filth. Is this even allowed here?" He turned to the prefects and without waiting for a reply, ordered, "Confiscate all the deodorants!"
The prefects rushed to their lockers. Over the years, a few stupid rules had been imposed every now and then, but no one, ever, had ordered anything more puerile than this. Rohan wanted to kill him with that Playboy deodorant, break open his head, then spray it all over and set him on fire.
"Why is your hair so long?" The warden continued to inspect Ayush. Now that his file had been opened, the warden was examining his case from every angle to slap as many charges as possible.
"It's not long. I was not checked during inspection."
"Why? Were you bunking the inspection?"
"No, Sir, I was..."
"Look at your side-locks!" The warden pulled his side-locks and shoved him around.
Ayush winced in pain. "I will have a hair-cut tomorrow," he promised.
"You bloody will! Bring me a trimmer!"
A prefect procured one. Rohan watched as the warden switched it on and pulled his hair. Ayush didn't protest. What was the harm in getting his side-lock trimmed short? But before he could understand what had happened, the warden ran the trimmer all the way up to the top. Ayush's jaw dropped to the floor along with a large chunk of hair. His hands immediately ran over his head.
"You have a hair-cut now, and I will hammer you to death," the warden threatened coldly. "Now everyone, make your beds and go to sleep!" With that, he put his hands in his pockets and left.