"You're a dream. Like everything else." ― Kelly Creagh
Mumbai, India
Searching for that one particular, half-burnt cabin was difficult. Everyone was divided into teams as we were accompanied by a member of the police squad. "Remember, there are leopards in the jungle so if there's an emergency, raise the alarm," I announced over the wocky tocky. A string of 'yeses' had followed and I, along with Pranav, Aditya, Chirag and an officer walked deeper into the jungle.
The tension was palpable. None of us had imagined ourselves being in the jungle again. The sun was shining, the humidity was high and all of us were sweating profusely.
"Do you think we would find anything here?" Chirag asked me.
"Not really," I answered, evading a tree branch that came in my way.
The rest of the people who were following me had stopped. Even there was silence from the wocky tocky.
I stopped in my tracks and turned to look at them. "What?" I asked, looking at them.
"What are you saying, Akanksha?" Aditya asked, looking bewildered.
Ah, these punks.
I closed my eyes and sighed, "Use some logic, Adi. We are finally searching up this place after eight years. Do you think the killer would have left all the evidence for us to find it? What I am saying is that there are high chances that we won't find anything, but if we do, that would be the first big mistake conducted by the killer. Not only that, today eight big forest searches are being held all over India. If we find something common, it would help us set up a link with all the cases," I emphasised on my last words.
The people who were hearing me mumbled an 'oh' and resumed their searches. I and the rest of my team too had resumed the search.
The search went on and on, for about two hours, but no luck. None of us knew how deep they had walked in.
"It's almost half-past twelve. How did you even stumble upon that place years ago?" Pranav mumbled behind me. I shrugged, internally asking myself the same question.
How?
"It was an adrenaline rush I guess," I answered, "Just hang in there a little longer," I pacified him. I had run a lot that day so there was no way I remembered how I reached that place. It was not like I had planned to go there beforehand.
It was daytime and I had no recollection of the last time they had been here since everything was dark. I had no idea where the cabin could be, but I knew that it was deep in the woods.
"Look for some polished area," I said over the wocky tocky. "As I could recall, there was something beneath the floorboards, something underground. So look for that,"
The search went on, nobody really paid attention to the time. I kept on marking the woods as we went on searching since we had to return back as well.
The heat grew as the sun was at its peak, bringing humidity as well. We were laden in sweat, yet our spirits did not die down. My feet had gone numb due to all the walking and my head hurt due to the stitches but I had to do it for the sake of Ruhi.
I stopped walking when I felt my phone vibrate in my jeans. I took out her phone and noticed that it was Vihaan calling.
"Hello?" I greeted him.
"We found it," he answered, "and so did the other teams in the other cities." I could hear him pant as he too had been moving for way too long in the jungle.
And that was also when my wocky tocky started to make noise. "We found it— team C." The answer came. Oh, thank lord. I looked heavenwards and offered a small prayer in relief.
"We found it too," I told him. "I will call you later."
Taking the wocky tocky closer to my mouth, I said, "All the teams head back to the meeting point. We are all going there together. Team C, head back to the meeting place and please accurately mark the directions."
After putting out the instructions, we started walking back to our meeting spot. It took us an hour to return back to our meeting spot, the common spot in the forest where the teams had divided and moved to separate ways.
My team was the second one to reach. We waited for team B— they arrived after fifteen minutes.
With no further discussion, all the teams followed team C's trail. The way to that cabin was sloppy, with wet ground. The route to the cabin was mildly steep, making each one of us careful in our steps.
"Shay, tell me again, how did you even reach that place?" Pranav, who held onto my hand as we carefully walked down the slope, asked me for the umpteenth time.
"Things would've been so easier if I just remembered, wouldn't it?" I mocked him, internally cursing my fate. The path again led us deeper into the woods. A few of the officers held onto mashals to evade the wild animals. Leopards were wildly popular in these woods and none of us had planned on becoming their meal for the day. In no sooner than forty-five minutes, we had reached our destination.
When I looked at that cabin, an inaudible gasp left my lips. The place was nothing like my dreams yet it looked like it was. If only it wasn't burnt down, it would have easily coincided with my dreams. Even without my instructions, everyone had started searching the place.
But I just stood there, looking at the house of horrors.
I could not remember how many times I had seen this very cabin in my dreams and how much that had scared me to death. I felt the cabin was staring back at me, challenging me to come back in and go through all the trauma all over again.
The cabin-house stared at me and gave me a sinister smile as if the place knew that I had seen something, something I struggled to remember.
I felt like I was suddenly in a trance and my subconscious mind slowly led me inside the house of horrors. The floor creaked as I slowly walked in, the shiver running down my spine. Everything was burnt down, everything looked shabby due to the fire that had occurred eight years ago. There were cobwebs that hung at the corner of the walls, nothing was really in there.
The place looked empty. As much as I could recall from my dreams, it was a perfectly fine cabin, nothing like what it was today.
The floor creaked again and I looked down at the wooden floorboard. My eyes roamed over that area and my eyes caught a familiar thing.
It was the gap in the floorboard. Like I had deduced previously, it had an underground basement like thing. And just then I saw myself, the naive, seventeen-year-old Akanksha slowly tiptoeing towards where I was previously walking to. I walked and stood beside her. When I looked at her, my heart started beating really fast. She looked tired, parched and covered in sweat.
With fearful eyes, she took a look through the gap in the floorboards making me follow her line of vision.
I gasped.
It was Ruhi, this time not burnt, but bloodied. Blood was continuously dripping down her hands and she was hissing in pain. The clothes that she had worn were all torn and I didn't want to imagine how and why
She was in trouble.
I needed to get her out.
"Ruhi!" I gave her a call and in a flash, she looked up. But it wasn't me she was looking at. It was my younger self, who had gone numb after looking at her.
Ruhi's scared eyes clashed with the younger Akanksha and she looked alarmed. Tears had slowly started slipping out of the latter's eyes as she looked at her battered best friend.
"Go away!" Ruhi shouted. Both I and my younger version stood rooted in our place, not knowing what to do.
"Go away, Shay!" she shouted again and my younger self shakily got up and ran out of the house, not looking back even once. The sounds of gunshots went off and I fiercely shut my ears. My eyes went through the gap in the floorboards and I could see Ruhi, who still stood there, looking straight at me. Her eyes were filled with tears and she had smiled, just like she used to.
"Akanksha!" a voice jerked me back from looking at her. All of a sudden, the surroundings had changed. There was no Ruhi, instead, it was Pranav, who was protectively holding me in his arms, while I was on the floor.
"Akanksha, wake up!" it was Chirag, who had knelt down, looking at me in worry.
My hand went up to my throat. "My throat is hurting," I croaked. My fingers gently ran up and down my throat, trying to ease the pain. Pranav made me drink some water.
Adi and Chirag were almost leaning over me, looking at me in concern. Pranav had held onto me tightly mirroring the same expressions as them.
"What happened?" I whispered.
Hot tears were brimming in my eyes as I saw everyone looking at me.
"You were almost unconscious and were screaming aloud," Chirag spoke, "we tried to wake you up but you refused to respond and acted as if you were under a spell. It was scary."
My eyes went around the walls of the cabin again. The sight of that place made me nauseous. "My head hurts. Get me out of here."
Pranav helped me get up. "Should I carry you or you can walk?" He asked. I just shook my head and he held me by my shoulders, helping me find my way out. The farther I walked away from that cabin, the more I wanted to turn and look back at it again.
And when I turned my head to look at it, there was nothing that caught my sight.
But there was one thing that had caught my mind.
That dream. It wasn't the usual one that I was so used to seeing.
Was that dream a fragment of my imagination or a piece of reality that I had forgotten?
* * *
"How do you feel?" Pranav asked me as he made me sit in the car. We were still outside the forest since I needed to check on the things if they had collected any.
"Hungry," I sheepishly smiled at him. It was way past the lunch hour and my stomach was rumbling in her hunger. It was that moment when I felt something liquidy trickle down at the back of my head.
"I think my stitch has opened," I mumbled, gaining their attention. They looked at me in shock.
If not Vihaan, these three were going to kill me first.
"Wait let me check," Chirag pulled Pranav out of the way and took his position. His fingers slowly slipped inside of my hair, making their way to the stitches.
"Who in the world asked you to remove the bandage from your head? It's not even two weeks!" Adi who was standing just behind Chirag shouted, earning numerous chuckles from the officers who were still waiting for me to address the thing.
This was one of the topics that Adi loved to pick on from the moment he saw me without a bandage this morning. The bandage stopped me from doing a lot of things so I did what was best, remove it. Anyways my wounds were healing so it was no big deal.
"It's just sweat," Chirag flicked my forehead and stepped back.
I gave him a stink eye.
"Ahad! Mayank! Nikhil!" I called my team. "What did you find in the cabin?"
The three of them hurried on their way and came to stand in front of me.
"There was nothing that we could find in the cabin, everything was disinfected— so no old blood traces, nothing," Mayank reported. Ah, I knew that already. God, I feel even more pathetic about having that episode in the cabin. "But, we did find something just outside the cabin," he said.
That immediately caught my attention.
Mayank handed me the plastic bag in which the evidence had been collected. Taking a quick look at it, I could deduce what it was. "It's a rusted bullet," I checked that bullet again. It looked used and had corroded as if it had been in that place for a long time. "Where exactly did you find it?"
"Around four or five metres away from the main door," he answered. Now looking at the bullet, it suddenly reminded me that I was shot too.
It was a far fetched guess but just what if?
My phone vibrated again. Picking up my phone, it was Vihaan who spoke from the other side. "Although we didn't find anything specific, I have still sent some photographs from the location. Just check and let me know if you find anything interesting."
"Yeah, hold on,"
While being on the call, I opened WhatsApp. There were five to six photographs. I started checking on the photographs which were a few random clicks from the cabin.
But then a certain picture caught my eye. "Vihaan?"
"Hmm?"
"The fourth picture— where did you find it?"
"It's one of the shots from inside the cabin. What about it?"
"It reminds me of something interesting, I'll tell you that later," I smirked at the thought of the theory which was a perfect link to the cases we were working on.
After I hung up on Vihaan, it was Ahad who came to me. "Ma'am you need to see this," he gave me his laptop.
It was a CCTV recording.
The original clip of Trishna Rawat's car accident. But the angle was a different one from what Vihaan had sent me the night before.
The next moments just went by in a haze as the shock was taking me over as the time in that footage passed. "How did you even get this?"
"There was another CCTV on that highway. Vihaan sir had asked me to look into if we somehow can get the clip without the editing being done," I kept on watching the video.
And the more I watched it, the more my anger grew.
The anger blew into a rage because the man was familiar. The tattooed masked man. The man who had attacked me. The man who was mercilessly strangulating Trishna until life left her body. He was in the car along with the drunk driver.
"He is—" Aditya stopped midway, putting his palm over his mouth in shock.
Yes, Adi, he's a living monster.
* * *
When our car reached Ravi Solanki's house my mouth gaped in shock. Things were slowly starting to make sense as I started connecting the dots.
Thankfully there was no security guard at the gate of his bungalow, so I just registered our names in the register and pushed the gate inside and entered the premises.
My team, the ACP and a constable followed me behind, letting me take the charge. I rang the doorbell and waited for someone to open the door.
The door was opened by one of his servants who led us into the house and made us wait for him in the lounge since he went upstairs to fetch him from the study.
As I waited in the lounge, I looked around the lounge. Everything was prim and proper. It was impressive.
At least he knew how to keep things organised in a house.
"Abhinav Shrivastava, what a pleasant surprise," the familiar guttural erupted right from the door of the lounge. ACP Abhinav got up to greet him and I forced myself to look at him.
He looked still the same, dark and sinister, barring a few grey hairs and wrinkles.
He took a seat right across from me.
"Who is she?" His question was directed towards Abhinav.
I crossed my legs and leaned comfortably on the sofa. Then, I looked him straight in the eye. "Dr. Akanksha Singh Chauhan, forensic expert, CBI. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Ravi Solanki."
The smile that he had on his face slipped immediately as a stern expression took over his face. "Don't you think you should use honorifics for a senior retired officer?" His voice held an edge as if he was trying to challenge me to defy him.
"When that officer is a bribe taking bastard, I don't think so," I clicked my tongue, shrugging nonchalantly.
"Mind your language, Miss," he warned me.
"Or what?" I straightened, looking him in the eye. "Seriously, don't you remember me?" I made a sad face, turning my tone suddenly polite.
"Is there anything that I should remember about?" He looked genuinely curious and confused.
"Retirement has gotten your brain rusty, I see. Let me polish it for a bit. Do you remember a case that you handled eight years ago, on the new year's day, five spoiled rich best friends who had gotten into an accident and only four survived," I smirked as the colour started draining off his face.
Of course, he remembered.
"Yes, I do," he gruffly admitted. "What about it?"
I clicked my tongue mocking his defensive act. "Seems like you need more details for a reminder. Old age problems, I understand. So where was I," I tapped my forefinger on the side of my head trying to remember, "Ah yes! The victim along with three of her friends were drunk and had gotten their non drunk friend to go on a joy ride but alas, the joy turned into sorrow. Then came along the witness statements of the ones who survived. Who were they?" I directed my question to him.
The way he was sweating in a chilled room had given me the idea he was slowly getting scared anticipating what I was about to say next.
"They were just silly rich kids," he gruffed again.
"Uh-huh," I wagged my forefinger, "That isn't the way to describe them. Let me tell you how. Four remaining friends, out of which, three were guys and one was a girl— one guy was the boyfriend of the victim, the remaining two were best friends with the deceased whereas the girl was one forgetful best friend."
"Come to the point, woman!" He let out a frustrated growl. I got up from my seat and walked to him.
Standing in front of him, I held onto the armrest of his chair and bent to his level to match his eyes. "I am that forgetful best friend, Akanksha Singh Chauhan née Agarwal. I am the very same one whose statements you had deemed as lie. Do you remember now. Tell me the bloody truth. Why did you twist the truth and give a false report on the case? Why did you lie to Ruhi's parents?"
He did not say anything. It was as if we had a staring contest. From even up close I could deduce that he had something on his mind as there was a malicious glint in his eyes.
And in the very next moment, it happened. In one swift motion, he opened up the ring that he was wearing and I noticed a familiar white powder.
Cyanide.
As he was about to gobble that down, I mustered all my courage and strength and punched his hand letting the contents spread everywhere. "Handcuff him!"
ACP Abhinav immediately got him handcuffed. "This trick of suicide is now too outdated for me you know. So now tell me, what was your role?"
He kept mum and turned his face away. If that's what you want, so be it.
"You're going to jail anyway. There will be an income tax raid for all the bribes you have taken and built this house and other properties. You wouldn't enjoy seeing your family suffer, do you?" When I saw his eyes widening, I continued, "Your family will receive police protection until the raid is complete. Now out with it."
His shoulders slumped at the name of his family. The trick eventually worked.
"I was asked by a man named Prabhakar Raut to somehow twist the case and destroy the evidence if we find any. I was going to be paid handsomely and I was paid a lot of money in cash for that. There was no other reason other than money. But still, I had managed to keep the semen samples away from everyone's eye." I scoffed at his last words.
"What a life saviour you are!" I clapped in mock appreciation. "That's why it took eight murders and eight years to find those samples. Abhinav Sir, please take him to the place he deserves to live. That's all from my side, you can take it from here."
"Ma'am here's the recording," Ahad handed me the recorder. "I have also sent a copy to the main team in Jaipur."
While Ravi Solanki was being taken away, a part of my heart felt relieved that at least we got somewhere.
One man down, don't know how many more to go.
Glossary:
Mashals: A long thick branch/wood, whose tip is lit with fire. It's a traditional tool to evade wild animals.
Ouffff!!! Three ice creams and lazing around later, I am back with yet another chapter. Tbh, I was a bit demotivated with everything. I gave you three chapters back to back but there's not the kind of response I was expecting to have.
I really appreciate the love that you give me, but I would really really appreciate it if you vote and comment. Even a heart would mean the world to me. Comment what you think of this chapter.
My short story, Nevertheless, got featured on StoriesUndiscovered's reading list. So I am really happy about that. Also, another short story of mine, Perfect Storm, is now up on @Desi_Tadka 's book of short stories. So check out that as well.
How's the summer treating you?
With Love,
Akii.