|the naive rebel|
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xxx| Raging Grief
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word count- 2391

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ISHAAN
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I rub my eyes, glancing at the wall clock seeing it's three in the morning. The doorbell rings again and I suppress a yawn, trudging towards the door. I pass the sofa, seeing my t-shirt lying on it, I pick it up and wear it in a swift motion.

Unlocking the door, I rub my eyes trying to wipe off the sleep.

"Inaayat?" I confirm when I still see her standing.

Is she here, at 3 AM?

"Yea.." She softly replies. The remaining drowsiness is wiped off my brain when I take in her appearance. Her forehead is bleeding, she has a bruise on her chin, her knees are bleeding too.

"What happened to you?" I ask her instantly. I move back, asking her to come inside. She is limping and almost pulling her left leg as she moves.

Her elbows-what the heck has happened to her.

"Ah-" She starts but stops.

"Why are you staring at me?" She changes her sentence, observing my look.

"You were crying, weren't you?" I take a step forward seeing her puffy eyes.

"I was. I spoke to Sameer-"

"He did this to you! Did he hit you? Why the heck did you talk to him at this time-ALONE? You know he is a prospective guilty, why did you-" I stop speaking when I don't see her in front.

"Ina-"

"I am here." Her voice comes, I look down seeing her seated on the floor, resting her back on the sofa's side. Her arm's raised as if she is giving her attendance.

"Why are you sitting on the floor?"

"Nah Nah, if you haven't noticed my legs are pretty much injured after today's accidents. I don't have the strength to stand while you keep ranting..without a break." She taunts.

Sitting next to her, I turn my face towards her. Waiting for her to explain.

"Now, why are you staring, again?"

"I am waiting for your explanation."

"Oh."

"Yes. Oh. So.."

"These bruises are from my great fall. I fell down the entire length of the staircase. And then I fell on the tiled floor hurting my chin." I scowl at her words.

"I don't even know what to reply after hearing your new additions in '1000 (& counting) ways to be clumsy).'

"You want to know about Sameer, or should I leave?" She angrily announces.

"Say."

"Sameer is off the hook. He is Ojas' brother."

"The last boy who committed suicide?"

"Yes. The warden..she is their mother. Sameer has been trying to find the murderer. They are sure it was a murder." And she tells me the reason behind their blind guess.

"So, Sameer is innocent?" I put forth the question.

The question wasn't targeted towards her, instead, I had voiced my thought, forcing my brain to process the new information. I cannot say if he is innocent or not unless I get a proof.

"What do you think, is Sameer as innocent as he acts?"

"I don't know about that. But..but the pain she had in her eyes. The pain of losing her son. The pain that reflected her crushed soul, her defeated hopes. She lost her son. It's so-so difficult to lose someone so close to you." She takes a deep sigh and I look at her intently.

When I don't reply, she continues. "They trust us. They trust me. All those parents who lost their children, so many hopes, expectations are pinged on us. I am scared-what if I fail them. What if-" Her voice breaks.

"I am lying to Mishti, and she trusts me. I am scared."

I understand that there's something which is hurting her. Her constant change in thoughts explains the hurricane of emotions growing within her.

"Hey, we'll figure everything out." I softly add. I gently place my hand on top of hers.

Her gaze is stuck on the floor ahead, thinking something deeply.

"I don't want to break their trust. I don't want them to lose hopes. Because-there is nothing worst than losing hopes. I know how it feels, it kills you from within. Bites our soul and pierces our heart. It makes you dead from within while we have to put the facade of fake smiles on the outside. Faking the fact that you are okay is the dire form of drama. You think you are doing a good job, good job hiding your pain-but the eyes. They reveal the turmoil within so easily, to a point that it's sickening. And what's more, hurting is when you can see them faking it. It used to quash me when I used to see my parents smile when I knew how they had wept themselves to sleep."

Her words awaken the pain I had buried myself. I realise how I was hiding behind the veil of being fine when-

Her voice is croaky when she whispers something, resting her face on her knees.

"I don't. I don't want them to lose hope. I don't want to lie and I don't want to fail them. I had started the case wanting to prove myself in front of my parents but now, I want to find the person behind the suicides for those parents. The biggest pain a parent can face is to lose his child."

"And for a child to lose his parents." I complete impetuously.

She suddenly snickers, "then we should not even get into the pain of seeing someone you care about, die in front of you."

"That isn't pain. It's a torment, that person faces for the rest of his life." I add.

Silence envelops the room, as we sit remembering the memories that had once broken us, which still haunts us and will continue scaring us.

"It was my brother. I was thirteen. He cut his veins-r..right in my presence." She quavers.

"I remember that night so clearly, his red eyes, dark broken lips, the silence in the passage, the smell of drugs and cigar. The knife in his shivering hand, the way he stood there, enjoying my frightened face. It looked like he was possessed. He wasn't the elder brother I had grown up with, he was someone else. A new but degraded version. And in a moment he was gone. Slitting his wrist, I saw him lying with the pool of blood. Raging, rancour, rebuffing, rueing red of blood. It's arduous to even think about the feelings I had experienced, then."

"Who better than I could relate. I had lost my father when I was pretty young. But, I had my mother and sister who had been there, always. And then one day, I lost them together. I was there, yet so helpless. I could have saved her. I could have saved them. My sister died because of the drug gang while my Mom, she slipped into trauma. You know what maims more...when I see her laughing with others but once she meets my eyes, I feel the coat of unfamiliarity sheathing her eyes. Who could have thought that a mother would see a day where she will forget her son."

I sense a pair of eyes on me as I repeat the reminiscence, I had hidden deep down.

"What if we aren't able to find the person. I won't be able to forgive myself, ever."

"And neither will I. So, Miss Kapoor stops wasting your tears. I am kind of scared that you have drained your lacrimal glands." I try changing back the topic.

"Yeah..whatever." She rolls her eyes at me when I realised she hasn't even tended to her wounds.

"You are clumsier than a toddler. But then, my dad used to say, Every weakness is a strength. Maybe, after all, there is a reason behind you tripping and falling and slipping and rolling and stumbling-"

"I get the freaking point." She huffs and I stand up towards the shelf.

"I guess the tables have turned." I playfully say raising the first aid kit so that she can see it.

"So lucky." She retorts.

"Finally I can avenge the cruelty you did while you dressed my wounds."

I squat before her, wetting the cotton with the antiseptic liquid, gently pressing it on her forehead's wound.

Remembering her standard dialogue I repeat, "It will burn, huh."

"As if-oww!" She glares at me.

"Tit for tat." I pass a sugary smile and she mutters something under her breath. Letting it go, I wipe the dried blood and apply the cream after.

"I seriously pity your bones. You never leave a chance to torture them." I say examining the purple bruise on her chin. Squeezing the cream's tube I take a little on my finger before covering her chin's lesion.

"Yeah yeah. Go ahead, I know you can pass some more insults, I have faith in you. Say say, I am all ears. You-"

"Do you ever actually shut up?" I say. I look at her waiting for her reply, observing how her pupils dilate tenderly. And she hums focusing her eyes on something. As I follow her gaze I realise how I had shushed her by putting my finger literally on her lips.

"Uh-sorry." I swiftly draw my hand back.

"Take this cream, go and wash your knees and then apply it on them. Or else it'll get infected." I tell her eyeing the bloodstains on her knees. "There's the washroom on the left, and there's a clean towel in the shelf. Also," I pause weighing my words. "It's too late for you to go back. You..stay here for the rest of the night." Her eyes widen but seeing the sense behind my words she nods before leaving for the washroom.

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INAAYAT
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As I close the door behind me, I see Ishaan on the same spot reading a book.

"Which book?" I voice as I sit next to him, again.

He raises the book's cover,' Stumbling on Happiness, by Dan Gilbert.'

"Are you able to understand it or it's only for show purposes."

He keeps aside the book, "Somebody ruined my sleep you see, so I decided to use my brain effectively unlike people who use their brain for falling-"

"You do enjoy taunting me about my clumsiness, don't you." I huff.

"Maybe. Maybe not."

"You think you are very smart, right?"

"You said it, I didn't."

"Egoistic."

"Yeah yeah, shall I start on the adjectives which describe you?"

"No, thanks. I know the list is pretty long."

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I park the car at some distance from the college. I am certainly not in my best mood after having a very (un) pleasant start to my day.

After we had fought over our list of adjectives I had chosen a book from his shelf, and we had been reading when I had drifted to sleep in that position.

I had woken up with my neck sore and my feet stiff, while I had moved a little, rubbing my eyes-he had woken up too.

The first thing I want in the morning after I wake up is coffee or else my mood is grumpy and I am angry and irritated. I knew he didn't have coffee at his house, so I took the best step. After blurting out the reason, I had left his house quickly to reach my hostel's room so that I can grab my first cup of coffee for the day.

Before I leave the car, I notice a man leaning on his bike, staring at the car's window.

Me.

Angry me is a different person altogether.

I look around in the car trying to find something handy and useful when I spot the steel water bottle kept in the holder.

Taking it along, I get off the car, locking it behind me. I start walking towards the college but I can feel the person is following me.

If it had been any other instance, I would have been at least a little scared but now?

Bring it on.

I can hear him whistling and I spun around facing him. My hands resting on my waist, as I look at him challengingly.

"Impressive." He smirks.

"I know."

He starts walking towards me as my grip on the bottle tightens.

"Fire." He comments walking.

"Damn right. That's me." I announce swinging the steel hurting his shoulder.

"F*CK!" He winces. I don't wait to swing the bottle, hitting his other shoulder now.

"Never. Never, mess with an angry woman." I comment, hitting him again.

He winces with the sudden hit and looks at me shocked and scared.

I reach for my back pocket removing the gun. So what I don't know how to aim. He doesn't need to know that.

"So what were you saying, huh?" I point the gun at him. He looks at me terrified and starts backing away.

"Hmm," I question. He starts running in the opposite direction.

Good for him.

"Should I clap?" I turn around.

"Why are you here? You were following me, weren't you?" I look at a very amused Ishaan who was standing at a certain distance.

"If you would have checked your phone, you would have known about the urgent meeting the Principal has called for in-" He checks his watch."In 30 minutes." He smirks.

•
•

I hope you all liked it? I guess this is my favourite chapter.

This is where the focus shifts, from guessing to actually start working.

Inaayat's focus shifting from proving her worth to solve the case for the actual justice.

The main investigation starts!

also hoping that I did justice with that scene!

tell me what you think..your views!

PHASE III will start from chapter 31, will be dropping a teaser in the next part.

Do comment, Vote and share!

Till the next chapter,
keep dodging the bullets,
ऊ.