Radhika Khatri

“I guess I do…” Kartik said from the other side of the phone.

At this, I smiled and was shocked a little. “What should we do?! Do you have some idea or plan?!”

“Uh, yeah. First, tell me how much savings do you have?”

“I suppose they’re close to a lakh rupees.”

“Haha! Same here. I guess we can’t do that.”

“What do you mean?”

“I thought that we should, you know, s-self-hire them.”

“Self-hire?! Do you mean it?!”

“Yes, but we don’t have enough to pay the two for even three months, combined together.”

“Are you insane?! For a second, I really thought that you had something in your mind!”

“Sorry, but it could have worked pretty well if we had money.”

“Just think of what we should do now!” I scolded him.

“Okay, okay,” He replied. “I’ll think of something till tomorrow.”

“Yeah sure. I will try to think of something out too,” I replied and took up the phone from my ear. I hung up the phone by clicking on the red button, and move the phone towards my chest. I thought, “At last, I was able to tell him about the dismissal. But, is not there any other way to keep working against the TES while being off of the main case?”

Kartik Khandelwal

I had my phone kept on my thigh while I was sitting on a sofa beside a bonfire inside the house on my left. “What did she say?” Prakash asked me.

“S-She said something horrific.”

“What…?”

“W-We’re dismissed from the case, Prakash.”

Manish Murthy

I was lying on the floor, looking up towards the fan which was slowly rotating. My arm, which was upon my forehead, was sweating a lot. “It’s so hot, man!” I slowly murmured as I looked at the fan. “I don’t even have a bed, and nor a good fan.” I tilted my back up, sat on the ground, and looked towards the right side of the room. I looked at the balcony of my room, which had a sliding door of glass in front of it. The other buildings outside the glass had lights still on. “It’s near eleven, and there’s no sign that anyone is about to sleep just yet,” I spoke in my half-sleepy voice. “This place is weird, man!” I said as I tilted my backbone back towards the ground. I was so tired that my voice started breaking to some extent as I said that.

Suddenly, the bell of my room rang and I had to turn towards the left and look at the door. I was irritated. “Who the hell is disturbing me this late?!”

Suddenly, someone banged the door and shouted, “Manish! Open it up!” It was a feminine voice.

I stood up, and while scratching my hairs, walked towards the door. I opened the door, and rudely asked, “What?!”

I suddenly opened my eyes and looked at Kritika looking at me. “Don’t you ‘what’ me,”

“S-Sorry, but why are you here?” I asked.

“There’s an important meeting of The Murdered Faction going on. Come out now.”

“But, most of them were in jail, right?”

“Some are still here, right?” She said. “Are you coming or not?”

“I-I am coming. Lemme get my shoes and stuff,” I replied and turned the other side inside the room.

Kritika was standing out, waiting for me, while I was getting my shoes on. After a minute, she said, “I hope we had slippers here.”

I walked out and said, “Yep, I hope that too.”

“Come out fast,” She said and moved back. I walked out and locked the door. Then, I turned rightward into the corridor and started walking towards the stairs some meters away from me. “Hey!” Kritika said. “Comb your hairs, for damn’s sake!” I touched my hairs, and felt that they were standing, and all scattered up. I started waving my hands on my hairs to settle them down. “How long your hairs are.”

“Look who’s speaking.”

“I’m a woman, and we can have long hairs, unlike you men.”

“Yeah, but still, you have long ones,” I replied.

After walking down some floors, she turned right into a corridor and I did the same as I followed her. After walking some door back, she stopped in front of a door and turned towards it. She knocked it slightly and said in a low voice, “Seven-Six-Kriti.”

The voice of the lock being opened from behind the door was suddenly heard and someone pulled the door from inside. I looked at Levi pulling the door and saying, “Oh, so you’re here!”

“Is everyone in?” She asked as she walked inside the door and Levi stepped back to give her way.

“Yep. Chetanya, Siya, Mohini--everyone is here.”

“Good.”

I walked in too and followed her towards the drawing-room, which was empty. Then, she walked more inside towards a bedroom, which had no bed or any furniture, obviously. But, it was not empty. When I walked in after Kritika, I looked at three more people sitting on the floor.

“So that’s Manish!” A girl at the center said. She raised a hand at me and said, “I’m Siya!”

“Hello…” I shyly replied as we shook hands.

“I’m Chetanya, bruv,” A man beside her said. He raised a fist at me, and I bumped my fist at his.

“Mohini!” The other girl at the back gently waved a hand at me. I waved back.

“So, if we’re done with these ‘hellos’, let’s start today’s meeting,” Kritika said. “Levi, first describe him the scenario here, and then we should start. Though the leader must have told him, but we still need to remind him.”

“Yeah sure, we will take care of him,” He said.

“I would go to the bathroom by then,” Kritika said and left the room.

“So, Manish, I guess I’d like to start right from the point.” He sat down, and so did I. We all sat in a circle, and with as seriousness as possible, he said, “So, we’re currently at war, Manish; a war of freedom.”