There was only one light on at the far end of the space where, on a plastic chair, sat, Simi, curled into a ball with her feet close to her chest and eyes wide open at whatever horrifying thing was in front of her. The complete view was still hidden from Aashia by the giant showcase and the owner of angry voice was standing on the other side of it with a something small and black in his hand. It almost looked like a gun. He was accompanied by one other man, slightly shorter and wearing a black suit unlike the one with gun who was probably in his night dress.

“It’s the sister. Joshi.” Man with gun said.

The man in suit approached her and locked the glass door before painfully grabbing her by the arm and dragging her to where Simran sat. “Simran, what’s going on?” All life left her lungs as she noticed the body in front for her, lifeless and covered in blood. “Basha!” Aashia kneeled down on the ground, numb to every inch of her senses. She couldn’t establish the legitimacy of the situation. How was Basha even there? At that time? She hurriedly checked for her heartbeat, putting her ear to her sister’s ribs, and to none of the others’ surprise but very much of her own, there was no sound of blood pumping. The blood had appeared to have flowed out of her head and now that Aashia was slowly grabbing hold of her senses, she checked for her head and found the bullet of to the side of her brain. It was most horrified she had ever felt and that was just an understatement. Was it a dream? She was still hopeful for a sign that it was. Maybe if she closed her eyes tight enough and believed it was a dream, it might disappear from reality. But a few seconds of silence and continuous sobs of Simran through it made it clear, it was as real as anything can ever be. “Did you- did you kill her?” Aashia knew the answer, yet she asked.

“Sorry lady, I had to do it. your sister was poking too much around my business.”

“You are the politician she was writing about. That’s why you killed her. You murdered her.”

“I guess I can’t deny that now.”

“Why did you do this? You killed. There was no need. Why?” Aashia couldn’t tell if she was making any sense to anyone else, but she knew what she felt. Her only family was dead and there was this strongest buzz still going off in her head. Suddenly that buzz was replaced with an absolute silence as a fist strike her jaw and she fell to ground with a piercing pain. A blurry face zoomed closer, “I will bury you both where your parents’ ghosts couldn’t find you. This is punishment for what your sister did.” There was another strike to her abdomen and more of her hearing sense abandoned her body.

“Don’t kill her. No one will know anything. She won’t say anything to anyone.” There was a little sobbing conversation Aashia heard before, with another jab to the head, everything went black.

There was a side of her that was scared to wake up. Those slight murmurs, that she so curiously wanted to hear but couldn’t. That faint glow of white light that would appear and disappear every few seconds or it might be the time line of her senses that was utterly confusing. One time, without actually trying, her eyes opened and a nurse standing by the bed smiled. “Don’t try to talk if it hurts.” As the realisation hit, tears immediately pooled her eyes. Every inch of her face hurt as she cried and screamed. Soon the pain of Basha’s death turned to pain she felt in her body, a horrifying pain surging through her entire body. Soon she was surrounded by a bunch of doctors and nurses and, some were holding her hands and legs down to bed. “Relax. Don’t move.” She heard through the loud noises in her head. There was no next moment of clarity, where she could reconsider her future or even past but a whole lot of dark silence and inability to move or speak. Morning happened once again and this time there was a familiar face sitting by her bed. “Hey.” Maybe she was still grieving to answer back or just her worn out body but, she just looked at Simran. “No need to talk. You are hurt but, everything will be fine.” Simi’s voice cracked as she spoke further. “I’m sorry Aashi, I couldn’t save your sister. Trust me I will not let you be harmed.”

“What did you do?” Simi was quiet for a long time and Aashia could get the hint of what she meant. There has to be a deal for both of their safety and as fair as that seemed, she was angry. “Did you let them go?”

“Aashia, I had to make a choice. It was either to go behind their back and get Basha justice, or your life. I knew if I betrayed them, they would get us back.”

“I hate you.” Aashia’s entire face was scrunched as she tried to hold back tears.

“Basha was dead but you were alive so, I chose you. They set up everything. Now everyone believes Basha died of blood clot in her brain. Everything is done, we can’t do anything. I will feel the guilt of it my entire life so please be angry at me for as long as you want, just don’t hate me.”

“How did they explain me?”

“Car accident.”

“Nonsense.”

“They have every resource to make any lie a truth. Trust me, I saw them do it. I was looking for every chance for a break and they knew what they were doing. It isn’t the first time, I am sure.” Simran took and long breath while Aashia stared at the hospital room wall, not knowing where to proceed from where her sister had unwillingly left her. “So, it’s all a tale now? Truth of Basha’s death? No one will ever know what happened to her?”

“He is a politician, a very dirty one and have an entire rail of powerful people around him. I wish I could help you. I saw my best friend die and I have been dying every second as I watched them cover it. But I know what I had to do and that was to protect you.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“How will I live like this? My sister is dead and he who killed her, is out there living his life as if he didn’t end ours. He has to go.”

“You need to rest now. I will be right outside or I can stay here if you want.”

“No, go,” is all she said and Simi left the depressing hospital room for Aashia to ponder over what she wanted next. She couldn’t see the future at all or at least the one she wanted to live in. If there was no future, there existed no reality where she wanted to build a life and, by the end of next visit of the doctor, she was left with only way she wanted to spend remaining of her breaths to. ‘Watch those men suffer and cry and kill them as they wished she would forgive them.’ She had no plan to execute it but she knew what she wanted as the picture of Basha, lifeless on ground won’t leave her head.

When she went home, Simran did not leave her side for a minute. Her tenant, Abhinav came by quite often with her with food and fruits, keeping his usual hyper self to minimal around her. “I have to tell Milan about this.” Aashia said on her second week after being back from hospital.

“I tried reaching him but he is in Siberia and fucking unreachable at the moment. We have to wait for two more months until he returns and keep trying his phone just in case.” Simi said and opened her mouth to say more but closed it again.

“How’s your father?”

“He is well, he is in shock. He wanted to check on all the investigation himself. I tried to keep him distant from all this.”

“Good. I don’t want to drag him into this. It will all be figured out.”

“It’s about all of our safety. Abhi is taking care of him.”

“Does he know? Abhinav.”

“He was suspicious and I was so low, I had to tell someone. I was allowing my best friend’s murderers get away with it.”

“He doesn’t ask many questions.”

“I told him not to bother you. he is nice you know. When I’m not here, you can talk to him, ask for help. He listens well.”

“You have grown quite fond of him. No longer the annoying tenant, huh?” Aashia smiled slightly and felt stranger to herself with that curve on her lips. Simi smiled back, but said nothing. It wasn’t the life she wanted to life, she couldn’t forget her sister’s lifeless body, or the look of pride on that man’s face. All these thoughts and multiple sleepless nights led her to Basha’s room one day. For the first time after her death, she was entering her room and it made her nauseous. Her breathe caught up in her throat and heartbeat thumped loud through her chest. There was just one phrase in her head and despite all the efforts to hold back, she yelled out loud. “I am going to kill them. I’ll kill them Basha. I will kill all of them. You watch wherever you are. You watch them bleed and beg and I won’t forgive them. I’ll laugh in their face.” And that was all it took her for a long peaceful sleep on Basha’s well made bed that Simi made sure to keep clean. Next morning, she brushed her hair and dressed herself us, more to Simran’s delight than her own. “You look good. Going to work?”

“Yes. I thought I have to start living and work it perfect distraction.”

“I am proud of you Aashi. I will drop you there.”

“Sure, thanks.” She felt normal for the first time and it wasn’t because of cleaning up well or going to work. It also wasn’t Simi’s constant chitchat, where she let it slide out that she was indeed dating Abhinav. Aashia wasn’t surprised, she knew for a while but decided to ignore under all the rubble of grief.

“It was a decent day at work. No one knew anything more than that her sister had died of some medical issues and looked at her with both pity and confusion. She almost felt like she was an alien among human and they were about to report her to I.S.R.O. Thankfully it went by fast with support from most of her colleagues. As the day came to an end her nerves started to kick in and she was more nervous that the start of the day. That entire night went by her researching the name of Harshit Arya. Every research that her sister did on him was gone and when she tried to reach her work, there was just one answer, that she had not submitted anything there. So, it was pretty clear, her sister’s hard work was now a property of the man who killed her. Address was not difficult to get but there was fat security on door. It was something Aashia had expected too. His right-hand man and personal bodyguard went by the name Shakti Joshi. A 6’5 man in his mid-forties with light brown eyes and short black hair.

“Hey, what are you doing here woman.” She was startled by a rough voice right by her head and immediately felt embarrassed with the look her hiding behind someone’s car while spying on a politician’s house might have given. He had medium length brown hair with quite visible greys and sharp nose. He had a box of fries in his hands that were begging to spill out.

“I was waiting for a friend.” The man shook his head as if he couldn’t care less about what she was doing there.

“Whatever, wait somewhere else, this is my car and I have to leave.” He says stuffing his mouth with a bunch of fries.

“Sure.” Aashia took the vacant side of the footpath and he unlocked the door and sat on the driver’s side, eating. After a few minutes of none of them moving on, Aashia decided to leave. “I know why you are here.” The stranger’s voice interrupted the evening traffic and Aashia turned to him more curious than scared. “Fifty people come and leave disappointed from this road every day. You are not the first one.” She moved closer without saying anything, urged for him to continue. “I was there once, didn’t even have money to take rikshaw and two years later I have a car.”

“How?”

“That’s the trick to get job in the house of a politician of this calibre. Don’t just cross their path and join your hands like you’re begging. Cross their path in a way that they see your importance.”

“How did you do it?”

“I can’t tell you everything.” By the last of his words. The box in his hand was mostly empty and he readying to pull the door close. Aashia couldn’t contain it any longer and asked, “You don’t work here anymore, right?”

“No.”

“Why are you here?”

“That fast food stall was my favourite when I lived and worked here. It still is. But remember, leaving can be a bit hard when they trust you too much.” That won’t be a problem for Aashia, she thought. She went home that night, satisfied that she finally had a plan. A plan that might not work, but then there’s always option to go back to the first one. It might take a little time but she was excited to see the same fear in Harshit Arya and Shakti Joshi’s eyes that she imagined in Basha’s before they killed her. She wanted them to feel that fear and beg to live. Basha must have. She never asked Simi all the little scenarios that to her sister being shot but she had the entire film on loop, in her head and she couldn’t wait for the day justice would be served.