Chapter 1
*Dhum*
I woke up to a loud thud in the living room. I was hoping it wasn’t going to be a problem. I looked at the alarm clock beside my bed it was 3 AM in the morning.
Nope, I wasn’t getting up even if God himself came to get me out. I went back to sleep. I was going to sleep, wake up and have a pretty normal day.
Still, I got up to have some water. You should have seen the horror on my face when I saw my flatmate trying to drag a body from the kitchen to the balcony.
A body. A man, maybe in his 20s, maybe the same age as me, who knows? Before I could panic, my flatmate looked at me and said...
“Keep quiet, Priya.”
Dear reader, have you ever been kidnapped? When the kidnapper says to stay where you are. You stay where you are. I didn’t go into hero mode for a man I didn’t know.
I have known Reya for 3 years now. I remember her for being arrogant sometimes, but a killer? That’s something else totally. I have so many questions, like how did she kill a man? I mean, how can she bring the physical strength to overpower one?
While I was deep into my thoughts, Reya made a phone call. She murmurs something about a ‘slight wrinkle’ in the plan. Bet that’s me. Then she looks over to me. Nods, then says, Nah, I’ll handle it. Handle what?!
I was mentally planning to jump through the balcony when Reya walked over, her physique clear in the moonlit room for the first time in the night. 5′4, black short hair tied in a pony, glasses that fit her well, and a dusky complexion. Her appearance didn’t have anything extraordinary, but something about her presence was captivating.
“We have to leave.”
“I’ll tell no one, I promise.”
“I’m sorry, but I’ll have to take you with me, Priya.”
“Where?”
“Where doesn’t matter, they cannot see you.”
“Who is ‘they’?”
“The Cleaners”
Before I could speak another word, she picked up my hand and dragged me through the door towards the stairs. She dragged me into the backseat of her car, her old Wagon R, and drove through the streets of Agra in the middle of the night. I didn’t know where we were going and I didn’t dare to ask Reya.
The girl I met and knew was so full of joy. I met Reya when I was desperately hunting for a flatmate. I was alone, in a new city for my first job as a newbie journalist. I met Reya through a mutual friend after weeks of hunting for a sensible flatmate willing to share rent and electricity in Agra.
In recent years, the quiet city of Agra has become a hotspot of criminal activities and communal violence. That’s why I’m posted here. In hindsight, I don’t know what Reya is actually doing here, though. Great job, Priya. She told me her father has a shoe business, and she doesn’t want to get involved, so she’s working in Marketing in the same city to stick it to him. I don’t know if that’s true anymore.
There have been several murders in the city recently. I wonder if she…
“No, I didn’t kill all of them,” Reya spoke as if she read my mind.
“How did you...?”
“I have lived with you for three years, dummy. We’re practically husband-wife now.”
“How are you taking this so lightly? We have a freaking dead body at our apartment. What if someone finds out?”
“Took care of that with that phone call. I called the cleaners. You just chill in the back till I do some leftover work. Don’t disturb me. It won’t be good.” Her voice suddenly turned serious.
“Where’s your phone, Priya?”
I literally have the police on speed dial. It’s a journalist thing. Reya knew that and looked for my phone. I clutched it hard, looking her in the eye, I said, “I am calling it in.”
“You do that, and another riot happens, a couple of kids die, shots are going to be fired just because a transaction was caught, not the mastermind. I will not be caught, Priya. But people will definitely die because of you.”
“I will personally hand you over to the police.”
“With what evidence?”
“This car”
“It’s registered under a fake name, and it’s not mine.”
“I’ll live report it to the news channel I work for.”
“Okay. Do that. You win. Happy?”
“What’s the catch?”
“Two people will be killed—me and you. You for your courage or foolishness (as you want to put it), Me because I let you be so foolish.”
At that point, I shut up and sat quietly in the back. Reya got the sign and kept driving and doing what she was supposed to do- make some deliveries and pick up some packets. We came back around 7 AM. We met our next-door neighbour on our way home.
She said hello and we went our ways. Thank goodness she didn’t hear the sound of the body Reya dragged. I don’t know what our flat would look like. I was somewhat scared to go and see. As we reached our apartment, it was locked, but Reya had a spare. We opened the door, and I kid you not, I kid you not, everything was so clean. Cleaner than my grandma’s silverware on Diwali.
Until…
I walked in and saw the dead body in the kitchen, the same place where it was before. I shouted, “Reyaaa!!!!”
Reya runs and sees the body with the same horror that I had the night before. She hurries off to make a phone call, and I run to lock the door and then the windows. But oh, the pungent smell, I might vomit on the laptop while writing. Reya came back with a white face.
“They were cleaning the house, but while doing so, someone knocked on the door thrice. So they settled that it’s too dangerous to carry the body. And they’ll try again tonight. So we’re stuck with Mr. Sharma for today.”
“What?!”
“Yeah, take a leave from the office. I am doing that too.”
“Oh, what do I write in the email? Subject- My flatmate killed a man and now needs help in taking care of Mr. Sharma with a tea party?”
“Haha, very funny. Just take a sick leave.”
“Oh no.”
“What”
“My office friends are asking if they can come over and take care of me.”
“Why? Don’t journalists have work to do????”
“It depends… on you?”
“Oh yeah…let me give a false threat in some area and they’ll be forced to move there.”
“Thank god you didn’t come up with actual damage.”
“I’m busy with the body and I don’t miss the action, bro.”
“Ugh, I need coffee.” “Make me some too.”
While I made coffee, Reya worked on the false threat. I texted my friend from the office that I was better and Reya was taking care of me, so they didn’t need to come over. Just then, the doorbell rang. It must be our house help, Kusum. We panicked. Or at least I did. I ran in panic.
Reya opened the door. Walked out of it and closed it behind herself.
I could hear the conversation. Basically, Reya lied that I had COVID and I could be a carrier to Kusum. So, she can take a week’s leave for safety. A week, seriously, Reya?? You’re doing the dishes, then.
Reya came back smiling. She knew she was doing the dishes and the clothes, too. To distract me, she said, “Don’t you want to know why there is a dead body in the first place?”
“It must be a consequence of your actions, ma’am.”
“Very funny. Mr. Sharma is a businessman who has deals with our company.”
“Our company?”
“Yeah, mine”
“What”
“Echo Lark”
“No way. That’s the pharma company.”
“Yeah it is”
“It’s yours.”
“Google the directors.”
“Wait…A Mahajan, A Mittal, R.Shrivastava, that’s you?”
“No, I’m kidding. Of course, that’s me.”
“You’re confusing me.”
“Yes, I am the third director. Unnamed. Under the covers kind.”
“Why are you living with me? You freaking millionaire…”
“I work here in Marketing. Remember?”
“Why?”
“I carry out the dark operations of the company, where I create demand for pharma and do a little side business of drugs. Agra is my centre. In the daylight, none of that happens, so I’m bored, so I joined an office.”
“Okay, weirdo… Are there drugs in the house?”
“Yes, shrooms”
“What the hell?”
“Once, when you were drunk as hell and ended up eating one whole mushroom. You should have seen yourself lmao.”
I didn’t know that or even remember that happening. That’s the shrooms, Priya, for heaven’s sake. I suggested that we should shift Mr. Sharma from the Kitchen to somewhere safer, like one of the rooms, so no one who enters the house sees him on the second step when they do so.
Reya agreed. Just when we were dragging Mr. Sharma to our store room, there was another ring and a knock, but this time it was accompanied by a shout, “Security Guard!!!!!”
