Mysterious Death

13- 👻Locker👻

Having written the letter after coming back to Drishti's house, she stood up to get ready.

"What are you doing?" I asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"Well, Aman needs to read this letter, right? I am going to hand it over to him," Drishti answered in a 'it should be obvious tone.'

"You need to be well rested for tomorrow's competition. Give him the letter afterwards," I said, even though I wished that he could read this letter as soon as possible.

"Oh yeah!" Drishti exclaimed as if a light bulb glowed in her mind.

"Aman is going to come tomorrow at the competition. I will give him the letter there," saying this, she sat back on the bed.

"He is coming?" I asked dumbfoundedly.

"Yeah, I am going to dedicate the dance to you so I called the people important for you," she clarified.

"People? Who all are coming?" I asked with raised eyebrows.

Her faced turned pale upon hearing my question.

"It was a slip of tongue. I meant important person. Only Aman is coming," she answered with a little laugh, but her nervousness showed through.

"Okay," I shrugged though I knew she wasn't saying the truth.

She must have a reason to lie. She is doing so much for me, I can let go of something she doesn't want me to know.

"Maira, what if I don't win? I am going to dedicate this dance to you. If I fail then your name would also get dragged with mine. What if along with me, people also make fun of you?" Drishti asked looking scared out of her mind.

A soft smile crept on my face. Sitting beside her, I tried my best to bring back her courage.

"First of all, stop worrying. You are a great dancer. No one is going to make fun of you. As for winning, we can't know from now if you will win. All you can do is to give your best performance.

"About dedication- you are dedicating your dance to me and not your win. It's all yours. So cheer up."

"You are not confident that I would win," she stated, taking the wrong meaning from my speech.

"Your family, you and I are hoping for your win but so are the other competitors hoping for themselves. Whatever the result maybe, give your 100%, so you won't regret it," I said hoping that she would gain some confidence.

She was a great dancer but her lack of confidence was the reason why she always became my back up instead of being a performer. This was her chance to shine.

                           ~~~•~~~
Next Day:

There was still time for the competition to start but the organizers and most of the participants had already arrived amd were at the backstage.

While Sara and mrunal were having their makeup done, Drishti along with the coach was going over some last minute moves as she was almost ready. Ruhi and Alisha were yet to come.

10 minutes later, Ruhi came sauntering and Alisha too joined everyone in few minutes.

Drishti received a call as soon as Alisha came. She spoke something to the coach and walked towards me.

I couldn't hear her as I was standing far away so as to not disturb her with my presence.

"Let's go. The Entrance guard called. He has everyone's belongings stuffed in a locker," Drishti whispered hurriedly.

We quickened our pace and started moving towards the lockers.

"What did you tell to the coach for letting you leave at this moment?" I asked.

As far as I knew the coach, she was never this lenient.

"I just told her that I didn't want my competitors to know about my strengths and weakness so I would practice at a quiet area where no one could see me," Drishti explained as we moved forward.

Lockers were at the other side of this building so we had a long way to walk.

"That was a smart move but are you sure you want to do this now. There's only 2 hours left for the competition, don't you want to practice for the last time?" I asked, feeling worried for her.

"We won't get an opportunity like this again. Don't worry, I won't let you down by performing badly. Finally! Here we are. Let's go," she answered as we reached the lockers.

"Do you know which locker it is and the password of it?" I asked, looking at some 50 lockers present at once.

"The guard said it was 40th locker and he had kept it open. Let's search for it," Drishti said and moved to the left side to check the locker numbers while I moved to the right.

"30, 31.….. Oh! This way. Drishti I found it," I said after finding the locker no. 40 which was placed below the 30th locker instead of 39th.

I went to open it but as usual my hand went past it, making me scowl.

"Let me get it," Drishti said in a sympathetic tone.

"What should I do? I won't be able to do anything," I asked, frustrated by my condition.

Rolling her eyes, Drishti answered.

"Either way, one of us had to look outside in case someone came. I will check their belongings, while you stand at the door and let me know if you see anyone coming."

Feeling slightly better, that I wasn't just going to stand there while Drishti did all the work, I stood by the door to keep an eye for Drishti.