Keeping Secrets

Chapter 15

Gaurav had fallen asleep on one of the long benches in the lunch room, with two phones holding two polar opposite faces of the same person, on his broad chest. He awoke with a start, as his own phone blared with a call at four in the morning. The large wooden table on which his handset lay abandoned and the empty room amplified the noise, making him jump out of his skin. It was 4 am and the call was from his technical head. Turns out, there was something extremely interesting in one of the chats. Looked like they had found the person Nikki had told Maya about staying back to meet after this trip.

It was someone by the name of Drake; fortunately, a registered account. It was not easy to find the chats since the details of the meeting had been exchanged in snaps and not in text. Drake's profile said, "32, M, Bull from the beautiful city of Gwam. Seeking a twisted, bratty sub who isn't afraid of getting filthy or getting hurt."

The description made Gaurav's tummy churn. He already had a terrible feeling when he saw the account.

The chats between Arushi and Drake had started soon after she stopped talking to Adi and a few months before the present trip, and had been usual for the profiles they held on the app. Drake seemed significantly different from Zayn or Adi. He seemed far more perverse and brutal. The biggest difference Gaurav observed was the explicit sexual references in the chat. All of Arushi's other chats seemed to just be focused on what she wanted, but Drake was clearly obsessed with sex. It was very evident that Arushi or Nikki was just playing along to unleash some new gut-wrenching level of pain. He was crass and raw and spoke about throttling and slapping her while she gagged on him. He would often refer to a friend whom he would bring along if he ever met her. Gaurav was initially perplexed that of all the men she could have met, she had chosen him. As he read on, he realised that the tone of their chat had changed significantly (and suspiciously) just a few weeks into their warped acquaintance.

That day, Nikki had, as usual, reached out to Drake in a moment of desperation. Of course, Drake had given her what she wanted, and more, but when she sent the pictures of her bruised body it captured some slashes in her inner arms and thighs that were not a part of this chat.

"What the fuck! Are you okay?" He asked.

"I want more pain, Drake."

"Okay, listen. First of all, breathe."

The gashes did not seem very deep, but she had managed to draw a nauseating amount of blood. Gaurav felt the sudden urge to throw up at the sight of it. It was not very far away from the brutality he had witnessed when he first saw her body. How could anyone do that to themselves?

Drake had made an audio call which she had not responded to. After that night, the tone of their chats had changed significantly. Drake seemed to become a different person overnight. He became the companion Nikki had never thought she could find. He voluntarily checked on her and most of their chats had gone from perverse to caring, and at some point even romantic. This time, she didn't protest it. This seemed similar to the situation that Adi and Arushi had shared, except Arushi seemed to be a lot more keen to be around Adi. Here, although she let Drake be there for her, she seemed more measured and vigilant. Nikki had never mentioned the truth about her real life, but Drake had told her he was a musician: a guitarist to be precise. They had made plans to meet at Barnette, but Arushi had suddenly disappeared shortly after that. In the following days, the one sided texts from Drake had gone from worried to scared to impatient and angry swiftly and culminated in hateful threats. Every progressive text got increasingly formidable and made him look more vexatious. Nikki had returned only once to cancel their plan just days before the trip. Drake was visibly taken aback by the abrupt abandonment. In the final message that Nikki had sent a week before the trip, she had been far from cold, but she had, none the less, called it quits.