ONE LAST TIME (Discontinued)

CHAPTER 9

Jo bheji thi dua.Woh jaake aasmaan se yun takra gayi, Ki aa gayi hai laut ke sadaa

New Cover credits to my lovely SupriiyaSingh Thank you so much! <3

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I paced outside the auditorium restlessly.

It had been three days. Three days of a conflicted band, stupid fights and music here and there. As their manager, only I knew how I managed to keep them all alive long enough to get through the auditions which they were giving right now.

If they got through, the Fab5 would be one of the representatives of S.P.A.C.E. for Musicana. If they got through, I would've my ticket to Pune.

12.45. I glanced at my watch. Results were at 1.00. I wasn't allowed in the audi yet so I waited outside. Hoping and praying that they would pull through.

I clutched the red diary that I had been writing in earlier, a little tighter with my fears stronger than ever. They had to get through. They just had to.

"Nandini!"

The sharp yell of my name caused me to whirl around and to my utter surprise and horror, I saw Harshad striding towards me, looking like a raging mad bull. What the hell was wrong with him?

"Nandini!" He yelled again coming on to my face and I just backed off two steps, seriously worried now.

"What do you want Harshad?!" I spat at him, glaring him down and hoping to intimidate him. He wasn't supposed to be here! Not when there were just 15 minutes to go for the results! And Harshad seeking me out to talk to me wasn't a good idea at all.

"What did you do?" He seriously looked deranged. And scared. Very scared. Why and how, I had no idea but something told me that this wasn't good.

"Tell me what you did Nandini!" He was literally panicking.

What was he even raving about? His behaviour was confusing and it was causing the hair at the back of my neck to stand up. What was wrong with?

"Are you mad?" I snapped, fed up now with his mad accusations that I couldn't make any sense of.

"I've no idea what you are talking about." I said firmly and took a minute to assess him more carefully. He was afraid of something; I could see it in his eyes. And whatever it was, it was definitely something big. This wasn't the regular Harshad nonsense. My interest was piqued and my senses were on high alert. This had to be dealt with caution.

"Don't lie." He hissed angrily, "What did you do to Nyonika?!"

Wait, what? My eyes widened and I felt the blood freeze in my veins. What was he saying? Nyonika?

"What?" I asked him in shock. My mind was racing with all sorts of things. Nyonika. Nyonika. The damn key player of the game. Something had happened to her. But what? Why? And why would Harshad think that I did something?

"What happened to her?!" I could feel myself panicking now as I realized the extent at which the deception ran deep. It was no coincidence that this had to happen on the very day of the auditions. One day before the Qualifier. What was going on?

Harshad glared at me scornfully, "Don't act innocent." He growled, "Nyonika is hospitalized."

I felt like the ground beneath my feet had dropped and warning bells rand loud and clear in my head as it spun. Nyonika is hospitalized. There were definitely bigger and dangerous players in the game. Me being disqualified suddenly and Nyonika in the hospital. My gut instinct told me that none of this was random.