The Eighth Night [Now published on Amazon]

Part 2

June 7, 2022

Swadha let out a sigh she had been unconsciously holding, wondering who the next target could be. The riddle was obscure and almost ambiguous, yet she knew the kidnapper hid the answer right in between the lines.

"This is bad news," said Vikrant, scratching his temple with his lips set into a thin line.

"It is. These lines seem vague; it could be anyone, and there are thousands of students and staff here. How can we zero in on anyone?" asked Abhimanyu, stress lines furrowing his forehead. He scratched at his temple in helplessness.

Vikrant alternated between the riddle and the intern standing next to him when a ray of realization dispelled the darkness of cluelessness.

"We believe the kidnappings share a common perpetrator, thanks to these riddles. I think we can safely assume that there must be something that relates our next victim to the previous two. There must be something in common. Maybe we should just be looking at the interns." Vikrant was skeptical about placing his trust in the woman he just met, but much to their misfortune, they were out of alternatives. They desperately needed insider information and his seniors had allowed the induction of a student of the Dean's preference–the feisty woman - into the investigation team.

"That means, Dr. Agarwal, we would require your help to decode them hoping the whole situation does not involve you. That would be a shame. After all, your Dean thinks so highly of you."

"I hope you will stop suspecting me because you won't find me much useful in a suspicious environment." Her tone was caustic and her lips thinned out into a line, screaming her displeasure at his remark as she glared at him. He readily returned the favour with the same fervour.

"Uh, shall we get started then?" said Abhimanyu before the duo could press anymore wrong buttons of each other. Swadha slumped into the chair beside her. Vikrant and Abhimanyu followed her suit after requesting a sub-inspector for the records of the interns' batch.

After a while of reading and pondering over the latest note, Swadha exhaled a heavy breath. " I guess we can ignore the first line because everyone seeks love of some kind!"

Vikrant scoffed and smirked at her for losing her calm. He had been against the induction of a physician with negligible experience in assisting the law enforcement. Not only would her induction paint a target on her back, but there was no way they could assess her integrity or her willingness to do what was needed without letting her emotions getting the better of her.

"Well, it could mean that the victim is depressed and desperately needs to be loved."

"Or loved differently? As in, single and ready to mingle?" pointed out Abhimanyu, hoping that he was not looking too much into the lines.

"In that case, we would need expert advice from my friend, who is the gossip queen of this college. She would know such things better than I do. Calling her right away," muttered Swadha, sending a message to her friend, Lekha Khanna, to meet her in the duty doctors' room.

"What could 'The one who is shoved' mean? Like, the victim was in an accident of some sort in the college?" .

Swadha's brain tried to wade through the memories worth half a decade to find someone matching the cryptic description. Despite the fan operating at its maximum speed, her hands had turned clammy and sweat oozed out of her temples. Her heart raced as the vice-like grip of trepidation grew stronger.

"There are way too many students involved in such incidents. Mostly boys, the ones in sports. Wouldn't that contradict 'as sweet as honey' part?"

"It also says, 'you love to play.'" Vikrant added to her theory. "So, maybe we are looking for a sports person." He turned his attention to Swadha. "Are you sure you are worthy of such praise from the Dean considering the help you are offering?" The exchange between Swadha and Abhimanyu irritated him. He wondered if their supposed consultant understood the gravity of the situation and if she was giving her best shot.

She scoffed and her expressions morphed into one of fury as she stood, glaring at him down her nose.

"That will be it, sir. Goodbye. I am sure Lekha, who is coming by, will be much more helpful than me," she announced, turning around on her feet, ignoring the calls from Abhimanyu. What did the officer think? That she was some kind of spy to the evil mastermind?

"Lekha, can you take it over from here?" said Swadha as her friend made an appearance. She signalled toward the duty doctors' room. "They need some help with the investigation. I am sure you'll be of more help than me."

"But aren't investigations like your thing? Why are you leaving this? I heard the investigating officer is a quite the looker," teased Lekha with a playful smirk. She knew that mystery and thriller had always been Swadha's favourite genres, and nothing excited her more than a nerve-wracking mystery.

"Oh, he seems to make me hot in the totally wrong way," she replied, rolling her eyes as she pulled her stethoscope out of her pocket and adorned it around her neck and proceeded towards the patients.

Lekha chuckled behind her back and walked toward the duty doctors' room.

It was after conversing with Lekha, listening to her 'exciting' gossips and almost no productive discussion that the officer-in-charge realized that he had lost a helpful hand in the investigation, no thanks to his ego.

⨳ ⨳ ⨳

Swadha lay in her bed, exhausted from the day's work and happenings. She replayed the riddle over and over in her mind, staring at the ceiling. She knew Lekha was unsuccessful in unveiling the identity of the next victim, and the anticipation gripped Swadha in a way that made her sleep vanish. That everyone was under the radar seemed to rattle her more than she could accept.

Single and ready to mingle, someone who is shoved. She mulled. Maybe not into a wall, but into this field. That still doesn't narrow this down.

She cursed at herself as she twisted and turned on the bed, frustrated. Her jittery nerves made the soft fabric of her linen blanket feel like it was made of coir. She adjusted the temperature of her air conditioner, hoping the cooler air would calm her.

Maybe 'play' isn't a sport. Maybe it's mind-games. Well, who doesn't do that? The previous riddles weren't so tough.

It dawned on her that the previous riddles were intentionally simple to lower the expectations and the threshold for helplessness. She wondered if it was just retrospective bias hazing her mind.

As sweet as honey and as mad as looney, dammit! Sweet as honey and mind-games, maybe honey isn't a metaphor! Damn!

Swadha pulled at her shoulder-length hair, trying not to let the powerlessness consume her. She picked up her phone and browsed through Instagram, hoping that it would either help her or calm her down. As she watched Instagram Stories, her eyes darted to one name—Amrita.

Amrita. Elixir. Honey. Her eyes widened, allowing the light of realization to shine through, and she jerked up into a sitting position. forced her into medicine by emotional blackmail and she was looking for a relationship and tried to play mind-games with guys for the same. It was in front of us all this time!

She searched frantically on her class' WhatsApp group for the phone number of either Vikrant or Abhimanyu. She vaguely remembered seeing one of their numbers listed by one of their class representatives.

It was not the time for them to dwell upon their egos, and she was not a fool to do so. She found Vikrant's number listed among the emergency contacts and immediately made the call. She grew impatient with every ring, and it took him seven to answer.

"Hello," came his voice. "DSP Vikrant speaking."

"I know who is going to be our next victim. It's Amrita Sharma. She isn't in the intern batch because she lost a year," she said, not giving him a moment to speak, her words tumbling out over each other.

"Dr. Agarwal? Are you sure?" he questioned. He asked Abhimanyu to take a U-turn towards the girl's hostel since Abhimanyu was in control of the steering.

"Not the right time to question mycapabilities, officer. I am ninety per cent sure that it is her. If it isn't, Iguess we'll know tomorrow," she spat and disconnected the call, knowingthat he could not afford to not act on the lead. She muttered a prayer with hereyes closed shut, but the frantic galloping of her heart failed to revert to a regularrhythm.