I SUFFERED PAIN

18th JAN, 2017; 12.49 A.M.

It was a shocker; Shiv seemed terrified after hearing everything Dhruv had to say. Unlike his nature of being spontaneous and graphic with his descriptions, Dhruv was expressing. He explained how things happened that day but it wasn't his story, the words he used to describe the entire event made it clear that it was a story someone narrated to him. His way of explanation made it obvious that he might have spoken the truth but Shiv knew, that the truth Dhruv received was manipulated! Shiv thought that there were some things that Dhruv didn't know, like who was in the call? According to Shiv, the person whom Vikram talked to that day was unknown to Dhruv, and that just made him more dangerous. Dhruv was mum for some time after that, surprisingly he had tears in his eyes, which he tried to hide by keeping his head low. Shiv let him have his moment. It was an odd situation, he let his son's killer the mercy to feel numb. Whatever Dhruv did was monstrous, but at that moment his unforgivable actions in some odd way justified themselves.

Shiv who could have killed Dhruv any moment after what happened with Pooja was feeling sorry for the kid now. It was an uncommon feeling, Shiv had seen many criminals in his life but he never felt this for someone else, ever! But he also knew taking the lives of five for one, was not fair. Maybe he too was taking that moment to understand everything and trying to see who was right morally. It was a hard choice but luckily he didn't have to choose as Dhruv finally broke his silence and talked,

Dhruv: So,… that's how your son killed my father!

Rathod: So your motive was revenge!

Dhruv: It was justice! I didn't kill five people, I killed only one and the rest had choices! They could have decided to live, but no! As I said, they took the easier choice.

Rathod: You think this is justice?... The only person responsible was my son… They all didn't deserve to die! How do you even know all of this in the first place? How could you possibly know all of this?

Dhruv: Did I say this, because I can't remember. If I did let me say it again! No one was supposed to die! All I planned was to beat them up, and post the video of it online, to show who the real bully was! All the planning I did was to punish them for what they did to me. That's also the reason why Yash was the least tortured guy because his death was never in the plan. After I manhandled him, he started asking for forgiveness. At first, I thought it was for my harassment but he was not good with his words, he said, "I am sorry, we never intended to do that to your father, it was an accident!!" That just….. confused me! I had no clue what he was saying but I tried not to show it on my face. I knew one thing that if I showed that I had no idea about what he said he might retract. So,... I played along! He said everything about what happened that day. He did lie about him being the nice guy in all of it, but I knew Yash was not capable of being the empathic one all along. I couldn't take the truth! To find out that the man I loved the most in the world died because some foolish kids couldn't get their shit together. I mean my father never deserved to die, he had done nothing to deserve THAT! It was their fault that I suffered pain, and it felt like now it was their chance to endure some. I lost it, I went all in, I tied him up to a chair and started pulling out his nails and hairs with a pincer I got at his home. I shoved the first cloth I got up his throat so that his screams couldn't be heard by anyone. Then I boiled some water, poured it on his body especially on the wounds so that I could make him feel pain, if not emotional then at least physical. The video I took stood as evidence of everything, I said what was going to happen to him after I leave his house, I laid out choices as I did with Pooja. I said I was going to post his video. And how his and his family's life was going to be after the truth became public. And he, like a weak person he was, choose the easier choice! Before leaving, I took the cloth I shoved in his throat and the pincer so that you don't find anything on me with the help of them and luckily Yash's parents did not even notice that some things were missing at their place!

Rathod: Does that mean he killed himself after you left?

Dhruv: No! I was standing there when he hung himself. He was the one who asked me if I could help him with the ropes. I tied the rope and also helped him with the entire thing because after whatever I did to him before that he was in no condition to function by himself. You wanna know what his last words before hanging himself were?

Rathod: What?

Dhruv: He said, "I am sorry for that love letter thing, it was Vikram's idea."

Rathod: Yeah, you said that before. But now, it has started making sense. The reason behind why they were picking on you.

Dhruv: I wanted justice, and I was ready to go to any lengths for that. Raj became my next! But this time I knew, things might again end up with death, and that's when making plans became essential. I had left a lot of fingerprints on Yash's place that I had to personally track down and erase. So, I made sure everything was well planned the second time. Yash had told me where Raj hid that spanner, I called him at the exact spot. I repeated what I did with Yash, just making it more painful this time. Raj was honest, he explained his version of the story and I knew it was true because it didn't have any loopholes as Yash's story did. He regretted what happened that day! He cried a lot! Now, I am not sure if that was because of my torture or because of his guilt. But again, I gave him… A CHOICE! But before all that, he made sure that I knew everything necessary, he even told me about the call, Yash never mentioned it! But there was a problem, none of the boys knew who was the person Vikram called that day. He also told me where exactly he buried that spanner...

Rathod: And you used the same spanner to kill my son?

Dhruv: How ironic, right? Yes, it is the same spanner. Raj's last words were something that made me believe that Vikram never deserved a choice. He said, "I am sorry for everything that happened to you! I should have tried harder to stop Vikram that day, and I should not have agreed with Vikram to frame you for stealing question papers. You never deserved it!" It was quite a coincidence that both the boys blamed Vikram for all the fuck up THEY did! It was never them. It was always Vikram who did everything! And then came the third, and Shreyash helped me understand all of it! According to him, seeing me every day was adding more and more guilt to his and others' conscience, and Vikram was too weak to handle it!

Rathod: So they thought getting rid of you was the best way to deal with it!

Dhruv: Bingo!