Chapter 32 #2
‘If your mother gets you to Neena’s place, you’ll never leave. Neena is a bad woman, and she’ll trap you in her bad home. You’ll never see me again. You don’t want that, do you, Kashu?’
‘No, no,’ she whispered frantically.
‘Then you have to do exactly what I tell you. Okay?’
Kashvi bit down on her lip, fear curling through her. ‘Okay.’
‘Close her eyes.’
She blinked in confusion. ‘Huh?’
Karthik’s voice sharpened. ‘If you don’t do what I say right now, I won’t come to meet you. Ever. Even if your mother allows it. Do you understand me?’
‘But...’
‘We don’t have time. This is the only way Arohi will stop the car. Close your mother’s eyes. Do it now!’ he shouted suddenly, making her flinch.
The phone slipped from her hand and clattered onto the floor mat. With a sob, Kashvi lunged forward and pressed both palms over Arohi’s eyes.
‘Kashu, no! What are you doing? Take your hands off!’ her mother screamed.
The car jerked violently, tyres screeching as Arohi fought to steady it. She grabbed Kashvi’s wrist with one hand, trying to yank it away, but when the car swerved sharply left, she cursed and slammed her hand back onto the wheel. ‘Take your hands off!’
‘I’m sorry, Maa,’ Kashvi cried, barely able to keep herself balanced. She pressed harder against Arohi’s face, clinging desperately. ‘Dad told me this is the only way. Please stop the car.’
‘Don’t listen to him. I need to see so I can stop. Take your hands off!’ Arohi shouted urgently.
Kashvi let go.
But it was too late.
The car lost control completely, screeching sideways as the brakes failed. Arohi screamed at Kashvi to hold on just before the car slammed into the tunnel wall.
The impact hurled Kashvi sideways into the door. Pain exploded through her skull, and a deafening ringing swallowed everything else.
Slowly, painfully, she blinked.
Dark smoke burned her nose and made her cough. Something warm slid down the side of her face, stinging her eye. Her trembling hand lifted to touch it, and when she pulled back, her fingers were covered in blood.
Shattered glass glittered around her. The car’s interior was mangled beyond recognition. Her foot was trapped beneath the seat, agony shooting up her leg. Everything felt wrong.
Her gaze dropped to the phone lying crooked near her foot, the screen still glowing faintly.
With a groan, Kashvi stretched for it and brought it shakily to her ear.
The world tilted sickeningly as she heard her father’s voice. ‘Hello? Hello? Arohi? Kashu?’
‘Papa?’ she whispered, though her own voice sounded distant and muffled.
‘Hey, Kashu, what happened?’
Her head throbbed harder. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to breathe through the pain. Her words slurred together. ‘I don’t know... I don’t understand.’
‘Did you do what I said? Did you close her eyes?’ he demanded immediately.
She wanted to tell him not to yell because it hurt, but the words stayed trapped inside her throat.
Her eyes locked onto the wrecked front seat where Siya slumped over the deployed airbag. Blood streaked across her face, stark against the white fabric.
Ignoring the pain tearing through her leg, Kashvi dragged herself closer. Panic cracked through her voice as she grabbed Siya’s shoulders and shook her hard. ‘Di? Di, get up, get up. You’re scaring me.’
Karthik shouted into her ear again. ‘Tell me what’s happening.’
‘I don’t know!’ Kashvi sobbed frantically, struggling to breathe. ‘The car... it’s broken. Di is bleeding and she’s not waking up. I’m hurt too. I don’t know what to do.’
Her stomach twisted violently, and she wished she had her magic eraser now.
‘What about your mother?’
Her head snapped towards the driver’s seat, but it was empty.
Kashvi pushed herself up on one trembling hand and looked through the shattered windshield.
A scream rose in her throat, but she choked on it as her gaze locked onto the road ahead.
Arohi lay sprawled a few feet from the car, surrounded by strangers staring at her in horror. Her body was twisted at an unnatural angle and lay impossibly still.
Her eyes were open. Wide. Unblinking. Blood-covered.
There was no life left in her mother’s eyes.
‘Maa is... Maa is gone,’ she whispered to her father.
Silence stretched across the line for one terrible beat too long.
Then Karthik laughed.
‘That’s my good girl. You just proved why you’re my favourite daughter.’
Pain seared through her whole body as panic clawed at her chest. ‘Papa, help me. Please.’
But there was no answer.
The line had already gone dead.
Kashvi stared blankly at the phone, her mind scrambling helplessly to catch up. Her whole body started shaking, violent tremors ripping through her as the realisation finally crashed into her.
What have I done?
After that, time stopped making sense.
The mangled car door creaked open, and someone lifted her into their arms. Hands touched her face, pressed antiseptic against her wounds, and wrapped something tightly around her bleeding leg.
Voices surrounded her from every direction. Questions. Instructions. Panic. Red and blue lights flashed across the tunnel walls in dizzying streaks.
Kashvi heard none of it.
Her eyes stayed fixed on the road ahead where her mother lay motionless.
She didn’t react even when someone finally covered her mother’s body with a white sheet.
But inside her head, she couldn’t stop screaming.