A B-town Soap Opera

Episode 15

Rupa had no idea how long she had been locked in what appeared to be a grimy unused cellar. There were no windows and a single flickering lightbulb. There was a single heavy metal door on one side of the room. The remaining walls were lined with empty wooden shelves. It was small enough that when she put her arms out she could touch the shelves parallel to each other. She had counted about ten feet from the door to the back shelves.

It was murky and cold. Her throat aches from screaming for hours when she was first tossed inside to no avail. There appeared to be no one nearby who heard her screams and it seemed futile.

I suppose I should be grateful, Rupa thought to herself. She was alive, and whoever had taken her had given her a small fleece blanket. It smelled like car oil and gasoline but at least she had something. Surely she would have froze to death by now. They had also been providing her with water and saltine crackers.

Her stomach rumbled at the thought. How am I going to get out of here? They didn't want her dead...yet...so that was a good thing. She didn't want to wait for them to change to their mind. At this point she didn't even care about why they'd taken her. She needed to escape.

The door was heavy and locked. She had tried pushing and banging on it with all her body weight. She tried every so often to the point where her shoulder and side were bruised from her efforts. She had even tried to pry a shelf off the wall but they hadn't budged.

Suddenly the lightbulb went out leaving her in pitch black darkness. The door quickly opened and she could see a dim crack of light and a darkened figure moving to her with something in their hands.

This is my chance, she thought. She threw all her weight at the figure, trying to knock them down. It almost worked. They were, for an instant, off balance as they were shoved into the shelves. Only for a second.

Rupa tried to run past them but they grabbed her by her bruised shoulder and shoved her harshly to the ground. She felt their hands on her ankle and she kicked out as hard as she could. Suddenly the figure was on top of her pushing something damp in her face. She kept kicking and reached out trying to scratch and grab what she could.

The light in their room began flickering again and she saw brief glimpse of who her attacker was, leaving her momentarily shocked. Harshdip?!
———
Shallu had called Nimmy, Abhishek, Mohit, Comet and Simmy for an impromptu meeting at her house. Felix, for reasons she couldn't fathom, had decided to stay with Comet and Shallu. He said it was just in case something happened. He didn't look like the fighting type. Shallu wasn't sure what he could do or would do in the event something did happen. Nevertheless she hadn't fought him on it. Truth be told she was kind of glad he had stayed.

Shallu explained the note to the group. They had no idea how to proceed. Almost all of them wanted to go with Comet and at the same time somehow get the police involved. Comet told them he couldn't take that risk especially given each of their recent encounters with Officer Prem. Through their discussions, and to Shallu's horror, they determined that Shallu should go.

"What?! Me?! Are you crazy?!" Shallu exclaimed. Felix tried and failed to suppress a chuckle.

"You're the lawyer. You'll know what to do and how to protect them and witness it all." Nimmy retorted. The rest of the group agreed. Although they had all initially volunteered it seemed that the couples wanted to be safe from harm at least a little while longer. At least that's why Nimmy didn't want to volunteer anyone else. "The rest of us will be on standby don't you worry. We're here and will get the police involved if we don't hear from you or get updates. We'll make sure your location is enabled and track where you are. You both won't be alone!"

Shallu wasn't convinced. "What the hell do you guys expect me to do? Run in front of the gun screaming stop in the name of the law?", Shallu paused. "I care about Rupa but I'm not going."

"You are and that's final" Felix said. Before she could say anything he said "I'm coming with you."
———
"Harshdipp..." Rupa stammered.

"Suprised?" He drawled grinning. "Don't be."

"I ...don't ...understand..."

Harshdip interrupted her. "Before you try to solve this, let me be the one to tell you that it's not just me involved. In fact I just agreed to this to get back at Nimmy-but it went a tad side ways. The bastard Abhishek's supposed to be dead."

In the flickering light Rupa could see Harshdip unravelling rope. She felt so groggy and struggled to focus. She felt him bind her wrists and ankles and tighten the rope which harshly scraped against her skin. "Wha-who else...who's doing this?" She managed to ask.

"That's enough talking Harshdip. She'll find out soon enough." said a voice behind him. Harshdip grinned. Rupa's heart sank. She knew the voice instantly. Faiza. None of this was making any sense. Why
would she do this to her? They were friends.