17 Jan 2017: 9. 35 P.M.
Pooja knew that Dhruv was dangerous. But she never thought that she was going to be his next target. She blamed him, knowing that he had something to do with the death of her three classmates. She never thought that he was actually behind Vikram's death! She tried to frame him, knowing that she would be in trouble if the truth about what happened inside Vikram's home on 16th January that evening came out, but it backfired as Dhruv started moving his pieces even before she knew it! So naturally, whatever Dhruv told Pooja shocked her, and as always, she had thousands of questions inside her head. And she also did not understand why he told her all of this in the first place.
Pooja: Why are you doing this? I do not understand! I mean, you framed me for Vikram's murder, and now you sit here and tell me how you did it, every fucking detail! With the information you gave me, I can prove myself innocent, then why even bother to do all this?
Dhruv: YOU DON'T HAVE SHIT!! You have nothing to prove yourself innocent; all you have is a story!............ You can tell it to everyone but won't be able to make a single person believe it!.... And that is enough nonsense! Let us get to business! Do you want to make sense in all of this? I did this so that I could give you some choices! First, let me tell you what will happen now. You are charged for murder, but being a minor, you won't get a death penalty nor life imprisonment, but you can surely expect 5 to 6 years in juvenile, but but but you are seventeen years old! I know your birthday is on 3rd February. That means, probably until your case starts in the court, you will be an adult, so the 5 to 6 years could be increased to more! And with that many years inside, you will be destroying your life, no more education, even if you get some, no one will give the job to a person with a criminal record! For the brown culture we live in, I do not think early marriage is anymore an option for you!... That was still about the future. Let us talk about the present, shall we?
Pooja: With all the things you said, you still have more for me? How can you be so heartless? You want me to suffer even more?
Dhruv: Yes! I wish I had the emotional capability to sympathize with you, but Nah! I am enjoying this!... So I was saying, talking about the present, you are about to lose all your friends, not just friends but everyone you are close to, and one more thing to add up to your misery! What I have here is, or maybe I should say this DEFINITELY WILL, destroy your life! And it will continue to do so in your future. (gives the phone he had to Pooja) Take a close look! Your nudes have leaked online! My twitter wall is full of your pictures!
Pooja(Shouts with tears in her eyes): NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! THIS CAN NOT HAPPEN!... YOU CAN NOT DO THIS TO ME! WHY ARE ALL YOU MEN LIKE THIS? ONE MAN RAPES ME, AND THE OTHER DESTROYS MY LIFE!!..... NO, NO, NO! WHY DHRUV, WHY??!!
Dhruv: Rape? I...I did not know that... I am sorry! Sorry for what happened to you Pooja! But I do not have a lot of time Pooja, or I might have given you all your answers!...... For now, all I can give is this pack of blades. (Hands the packet to Pooja) I have given you a small glimpse of your future. And a choice in your hand!.... CHOOSE WISELY! I will give you time to go through all of this, and then call the police. I will tell them that you went through a breakdown and wants at least 3 hours to think. You will leave this room quietly, and then you have 3 hours to make your choices, know one thing Pooja, your parents will also suffer your fate if you make a wrong decision!..... Who was on the call that day?
Pooja(Crying): It was... Vikram!
Dhruv: As expected!
Pooja broke into tears. She was reading the comments below her pictures. It just made her feel more disgusted about herself. Dhruv sat there looking at her face; there was an odd sense of satisfaction in it for him, but he also felt guilty of his deeds after knowing that she had been raped. What he did was no less harmful than what Vikram did! Both just contributed to destroying the life of this seventeen-year-old. And he knew that maybe she did not deserve at least all of it. But he justified himself by thinking that unlike Vikram, whose actions were motivated due to lust, his action was motivated due to his sense of justice. And yeah, he lied to himself!
After some minutes passed, he took the phone from her and called the constable standing outside. And she left the room in tears holding to the packet of blades that Dhruv gave her in her close fist.
12.02 A.M.
After hearing what Dhruv had to say Shiv knew, that it was a mistake he made by letting Dhruv his meeting. He let his greed for Pooja's confession take over; he made decisions based on his emotions rather than logic. And allowing Dhruv the phone added up to his mistakes. He knew he was the person to be blamed, but at this point, he just needed a head to pin it all, and it was Dhruv! It took him a moment to take it all in at once, but as he recovered from his newly received trauma, he did not stop himself anymore. He slapped Dhruv! And this time, it was hard enough for Dhruv to fall, but Shiv did not catch him this time. Dhruv fell on his shoulder. He groaned in pain, but there was still a subtle smile on his face, which was adding more and more to Shiv's anger, and he said,
Rathod: How can you be so shameless?! You are the reason behind the death of five children your age!
Dhruv (Groaning): Ugh… Children?.. Is that how you characterize them? They are as much of an adult as an 18 yr old will be….. Ahhgrr … Your slaps are painful!
(Dhruv stands up and sits back on his chair.)
Rathod: I did not ask you to sit!
Dhruv: Well, sorry! I am not the type who takes permission! And you asked why I am not ashamed of myself? I am not ashamed! Because I do not feel like I did something wrong! I am happy I did it. And not like I killed them all, they took their own choices!
Rathod: They? Did you give everyone a choice?
Dhruv: To be honest, I gave everyone a choice! Yash, Raj, Shreyash, all 3 were given a choice, to live! But they chose death over life! For all this time, you thought killing them in a way that represents suicide was a message; well, it wasn't! Yash took a rope, and he hung himself; Raj stood on a tall building, and he jumped; Shreyash, as I told you, just took it (Poison). He did not even fight it!
Rathod (With tears in his eyes): Why didn't you give Vikram that choice? I mean… you just killed him! Why?
Dhruv: He did not have a choice because he was the biggest sinner among all of them. He had blood in his hands!
Rathod: Blood? Whose blood?
Dhruv: MY FATHER'S...