Late into the night, three figures moved across the streets at lightning speed, avoiding every lit corner, and gathered in front of what looked like a dilapidated building. They went inside and entered an equally dilapidated room. One of the three people walked forward and pressed somewhere on the wall.
A small rectangular space, enough to fit one person, opened up on the floor. They jumped in one by one. After the third person went into the gap, the floor automatically went back to normal.
Under the floor.
The hole was small led to a space below big enough for eight people to stand. It was actually the entrance to an underground lift.
All three people dressed in black stood inside the elevator silently. The one standing in the middle was a tall girl with heterochromatic eyes, one as blue as a sapphire and the other one as green as an emerald . Her long black hair was tied up in a braid and her hands were covered in white hand wraps up to the elbow.
There was another girl on the right, as tall as the one at the centre. She had long silvery white hair bunched up in a ponytail and grey eyes half hidden beneath her long, dense white eyelashes. She had a strikingly pale skin tone which contrasted with her black garments. In the soft light of the elevator, she seemed to be enveloped by a glow.
Opposite her, that is to the left of the black haired girl, stood a lean and tall boy. He was about tall like them. His shoulder-length black hair was neatly arranged in a small ponytail and his face was covered by a mask like his two partners. His pitch-black eyes looked eerie in the dim light. While the girls were wearing loose clothes, the black shirt he was wearing accentuated his well-toned body.
The lift stopped on the fifth floor underground. There were five rooms in all. Two on either side one at the centre. The three of them stepped out and headed towards the room at the centre.
The door to that room seemed to be made of glass but everything beyond it was absolutely dark.
They stood in front of the door and touched the glass-like thing with their palms. The places where they touched glowed in a purple light.
Interestingly it was not a palm print lock system. Their watches had a unique identity code in the form of vibrations. When their palms came in contact with the surface of the door, their watches received a signal from the sensors present on the door and vibrated to transmit the code. The waves then travelled through their palms and reached the sensors. The purple light glowed indicating their codes had been identified.
But from outside it looked like their palms were being scanned. This was to prevent outsiders from figuring out how the people inside knew if the person present outside was a friend or foe.
Seconds later the door slid open and they were greeted by the same pitch darkness. The black-haired girl stepped inside first. Then the white-haired girl and lastly the boy.
"Ritutandra Roychowdhury, 68 reporting." The white-haired girl said, taking a step forward and lightly stomping her feet.
"Olivia Basu, 126 reporting." The black-haired girl came two steps forward and said stomping her feet.
"Parijat Mallick, 75 reporting," The boy moved one step forward and did the same.
They all stood straight with their hands behind their backs. Olivia at the front while Ritutandra and Parijat a step behind on either side of her.
The room slowly lit up.
A middle-aged man was sitting in the middle on a majestic chair with his elbows placed on the table before him and his fingers intertwined. His partially grey hair was neatly combed but his face was devoid of wrinkles. He was wearing a khaki uniform with dark brown high-ankle boots. A blue badge was attached to the right side of his coat. It said 'Administrator General. 60'.
Several bodyguards dressed in a similar uniform were lined on either side of him with peculiar weapons in hand. Their badges showed their ranks.
The man waved his hands and all the bodyguards dispersed leaving him with Olivia, Ritutandra and Parijat.
He stood up from his chair and led them to a secret room behind the wall.
Inside the room.
A big long table was surrounded by several chairs. Olivia went ahead and sat on the resplendent white chair at the head of the table. Ritutandra and Parijat were on her left and right respectively. The man sat a few seats away from them.
"How are you doing?" He asked in a gentle tone which was the complete opposite of his previous imposing aura.
"Fine sir," Olivia replied.
"What is the result?" The man asked.
"Positive," she answered.
"Did you find the place?" he asked.
"Hm."
"So, how was it distributed?" he enquired.
"Bygone stationery,"
"Recently there has been a trend among kids to use bygone stationery for luck, especially in exams. The majority can't afford the real articles so they make do with counterfeits. Artificial ink pens, tangible notebooks, erasers, etc are selling like Fuchka." Ritutandra took to explain Olivia's point.
She motioned at the holographic projection of a line graph at the centre of the table.
The man questioned, "How many victims are there at VN High?"
"Eight," Olivia said.
"Five boys and three girls. One of the girls is in class ten while the other two are in class twelve. Among the boys, one is from class twelve, three are from class ten and the other one is from class eight." Parijat said showing the picture of the said people on the projection.
The man looked at the young faces with a concerned frown.
"Curable," Olivia said tapping her fingers on the table.
The next day was Sunday.
"Ankita wake up." Mr Chakraborty came into his daughter's room and nudged his sleeping princess.
"Hnnn. Two more minutes Baba." Ankita said flipping on her side and raising two fingers from under the pillow.
"Dear, it's already eight. Get up now. I was planning to visit the Barmans and send them some good homemade food but I need to go somewhere. I've already started preparing the dishes. You'll send it to them."
Ankita woke up with a jump.
"Okay, Baba. Just gimme five minutes." She hugged him and rushed to the bathroom.
"Slow down. Don't rush. Brush your teeth properly else you'll smell like garbage." Mr Chakraborty said.
"Mmhm." Ankita said from inside the bathroom.
"Yay, ghugni muri!" Ankita said happily when she saw the breakfast on the table.
"That's why I love weekends so so much."