Shreya stepped forward and pressed her foot on Ankita's hand. The latter groaned in pain but the foot only pressed harder. With a sudden yank on Ankita's hair, she whispered.
"How kind and righteous of you! You're so empathetic towards that measly entertainer. But, the person you're defending so much, why isn't he here to save you? I bet he's busy being chummy with another person and doesn't have the time to look for a nobody like you. He may have said a few sweet words to you and now you think you're some hot smoke? Get it inside your head. You were just a clown he felt entertained by."
Ankita stared at her eyes and Shreya smirked. Right, she had been gone for quite some time but no one came to look for her. Then, is Shreya...
Ankita shook her head. No, she should not let herself get manipulated by her.
She looked up with her teary eyes, saying "No. He would never abandon his friend. He's just busy with their upcoming preparation."
Deepa took a strand of Ankita's hair and began twirling it "So, they're preparing for a new song? Which..."
As the hair strand wrapped around her finger she pulled it hard "... we, the fans' don't know about, but you do?"
Ankita's face contorted in pain, unlike Deepa, who showed a joyful expression.
"Enough. Let's get done with her. I don't want to waste any more time on this. She's not worth it. If you insist on continuing, do it yourself, I'm out." Shreya said with slight irritation and impatience.
"Aw baby, lemme play a while longer. I'm having so much fun. Why are you trying to ruin it? You don't love your friend anymore?" Deepa said acting sickly coquettish.
It was supposed to be cute but evoked nothing but disgust within everyone. But Shreya's heart raced at her words.
She said putting on a concerned gaze "It's not like that. I don't want you to dirty your hands on this garbage, just order someone to deal with her. You can sit back and enjoy. Why go through all the trouble?"
"And who said I don't care about you? You're one of the most important people in my life." She squeezed out a fake smile.
Deepa let go of Ankita and said to someone, annoyed "Hey you, what were you saying again?"
The girl hurriedly presented her thoughts "You can make her drink soap water. The concentrated one. I saw a newly opened bottle of hand wash there."
"Huh? What did you say?" Deepa looked at the girl with a pointed look.
The girl was momentarily stunned. She could not pinpoint where she went wrong so she repeated her words with a trembling voice afraid of angering her by mistake.
"I... I said you can make... Oh! Sorry sorry sorry, very sorry, please forgive me. What I wanted to say was, how about we make her drink concentrated soap water?"
She did not dare to lift her head, afraid that Deepa would look for her later for making this mistake. She was shaking from top to bottom. How could she ask Deepa to do this with her own hands? She might have lost her mind.
Deepa sneered "What are you f**cking stuttering for?"
"Alright alright, now get to work," Shreya interrupted.
The girl hurriedly went to prepare the soap water while the two girls who were holding Ankita down, forced her to stand up and dragged her to the sink. One of them grabbed her neck and bent her head over the basin. Another one pressed her jaw hard making her open her mouth. A third girl, shoved a bottle in Ankita's mouth and tilted her head by grabbing her hair. All the liquid poured down her throat.
Ankita whimpered and groaned, flung her hands, and jerked her head but could not break free from them. The scented bitter solution made her sick but all she could do was cry as the nauseating solution flowed down her throat.
Deepa watched Ankita struggle to break free with a scary smile. She gloated like a maniac at Ankita's feeble cries for help.
They did not stop until the bottle was empty.
Meanwhile.
"What's taking her so long?" Rai looked at the door in confusion.
"It has been twenty minutes since she went to the toilet, right Aheli?"
Aheli nodded.
An unsettling feeling gripped her heart. She shifted in her seat restlessly and kept peering outside from time to time.
"Rishav, did you see Ankita on your way?" She almost ran up to Rishav the moment she spotted him.
"Uh... no. Why? I went to the library to return a few books. There were a lot of students before me so I got late. What happened? She hasn't returned yet?" He said.
"Nhn" Rai shook her head anxiously.
"Look, there's Bikram, Koushik and Rishi. Let's ask them." Rai looked up and saw the members of Antariksha entering the class.
She called Koushik and asked, "Have any of you seen Ankita?"
"No. Why?" Koushik was puzzled by the worried look on Rai and Rishav's faces.
Hearing his answer, Rai and Rishav looked at each other's faces. They became even more worried. A single question swirled in their mind. Where was Ankita?
Koushik realised that something was wrong seeing their perturbed faces.
"What happened?" He stepped forward with a frown and asked looking back and forth at Rai and Rishav's faces.
The two of them sensed his genuine worry and nodded at each other. Rishav explained everything to Koushik from the beginning. Koushik also tensed up.
"She already has a weak body and suffers serious menstrual cramps due to PCOD. Once she even fainted from pain. I'm worried if her menstrual cycle is about to start, she might be having cramps already. What if she fainted in the washroom?" Rishi tugged at his hair.
"Rai, you go and search the toilet. We'll divide and search the sick room and nearby areas. There also might be a chance that she went somewhere else from the washroom and we're worrying unnecessarily. Let's not panic and go look for her."
"I'll help too. Just give me a moment, I'll keep my bag and come." Koushik hared off to his seat.
Rishi and Bikram accorded with him and went to their respective seats to keep their bags.
"Thank you so much." Rai gave them a grateful smile and sprinted out of the classroom.