Diana contacted her friend and Martin's mother in the evening. She was feeling uneasy and a bit suffocated. She phoned and inquired, "Maria, you fine?"
"Yeah, what's wrong? Your voice seems tense."
"This morning, your son came to me asking for help. Somebody else is behind your son, precisely, Martin's powers. Also, while helping them I revealed my identity to that woman. I can sense something bad is about to happen. I feel restless," Diana said and breathed heavily.
"Calm down and think, do you remember anything else about that woman? I can help you."
"Nope, but that woman had a picture consisting of a woman, a man, and two children standing at the back of them, which looked like a family photo. As I moved closer to get a better view, the woman appeared out of the blue in front of my eyes. Her gaze showed that she was aware of my mind's presence there. That's how my identity got revealed."
"I'll keep this in mind. The sun has already set but it isn't too late yet, I'll come visit you."
"You didn't need to 一," Diana heard a thud from the other side of the phone before the call cut off.
"Hello, Maria?"
Diana collapsed from the bed she was sitting and talking on. Her head banged on the wooden floor and her eyes were open partly, enabling her to see surroundings blurry. A dark figure entered the room through the door. Its silhouette fell over Diana's body but the figure's face wasn't clear. That figure held Diana's leg and dragged her mercilessly to the darkest room of the house, the basement. The fire was already lit there. With a knife, that woman cut a slit in Diana's arm and saw the blood spurt out. "You shouldn't have messed up with me," she said and she collected all the blood out of her body. "You can never win. Your pride will take you away one or the other day," Diana was alive and felt everything being done to her but she was helpless. Gradually she became dizzy and her eyes closed, never to open again.
On reaching her friend's house, Maria saw that Diana's main iron door wasn't open but the door to the house was left ajar. "Is it robbery," was her first reaction. She felt a change in the aura of that place. The place was giving off a dark aura which faded away gradually.
She entered the house, walked towards Diana's room in a hurry. The things were scattered as if a fight occurred. Maria looked for Diana in all the rooms, then she went to the basement. She was shocked to see the situation there. In front of the ash lay Diana's cold body, her head must have banged from something as it had bulged out a bit. Her arm had a deep cut. She was killed mercilessly and that could be seen by the condition of her body.
The hardest part was to break the news to the victim's daughter about her mother's death. Vanessa was on her way home as it was already going to be past seven. Vanessa reached home. She saw the neighborhood ladies come and go to her house. She sprinted in dismay only to see her mother not breathing and lying still. She broke into tears, Maria came supporting and consoling her. "How this happened," Vanessa asked. "I will tell you later," was Maria's reply.
After all the rituals were over, the next morning, Maria decided to tell Vanessa about what had happened, "she told me that her identity was revealed to that woman who is after Martin. I think she did this."
Vanessa turned her head towards the window but her tears weren't halting. "I knew something was off, but she didn't tell me. I should have stayed with her yesterday. She knew but still—", a sob stuck in her throat.
"She didn't want you to be troubled and hence, didn't tell you. Even I regret not understanding her condition at that time," Maria tried to console her.
Maria told Martin about what had happened. Martin and Karan were not able to come and visit.
After her mother passed away, Vanessa remained quiet most of the time, she did not like to talk much. She would sit on the corner seats and stare blankly, not able to concentrate. Her state was pitiful. This way half a month passed. Despite the fact that Vanessa refused to eat and not feeling like eating anything, Karan dragged her to the mess to get something delicious. Not finding anything of interest they went to a city restaurant, Karan insisted, "come on, I'll pay, choose whatever you want to eat," and gestured something to Martin.
"Really, you used to say you are never going to pay anymore. Don't change your mind after I pick it up," seeing the delicious pastries in the restaurant she changed her mind to eat. "Actually, I regret not being able to save her. Only if I remained with her that day, things wouldn't have turned out this way. It is my fault," Vanessa started weeping again. Martin started patting her back to calm her down.
"You are not alone," Martin said. Martin's words sounded genuine to Vanessa and she looked back into his eyes. She heard these words from someone for the first time.
Karan felt like a third-wheel in between those two. He stared with his mouth open from the opposite of the table at both of them as they looked into each other's eyes. "Please do not proceed to kiss. Not here please," Karan thought. "I feel so awkward here."
Karan broke the loud silence by pretending to cough. "The cake is getting cold, I mean, the pizza. It tastes best when warm," Karan said accompanied by an awkward laugh, which made both of them realize what he meant indirectly.
"I got carried away with my emotions; I need to pull myself in," Vanessa thought.
"What am I even doing," Martin spoke faintly.
"Hmm, did you say something," Vanessa inquired.
"Nothing."
Both ate making weird faces and forcefully making eye contact with Karan while he could sense that the environment had turned from warmth to cold. "What should we further do about little finger thing," Karan wanted to ask but decided not to.