Black Out : Concluding Part

Robbie was pacing up and down in his room like husband whose wife has just got in labour. He was mad at Natasha, mad at Varun, mad at the whole world. “If I could just get out of this”, he thought. Why did Natasha have to open her mouth and tell that to Varun, when whatever he had said had worked out so beautifully. He was sure there were gonna be repercussions after what Natasha had told Varun he kept thinking. “If only that bitch could play along for some more time! But no, she was worried about her reputation, like she even had one, slut! “. Robbie burned up inside with these thoughts and his rage. He always had trouble controlling it and he knew it. In his anger and frustration he was about to throw the thing he had in his hand at that time, his phone.

But suddenly it beeped. It was Varun. His message made his head spin.

“I know wat u did that nite…. I rem everythin now no matter hw much u tried to hide it… I even knw where da body is”

The message made the world go vertigo around him. “Fuck fuck fuck, there was no way he could know where was it, he was not there, nobody was there, and I how did he remember everything suddenly, it that whore Natasha’s fault”. He had a million questions in his head.
He broke into sweat in his A.C. room, with trembling hands he messaged him back, he knew it was no use calling him back, his voice would give him away.

“What do you remember? And what body? I don’t know what you are talking about”

Varun’s reply came in seconds. “Meet me 2morrow morning @ a place I tell u n I will tell u what am I talking about.

Robbie panicked, he was sure now that Varun knew. “What did he want”, he thought, “money, or some favour, or something else?”

He knew what he had to do, he called Natasha immediately and asked her to meet him at the fateful place and drove off the house immediately. They both reached around 1 o’ clock and sent the servants back to sleep and asked them to not to come out no matter what happened.
Robbie could find that place very easily and he thought so could anybody else if someone was looking for it. He started digging immediately though he had no idea what he would do after that. Natasha kept saying something or the other continuously, which infuriated Robbie even more, he felt like hitting her with the shovel and burying her there. How could she say that he dragged her into this, it was her coke, her idea to have it in his car, her idea to take the girl along. It was really all her fault.

Robbie had to move her, this was the only clue anybody could have. He was going on at it when the stench hit him. He could see her. He almost felt sorry for her. But suddenly he saw a light in some distance, it was a cell phone’s light. Varun stepped out of the dark and said “Hello brother”

Natasha let out a shriek and Robbie almost fell backwards. Robbie started shouting at Natasha “See I told you he knew it, he knew!”.Natasha replied in quivering voice “But how? You said nobody saw you bury her, and he himself said he doesn’t remember anything”. “How did you know where?” they both let out almost in unison.

“I didn’t. At least till now. I just had a hunch. But I followed you two and you people led me here.”

“See I told you it was a TRICK! Jhuuth bol raha tha saala, kisi nae mujhe nahi dekha tha, I knew it. But but…. I had to be sure, I had to get the body out of here. I, I had to sure” His voice trailed off, he was having a hard time believing this was happening.

“Ya, that’s how the TRICK works” Varun replied. Natasha and Robbie both were stunned, at their own foolishness, by Varun’s intelligence, by the confidence in the college Geek’s voice and their shaking knees.

Natasha started crying, she fell on her knees and asked “But how did you know, you don’t remember anything at all of that night”

“I don’t” Varun shirked and sat down on the ground “And I never do after drinking that much, but I know that I won’t, so I took a few Mementos”

“What mementos? What are you talking about? We checked all your clothes and then threw them away, we checked your phone you haven’t told anything to anyone, we asked around the party if you spoke to anyone, I asked you even that If you have told anybody else than me. There was nothing, you had nothing, you hadn’t spoken to anyone and nobody knew. Then how did you get to KNOW ?”

Varun replied coolly, the shock he had received after deciphering his message to Sunny and putting two plus two together made him immune to anything else ”First you tell me your part and then I will tell mine. What happened to that girl? What did you people do?”

Robbie who was silent till now started speaking; he was sitting on the ground holding on the shovel between his legs like a lifeline.

“The party was in full swing” he began “But I was getting bored at around 2:30 I told Natasha her party was ‘bakwaas’ and I was leaving. She told me that the real surprise was not yet out, she had gotten some ‘pure Colombian cocaine’ through her US return cousin’s contacts. So I stayed, then she took me to one corner that she has it, but she didn’t want to shoot it here in her farm house, so I suggested to go shoot in my new Audi. Pas isne kaha kee she wanted to drive after that, I said no. She said she will give me something else to play with, she asked this Chinky girl who had come with that girl Priya if she wanted to get high, she said yes so she came along with us and then on the way … on the way”

Robbie stopped and looked up to Natasha who was brimming with anger. She shouted at him “Bol na tune aage kya kiya you sick animal!” She turned to Varun and started speaking, though she was not speaking to no one in particular. She started re living that time in her head.

She had the first line from the vanity mirror she had in her handbag and jumped on the steering wheel. “I wanna take out this baby for a spin” she exclaimed. Robbie asked her to go ahead, he had his hands full with the coke and the girl. Robbie stepped in the car with the other girl. She had come to her earlier in the party asking if she has anything stronger, this feels like a high school party, she wanted to get ‘high’. She had smiled at her and told her that she had some exclusive stuff and she will call her when its time. She whirled away in the car out of her farm house gates and wanted to hit the main road. Suddenly Robbie shouted from the back “Oye paagal ho gayi hai kya? Main road pe cops honge, yahan andar hee drive kar le, tab tak main yahan drive karta huun” Robbie focused his attention back on the girl and urged her to shoot one more line and started separating the white powder into two more lines from his dad’s platinum credit card. It was a wonderful drive, the rush, the euphoria, she felt she on the top of the world, why was she wasting her time here in Delhi drinking Vodka Orange and Cosmopolitans when she should have been in States having a wild time. She heard some commotion in the back, she looked in the back Robbie was on top of the petite girl and was trying to force himself on her, she was struggling. Natasha laughed “Don’t struggle Kudiye, It’ll all feel good in some time, enjoy the taste of Delhi when you are here”. She stepped on the pedal a little more to see what this baby can do, she had hit 120 easily, suddenly she heard the heard the rear door open and a scream, ‘Oh fuck” Robbie reached to catch her but it was too late, she hit the road at 120 Kilometers per hour trying to jump out of the car. They were already quite some distance ahead when they turned back, they saw a figure get up and walk back into a deserted part of her farm house crying for help.

They momentarily stopped on the spot where she had hit the ground, it was a lot of blood on the road, and she must have been bleeding a lot. But she walked in the farm house again, somebody might see her and might call the cops, they had to reach her before she reaches anybody. At this point Varun called in a drunken voice saying that he found a girl in the backside of her farm house all covered in blood and too incoherent to talk. She asked him to stay there and not to leave the girl and not to call anybody else. They parked the car and started running inside on foot when Varun called yet again on Robbie’s phone, apparently the girl told him what Robbie did or rather tried to do to her and he started abusing him, Robbie told him to stay there and said he was sorry he will come and take care of the girl, it was all an accident. They both knew that they were in this together, if the girl told the police about the cocaine, her driving drunk, her not helping her when she struggled she would be in as much trouble as Robbie.

They found Varun red eyed and too drunk to talk, he said he found her in the trees like this and she only gained consciousness once, he had called his friend Sunny first but he didn’t pick up, so being her place he had called her second, then the girl regained consciousness and told him what happened and he had called Robbie. They asked him not to worry, they were sorry, it was all an accident and Robbie will take the girl to a hospital while he should lie down as he was too drunk. Sunny called back saying that he didn’t pick up the first time, what was it, she said “nothing, Varun was busy” and hung up. She remembered Varun’s last line to her before passing out “Tell me exactly what happened to the girl tomorrow, she is Priya’s friend. But I won’t remember anything in the morning so you tell me” when she came out from recounting her thoughts. It all felt like she was just thinking aloud.

“So you put me to bed, took off my clothes which had the blood of the girl on them, checked my phone and deleted the message I had sent to Sunny. And told these stupid stories the next morning when I confirmed I don’t remember anything. Right?” Varun looked at both of their faces after saying this, they didn’t look up. ‘So what happened after that? The girl died due to blood loss. You Cleaned up your car and told Natasha to tell Priya that her friend went off with somebody during the party, told her a fake description of the guy and his car as well so even if she files an FIR it would not lead to you. And she will become one more missing girl. Am I right?

Robbie anger boiled over “Haan Einstein, yahi hua tha. Par wo mari nahi thee when you left her. I hit her on the head with this to make sure she was” Robbie started walking towards him menacingly with the shovel in his hand.

“Baith ja pehalwaan, mujhe bhi maarne se pehle, mere side kee kahani to sun le” Varun replied in a steel voice. “Sunny told me about your new Audi with the number 8055, I checked out the last dialed no again. ‘3555122278055’.Do you know what does ‘3555122278055’ become when typed in a message? DL 1C P 8055. That is the number of your car isn’t it? BOSS? Cool number, but the problem is that everybody remembers cool numbers, like Sunny did and that unfortunate girl who had to jump out of your car, apne aap ko bachaane ke liye. Then I thought could it be that message I had sent Sunny mean something more than just random numbers. So I typed them and played around with them until I could make something meaningful out of it. And that told me part of the story of what happened that night. Rest of it you people told me. It says in my message that I was not able to reach anyone else that night. And you people thought anyways it was a meaningless set of numbers so no harm done, but you deleted it from my ‘Sent Items’ anyways. Luckily for me I had SMSed somebody a number before and had forgotten to change the mode to text from numbers before I started typing this message. In my drunken condition and panic I didn’t realize and sent the message to Sunny who had no idea what it meant.

“So what do you want from us now? Tell me. How much money?” Natasha screamed,

“Bhaai tu ye Audi rakh le, jo hua bhul ja, kuch bhi karne se wo ladki to waapas aane se rahi , hai na?” Robbie said in a broken voice.

Varun felt disgusted. “I just want one thing from you both. Tell me, what was the name of that Girl?”

“Who cares!” Natasha shouted.

“I do. Priya cares. Her parents did. And a lot of people who are here care” He said as more people stepped out of the shadows.

” No no no …. Tune mujhe fasaya hai …. Main …. Maine ye sab…” Robbie cried.

“Chal koi na, bhaiyon ke beech mae ho jaata hai aisa, koi gal nahin. Daaru piyega?” Varun patted his back and walked off.