The Girl Next Door

Neil's phone rang. Neil saw the caller's name and answered immediately.

Aarav: Your toxicology reports are here. Negative. Apparently, there were no drugs found in your blood.

Neil: I guess that's good news, but what caused the problem then?

Aarav: Hard to say but I suspect a special kind of drug that acts quickly and washes out equally quickly from your body to be traceable in your body the next day. Btw, has it happened again?

Neil: No, not yet. Aditi is still pretty upset. I've been trying to make it up to her. But hopefully doesn't happen again.

Aarav: Btw, that girl next door, Meera. I saw her at the hospital few days ago.

Neil: So?

Aarav: She was talking to one of the staff, she told me Meera was here to meet Dr. Mithila.

Neil: So?

Aarav: Dr. Mithila is a psychiatrist. Does Meera have any psychiatric issues?

Neil: Yes some anxiety issues, takes some medicines for it. But why does it bother you?

Aarav: She was here on a Wednesday and Dr. Mithila visits the hospital only on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Neil: Must have visited for some other doctor.

Aarav: I don't know Neil...it's just my instincts...something doesn't feel right.

Neil: Relax bro, it's a hospital. Hundreds of people come there, I don't think there's anything to worry about.

********************

Two days later, while Aditi was returning home, she spotted Meera watering the flowers on her front porch. She looked very weak.

"Meera," Aditi said as she looked at her condition, "Are you OK?"

"I am better Aditi," she replied weakly, "Just recovering from a nasty fall. These stairs get so slippery sometimes."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Aditi spoke in a worried tone as she observed Meera walk with a limp. Aditi walked over to Meera's house and helped her get inside.

"Sorry Aditi," Meera said, "I didn't want to bother you. I understand you are dealing with a few problems of your own."

"So what?" Aditi protested, "Look at you Meera, you are so badly hurt! You could have at least told me! Now I want you to get straight to bed and rest. I'll be bringing you food till you feel better."

"Thank you," Meera said, "But I really don't want to trouble you."

"Quit being so formal!" Aditi said, "And just shut up and rest. I am feeling so terrible that you've been in so much pain and you never even told me."

Meera smiled weakly as she got onto her bed.

As Aditi began frequenting Meera's house to bring her food, Neil began to get increasingly worried as to what Meera might tell her. Although he was confident that she won't directly accuse him of anything, but still it was important to be cautious.

"Is she better now?" he asked as he casually walked into the kitchen as Aditi was busy cooking.

"Yes recovering," Aditi said without looking at him as she continued chopping the vegetables. The she suddenly dropped the kitchen knife and said, "There's something she is not telling me. The kind of wounds on her body, you don't get that after a fall...somebody has hurt her."

"Probably," Neil said, being careful not to start an argument.

"Wonder why she is keeping quiet...as far as I know her, she is quite a strong girl." Aditi said.

"Perhaps she is in shock, perhaps she'll speak once she recovers, or perhaps she really fell of the stairs." Neil said.

"Seriously Neil?" Aditi shouted, "Since when did falling from the stairs start causing bruises on both cheeks? She has been clearly slapped hard multiple times across the face and God knows what else! It hurts me to see her like this. No one deserves this. And...just leave Neil, I don't want to talk to you."

Neil realized he overstepped the line. He left immediately to avoid further conflict. But he was assured of one thing that if Meera hadn't named him till now, it was less likely that she would name him later.

The days passed by but things didn't get any better between Neil and Aditi. After the previous traumatic encounter with Meera, he kept his distance from her too. Knowing how close she was to Aditi he didn't want to risk Meera telling anything to her.

And one fine day, hell broke loose upon Neil. He had been away to his office for a meeting. He got back home by afternoon.

Aditi answered the door. She glared at Neil with a rage he had never seen in her eyes before. Wordlessly he followed her into the house.

"Where are the kids?" he asked casually.

"At my parents' home...and I am leaving too, shortly, after you give me some answers" Aditi replied gritting her teeth.

"Why...what happened?" he asked nervously.

"Explain this," she said showing him a video on her phone.

Neil's face turned pale. The video showing him beating a naked woman who was helplessly tied up. She was screaming and begging him for mercy. Although the camera focussed on the girl mostly, but Aditi couldn't mistake Neil's voice or his blue eyes. The video appeared very old; Neil looked much younger.

He just sat down on the couch staring blankly.

"It's not how you think Aditi," he defended, "She was a willing partner...and that was a long time ago."

"She is screaming in pain!" Aditi shouted, "Willing partner, is it? And what about you? You enjoy beating up "willing" women, don't you? You love to hear them cry and scream, don't you? What kind of a monster enjoys someone's pain and suffering!"

Aditi spoke with such scorn, Neil could feel his heart break.

"Please listen to me sweetheart," Neil make a desperate attempt to convince her, "That was long before we got married, and I've changed really...I've never done anything like that to anyone after our marriage, I've been loyal, I've loved you and...the kids."

"If I knew that you had these kind of 'hobbies' before marriage, I would have never married you...I always believed you were this sweet, shy, loving man...now I see you for who you really are...and those times when you hurt me, I thought something was happening to you, but I was wrong. It was just your true self showing...Maybe after 10 years of lying and pretending, you finally got tired and began to show what you really are," she said bitterly.

"Honey, that's not true...I truly love you," he said moving closer, "That was my past, you and the kids are my present and my future. Please, don't let one mistake of my past ruin it...Please let me make this alright."

"DON"T TOUCH ME!" she yelled, "You are not only a monster, but also a liar! You've been lying to me all these years! You were only pretending to be loving...it was all a lie!"

"Aditi please give me a chance," Neil begged with tearful eyes, "I swear on the kids, I've changed."

"Don't you dare!" Aditi growled, "I won't let you see the kids ever!"

Aditi pushed Neil aside and walked out of the door.

Neil slumped down onto the floor still trying to process the shock he just went through. He felt like his whole world was shattering before his eyes. Everything that he built over so many years, everything that was dear to him was crumbling brick by brick and there was nothing he could do about it.

It took him a while to recover from the trauma. He had to now find out what exactly was happening to him and why. Neil picked up his phone and posted a message on the group.

Neil: I need to meet all of you. It is extremely urgent.

Reyansh: Sorry bro, I haven't been keeping too well lately.

Aarav: I have my clinic in the evening

Armaan: Everything OK, Neil?

Neil: Nothing is OK. CODE RED.

Armaan: Fine. Place and time?

Neil: Our usual place, 6 pm

Reyansh: Fine, I'll be there

Aarav: Me too

The four men arrived at a villa owned by Neil in the outskirts of the city. It was an ancestral property, Neil kept it well maintained but rarely visited.

These four men had been close friends for several years now. They had a dark side in common. All of them were from affluent families, and their good looks and their power gave them a sense of entitlement to do whatever they pleased to whoever they pleased, and almost always managed to get away with it. They were strong, more so together they watched each other's backs. They had several dark secrets of their past that they guarded very well.

As all four of them gathered at a table, Neil quietly placed his phone in the middle with the video playing.

"This was sent to my wife," Neil said angrily, "As far as I know, there were only four copies of this video, and I deleted mine years ago when I married Aditi."

"I deleted mine too," Aarav said, "That was a different time. College days fun and the rush I got out of these things. But things are different now. I am a renowned surgeon and these kinds of things pose a great threat to my professional reputation. Besides, my wife knows nothing about my past so I sure as hell don't wanna bring it up. So, no, I don't have any such material on any of my devices."

Neil and Aarav now looked at Armaan and Reyansh.

"I do have copies," Armaan said, "But they are all encrypted and stored in a safe location. I don't keep such stuff on my phone or laptop from where it can be stolen easily."

Reyansh felt cornered now. He spoke nervously, "Guys, don't look at me like that...I do have that stuff, I watch it sometimes, it gets me high but that's it...but trust me I didn't leak it."

"No one is saying you did Reyansh," Armaan said, "Why would you after so many years? It was most probably stolen from your device. Did you allow anyone access to your phone or laptop?"

"Hell NO!" he said defensively, "I don't let anyone touch my stuff, and there are so many layers of protection. How can someone just steal it?"

"Get all your devices Reyansh, NOW!" Neil shouted, "I need to check if any hacking was done."

Reyansh placed his phone and laptop on the table. Neil furiously ran through his systems.

"Layers of protection, my ass!" Neil said glaring at Reyansh, "Even an amateur could hack this...there...there is a fucking spyware installed in this system since 28th of November...well last year, that's three months ago."

A wave of fear ran across the room and all the men were visibly uneasy.

"Not only have they stolen this video, they have ALL other videos, and they have been watching everything you've been doing here for that last 3 months," Neil said gritting his teeth, still glaring at Reyansh.

Reyansh felt miserable. He spoke nervously, "Look bro, I am sorry...I didn't know..."

"Your sorry doesn't bring my family back, you son of a bitch!" Neil said almost charging on Reyansh, when Armaan stopped him.

"Neil, calm down please," he said, "I know you've been going through a tough time lately, but let's not fight now. This is a threat to all of us. We need to figure out who did this and find them before it is too late."

Neil dropped onto the couch with a weary expression.

"Now Reyansh," Armaan said, "Try to remember what happened on 28th of November last year. Did you have a visitor? Anything unusual happened?"

Reyansh was quiet for a while, trying to remember. And then he spoke, "I was at a friend's party and hell, I was with a girl that night."

"Who was she?" Armaan asked.

"I don't know, some hooker," Reyansh said, "Paid her for the night and that's all. Never met again never spoke again."

"So, a whore hacked your laptop while you slept after fucking her?" Neil asked scornfully.

"How would I know if she was a hacker?" Reyansh shouted back, "I wanted some pussy, she asked money and I paid her and fucked her. How the fuck would I..."

Armaan interrupted him saying, "Do you, by any chance happen to have a picture of that girl?"

"Hell no!" he said, "Who keeps pictures of hookers anyway?"

Aarav who had been quiet for a while, said, "Neil, you showed me a picture of that girl next door, the other day...could you show it again?"

Wordlessly Neil placed Meera's picture on the table.

"Was she that girl Reyansh?" Aarav asked.

"No, never seen her before. Who is she?" Reyansh asked.

"Just a girl next door," Neil said.

Armaan picked up the picture and looked carefully and said, "She does look familiar Neil."

"Even I felt that way" Neil said, "Did a little background check, nothing suspicious. Anyway, she is not important right now."

"Mind if I keep this picture?" Armaan asked.

"That's least of my concern right now, it is my family that I am worried about," Neil said.

"Rey this is serious," Armaan said, "Whoever did this has a LOT of information about us that they could use against us any time, it is just a matter of time before this thing blows in our faces. I need you to call up your friend and ask for all the pictures of that party. We have to find that girl."

"All right," Reyansh said as he walked out of the room to make a phone call.

Armaan kept looking at Meera's picture, trying to recollect where he had seen her before. Her face was so familiar. Suddenly a memory struck him like lighting. A few weeks ago, he had seen her with his girlfriend Pankhudi outside a shopping mall. He was waiting for Pankhudi to join him for a dinner date as he saw the two women step out of the mall carrying their shopping bags. There were talking like they were good friends. Finally, Pankhudi hugged her lightly with a smile and waved her goodbye before getting into the car with Armaan. For a moment, the other girl looked straight at Armaan, her gaze was so intense, almost impossible to forget. When he asked Pankhudi how she knew her, Pankhudi just shrugged and said, "Just a friend." But Armaan strongly felt that he had seen that girl before.

After a while, Reyansh's phone began to beep with a lot of incoming messages. He quickly scanned through the photos, hoping that the girl he slept with was caught somewhere. After a lot of struggle, he finally found one picture where the girl's face was seen from the side. He looked for better pictures but that was the only one. Reyansh shared it in the group.

"Not enough but at least we have a lead. I'll look into it," Armaan said. He turned his gaze to Aarav and said, "What made you think that the girl who hacked Rey's system could be her?" He said pointing at Meera's picture.

Aarav took a deep breath and said, "Neil once consulted me regarding some strange incidences, like spurts of uncontrollable aggression...some issues with his wife. I picked up subtle sign of intoxication, most probably amphetamine class of drugs...but the tests were negative. Neil suggested that these incidences were occurring since that girl moved next door, but we never found any substantial evidence of any drug in any of his food or drinks... And then one day I see this girl lurking around in the hospital...apparently she was there to see her psychiatrist but something didn't feel right."

Aarav turned his gaze to Reyansh and said, "If you permit, may I talk about your health condition? I usually don't discuss such things with anyone other than the patient or their first degree relative, but I feel this is something that could be of concern to all of us."

"Go ahead," Reyansh said granting him permission.

Aarav placed a sheet of paper on the table, Reyansh read it and but couldn't comprehend. "What does this mean?" he asked.

"Something isn't right" Aarav said, "The reports say that this is a rare kinda of virus causing that skin disease...I even got the tests repeated because it was so hard to believe. This kind of virus only could have come from some kind of experimental lab. Someone injected an infected serum into his blood, although again Rey doesn't seem to remember anything like that...I had a word with the dermatologist, and the news is not too good."

"What the fuck is happening to me?" Reyansh asked as he panicked.

"There is a certain incubation period," Aarav explained, "For these kinda viruses to cause the disease, these were injected into you, most probably three months ago."

"You mean that whore?!" he asked.

"Possible, though I doubt she did it single-handedly," Aarav said. "Did you drink with her?" he asked.

"Yes," Reyansh said, "She made me a drink once she was in my room."

"I guess she spiked it with a hypnotic, intended to make you fall into a deep sleep. I am pretty sure she had help from medical personnel, a doctor or a nurse, more likely a doctor." Aarav said.

"And there was a hacker too," Armaan said analysing the situation, "This whole thing appears too well planned."

"What happens to me now?" Reyansh asked in a worried tone.

Aarav said placing a comforting hand on his shoulder, "This virus is not contagious unless injected but the lesions it causes are known for spreading all over the body. It basically targets skin. The damaged skin is more prone to infections so you need to be careful. The treatments available so far are experimental but lets hope for the best."

"What do you mean experimental?" Reyansh asked anxiously, "I've been taking the medications the dermatologist prescribed, and the rash is still spreading. Its only getting worse day by day. Is there a cure or not?"

"We will try out best. We may be able to contain the infection but it may still leave behind scars" Aarav said.

"Words like "try" and "may be" are not very reassuring Aarav," Reyansh said as he buried his face in his hands. He pulled up his sleeve exposing his melting skin. Neil and Armaan were shocked looking at it. Reyansh was almost in tears. "So you are saying I am going to end up looking like this? This has already spread to half of my body within a month...how much longer before it spreads to my face? Am I going to rot away like this? This is a death sentence for me."

Reyansh fell to his knees with tearful eyes. Then he spoke vengefully, "We need to find this girl, that bloody whore, no matter what it takes...and I am going to break every bone in her body and burn every inch of her skin with acid! I'll make sure to keep her alive through all that. Then I'm gonna cut her limbs into pieces and feed them to her. Then I'm gonna tear hear heart out while she is still breathing and eat it raw!" His eyes were red and burned with anger.

"I promise you Rey, we are going to make that happen," Armaan said with intense anger in his eyes.

Reyansh rested his head back on the couch with closed eyes. A tear escaped the corner of his eyes. He lay silent for some time struggling to accept his fate.

Neil wordlessly placed a hand on his shoulder trying to comfort him. All of them were deeply pained by their friend's condition. And they were all sworn to revenge.

"Neil," Armaan asked, now highly alarmed, "This neighbour of yours appears pretty suspiscious too. You said you checked on her. What do you know about this girl?"

"Seems to be a regular girl on the outside..." Neil said, "Her social media profiles seem normal...and then eventually I discovered she has a dark side, she is basically submissive. Things have been difficult with Aditi, so this girl kinda came handy...I can do things my way with her, so..."

"You are sexually involved with this girl?" Aarav asked, sounding quite surprised.

"Yes, why it is so surprising? She is pretty and submissive, doesn't say no to anything, one hell of a slut...why would anyone let go of a chance like that? And I've fucked her once till now, she hasn't created any trouble either." Neil defended.

"Look at this bastard fucking around behind his wife's back and blaming me for his family squabbles!" Reyansh growled.

"Look guys," Neil sighed, "I really love Aditi but it is so difficult for me to control my aggression...especially in such a difficult time...and just in time a slut comes around and offers up her ass...I recorded a video consent so that she doesn't cry rape later on."

"So basically you don't know much about her apart from her social media profiles," Armaan said.

Neil just stared blankly, "Yeah also that she is some kind of a freak...sees things, takes antidepressants and antianxiety pills...seen quite a few scars on her body, self harm or past abuse, I don't know, I don't care,"