“I don’t know. People come here, scream, cry, and all of a sudden, they are taken away from here. I don’t scream, I don’t question any, so I stay here without any worry” Arivuchelvi said, it was simple as that for her.

It wasn’t a believable truth for any. Preash couldn’t digest it upon hearing Arivuchelvi’s confession. For him, she felt like an innocent person without any awareness of what was going on around her. She was a person of fewer thoughts. Preash felt she and Elango were brainwashed victims of some psycho. Have been they intoxicated? Was his greatest doubt.

“Can you do me a favour?” Raja asked hesitantly, his words trembling.

“Raja, do you think anyone here can help you? Everybody needs help?” Sweety said

“Raja, what favour do you want us to do?” Preash asked.

“How will you help him? You were strangled, we are tortured. Did anyone was able to help? That’s the reality here in this abdominal place. Don’t give him false hope Preash.” Sweety said in a sombre mood.

“Not here. A help which you have to do when you people get out of this place. If you can, please.” Raja cried.

“We all can get out of this mess,” Preash said

“Is it possible, can I see my Ezhil again?” Gomathi asked for hope and it was given back in words by Preash.

“Yes, you will meet your Ezhil.”

“Please, I beg you don’t give false hope.” Sweety reinstated the same thing again.

“How?”

“How can we get out of this?” Elango asked softly.

Preash ignored Elango and asked Raja to not lose hope.

“When I came here, there was a lady, fighting for her life and her child’s life. She screamed and begged more than us. She begged for her child’s sake. She was dragged from here. It is not a place for mercy. Even a child wasn’t spared.” Raja said

It was a shocking truth for many, it made them decide their destiny too. On the other Preash didn’t stop there.

“How did you come here? Do you remember anything?” Preash asked

“By car, no sir, by flight, no sir, no sir by ship, no, no sir by auto.” GOD mocked them. But he was ignored by all of them.

“I don’t remember Preash, I couldn’t recall, that’s what I am thinking, but I couldn’t recall,” Raja said, hiding something within him.

Everyone volunteered,

“I too couldn’t,” Sweety said

“Me too,” Preash said

“Yes, I too don’t remember, but it’s better to be here in this place with you all, rather than being in that hell,” Elango said.

“Yes, me too bro, I am happy here,” GOD said

For Elango and GOD, the most horrible place felt better than their home, it was a shocking revelation for others.

How can one feel happy in this pathetic situation? Was the query for everyone around. 

Yet no one questioned them.

“I was with my uncle and Ezhil. My uncle took us to a hilly area and asked us to hide in the dilapidated building. He said he will come soon.” Gomathi said and started crying. “He didn’t come back.” She cried.

“He too said the same to me. I too waited but he didn’t come.” Said Arivuchelvi.

“This is what it feels Preash when someone close to you gives you hope and then shatters it,” Sweety said

“I am not giving fake hope Sweety, I am not.” After a few seconds of pause, he said. “Everything begins with hope Sweety.”

“We have been kidnapped.”

“But why? We don’t know the reason.”

“Why are we kept as a hostage? We don’t know the reason for that too.”

“Why only us? Do we have similarities between us? We don’t have any idea.”

“Who is the kidnapper? The one amidst us.”

Preash listed a few questions and answered them himself with so much pain.

Original Copyright © Sukanya Pon