9:55 PM…
The bus carrying an overwhelming amount of passengers, now gave a
deserted look. There were just six passengers on the bus now. Meanwhile the
city at night looked bleak and seemingly unusual now. Why not, the city was
shook upon hearing the horrific news about the gruesome rape and murder
of a minor girl couple of days ago. There were heavy protest and unrest all
over. I didn’t wanted to think about this further as news like this weren’t
made for a weak-hearted person like me.
I looked around the bus and saw that there were five men including me and a
girl in the bus now. Nowadays, it is tough to differentiate among people
whether who is actually nice and who is not. I had a sudden gut feeling that
there would be someone was eyeing on the girl with not so good intentions.
To make the girl feel safe despite being called a coward all my life and hearing
upon the recent horrific news, I decided to keep a check on the other men
who were in the bus.
It gave me flashbacks of my past when one day when I was around 14-15
years old, I was playing with my cousin who was younger than me was being
teased by a group of boys who were elder and stronger than me. When she
asked me for help, I couldn’t do anything. Thankfully, a young man came and
made them run away and she was saved. However, her eyes made it look like
that she lost trust on me. When my friends got to hear this, they started
calling me coward and till this day I regret not being able to save her.
“Not today.” I said to myself.
I took a deep breath and made sure if something happens to the young girl,
I’ll try my best to save her.
I was sitting towards the opposite side to the girl so it was easy to keep an
eye on. I was getting down at the last stop so it wasn’t a worry for me. The
girl looked like she was in her early 20’s just like me. Out of the four men ,
three of them men were middle aged while the other was an elderly man.
The next stop arrived, I thought one of them would get up. Nobody got up.
The conductor asked if anyone was getting down, no one replied. The
situation was starting to become a little more eerie . I looked at those men
and no one stared at the girl. I thought may be at the next stop one of them
would get up. I and other men now started making slight eye contact with
each other now.
The next stop arrived and nobody got up again. Now, I was assured there was
something wrong. I remember my crush calling me a “Dog” jokingly because
she thought I was the best guy with an amazing gut feeling and a sense to
smell something fishy quickly just like dogs. I know that it was a weird
compliment but I took it seriously because of obvious reasons.
Never in a million years would all the passengers get up at the last stop
together. The slight eye-contact were no more slight. Things became more
eerie. We glanced at each other now and definitely thought there was
something wrong. Amidst all this, a phone rang which was of one of the
middle aged man and the girl who seemed distracted on her phone glanced
upon to take a look inside the bus once. We hurriedly looked away so that
she doesn’t think that she was in some sort of trouble. But one man didn’t.
He kept looking at that girl. He wore a mask and now when everyone didn’t
take the presence of Covid pandemic seriously, I thought he was the one. I
noticed her eyes. She was looking very sad and was in the verge of tears. She
glanced at that man who was looking at her. Was she in danger from that
man? I saw the old man reviving his younger days by pulling his sleeves like
he would beat the crap out of him.
The last stop arrived, we four of us were ready to protect the girl from the
man who we thought was the one. The girl got up and the man followed him.
One of the middle aged man pulled that man’s collar from behind without
the girl noticing and intervened him. The old man asked why he was
following and harassing a young girl. The man was startled by their words.
Suddenly a voice from the girl broke out :
“Papa”
The middle aged man removed his hands from the collar and left the man.
There was an awkward silence that followed after:
“Papa, I’m sorry I couldn’t win the debate competition”
“No worries, beta you gave your best and your mom must be proud of it too”
” I promised mama that I would win it for her”
The man looked at us and was interrupted by his daughter.
” Is there something wrong Papa?”
“No beta, let’s go home your mom must be waiting for us”
As the conversation went ahead, my accusations was proven to be wrong
that there was a creep and was relieved. I felt a little happy that there were
other men who were trying to protect the girl from any kind of danger.
But what followed after was shocking.
The three men went to the other side of the road, didn’t talk to each other
and I just realized they had get up at the previous stops. I was numb on
seeing this.
Were the other three men creeps? Or they didn’t got up at their respective
stops just because they thought there was someone who could harm the girl.
Questions were aplenty on my mind. For a moment, we all were dangerous
to each other eyes and realized it’s difficult to find that one perpetrator who
wanders around with us in our daily life. We all are suspects to one another
and among this quiet chaos the real suspect fades silently killing their victims
while we guess the suspect like a game of Russian roulette.
“Why didn’t you pick up the call, I’ve sent you the pictures. Please check
which one of them suits you the most for the job”
“Okay, I’ll have a look to it.”
“Sure, but don’t forget to give my commission tomorrow after you receive
the money back.”
” Definitely, I won’t forget, now let me take a look at the pictures.”
The middle aged man who pulled the man’s collar received the call and went
to look at his chats. There he received a series of unclad pictures of women
where he promised to them that he would give them a job under the pretext
that they send their pictures to him.