Kunal's POV
Yash slowly pushed himself up from the chair.
The metal legs scraped softly against the tiled floor, the sound cutting through the silence inside the investigation room. Everyone's attention shifted toward him instantly.
The boy looked nervous.
Not ordinary nervous.
The kind where your fingers stop cooperating with your own body.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket with slightly trembling hands and unlocked it after two failed attempts. Sweat and anxiety made his grip unstable despite the cold air-conditioning inside headquarters.
No one spoke.
The room stayed painfully quiet except for the distant buzzing of fluorescent lights above us.
Yash opened his gallery and began scrolling through pictures rapidly. Blurred selfies. Random screenshots. Party videos.
Then suddenly,
He stopped.
His expression changed.
"I... clicked this yesterday" he said quietly.
He turned the phone toward us.
The image was dark.
Rain blurred most of the frame, and the quality looked terrible, but one thing stood out immediately.
A hooded figure.
Standing beneath a lonely streetlight across the road.
Still.
Watching.
The black hoodie blended almost perfectly with the darkness around him, making him look less human and more like a shadow stitched into the night itself.
"What rubbish is this?" Vishal muttered with visible irritation. "You can't even see his face properly."
I didn't answer.
My eyes stayed fixed on the picture.
Studying it carefully.
Every corner.
Every detail.
Then I noticed something attached near the streetlight pole.
Small.
Black.
Almost hidden.
My eyes narrowed instantly.
"The streetlight has a camera."
The room went silent again.
Yash looked toward me quickly and nodded.
"Yeah... it works."
"What time did you click this?"
"Yesterday. Around eleven."
Eleven PM.
I immediately looked toward Tanish and Rhea.
"Get me the CCTV footage from that street. Now."
Both of them reacted instantly.
Their chairs slid backward loudly as they rushed out of the room without wasting another second.
The door shut behind them.
And silence returned.
Heavy silence.
The kind that slowly tightens around your throat.
I leaned back into my chair slowly, exhaling through my nose while my eyes moved across the room.
DIG sat near the far end of the table, his fingers pressed together beneath his chin. His expression looked unreadable, but I could tell he still wasn't fully convinced.
To him, this entire case probably sounded insane.
A serial killer leaving Reddit stories like movie scripts.
A hooded man stalking victims beneath streetlights.
And now some terrified drug addict showing blurry pictures from his gallery.
Understandable.
Even I would've laughed at this case two weeks ago.
Vishal sat beside Yash, rubbing his forehead slowly. His jaw looked tense.
Like he was thinking too hard.
Or hiding too much.
Shruti sat quietly on the other side of the room scrolling through Instagram on her phone, looking weirdly relaxed for someone sitting in the middle of a serial murder investigation.
Jenny, meanwhile, had completely taken over DIG's laptop.
The faint blue light from Reddit reflected across her face while her fingers moved rapidly over the keyboard. Focused. Sharp. Dangerous.
And then-
There was Naveen.
Sitting alone in the corner. Like thor from endgame.
Completely silent.
Completely still.
The pale white light above him made his face look drained of life itself. His skin looked unusually pale while his eyes remained frozen somewhere far away, staring at nothing.
Not even blinking properly.
Like his mind wasn't inside the room anymore.
I slowly slid my chair toward him.
"You alright?"
He looked at me after a delay.
"Hm."
Just a nod.
Nothing else.
I frowned slightly.
"You don't look fine."
"Yeah... I'm okay."
Lie.
A bad one.
His voice sounded hollow.
Like somebody had scooped everything out from inside him and left only the body behind.
I leaned back again, but my thoughts had already drifted elsewhere.
Toward Vishal.
Toward Goregaon.
Toward the things he never told me.
The memory replayed sharply inside my head.
After leaving Wish Society orphanage yesterday, I had sent Tanish away to collect paperwork.
And while he did that-
I went somewhere else alone.
Khanna House.
Vishal Veer Khanna's old home.
I still remembered the look on his mother's face when she opened the door.
Surprise first.
Then nervousness.
Then hesitation.
"He used to love a girl here" she had told me quietly. "When he was around fifteen."
I remembered the sadness in her eyes.
"But she betrayed him later. Married someone else."
Her voice had lowered after that.
"Vishal changed after it happened. Became distant. Angry. Then he left Goregaon completely."
At that moment, it sounded believable.
Now?
Not anymore.
Something about that story felt incomplete.
Like someone had carefully removed the worst part from it.
Was heartbreak really the reason he left?
Or was there something darker buried underneath?
I didn't know.
Yet.
"WHAT THE HELL!?"
Jenny's voice exploded through the room suddenly.
Every head snapped toward her instantly.
I got up from the chair and walked quickly toward the laptop.
"What happened?"
Jenny turned the screen toward me.
And the moment I read the text-
My stomach tightened.
A DM.
From Kishi Vaitarna.
> "Since you officers decided to steal my prey...
I only have one thing to say.
Catch me if you can.
Hah."
For one second-
Nobody moved.
Then DIG slammed his hand against the desk violently.
"DAMN IT!"
Yash flinched hard in his chair.
"He's mocking us now" Vishal muttered.
"No" I said quietly, staring at the screen. "He's playing with us."
Jenny's jaw tightened.
"He knows we're watching."
DIG looked furious now.
"Then stop watching and CATCH HIM!" he shouted.
The tension inside the room snapped tight instantly.
My mind started running rapidly.
Fast.
Connecting pieces.
And suddenly,
An idea formed.
Clean.
Risky.
Perfect.
"I have a plan."
Everyone looked toward me immediately.
"We keep Yash hidden under police protection" I explained slowly. "Nobody outside this room gets access to him."
Then I looked toward DIG.
"And we use him as bait."
"...him?"
"Tanish will pretend to be Yash" I said
"No."
"Yes."
"Absolutely not."
"He's the same age. Same build. Same height."
"We'll be watching him the whole time." I said
"That somehow makes it worse." DIG replied.
I didn't listen to DIG.
The operation was approved within minutes.
And twenty-one hours later,
NightSky Club.
8:00 PM.
The nightclub looked like hell wrapped in neon lights.
Bass thundered through the walls hard enough to shake my chest while red, blue, and violet lights flashed violently across hundreds of moving bodies. Smoke floated through the air beneath the chandeliers while the smell of alcohol, perfume, sweat, and cigarettes mixed into something suffocating.
Jenny and I entered first pretending to be a couple.
Behind us-
Vishal and Shruti entered separately.
A few minutes later, Naveen and Rhea walked in too.
Everyone armed.
Everyone disguised.
And somewhere inside this club-
A serial killer was expected to appear.
Tanish entered alone several minutes later.
Oversized hoodie.
Baggy clothes.
Chains.
Mask.
Even his hairstyle matched Yash perfectly now.
Honestly, it was creepy.
We handed him Yash's phone along with a tracker hidden inside his chain.
Every single one of us wore earpieces.
The hunt had officially begun.
Jenny moved naturally through the crowd first.
Too naturally.
She brushed past me before disappearing into the dance floor beneath flashing lights.
And for one dangerous second-
I forgot where I was.
Forgot the mission.
Forgot the killer.
Forgot everything.
I only saw her.
Dancing.
Laughing faintly beneath the neon lights exactly the same way she used to years ago.
And suddenly memories hit harder than bullets ever could.
I wanted to pull her closer.
Wanted to dance with her properly.
Wanted to kiss her.
Wanted to hold her again.
Pathetic.
I moved toward the bar instead.
"One red wine."
No whiskey tonight.
I needed my head clear.
I leaned against the counter, my eyes never leaving her.
Her red dress moved beautifully beneath the lights while her loose hair flowed around her shoulders every time she turned.
Then Vishal walked toward her.
My jaw tightened instantly.
He started dancing beside her.
Too close.
Jenny glanced toward me once.
Just once.
Like she wanted to see my reaction.
Then she continued dancing with him anyway.
Deliberately.
Her mission was successful.
Jealousy burned through my chest instantly.
Vishal's hand brushed against her waist.
That was enough.
I lost control.
I walked straight toward them, shoved Vishal aside, grabbed Jenny's hand and pulled her toward me instead.
The music exploded louder.
Naal Nachna by Afsana khan and Reble from dhurandhar.
The crowd screamed.
And we danced.
Not normally.
Violently.
Like two people fighting without words.
Her eyes locked onto mine while the neon lights flashed across her face. Anger. Tension. History. Everything burned between us at once.
Then suddenly-
Rhea's voice crackled through the earpiece.
"Ready your lungs and breathe, guys..."
A pause.
"Gonna light my cigarette now."
Code words.
Instantly reality crashed back.
We separated slightly but continued pretending to dance.
Then-
The hooded man entered.
Black hoodie.
Black mask.
Slow steps.
The atmosphere changed immediately.
Even from a distance something about him felt wrong.
Dangerous.
He walked calmly toward the bar and ordered something quietly.
But unlike before-
He never took a sip.
My eyes narrowed.
He noticed something.
Then slowly-
He turned toward the dance floor.
Toward Tanish.
And started walking.
Through the earpiece we could hear their conversation faintly.
"You're missing someone... aren't you?"
The hooded man pulled out his phone.
Showed Tanish something.
Tanish froze instantly.
Completely.
"What's on the screen?" I asked sharply.
His breathing became uneven inside the earpiece.
"It's... Yash..."
My heartbeat stopped.
"What?"
"He's tied up..." Tanish whispered shakily. "Ropes... guys..."
Impossible.
Yash was under protection.
Then suddenly-
The hooded man shoved Tanish backward violently and sprinted toward the exit.
"MOVE!" Vishal shouted before running after him.
Everyone exploded into motion instantly.
Rain slammed against us the moment we stepped outside the club.
The hooded figure disappeared between headlights and wet streets while Vishal chased after him through the storm.
I pulled out my gun.
Raised it carefully through the rain.
Aimed.
And fired.
The bullet tore through the darkness-
Straight into Vishal's leg.