The Haunted Hostel — #15
Principal was taken aback, “What the hell! You told me a totally different thing and now our Warden Mr. ALP is alive.”
Walking towards warden I said in a loud voice as the acoustics did their work. ‘Haaa! My dear mysterious man. THANK YOU!’
VP stomped the floor and clenched his fists in frustration. “What the hell is happening here? Answer me RIGHT….NOW”
Warden started to speak, “I still remember the Fresher’s day. That was the day when Principal asked me to pick up Sangeet sir from the railway staion. He seemed to be very mute but his questions about this case were very crucial. He was asking me a lot of questions though and I was obviously answering everything. But I never understood one thing until now,” and he looked at me.
“Sangeet sir. Since you know Nandhan sir already. Why didn’t you just tell yourself straight away and could have saved some time for yourself nah?”
I chuckled, ‘First of all, the writer had got that idea very late. And frankly speaking, the devil was in the underground. And I’m pretty sure, these guys did one hell of a job in that regard.’
Faiyaaz laughed, “I understood that. Ha! What a wordplay” and Molly held his hand to crush it.
Wilson replied — “I thought I was the first person to know about you Sangeet”
Me — ‘That’s exactly true. I expressed myself and meanwhile I deduced you. You see Jeff! There is one tiny detail you missed in this whole plan.’
VP — “I fucking planned everything. Because I am the king of this goddamn game.”
Me — ‘Well! You picked from a wrong deck. Warden mentioned on our way to hostel that Jeff takes care of the infrastructure and maintenance too. That covers electricity. I had a gap on who might be the executioner. The moment I met Wilson at the corridor that day, I had no suspicion. In fact, I was confused..Totally! But when I saw ALP at the end of the corridor hurriedly returning back when he saw Jeff with me was the time I cracked everything.’
Principal — “You never even spoke with us in detail since we mailed you only the case. And you cracked the case right when you came here?”
Wilson — “You are a fucking genius. But! Are you or VP gonna explain the fact that you knew each other already?”
VP — “This wanker? Absolutely..NO”
Me — ‘You know what I wonder about you Wilson? You always ask the right questions at right time. But not in prior. See! You gotta be a step ahead,’ and looked at VP.
VP — “What?”
Me — ‘Lies and Mistakes have been the source of everything in here. I was actually interviewing at your company for the role of Strategic Expert. And yeah, that’s when I was interviewed by Janavi. I never thought she’d take personal notes on things I said about me.’
Wilson — “But Sangeet, aren’t you a detective?”
Me — ‘I totally wanna say Yes to your question but I gotta do something to raise my living standards. And I was rejected like many other companies did to me for strange reasons. But something was way too off about the company. I had my sources explain to me that not only was it a multi-level business but the boss is involved in some dark human-enhancement and drug business.’
Wilson — “Wait! Wait! I’m not following this. And how did you end up here?”
Me — ‘One day when I was on the field regarding a case, I received a mail from Principal. Sounded very important, so I dropped that ball to play in THIS ground.’
Molly — “Mr. Sangeet. How do you know this is very important?”
Me — ‘The person whom I sent my resume was actually sitting in the CC of request mail. What else would interest you, my dear Molly?’
Wilson — “Okay! Tell me this. Even I don’t know how. But what about the pattern you and I discussed about? How’d you know?”
Me — ‘Because those were the students targeted as customers of his drug-ring and eventually bulls-eyed those that refused. But then when I came in, things went south. Vengeance became the main motive.’
VP — “Then why all the play?”
Me — ‘Your drug! That smoke bomb with the help of Jeff’s nanites. Those chemicals are pretty dangerous. But I wanted to know if that could kill a person. So, I risked myself to save Faiyaaz.’
Molly gasped and Faiyaaz had tears at the corner of his eyes awaiting to fall. Silence prevailed for the next minute.
Principal spoke with a little high audacity, “Mr. Nandhan! I would like you to discontinue from this institution by yourself. As Mr. Sangeet suggested, that would save your name from the issue and your name won’t be the product in the sewage. And that’s the most respect I can ever give to you, for all the disrespect you have caused. But once you step out, Judgement will know how to treat you. And Mr. Wilson,” and Jeff walked near him.
“You have the most important job of all. I’m removing you as staff of this institution.”
Jeff stumbled, “But that’s not an important job. Basically I won’t even have a job.”
I looked at him and smiled, ‘You do! You will be my right-man moving forward. I could use a man of your skills’ and he froze with zero emotions.
Next Day 8PM
Few students were standing outside my room after dinner as I was packing all my things. Jeff came inside and shut the door, “Sangeet! But do we have to leave? These people had a best buddy in you. And now that VP has gone today morning, why don’t you just stay back and be a good teacher? Maybe I can have a chance to prove myself that I can do 100% good to these people. They seem to forgive me, somehow.”
Closed my suitcase and opened the door to see everyone staring at me with blank faces.
‘Murali! How’s your practise coming up buddy?’
‘Vikky! Ma man. Work more on your rap skills man. But please write more. Same old love failure songs don’t work anymore.’
Molly walked near with tears in her eyes. ‘Molly! Please. I thought you were the strongest one. You are a neater version of me’ and she hugged me as everyone came near and group hugged me. Looked back to see Jeff smiling at me and he shook his head.
‘Guys! I am just going for an important solve that I shelved. After that, I’m coming here to serve my time as uh….your teacher. Now, don’t make me experience this strange phenomenon called Emotional outbreak.’
I was walking along with Jeff in the corridor and with such short time, this hostel has become a part of me. I turned back to see and few students were walking slowly behind us but with us.
‘Jeff…! Will you miss this place?’
“I might! But let’s see how this goes.”
We were nearing the flag-post where our cab was waiting.
“Sangeet, wait!”
‘What? Wanna have a good look at the hostel again?’ and we both looked at the building. Took a deep breath and smiled. Waved my hand to a group of people.
Wilson gave a exasperated expression and as we were about to turn towards the cab, all the entrance bulbs burst in all floors.
Jeff and I in unison — WHAT THE F…
~Sangeet Hassan will see you soon~
