Thank you for all the nice comments!!!! Means a lot to me!!!! Here is the next chapter... Sorry if it is too short... 😊
Chapter 16: Asad
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Tanveer shouts. Her voice is coming from the D wing.
I tell Ayaan to stay with Humaira and Zoya and then I hurry down the hallway and around the corner—until I find Imran and Tanveer.
They're standing in one of the rooms, facing one another. Nobody appears to be hurt, but Tanveer looks pissed. "Get away from me!" she repeats, taking a step back from him.
"I'm sorry, okay?" Imran says. "It was stupid."
"What the hell happened here?" I ask.
But neither of them answers me.
"Hello?" I shout even louder. "What happened?"
"Imran's an a**hole, that's what happened," Tanveer says, finally looking up at me.
"What did you do?" I take a step toward him.
Imran turns to me. "It was just a joke. No big deal."
"What was a joke?"
"I was just taking a leak down here," he explains, gesturing to the tub. "I heard Tanveer heading this way, so I hid behind the door and jumped out at her when she came in. No big deal."
"For your information," Tanveer cuts in, "this is not a bathroom. They used it for hydrotherapy."
"Hydro-what-apy?" Imran asks.
"They made patients sit in the tub water for hours," she explains. "A canvas strapped over them so they couldn't get out. It was some warped idea of therapy."
"So what does that have to do with me?" Imran asks.
"Why don't you have a little respect?" Tanveer says.
"I'm sorry, okay? I had to go, and the tub worked just fine—drain and all."
But Tanveer is still flipping out, accusing him of trying to scare her way before she even headed down here. "I could hear you whispering my name," she says.
"What are you talking about? I didn't whisper anything."
"Don't play dumb," she snaps. "You were whispering my name. And I could hear the sound of water running."
"Maybe what you heard was the sound of me taking a leak."
"What's going on?" Humaira asks, inserting herself into the action. She practically elbows her way past me so she can stand dead center, taking full advantage of the camera.
Zoya and Ayaan are here, too—Zoya practically glued to my side. Not that I mind.
"I'm not making this up," Tanveer continues, rubbing her temples. "Someone was calling my name; someone even answered me. I said 'This isn't funny!' and someone answered, 'I'm not laughing.' It came through the walkie-talkie."
"Well, maybe that was one of us," I offer. "We could hear someone's voice coming through the speaker. Maybe you could hear us as well."
"Did one of you say that?" Tanveer asks.
We all look at one another, but nobody seems to remember. I move even closer to Zoya, sensing how freaked out she is. Her leg trembles against mine.
"I can't even remember what I said two seconds ago, never mind ten minutes," I say.
"Seriously," Imran says, turning to Tanveer. "All joking aside; it wasn't me. I mean, aside from jumping out at you."
"Then who was it?" she asks.
"There's got to be some explanation," I say, giving Zoya a reassuring squeeze, my arm wrapped around her shoulder. "It was probably just the talkie. You were probably either picking up on us, or maybe someone in the area. Those things probably have a killer radar."
"When they're actually working," Ayaan adds.
"Well, what about what happened to us?" Humaira says, staring into the camera. "We were downstairs in the tunnel and the door closed and locked on us. We almost couldn't get back up here."
"This place is more than a hundred years old," I say. "What do you expect with heavy doors and rusted hinges?"
Imran goes to say something but then sees the writing above the tub. Someone's painted the words "I've been waiting for you" in bright red letters, making him pause. "This place is wacko."
"Exactly," Zoya says. "Which is why we shouldn't be here."
Debate Mansion
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