Chapter 27: Imran
INSTEAD OF GETTING a move on, Asad insists that he needs to check out his camera, and so we find ourselves a secure spot right outside the auditorium.
"Is everything okay?" Zoya asks him.
"Seems to be," he says, going through all the controls. "I'm lucky."
"Lucky that we haven't bailed yet," Humaira adds. "While you're checking your camera, let's check out some footage. I want to see how I look in this pathetic lighting." She readjusts her headlight.
"Are you kidding?" I joke. "We're in the dark. You couldn't look better."
I even catch Ayaan smiling.
I thought I'd feel weird after telling everybody about my dad's lust for liquor—I don't even know why I did; it just sort of happened—but luckily everything seems pretty cool, especially since no one's treating me any differently. Not two minutes after I told them, Humaira pushed me out of the way—literally—so Asad could get a side angle shot of her applying a fresh coat of lip gloss.
So. Not. Hot.
"Check this out," Asad says. He scoots forward on the floor, giving in to Humaira's not-so-subtle request to view some footage. He sets the camera down in front of him but angled upward so we can see the screen.
We squat down to look. It's footage from the tunnel— the scene he shot with Humaira, Zoya, and Ayaan, while Tanveer and I were upstairs.
"What's with all the circle things?" Humaira asks, squinting hard to look.
There's a bunch of white globes floating midair, one strategically placed over Humaira's butt as she moves down the length of the tunnel.
"They're ghosts," Tanveer says. "I saw it on one of those ghost hunter shows. Digital equipment can pick up all sorts of stuff—stuff that isn't visible or audible to the human eye or ear. They call it white noise."
"Seriously?" I ask, noticing how the circles vary in size—much like hooters.
Tanveer leans forward to turn up the volume on the camera. "Just listen," she says.
We're forced to sit through an entire cheesy scene starring Asad and Zoya as the happy couple gazes longingly into each other's eyes, a candle positioned between them, and tons of asbestos hanging off the corroded tunnel walls behind them.
Now, if that doesn't spell romance I don't know what does.
"Horny little devils," I say, referring to the ghosts. There are a couple of white circles smack-dab over Zoya's chest.
Zoya folds her arms in response, noticing the globes as well.
"Do you hear that?" Tanveer asks.
"I hear Asad trying to hit on Zoya," I say, though still taking note of some of his one-liners.
"No," Tanveer squawks. "Under their voices. Do you hear that whistling sound?"
"I don't hear anything." Asad goes to turn the volume down, embarrassed by his game, but Tanveer intercepts him and turns the volume up full blast.
And that's when I hear something—a soft whistling sound, like running your finger over the rim of a glass.
"What the hell is that?" Asad asks.
When the scene ends, the whistling fades into a crackling sound, and you can hear Asad and the others freaking out in the tunnel—just after the door shuts and locks and they can't find their way out.
I lean in closer, feeling a prickling sensation at the back of my neck, noticing how the crackling almost sounds like a voice. But still, it's hard to tell. It's sort of like trying to watch the nudie channel when your folks don't splurge for cable, when all you can hear are a couple of faint ohhh's and ahhh's amid all that pain-in-the-butt static.
"Do you hear that?" Tanveer asks. "Someone's talking."
"If you seriously hear talking," Asad says, "then maybe you need to check yourself in."
"Listen!" she barks.
"I hear it," I say, to make her feel better.
"You do?" she perks.
I shake my head, since I honestly don't. I mean, aside from a couple of hisses and sputters, I can't make anything out. I lean forward, practically pressing my ear up against the speaker.
Finally I hear something more. It sounds like someone's whispering.
"I hear it too," I say.
"Can you tell what they're saying?" Tanveer asks.
I shake my head, straining harder to hear, but it's just static again, followed by more crackling.
"Try advancing it," Tanveer insists.
Asad does, then pushes PLAY, but it's just silent now.
"Try again," she says.
We spend the next fifteen minutes or so searching backward and forward through footage, listening for more white noise.
Until we find some.
There's a whispering sound in the scene where we first broke in. I close my eyes so I'm not distracted by the action and try my best to concentrate—to focus on the rhythm of the words.
"It's hard to tell," Tanveer says, "but it almost sounds like someone's angry. You can tell by the cut of the words."
"What words?" Asad asks. "You can't even tell what she's saying."
"But that's just it," Tanveer continues. "You can definitely tell it's a she."
I nod, noting that the whispering sound does have a high-pitched quality. "What if it's just radio frequency?"
"I think it's Nikhat," Tanveer says. "Do you hear that? She's singing to her doll." At that, Tanveer starts humming out the tune of Rock-a-bye Baby right along with the whispering—like some bizarro duet.
"No offense," Humaira says, "but there's a shock treatment table with your name all over it."
"Sounds kinda hot," I say. "Is there room for two? I'll even let you strap me in." I give Tanveer the sexy-eye, complete with raised eyebrows and pouted lips.
"Wait," Zoya says, before Tanveer can respond to my invitation.
"I hear it too."
"You hear singing?" I ask.
But Zoya doesn't answer and so I'm assuming Tanveer's imagination has gone a little overboard.
But still, there's something there. The whispering is almost clear—the words almost recognizable.
"I've been waiting for you!" Tanveer blurts. "Did you hear that? Just like the sign in the hydrotherapy room."
"It sounded more to me like 'Imran is a stud!'" I say.
Tanveer rolls her eyes, choosing to ignore me. "It's Nikhat," she insists. "I know it is. She's been waiting for me. She needs me to help her. And I'm not leaving here until I do."
Humaira links arms with Ayaan. "As if this evening couldn't get any more insane."
Still, it beats staying home and hanging out with a drunk, especially since Tanveer's here.
Kabhi Neem Neem Kabhi Shahad Shahad
Debate Mansion
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