“Hey rat! Come out. Your masters have come.” One of the gang members yelled, as they entered a huge hall in the abandoned chemical plant. The others chuckled.

“Hey ratty, ratty, ratty…” One girl who laughed like a hyena called out. Again they all laughed.

There were five members in that gang, known as the ‘Fiendish Five’. All were 12th grade students; three boys, two girls. They were students in the prestigious high school of that town. The leader of the group was Aditya, the son of the powerful MLA of that constituency. He was handsome but arrogant, and sadistic by nature. Second-in-command was Mamata, the daughter of a famous lawyer. She was very beautiful, ruthless and manipulative. The third one was Akhilesh, the son of a renowned journalist. He looked like a wrestler, but had an empty skull. Fourth one was Vijayan, the son of a famous movie director. He was average looking but very cunning. The last one was Kavitha, the daughter of a notorious don. She was nicknamed ‘Hyena’ because of her laugh. She was Aditya’s right hand, and did most of the dirty work for the gang.

This abandoned place was their secret hideout. They would drink, do drugs, and spend nights together. The hall was well-decorated with a billiards table, a huge sofa set, a king-size bed, a large screen HD LED TV, and a huge refrigerator filled with drinks. There, they would pick their target to rag, and devise plans to make their clueless preys’ life miserable. No one would even dare think about going against them because of their family backgrounds.

They would choose a classmate, or a student who was meek and dumb, and had a poor family background. They would rag, torture, and toy with that unfortunate fellow till they were tired of. Then they would move on to the next prey. Few victims transferred to another high school. Few even left the town. Those who couldn’t do either, suffered. Few of them had committed suicides too. However, the gang’s ecosystem took care of these issues very well.

At present, Swamy was their prey. He was skinny, average looking, and meek by nature. For the last three months they had been ragging, and torturing him. They had given him a name - ratty. He was the son of a bank employee, who was transferred to this town five months ago. Many times, he tried bringing this to the attention of the classroom teacher and the principal, who completely ignored him. Being timid, he didn’t have the courage to tell his parents. Since the last month, he had been thinking to commit suicide but didn’t have the courage. Tonight, as usual, he had to come there to serve the gang.

“Where the hell is he? He didn’t kill himself, right? Where will we get a slave like him?” Kavitha laughed.

“Hey ratty, where are you? You skinny shit! Come now, if you don’t want to see your masters angry.” Angry Mamata shouted.

“C’mon Jaanu, don’t ruin your mood. He must be here somewhere, hiding like a rat.” Aditya laughed while grabbing her waist.

The lights flickered for a few moments. They looked around in confusion. Then a figure came out of the shadows at the end of the hall. It was their slave, Swamy. The lights again flickered but this time, it continued. They couldn’t see him properly since he was standing far away. Frustrated Mamata was about to yell at him, when someone pushed the door, and entered the hall. It was the principal of their high school - Father Sebastian. They were shocked to see each other there.

“Why are you guys here at this time, at this place?” Father Sebastian questioned them, recovering from the shock.

“Well… that… but why are you here, Father?” Aditya asked him with a puzzled look.

“I called him.” A croaked voice replied. Everyone turned towards the direction of the voice. It was Swamy. He moved towards them. When he was a few steps away, they noticed that he was bleeding from the sides of his head. They all were scared for a moment.

“What happened, ratty? Beaten by someone? Don’t you know that only we have the authority to beat you?” Aditya mocked Swamy. Others laughed. Father Sebastian realized something was off.

“Oh, this? I shot myself.” Swamy brought his right index finger pointing to the right side of his head, and inserted his finger. It went completely inside his skull. They jumped back in fear.