“A heart wants to know what other hearts feel,

How similar or different it is from them.

It’s not jealousy but also not admiration,

No one knows from where it gets to stem.”

Nitin continues the storytelling.

Nitin decided to propose to Jyoti, but this “news” got leaked before he could make a move. Jyoti found out how he felt towards her, and ridiculed him in front of the class for that. Except teachers, almost the entire school found out that Nitin loved Jyoti. Nitin felt heartbroken since he didn’t expect to be humiliated for merely falling in love, that too innocently. Plus, going through Jyoti’s social media for the first time added more fuel to the fire. Her bio and posts left him enraged. He realized she was a toxic user who often hated on men in spite of having a boyfriend who was none other than her classmate. Realizing this, Nitin met her boyfriend Akash and asked him if he knew how toxic she was. Not having a presence on social media, Akash rebuffed him at first, but reading Jyoti’s posts, he was left shattered. He couldn’t believe it was the same girl he deeply loved. Nitin wished him luck for the future and left for home.

Few days after that, someone started cyberbullying him. Nitin didn’t know who it was. He started feeling a lot of stress and began going out more than usual. He was unable to sit in front of his computer or mobile screen with social media apps. Every time he opened an app, it would be filled with filthy comments and posts injurious to one’s mental health. Sometimes he would not use any apps and just try to watch a video or listen to a song instead, and would still being bombarded with stuff he wanted to avoid. He began wondering if his system had been hacked, and talks to an expert on this. He finds out his system is indeed hacked and someone who did this is now in full control unless Nitin is also controlling it. Nitin began wondering who it could be. Some rival? A troll? Who exactly? Nitin kept hiding from the toxicity of the social media, until a point where he decided he must not let the bully win. He continued spending time outside and with family, and it helped him deal with mental stress with ease.

When the bully showed up again, Nitin decided to not run away this time. He allowed the bully to speak or do anything, for it would ultimately have no effect on him. The bully started to get angrier than before and this could be seen in the replies. Nitin ridiculed the bully for being a “coward behind a screen” and threw in some profanity to hit the bully harder. The bully kept getting angrier and Nitin started feeling happy as if he was himself the bully now. The bully threatened to commit suicide if Nitin didn’t stop, but somehow the latter had no sympathy for the bully and said, “Do whatever you want, loser.” With this he stopped replying or commenting anything. When he looked at the clock after some 30 minutes, he realized there were no replies or comments from the bully and felt relieved. He ordered pizza as a sign of his victory and ate it all alone.

He went outside to meet up with his friends, only to learn of Jyoti’s death. Nitin was shocked, learning of this and seeing her parents crying. Hearing them say she was quite addicted to the computer screen and often laughed loudly for no reason, Nitin feared she might have been the bully. He rushed to his house, and started messaging the bully to respond in some way. He even apologized and asked the bully to say something. No response came even after several hours. Nitin concluded the bully was none other than Jyoti, and he had somehow contributed to her death. However, he calmed himself down, opened the chat and deleted everything; this also meant the parts where he was the one bullied: the only thing that could be used in defense in case a case got filed against him. In order to avoid suspicion, he continued stepping outside and socializing with people. Nothing in his behavior could be seen with suspicion, and he was now used to socializing. He became used to this practice and slowly Jyoti’s death faded away.

After that, he found another girl and in the present day, intends to propose to her. Listening to this story, Naresh lowers his head and starts to get enraged. Everyone is confused seeing him that way. Before Nitin could ask him anything, Naresh instantly stabs him with his sword and says, “This is for driving my only sister to suicide.” Everyone is shocked, including Nitin who tries to fight back, but all his blows are blocked by Naresh who pierces the sword deeper. Others try to intervene, but are successfully blocked by Naresh. Nitin, though stabbed, is unable to believe it. He asks Naresh if he is lying. Naresh tells him she was his only sister and he wanted revenge on the person responsible for her death. Nitin asks him if he knew it before the present confrontation, to which Naresh replies with a smile and a deeper piercing. He then violently pulls out the sword, leaving Nitin to collapse on the ground with a large splatter of blood. The other three and Naresh watch as Nitin dies slowly and uses gestures to call him closer and apologize, followed by his instant death. The remaining three are surprised once again as Naresh begins laughing.

He then proceeds to tell them he was obviously lying about the dead girl being his sister. This makes the three of them furious, and they start attacking him without wasting any time. Naresh smiles, and his confidence shows in his attacks. He blocks three swords with his own and kicks them while they are busy holding their swords. He chops off one’s leg, while another loses an arm. Naresh fails to touch the third one, whose story he promises to listen to at the end. After some more sword-fighting, Naresh and the three guards realize there is enough distance between them. Naresh promises not to attack while listening to their stories. The guards decline his request. Naresh pleads them to keep their word in honor of their two dead comrades. He repeats his promise to not attack during the storytelling and picks the third out of five, telling him to tell his love story, before pointing out Nitin’s story didn’t really have a lot of “love” involved. Before telling his love story, the third guard named Raghunath, tells Naresh he will get to see a deadly attack after his story ends. Naresh welcomes the idea with a smile and tells him to begin.

It begins raining more than before, and blood from the corpses continues flowing and mixing into the river, changing its color red for some time.

“A heart did something unexpected,

Something dark and brutal to be precise.

Something cruel, something violent,

Something for which words won’t suffice.”