Chapter 20: The Mutton Biryani and the Beast

The 3rd Floor Corridor

Katthi led Malini up the stairs, his heavy boots thudding like a funeral drum. Malini clutched the steel lunch box to her chest as if it were a shield. She had seen the teacher’s body. She had seen the blood. But her mind, the mind of a child, refused to accept the truth.

"My sister is in there," Malini said, her voice small but firm. "I have the food Mom made. Mutton biryani. Her favorite. When she sees this, she’ll be okay. She’ll come back."

Katthi looked down at her. For a second, a flicker of something like pity crossed his scarred face, but it was quickly replaced by a dark, mocking amusement. "You have your mother's heart, little girl. Too bad it's about to be broken."

The Final Reveal

Shhhkrrrr.... Shhhkrrrr....

A metallic scraping sound echoed from the end of the dark corridor. Malini turned.

Out of the shadows emerged a figure that looked like a demon birthed from a nightmare. It was Priya. She was dragging something behind her—two things.

As she stepped into a pool of sunlight from the window, Malini’s heart stopped. Priya was holding the hair of two corpses, dragging them along the floor like bags of trash.

They were Rekha and Swathi.

The "Brave Girl" who had tried to save the others was now just another trophy.

"Akka?" Malini’s voice was a broken whimper.

Priya dropped the bodies. She leaned down, her face inches from Malini’s. The smell of copper and rot was overwhelming.

"You're late with my lunch, bhangaram," Priya hissed. Her smile was too wide, her teeth stained pink. "I was getting so... hungry."

The steel lunch box slipped from Malini’s trembling fingers. Thud. It hit the floor, the lid popping open to reveal the fragrant mutton biryani their mother had cooked with so much love.

The steam from the food rose up, mingling with the cold stench of the dead. A drop of blood from Priya’s nose fell squarely into the center of the rice.

Malini looked at the rice, then at the bodies of her friends, then into the empty, black pits of her sister's eyes.

"You're not my sister," Malini whispered, the realization finally shattering her.

Priya’s laughter filled the hallway—a sharp, jagged sound that signaled the end of everything.

"The hunt is over," the Killer whispered through Priya’s lips. "Now... the feast begins."

The rampage had reached its zenith. The college was no longer a place of learning; it was a tomb. And the last thing Malini saw before the darkness took her was her sister's face, twisted into a mask of pure, ecstatic evil.