N: What is her condition? 

D: She’s barely alive.

N: Can she talk?

D: That’s the problem, she can’t” 

N: Why not?

D: The killer stabbed her in her larynx. It affected her voice box and her breathing. She hasn’t been dead even for an hour. So, we tried to restart her heart. And she was unresponsive for a while. When we noticed the damage in her larynx and started giving her oxygen directly through her neck and then tried to restart her heart. It worked.

N: So, she’s alive?

D: Yes, she’s alive. But in the condition she is in, I wouldn’t recommend an investigation of any kind. Her heart is weak, she might not be able to live through all that trauma again.

Anita’s father interjected this conversation, “What has the police department been doing? Every time news comes up about this killer, you people tell the world that you’re closer to catching him. It’s been years. Not even an imaginary sketch of the killer.” “Sir, your daughter is the first person to be found alive in such a scenario. And we caught her killer, it’s her boyfriend Abhi. He’ll be brought to justice. Once your daughter wakes up and confirms it, he’ll be presented in court.” a nurse comes to the doctor, “Sir, she is awake.”

The doctor examines her for a while and then comes out to talk to Nishant and Anita’s father, “She cannot talk. But for your investigation purpose, she can listen and gesture her responses as yes or no with her thumbs.” Nishant took Anita’s father’s permission for the investigation and started asking her questions in the presence of a doctor. “Anita, can you hear me?” she replies with a weak thumbs-up gesture. “Good, do you remember what happened at your house?” another thumbs up; “So, do you remember who the killer is?” Her heart rate rose on the monitor and the doctor told Nishant to postpone the investigation for some time. “Maybe this isn’t a good time. I’ll give you a call once she’s stable.”

Sarah who was waiting outside the door peeked into the room when Nishant came out of the room. She saw a little of Anita’s face with her eyes covered with gauze and a pipe into her neck. She felt a little tingling inside her head and fell onto the floor hitting a chair and losing consciousness.

She woke up finding herself in another room in the hospital, a drip attached to her hand. After a minute, a doctor came into the room with some reports and saw her awake, 

D: Oh you are awake. How are you feeling?

S: I am okay I guess. Why did you attach a drip to me?

D: You are highly dehydrated. We consulted your doctor too and he told us about your sleepwalking situation. Would you be comfortable with us getting you a brain scan?

S: No! Why do I need a brain scan? I am fine. It’s just a little sleepwalking.

D: And partial blindness.

S: Only a little. 

D: We think this is triggering something else inside your mind. That is why we highly recommend you get a brain scan.

S: No. Maybe after this case is solved but not now. I don’t want anything interfering with my involvement in this case.

D: Not even your own life?
S: No….!

D: We need your signature on this consent form to get your brain scanned. Sign in and let us know if you change your mind.

He left the form on the table beside her bed and left the room. She thought for a minute and signed that form. 

While getting her brain scanned, she felt a little disturbance inside her head. The pain inside her head was growing. She started shouting loudly and passed out.

When she woke up, she found herself tied up to a bed in the hospital. A constable and a doctor came into the room. She called out to them, “Why did you tie me up?” “You got violent in the middle of the scan. You assaulted 3 doctors and almost….” The doctor stopped the constable from speaking anymore. “Something in your brain doesn’t look good. It looks like your prefrontal cortex got smaller and we can detect a loss of grey matter inside.”. Sarah panicked, she wasn’t able to breathe, and her body felt warm and sweaty. She fell on the bed and started hyperventilating. The doctor tried to calm her down and also injected some anxiolytics and mild sedatives into her drip. 

When she woke up again, her personal doctor was sitting right beside her. She tried to sit up to greet him, but he gestured for her to stay in bed and lay down;

D: I heard what happened. Your parents are worried sick about you. I told you to take some rest. Your anxiety and overworking of your body might just kill you one day. 

S: I am sorry, you know how important this case is to me.

D: Not more than your dear life I imagine?

S: Yeah, yeah. So, when can I get back to my job?

D: Actually you can’t. At least not for now. Your brain isn’t looking good. It is showing signs of….

S: Alziemers, schizophrenia I know. 

D: Let me tell you what you don’t know. Borderline Personality Disorder, Dissociative Identity Disorder, and a lot more.

S: Common, it's not like I am……

D: You are what?

S: Nothing. When will I be discharged?

After 3 days in the hospital, Sarah was diagnosed as stable and was sent back to her home on medical leave. She had set up a few cameras in her room and connected the feed to her laptop. Now, she went back to sleep. Nothing happened for the first 2 weeks. Everything was normal and she was sleeping fine. Her tiredness in the morning started to wear off and she started to think that her overwork was the real problem and decided to take another week off before going back to work. 

Three days later, she heard a noise coming from outside. When she went to have a peek, she saw her mom and dad arguing in their backyard. Her mom ran into the house with tear-filled eyes. Sarah saw that and ran downstairs to console her. “I can’t believe Abhijit did this to me. After being faithful for almost 25 years, this is the reward I got for being a good wife.” she kept crying. After consoling her mom she went to her dad;

S: Dad, what happened? What have you done?

D: I am sorry Sarah. I was in a bad place and your mother was busy with you.

S:      (Seriously)      Dad, what have you done?

D: It was just that your mother was so caught with you being in a coma that she didn’t even come out of the room for weeks. I do understand her pain as a mother, but what about me? 

S: Dad! Tell me! What have you done?

D: There was this girl. 

S: Wow, you cheated on Mom while she was busy taking care of me on my deathbed?

D: No, no. It’s not like that. It was a one-time thing. Your mom and everyone talked about how they felt about me. But, who am I supposed to talk to? What about me?

S: You can talk to a fucking therapist. This ain’t no fucking reason to cheat on her?

D: Sarah! Remember, I am your father! Mind your language while speaking to me. And I told you. It’s not cheating. It was just a one-time thing. She and I were just working late and we started talking and one thing led to another and…..

S: Dad, maybe leave the house tonight. Go sleep somewhere else. Maybe a hotel, a friend’s place, your slut’s place whatever. Just leave tonight.

D: Sarah, please listen to me.

S: Dad! Leave!

He passed through the living room and when he saw Anjana (Sarah’s mom) sitting on the couch crying, he went to her. He stood behind her and slowly said, “I am sorry. I hope you’ll forgive me.” “I never wanna see you again. Don’t show me your stupid lying cheating face ever again. Go away from here.” He left the place looking back at his family one last time before leaving.

The next morning, a relative aunty woke Sarah up. “Aunty, why are you here? What happened?” “Get dressed decently and come downstairs as soon as possible.” When she came down, she saw her mother sitting on the floor with no emotions on her face sitting there quietly staring at a box. When she went closer to the box, tears started rolling down her cheeks. Sarah covered her face and started moving away from the box. She suddenly looked at her mother and ran to her. “Mom, tell me this isn’t real. Tell me please.” Her mom didn’t respond. Her body fell down in the same way she was sitting on the floor, unresponsive and with no signs of life. She just whispered, “Things just got MORE PERSONAL!”