The queen is in danger.

*****

The dream was playing like background music on a loop, endless and incessant. She could not work properly because of her mind being jammed with the events of last night.

She was not a fool as seen in movies who would mistake those ghosts for a dream. They were real. They had come. It wasn't a product of fascination.

"So the women killed are the five Vessels of Kalika. And I am the sixth one."

Which means, I am the next target.

Maya laughed at the kids who were bathing in a nearby pond, splashing water all around. A train of chicks followed the mother hen as she made her way from one side of the shore to another. The milkman on his cycle had started his second round of milk distribution.

It was all pre-planned. It was destiny's clockwork. She wasn't here in Devipuram without a reason, and after whatever happened last night, she had enough reason to believe that it was some paranormal entity which arranged the pieces of chess for the pawn to reach Devipuram.

"But the pawn, if reaches the last square of the foe, becomes the queen."

Her boss had called her in the morning to know about her progress. She asked for some more days. He chuckled, telling he knew she was enjoying her stay more than the real work, but he insisted she be quick. Maya, however much her boss wanted it, couldn't return home so soon.

"Will I be able to defeat Lucifer? Lucifer, too, is a Vessel of Kalika."

She stood near the lane that would have taken her towards the slums. No houses were erected near this lane. She could visit the slums, perhaps. Her journey with this mystery had, after all, begun from here.

****

Maya still remembered the way Lalita had allowed him to escape. What could be the reason behind that, she was still unsure of. It could be that the man had warned them all to protect him or be pushed into danger. Whatever it was, she didn't find the reason for this man to visit or help Sahiba.

Lalita opened the door a little late. Maya had expected to be shown out by some client whom she was serving, but Lalita was alone. Though, from the flickering, fleeting frown of her face, Maya caught on the impression that Lalita wasn't pleased to see her.

"Come in."

Maya wasn't interested in sitting. She was here to talk. "Why are you helping that man?"

Lalita gave a cryptic smile. "You are very nosy, I see."

"I am concerned."

Lalita pinched the bridge of her nose. "I am also worried for Sahiba. I am. At first I wasn't, I was seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses. But now..."

Maya kept her hand on Lalita's shoulder. "Now?"

"Now I am worried. Because I don't understand why and what's happening."

Maya felt it would be difficult to extract all of the information from Lalita and get a complete look of her thought process. She could, however, try to get a peek

"I understand that maybe you are bound to something or someone which doesn't allow you to confide in me. Maybe fear is holding you back. It's very natural, considering Devipuram isn't a safe place at all. But Lalita, at least share something."

"Rahul now regularly comes to give Sahiba letters."

Maya clenched her fists. "Did you try to get information from him?"

"I-I did," she confessed, turning red as a beetroot. "I made him drink to induce a state of semi-consciousness. He was, kind of, drunk. I asked him why he was delivering those letters and he told me. I was happy listening to his words and quite satisfied knowing that he couldn't have lied while being drunk. He was knocked out just after that."

"And that's why you helped that man escape the last day."

"Yes, but then doubts came to me. Rahul told me what his boss had shared, but was his boss saying the truth in the first place? He could have lied and that dumb Rahul would not be able to smell the fishy!"

Maya nodded. She gave a pensive smile. "Thank you for helping me out."

"Do-do you think she's in danger?"

"Sahiba? Oh yes, possibly."

Maya didn't linger in her company any longer. She had to go and meet Sahiba and see if she could get to know anything from the girl. The girl was helpless and innocent, forced into prostitution this young. But that was reality, however cringe-worthy and disrespectful.

Today, Lalita wasn't following her. She checked now and then to see if someone else was. Luckily, she was all alone.

And just like the last day, there was a man waiting outside Sahiba's door. No, he wasn't the same one from the last day, but Rahul.

He looked more puzzled than any other time. He had an envelope in his grip. He was trying to pull out the letter and... snatch! Maya took it before he had a glimpse of it. Rahul gave a yelp and fell down in the shock of the moment.

Maya quickly skimmed her eyes through the contents. It was a poem.

Women are queer creations of the lord

He made them akin to roses

With one touch they tickle your senses

And the next moment thorns make you bleed

The cruellest ones alive on earth.

"How dare you push me!"

Maya noticed that the ink in some places was smudged. She folded the letter. "You fell on your own. I just snatched the letter." She went and knocked on Sahiba's door.

Rahul whispered through gritted teeth, "What are you doing? Give back the letter!"

"I shall give it to her on my own. Don't worry, I promise to do the task."

Rahul started panicking. He was breathing heavily. "Boss will kill me if he knows you–"

He covered his mouth.

"Go tell your boss that you have delivered the letter. This will be a secret between us, I promise. No one will know that it was me who gave the letter. I give my word."

"You will be in trouble!"

Sahiba emerged from her house. Maya handed her the letter. Sahiba's gaze jumped between the two adults. Rahul, having the tiny assurance that the work was done, fled the scene.

"Well, I thought of reading that letter and getting to know something," Maya said. "I hope you don't mind." Sahiba heaved a sigh. Maya closed the door behind her. "So, how are the days going?"

"You are in search of the murderer, aren't you?"

It hit Maya like a charging bullet.

Maya stared at the girl, mouth agape. "What?"

"I don't like to beat around the bush. You are trying to find the murderer right?"

"Yes. Yes, yes."

Sahiba's eyes glinted. She kept the letter on the bed. "Two women. Two secrets. Infinite tangled lives."

Maya registered the words in her head. "Meaning?"

"Meaning, there are two women and they harbour two secrets. One is already known to you and did her revelation, and the other one... not so soon."

In that moment, Sahiba wasn't just a sixteen or seventeen year old girl to Maya. She was someone else, someone more. That bizarre smile on her face, the ease of her mellifluous tone, the wisdom of her eyes– all pointed towards something else, which Maya was unfortunately unaware of.

"What do you know, Sahiba?"

"That the second woman will reveal her truth on time. She will come to you. You must wait for her."

"Does she know who the killer is?"

Sahiba laughed heartily. It echoed in the room. Maya gulped. "My lips are sealed, Maya. I cannot tell you more than what fate can allow at present." She called her Maya, and not Maya di. It was ill-mannered but Maya couldn't question her. "Come meet me before the next new moon. Perhaps then I will be of more help. For now, goodbye."

"The letter?"

"Huh?"

"The letter. You know who's sending those to you."

"I do."

Maya waited with bated breath for Sahiba to elaborate, but the girl was stubborn. She opened the door and showed her the way out. A red-faced Maya hurried out of the house.

Sahiba...

Goosebumps dancing on her skin, Maya ran out of the slums. She had never thought that girl would become the next mystery.

For the first time she wanted to run away from Devipuram, leaving everything behind.