Drip! Drip! Drip!
"Damn it, whose tap is running?" thought Riva, who was lying in a dilapidated house with the constant howling of dogs coming from outside.
She took a deep breath and smelled the putrid, damp odour that can only be found in places which remain untouched for quite some time.
"But what happened? How come I am here? If my memory serves me right, I was on my way back home after my work when—but what? Why can't I remember anything after that?" she thought.
She groaned as she tried to move. It felt like she had been run over by a truck. Her eyelids felt heavy, her breath came ragged, and a deep, bone-chilling pain shot through her abdomen, soaking her pristine white shirt red.
She took another deep breath as she tried to make out her surroundings and current situation. She forced her eyes open, which were glued shut, as she tried to take in her surroundings while her blurry vision cleared.
Upon seeing the dilapidated mud-brick house with a leaking roof, her dull mind became more active. Her situation was perilous. If she did not find a way out, she might just die here without anyone coming to collect her body. She started rummaging through her pockets and surroundings until she found her scarf lying on the floor. She immediately took it and bandaged the leaking wound to stop the bleeding from her abdomen.
Another wave of pain shot through her, but she knew she had to find a way to survive.
"How is she now? It will be better if she dies. How many times have I told you to stop hanging with those people? But you never listen to me. Now see—they left you in this situation and ran off themselves," a female voice came from outside the half-lidded door.
Upon hearing this, Riva panicked completely. Now she remembered: on her way home, some people stopped her and tried to rob her. When she resisted and tried to call the police, a delinquent punk stabbed her with a knife.
It seems they are coming back. What should I do? I can't even move. Is this how I will die? she thought. I have just graduated. There are things I want to achieve. There are dreams I haven't fulfilled. I have to take care of my mother, who single-handedly raised me after my father died in an accident. I worked so hard, and when finally the time came to get rewarded, why did God snatch the happiness from me?
Hot tears blurred her eyes and dropped silently. She closed her eyes in resignation.
Then the gate creaked open. Three people entered. Among them was an older man who came forward to check her pulse.
After checking, he whispered to the middle-aged woman, "She's still alive. Should we take her to the hospital?"
"Hospital? What hospital? Do you even hear what you're saying? If she survives, then our son will have to go to jail. No, no... we can't take her to the hospital," the woman said, panicking. She crouched down to check Riva's condition and found that her abdomen was bleeding profusely.
"The wound is deep. Even if we take her to the hospital, she will die. No, we can't do this. It's all this brat's mistake." She turned towards the boy, her eyes red with anger.
"Mom, I am sorry. I didn't mean to. I just wanted to rob some money out of her. Who knew she would resist so fiercely and try to call the police? That's why I panicked and stabbed her."
The man standing beside him snapped upon hearing this. He picked up a stick from the floor to hit his son.
The woman, seeing the situation getting out of hand, quickly stood up to shield her son. "Please don't beat him, or he might die. Now we can do nothing but bury her. Can you bear to see your only son go to jail?" she asked.
The angered man dropped the stick as he saw the woman shielding the boy, who was crying and begging with snot running down his nose.
"Now you know how to protect him? Don't you know that girl was also someone's daughter, whom your son killed? I warned you to stop him from hanging out with those punks, but you stopped me, saying you would talk to him. So tell me, what do we do now?" the man said, still angry.
The woman and the boy cried and wailed.
Riva listened to all of this, thinking, What's the meaning of this? Can't they take all this outside? Can't they let me die peacefully? She thought this before she lost consciousness.
The woman, after sending her son out, inched towards Riva to check her pulse again. After checking, she quickly pulled her hand away—the pulse had stopped.
"She's dead," the woman told her husband, who was smoking by the window, looking outside at the heavy downpour.
The man threw the cigarette and crushed it under his foot.
He checked her pulse again, and after confirming, they decided to bury her there to erase all evidence. He knew he was doing wrong, but he couldn't just let his only son go to jail.
After burying her, he took a deep breath, bowed in front of the grave, and kowtowed three times before leaving with his wife and son. "Please forgive us. We know we are wrong, but as parents, we can't let our son go to jail."