Adventures of The Ten - The Dead

It was an endeavour destined to end in failure, Shirsho decided, as the ball fell inches away from its target. Judiciously ignoring the snickers of his friends, he jogged towards the ball which was bouncing away. He would have reached it too, had Varun not decided to give an ear-piercing shriek. As it was, Varun did decide to scream, resulting in Shirsho falling facedown, and the ball rolling away.

“What was that for?” he asked angrily, getting up and rubbing his sore nose. His eyes met Varun’s which were brimming with fear.

Everything had gone horribly wrong even before it started. It was supposed to be a simple basketball match, not a matter of life-or-death, though Abhinav, Shirsho, Gourav and Harshit would disagree. All the same, no one was supposed to die, for heaven’s sake!

The ten boys gathered around the fallen body. Varun and Aditya looked scared and upset respectively. Tarun and Aarush looked like they were trying very hard to keep the contents of their stomach within. This was especially true for Aarush who had no desire to re-taste the terrible lunch he had been forced to endure. Abhinav and Gourav looked an interesting mixture between annoyed and bored. Shirsho was still massaging his nose, completely unaware of his skinned knee which was resulting in his left leg being painted with blood. Harshit, Sahil and Dhruv – though they would adamantly deny it – were looking forward to the inevitable drama.

“We told him not to hang from the board,” Varun muttered.

“Her,” Aditya corrected, getting up from where he was kneeling beside the fallen body. Most of the boys rolled their eyes, but a few looked mildly interested.

“How do you kn-” Harshit started, but was rudely interrupted by Abhinav.

“Anyways,” he said loudly, “what do we do with the body?”

“Can we just play somewhere else?” Aarush whined. Abhinav shot him a warning look.

In Abhinav’s defence, the match was long due. His team had been horrifyingly beat by Shirsho’s seven days previously. The score, which still haunted him, was 14-8. At the end of that match, he had promised Shirsho he’d beat him by a larger margin. Shirsho had merely raised his eyes and laughed at his declaration before adding, “Sure, maybe in another life where you can actually play.” Abhinav had decided at that moment he would taste sweet victory within a week.

“And deny Abhi a chance to keep his promise? Nah, don’t think he’ll like that,” Shirsho said, shooting a cheeky grin at his friend. Abhinav rolled his eyes. He opened his mouth to come back with a witty retort, but the words which ended up tumbling from his mouth were: Sheersh, your knee! The last word was a horrified gasp.

As one, nine heads turned towards Shirsho’s left knee, or what remained of it.

“Oh. My. God,” Harshit whispered in a mangled voice.

“I second the reaction,” Shirsho added amicably.

The skin of his left knee had been skinned completely. It resembled the mouth of a fountain, a fountain from which red liquid was spurting. His sock had been completely soiled, a fact Shirsho would later mourn as it was a very rare occurrence that he wore a new pair. He had changed his socks that very day.

The rest of his left leg was littered with old scars that had recently opened. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

“I am so winning this!” Abhinav shouted gleefully, receiving a reproachful glare from Harshit and Varun.

“In your dreams, Shorty,” Shirsho said, experimentally bending his knee.

“Sheersh? You should get that cleaned,”

“You kidding, Varun? I’m not going anywhere close to those burning monstrosities!” Shirsho exclaimed indignantly, “But more importantly, what do we do with the body?”

There were quite a few incredulous looks. The dead couldn’t be helped, but the ones in pain could. If only they would allow it.

“Why not dump it in the bin?” Gaurav inquired, nodding to where two large bins were standing.

“Gauri!” Dhruv started, in mock indignation, “A girl has been killed.” He paused to glance at Varun who was squirming guiltily, “We owe her a proper burial.”

“I owe Sheersh a proper defeat,” Abhinav muttered angrily, no more trace of boredom on his features.

“All agree we should bury her?” Aditya asked.

“What if her family rather she was burnt?” Sahil asked. Aditya shot him an unimpressed look.

“Burning’s a good idea,” Dhruv said, catching onto Sahil’s plan. Being classmates and block-mates for most of their lives had given them a telepathic understanding of each other. “We can also remove the evidence.” He shot Varun another look. Varun looked like he’d rather be shot by an actual gun. Shirsho rolled his eyes.

“Right. Because no one will notice a fire,” he said sarcastically, high-fiving a sniggering Abhinav.

“Guys, can we please just do something?” Aarush begged. He was turning green in the face. Anyone who had been with Aarush in the same vehicle knew it was a bad sign.

Harshit had been enjoying the entire spectacle, perhaps more than was healthy. However, he had to admit that vomit spewed over the court would help no one.

“C’mon, bro,” he said, turning towards Aarush who was swaying, “let’s get you out of here.” With the help of Tarun, he lead Aarush to the edge of the court, where he promptly started dousing his face with water.

“Okay, where were we?” Sahil asked, when suddenly the dead body gave an unexpected wriggle. From a distance, Aarush heard a few screams, and saw the boys jump back.

Shirsho found himself falling down for the second time that day as Sahil bumped into him in his haste to get away from the dead body, which apparently, was no longer dead.

“Could you just stop it!” he shouted angrily.

He got up, nursing a bruised back in addition to a bruised knee and nose. Glaring at Aditya, he asked angrily, “You could tell the damn sex of the lizard but not if it was friggin’ alive?”

Abhinav was on his knees, howling with laughter. Aditya at least had the decency to look apologetic.