A FARMER riding his bicycle alongside the road was in imminent danger as the car took the turn too close, hitting him, his hapless body flung a far way. Preity couldn’t stop screaming and worse yet, when Brian drove away, leaving the lifeless man lying on the roadway.
“You can’t do that!” she screamed.

Dravid grabbed him around the neck and shouted, “Stop this car, now!”
Brian stopped the car abruptly and turned around, punching Dravid in the face.
“Shut up! Both of you!” he said angrily, “I need to think.”
He drove to a desolate place off the highway and exited the car, a wild look in his eyes.
“That was an unfortunate accident that we can’t do anything about. This…” he stressed, “No one will talk about.”
“What do you mean?” Preity asked tearfully, still in shock, “You just killed someone!”

“That is wrong,” Dravid said vehemently, “You can’t do that.”
“Yes, I can,” Brian said, “And I want your solemn promises here, now.”
Preity shook her head, “I won’t do it. It’s murder. Just the way a drunk driver killed my father.”

Brian looked at her, a dangerous glint in his eyes, “Lies can leave, but the truth dies here.”
Dravid stood up to his brother, “Are you out of your mind?! You can’t harm us!”
“Yeah? You want to push me?” Brian threatened, “I’m apparently the bad one and you’re the good one who gets everything.”
Dravid inhaled deeply to keep a calm composure and not be tempted into an argument. He took Preity’s hand and said, “I need us to leave here now.”

“And do what? Go to the police?”
“Yes, it’s the right thing to do.”
At that moment, Dravid’s phone rang. It was his father.
He answered quickly and shouted, “Dad, dad, I need your help! —”

Brian knocked the phone off of his hand and as Dravid tried to retrieve it, the two brothers came to blows.
In a desperate attempt, Preity tried to get the phone but Brian’s phone knocked it out of her hand and grabbed her around the neck.
Dravid fought valiantly but lost against his older, stronger brother and fell, hitting his head on a rock.

“Dravid!” Preity screamed, breaking free from Brian’s friend’s hold, and tried to pick him up, but he had lost consciousness.
“Please,” she cried, “He’s your brother. How can you do this?”
“I never really liked him,” Brian stated with no remorse, “And now, I have to deal with you.”
“No, please!” she got up to run but too late.

He grabbed her around the neck, trying to suffocate her. She fought back hard, hitting him in his face, but that enraged him and he hit her repeatedly until she blacked out.
Preity opened her eyes, slowly gasping for breath.
It was dark, she could see nothing and she tried to move, crying out in pain, but she couldn’t move to either side.
“Oh God, where am I?” she cried silently.

She tried to scream but there was not enough air in her lungs.
“Oh, dear Ma,” she prayed, “Please don’t let me die here. I have to go home, my mom is waiting for me.”
Tears wet her cheeks and almost as an answer to her prayers, she felt a vibration in her pocket.

“My phone,” she gasped, “Thank God they didn’t take it.”
But her arms could not move freely to get the phone. She knew it was her mom calling and she struggled to move, her arm scraping against something rough, tearing her skin until her fingers grabbed the phone.

“Mom!” she cried, gasping for breath.
“Preity, where are you?” her mother asked, desperation in her voice, “It’s late. I’ve been calling so long.”
“Mom,” Preity said, breathing in deeply, the little air she was getting, “I think I’m buried alive.”

The mother was stunned, so shocked that she was unable to speak for a heart-stopping moment.
“What are you saying, Preity?” she cried, “Oh please, dear God, tell me I didn’t hear right.”
She started to cry and Preity swallowed hard not to break down, not to let the icy fingers of fear overcome her.
“Mom,” she called, “Mom, please, you can’t break down. You have to stay strong to find me.”

“How did this happen, my child? Oh, God —”
“Mom, listen to me carefully,” Preity said between gasps of breath, “I’m not getting much air and I can barely move, every second is precious. I want you to record everything I say and take it to the police.”

She related everything from the moment she got in the car with Dravid to when Brian beat her into unconsciousness.
“I don’t know what happened to Dravid, mom. Talk to the police to find him too. Please hurry, I can’t die here, I can’t die.” She said, her voice fading away.
At the station, detectives were called in to listen to the phone recording as the tearful mother battled to stay calm.

“A report of this accident on the highway was sent to us a short while ago,” one of the detectives said, “We have to talk with your daughter now.”
Preity’s mother dialled her phone and she answered immediately, “Mom.”
“The detective wants to talk to you, baby.”

“How are you doing, miss?” the detective asked her.
“Not good, sir,” she answered tearfully.
“Try to stay calm. We need you to help us find you,” he said, an urgency in his voice.
“Now, tell us when he drove away after hitting the man, did he turn right or left?”

She thought for a moment, then answered, “He turned left.”
“Can you remember anything else?”
“No,” she said, a little sob escaping her lips.
“That’s okay, Miss, we’ll work with what you have given us. Now describe what is around you.”
She paused a little as she gasped for air. “I feel rocks around and about me in a small space.”

“Then you must be confined in a small cave. A team from the location you’ve described will be now dispatched to start searching the area whilst we pick up the boys for questioning.”
Detectives picked up Brian and his friend in no time at a bar, investigations revealing they were with the girl and speeding up the highway. What was shocking was that they had dumped Dravid’s body on the roadway, where he could be found and he was now lying in the ICU at the hospital, suffering from a concussion to his head.

Two young men’s confessions could have shifted the balance for Preity to be found faster but Brian and his friend maintained their innocence of any wrongdoing, even after intense questioning but the police had enough to detain them as the investigations continued. Brian’s father was adamant his son was telling the truth, that Dravid had dropped him and his friend off at a roadside bar and someone else along the highway must have hijacked his car.

The detectives were careful not to let out any information on the phone recording because with the money and contacts Brian’s family had, a leak could endanger the life the girl was clinging onto. So, the story of the missing girl was not given to the media that night as police units searched desolate rock areas along the highway, hoping to find her before it was too late.
To be continued…