The next day felt different. The sun was out, the classrooms were noisy as usual, but the girls felt a chill they couldn't explain. It wasn't just about what happened with Anushka the night before—it was the strange silence that followed it.
No one spoke about the red handprint. No one mentioned Niyati's figure near the bell tower. But it was there, stuck in their minds.
During lunch break, the girls sat under the big neem tree behind the library.
Anushka was quiet. She kept looking at her hand like it didn't belong to her anymore.
"I feel fine today," she finally said. "But last night… I don't remember anything."
Akshara, sitting beside her, gave her a small nudge. "We all saw it, Anu. You walked like a zombie. And you were pointing at the bell tower."
Prajwal looked around carefully, lowering her voice. "And we all saw her… Niyati."
Swara nodded. "There's something about that place. We shouldn't have gone near it."
"I read something," Swarali said, pulling out a piece of paper from her notebook. "I found this old article stuck between history books in the library."
The girls leaned closer.
It was a newspaper cutting from years ago, yellow and worn out. The headline read:
"Teenage Girl Found Dead in Bell Tower – School Denies Rumors of Suicide."
"Is it her?" asked Apurva, frowning.
Swarali nodded slowly. "Her name was Niyati. She was in ninth grade too. Just like us."
Akshada shivered. "Why did no one ever tell us this?"
"Maybe the school tried to hide it," Srushti said, arms crossed. "They always act weird when students talk about ghosts or strange things."
"So what do we do now?" asked Rutuja.
"Simple," said Anushka, surprising everyone. "We finish what we started. Find out what happened to her. And maybe, set her soul free."
"But how?" asked Akshara. "We don't even know how she died!"
"I have a feeling she'll show us," said Anushka. Her eyes had a strange calmness. "She picked me for a reason."
That night, strange things began happening.
It started with Swarali. Around 2 a.m., she heard soft whispers near her ear.
She turned the lights on—no one was there.
Next was Akshada. Her phone, which was off, lit up with a message that wasn't from anyone.
It just read:
"Bell tower. Tomorrow."
Akshara's water bottle rolled off her table on its own.
Rutuja saw her shadow move differently in the bathroom mirror.
Swara kept hearing her name being whispered in the corridor when no one was around.
Each girl had something. Something small. Something creepy.
And each time… it was connected to Niyati.
---
The Next Day
The girls met early before class.
"All of us felt something last night," Prajwal said. "This isn't a coincidence anymore."
"We need to go to the bell tower again," said Apurva, nervous but serious.
"What if it gets worse?" asked Swara.
"We can't back out now," said Anushka. "I think she's showing us the truth in pieces."
"She wants us to know what happened," agreed Akshada.
Prajwal looked at the rest. "So? Are we all in?"
Each girl nodded, one by one.
Nine hands stacked on top of each other.
This time, they weren't just a group of classmates.
They were a team—with a mission.
And tonight… they'd return to the bell tower.
---