@Anishi #TheProtagonist My head is hurting. Why am I lying on the ground? Why does my hand and dress so wet? There is something icky in my hand. I can’t see as it’s too dark. There is something else in my hand. Let me bring it close to my face so that I can see clearly. It is a knife! What is a knife doing in my hand. The pain in my head is killing me.

What is going on? I try to get up. I did get up but I slipped and fell again. The same liquid is on the ground as well. Where am I? It looks like mom dad’s room but the light is too dim. I hold the bedpost and get up. I try to look around. My eyes are finally adjusting to the dim light and I can now see a little better. I was definitely in my mom dad’s room.

I look around for a light switch. As I toggled the switch the room lightened up. I was able to see the room properly now. I could see that the main safe was open and all the jewelry and money was gone. Then to my horror, I saw Gurpreet lying on the floor face down and there was blood everywhere.

You are now reading the final chapter. Refer to Inflicted for a chapter-wise listing…

I didn’t remember anything. What did I do? Was this Yelda? But the psychiatrist said that she was gone. Did I just kill my mother? What time is it? It is 3 AM. Was she planning on running away with this money? What should I do now? I finally got my family back and I killed my mother. I don’t deserve to live and I should kill myself.

Wait a minute. Where is all the money and jewelry? If I was planning to run away with all this where did the money disappear to? Was someone else here? I should call someone and tell them what happened. I should call the police inspector. So I called him and I told him what happened. He told me to stay right there. Then I called the psychiatrist but she didn’t answer.

The inspector arrived with a team and put me in handcuffs. I tried to pull his attention towards the empty safe and tried to tell him that someone else was here. He told me to sit tight and he went to the psychiatrist’s house. Melinda ma’am walked down and asked the inspector what happened. He told her and she said that she needed her files on me. The inspector said that he would go and get them from her office and she has to console me till then.

We stopped at her office and the inspector went inside while Melinda ma’am tried to sooth me. The inspector came out empty handed and he asked Melinda ma’am to follow him. They went into the office.

@Melinda Monroe #ThePsychiatrist The inspector said, ” Ma’am there has been a break in. Please check that everything is in order. I walked around to make sure everything was there. Anishi’s files were missing. There were ashes in the dust bin. Someone had burned them. There were a few droplets of blood near the dustbin which led to a bag which was covered in blood.

I called the inspector’s attention on it. He then wore gloves and opened the bag. The bag had jewelry and money which was most probably the one that was missing from Randhawa’s safe. He pulled out his gun, turned to me and said, “You are under arrest for the murder of Gurpreet Randhawa.” while pointing the gun at me.

He thinks it’s me. I need to defend myself. But how? Video camera! I can prove that I someone else was in my office. “Sir, someone is trying to frame me. I can prove it. I have a video camera on the entrance of the office which can prove that I was not here after 8 PM last night.” I said.

“Okay, show me the tape.” He said, still pointing the gun at me. I took him to the computer on my desk that has the record of last night’s tape. I played the tape till someone came in. It was around 2 AM. Anishi dragged the bag in my office and she came out empty handed after sometime. She had a knife in one hand and with the other she was holding her head like she just got hit there.

“I’m confused,” the inspector said, “Why would she do all this?”

“There is only one way to find out.” I said.

The inspector brought Anishi in the office and I told her to lye down on the chair. I took her to a hypnotic stage where she told us what happened. Her voice had changed. It was Yelda speaking. She was still there. Yelda woke up around 1 AM and quietly went in Gurvinder and Gurpreet’s bedroom. She then opened the safe and started emptying it in the bag. Suddenly Gurpreet walked in. She came out of the washroom and found her doing this.

Yelda impulsively stabbed Gurpreet. Gurpreet fell down and Yelda got an idea of take out two with the same arrow. But she didn’t trust me so she decided to frame me for her murder. She walked all the way to my office and placed the bag here. She then burnt up her files and as she was going back, she hit her head and forgot to place the knife there as well. When she reached home, she slipped and fell beside Gurpreet and lost consciousness. She didn’t mean to kill Gurpreet, it was just impulsive and she deeply regrets to take away Anishi’s mother. She believes that if Anishi finds out that she killed her mother it would destroy her and she might become suicidal.

I recommended the inspector to put her in proper psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane and call her father. And I also recommended a colleague of mine and I would share my progress with him. I keep a duplicate of every patient’s files with me. I would share those with him. “For the sake of her well being, don’t tell her she was the one who killed her mother. We can tell her that when her mind can cope with this information. Right now she is Unstable and Dangerous…”