Chapter 8: The Itch of Madness

But… didn’t Arjun just go to fetch hot water from the mess? How did he turn into a madman?

It didn’t make sense. Just half an hour ago, Arjun had left, saying, "Main mess se garam paani leke aata hoon, chai banani hai." How could someone change so fast? It felt like something out of a horror serial, not real life.

It had only been half an hour, and he was already like this.

Thirty minutes—barely the time it takes to make Maggi. And yet, now Arjun was outside, unrecognisable, reduced to this shrieking, bleeding creature. My brain raced, searching for explanations, but none came.

This inexplicable madness left us all speechless, fear rising in our hearts.

Kabir whispered, "Kya yeh sach mein Arjun hai?" Sneha was shaking, holding back tears. No one dared to speak. The silence grew heavier, pressing down on all of us. I felt a lump form in my throat, the weight of dread settling deep in my stomach.

If it really was as the warden said—some infectious disease—

I remembered reading about contagious diseases in the news: Nipah, Ebola, even that COVID scare. My mind jumped from one worst-case scenario to another. My skin itched just thinking about it. Was this how it started for all those people on TV—one by one, everyone getting sick?

Arjun was from our room. Could we all be infected too?

The thought made my mouth go dry. We had all shared food, passed water bottles, even used the same towel sometimes. If Arjun had something, surely we were all at risk. I glanced at Kabir, who immediately wiped his face with his shirt, eyes wide with panic.

For a while, the five of us just sat at our desks, staring at each other.

The atmosphere was so tense, you could have sliced it with a butter knife. Nobody wanted to break the silence, afraid that even speaking would make things worse. The only sound was Sneha’s shaky breathing and the distant, muffled moans from the corridor. The tube light above flickered, adding to the sense of doom.