THE SECRET LIFE OF HOSTEL WEIRDOS
CHAPTER : 3
THE GREAT MOSQUITO MURDER & THE MAFIA TRIAL
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It all started during evening study hour.
We were supposed to be deep into our books, solving math problems and memorizing science definitions. But naturally, we weren't. The sisters were in the chapel doing their prayers, the kind that echo through the hostel walls like background music in a horror movie. And we? We were in the classroom, plotting our future lives like we were auditioning for an international crime-drama soap opera.
"I'm going to be a mafia boss," I said casually, like it was just another career choice.
They all nodded. Nodded. Like I'd just said I wanted to be an engineer or a dentist.
"You'd be a psycho one, that too," Rhea added, with a weirdly supportive smile.
"Completely unhinged," Kaira chimed in, as if that was a compliment.
"Totally unstable. I like that," Aanaya said, scribbling something in her notebook that I really hoped wasn't a sketch of me holding a bazooka.
I just blinked at them. "Thanks... I guess?"
Then Rhea sat up straight, her eyes lighting up like she just solved world hunger.
"If you're going to be a psycho mafia," she said, "then I'll be the police. Let's play a chasing game! You run. I'll catch you."
"God, this again?" I sighed. "We're not in kindergarten, Rhea."
But Kaira perked up. "I'm gonna be the doctor!"
"Of course you are," I muttered.
And then Aanaya, always the wild card, slammed her book shut. "Let's make it a game. Zoya is the mafia. The most wanted criminal. Serial killer even. Rhea is the police officer. I'll be the detective. Oh, and a nurse."
"A detective and a nurse?" I asked.
"I multitask," she said proudly. "Like a woman in a crime thriller. Kaira, you can be the judge and the doctor."
Kaira grinned like she just won an Oscar.
At this point, I should've left the classroom. I knew this was going to spiral. But curiosity — and boredom — are dangerous things.
"Wait," I said. "If we have a criminal, a cop, a detective, a nurse, a doctor, and a judge… shouldn't there be a crime scene?"
Everyone paused. The classroom went oddly silent for two seconds.
And that's when fate intervened.
A mosquito landed on my hand.
Without thinking, I slapped it. Splat. Dead.
Just like that.
I looked down at its tiny, flattened corpse. Didn't think much of it.
But Aanaya gasped like I'd just committed first-degree murder. Her eyes lit up like she'd found the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle.
"I found the victim of your crime, dear Mafia."
"What?" I blinked.
She picked up the mosquito with a piece of paper like it was sacred evidence. "You just now committed a serious crime."
"Dude. That's just a mosquito."
"It was a living being!" Rhea declared, standing up and pointing at me like I was standing trial on national TV. "It was breathing. It had blood!"
"It was sucking my blood!" I argued.
Rhea gasped. "It was just hungry. Poor fellow. It came to beg for food. It was praying for you. Thanking you."
"What the ACTUAL hell—how do you know it was praying?!"
"I felt it," she said, placing a dramatic hand on her chest.
"Will you shut up?!" Kaira snapped. "This is a hospital now. We're conducting a postmortem."
She pulled a sewing needle from her pencil pouch. I don't know where she got that thing, but the glint in her eyes screamed Indian daily soap villainess.
"What the—Kaira, what are you doing?"
"Postmortem. Be quiet."
I sat frozen, trapped in this cult of future psychopaths.
Then, as if possessed, Kaira gasped and leaned toward the mosquito corpse.
"Oh God…" she whispered.
"What happened?" I asked. Now genuinely concerned for everyone's sanity.
She turned slowly toward me, her expression dead serious.
"She… was a girl."
"Okay?"
She pointed the needle at me like a cursed wand. "And she was pregnant."
I swear my soul left my body.
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Third-Person Interlude: Welcome to Hostel Courtroom No. 13
(Location: Classroom B2, lit by tube lights, with cracked desks and excessive imagination)
The accused: Zoya, age 17, future mafia queen, currently confused.
The victim: One female mosquito, allegedly pregnant, allegedly praying, allegedly a saint.
The judge: Kaira, with a fake gavel made from a pencil case.
The prosecution: Rhea, cop-by-choice, drama-queen-by-nature.
The medical examiner-slash-nurse-slash-detective: Aanaya, future chaos CEO.
The trial began with Rhea banging a book on the desk.
"This court is now in session!"
"I OBJECT!" I shouted. "What the hell is this trial even?!"
"SILENCE IN THE COURT!" Kaira bellowed.
Aanaya walked dramatically toward the chalkboard where she'd drawn a stick-figure mosquito with wings and labeled it "Mosi – F."
"We have here a case of cruel, premeditated murder," she said solemnly. "The victim was not just a mosquito. She was a mother-to-be."
"Objection, Your Honor!" I stood up.
"Overruled," Kaira muttered, chewing gum.
Rhea stepped forward, holding up a blood-stained tissue like it was Exhibit A.
"She had dreams. She had a life. And she was praying when she was killed!"
"Again," I snapped, "HOW do y'all know this mosquito was religious?!"
Rhea pointed at my forehead. "Because, Zoya, she died… right after touching you. That means you were chosen."
"I need new friends," I muttered.
---
Zoya's pov :
I stared at the classroom door. Could I run? Escape? Jump out the window? Join the chapel choir and hide under a nun's habit?
But they weren't done.
"Detective Aanaya, your findings?" Kaira asked.
Aanaya cleared her throat. "We opened the corpse. The stomach was filled with blood."
I slapped my forehead. "Because it bit me, you nutjob!"
"And in the blood," she said dramatically, "we found… a tiny heart. Shaped like a question mark. That proves she was in love."
"In love?! With who? Me?!"
"She was carrying your blood, idiot. She loved you."
"Someone kill me now."
Kaira banged the table. "You're accused of murdering a pregnant woman. The charge is: First-degree mosquito homicide. Do you plead guilty?"
"I plead INSANE, because y'all have lost your MINDS."
"You're in denial," Rhea said. "Typical serial killer behavior."
Then Aanaya stood, lifting the mosquito corpse high like Simba from The Lion King.
"We must do a funeral."
"No. No funeral. It's an insect."
Too late.
They took a paper cup, filled it with flowers plucked from the garden (that they weren't allowed to touch), placed the mosquito inside, and began chanting.
CHANTING.
For a mosquito.
I sat in the corner, questioning every life choice that led to this moment.
---
Courtroom Final Scene
"Your Honor," Rhea said, "I request the harshest punishment. Lifetime imprisonment."
Kaira nodded. "I sentence Zoya to mop the entire corridor for a week."
"Denied!" I shouted. "Mafia bosses don't mop!"
"Then," Aanaya said, "you shall be haunted by Mosi's ghost."
"Her name wasn't Mosi!"
"Yes, it was," she said. "She told me in a vision."
And then… silence.
Because the classroom door creaked open.
All four of us froze.
Sister Martha stepped in with her usual terrifying glare.
"What is this nonsense? Why are you screaming?"
Nobody moved.
Then Kaira stood up and whispered, "We were just conducting a moral science reenactment. Life. Death. Mercy. Justice."
Sister Martha raised an eyebrow.
Then Rhea added, "With character building. And empathy."
Sister's eyes narrowed.
I swallowed.
She looked at the floor… at the paper cup coffin.
Then said, "Clean this mess. Ten minutes. Or I'll actually make you mop the corridors for a week."
She left.
The four of us sighed. The mosquito funeral was quietly dismantled.
Rhea whispered, "She died a hero."
Kaira mumbled, "Gone too soon."
Aanaya sniffled, "She'll always be in our blood."
And me?
I opened my notebook, stared at my blank math problem… and wrote across the top in capital letters:
> "DEAR DIARY, I MURDERED A PREGNANT MOSQUITO. SEND HELP."
***TO BE CONTINUED***