This is a little story i wrote for a short story competition which
unfortunately didn't get published.....nonetheless, I figured why discard it
when I can post it here. Anyway, hope you have fun reading it! The theme is
that of a telephone with it's receiver off the hook.
“I knew you’d still be here,” Rahul Chatterjee said, looking straight into Neel Banerjee’s pale eyes.
“I knew you’d still be here,” Rahul Chatterjee said, looking straight into Neel Banerjee’s pale eyes.
“It’s good to see you, buddy,” Neel
replied smiling.
Rahul chuckled. “It’s good to see you
too, man. Do you have any idea what happened to you?”
Neel sighed heavily. “Yes I do, Rahul,”
he replied, shaking his head despondently. “I was shot in the head by some son
of a gun who happened to do despicable things to Abhinanda.” He grit his teeth
in suppressed indignation.
“Yes, you were,” Rahul agreed. “If only
you knew who that jerk was. We could have taken him down together.”
“Yes,” Neel replied, sighing yet again.
“I don’t know what I’m still doing in this world, though. By the way, Rahul, I
didn’t know you could summon spirits.” Neel sniggered, covering his mouth with
his hand.
“Well, you know,” Rahul replied, his
face flushed in embarrassment. “There’s nothing much one can do when he’s all
alone. I ended up learning stuff like these off the internet and from a few
books by respectable people in the field. Not the wisest thing in the world, I
know. But hey, I’m not complaining! I got to see you again.”
This time Neel burst out laughing. “You
sure as hell did, man! And ain’t I glad you learnt this crap! God be merciful!”
Neel clutched his stomach as his cachinnation took its toll on his abdominal
muscles.
Rahul joined in the merriment,
guffawing loudly. “Yeah man, me too!” Mellowing down to just a titter, he
continued. “So what exactly happened that day? I mean, I know this is hard,
buddy, but I do have a right to know. Don’t you think so?”
“Of course, man!” Neel replied,
punching Rahul gently on his arm. “We’ve known each other since school and so,
by default, you have every right to know.”
“By default!” Rahul repeated,
suppressing a giggle. “That’s your favourite phrase! Good to see you still
using it.”
“Yeah,” Neel said, sighing. “I was just
pulling up into the driveway when my headlights fell on my partially open front
door. That was something strange since Abhi never anything like that. She’s one
of the most meticulous and methodical people I’ve ever come across. She’d never
leave an unwanted bulb burning nor would she ever keep her cup of tea on the
tea table without a coaster under the cup. If you remember our school days, it
was Abhi who had busted us, smoking behind the bushes just outside our campus.”
Rahul chuckled. “Do you remember the
chiding we got from her after that?” Rahul’s eyes were oblivious, lost in the
reminiscence of a very treasured childhood.
Neel paused momentarily; he too, lost
in reverie. “Yeah, I swore to give up smoking after that, which I did,” Neel
stopped. “Wait! We’re drifting here. I was talking about that unfortunate day.
“Anyway,” Neel went on, “so I dint
bother pulling up into the garage. I left the car in the driveway and walked in
through the front door. Most of the lights were off, which wasn’t surprising.
There was a golden hue thrown about the sitting room from the two bulbs burning
from the overhead chandelier. The kitchen, dining room and the guest bedroom
lights were all off. I could hear the faint creaking of the wooden floors above
me, as if someone was walking stealthily, trying to be as hush as possible. I
picked up the poker by the fire place and gripping it tightly with both my
hands, I crept up the stairs.
“The master bedroom door was slightly
ajar,” Neel continued. “I gripped the poker even tighter and pushed the door
open slowly with my foot. It was dark inside and my gaze fell on a lump on the
bed. Abhi wouldn’t go to bed without us having dinner, I thought. Maybe
she was sick, I felt, but then again, she would have called.
I took my shoes off, to avoid the unnecessary clattering of the heels on the
wooden flooring, and stepped inside gingerly, trying to prune as much of noise
as possible. Holding the poker high above my shoulder, ready to strike at any
instant, I made my way to the bed.”
Neel stiffened as his mind went back to
that dreadful image which greeted him.
“Was it Abhi?” Rahul asked, breaking
Neel’s thoughts.
“Oh, it was Abhi alright.” Neel
explained, his voice quivering. “She was lying in bed in a spread eagle
posture, he clothes tattered. She was nude waist down and there were scratches,
bruises and lacerations all over her body. I gasped as I looked at her face,
fearing the worst. Her eyes were open staring at the ceiling in an expression
mixed with fear, mendicancy and shock. The area around her neck had turned a
bluish purple, having been strangled to death. I cringed. I wanted to scream,
but I had lost my voice somewhere in the agony and despair. I felt as if my
life and my soul had been sucked out of me, seeing my precious Abhi lying like
that. I felt hopeless, not being able to be there for the love of my life, my
precious pearl, my soul mate.
“I looked around hoping to find some
clue, my poker still raised high. I searched the bed; Nothing. I looked under;
nothing. I ran towards the balcony, overlooking our courtyard; nothing. I was
sweating profusely and I could feel my sanity slowly ebbing away. I was
mumbling incoherently and was scavenging my bedroom aimlessly when I felt some
kind of movement ahead of me. I looked up from where I was standing and saw a
tall, well build man in a ski mask. I brought my poker back, ready to take a
wild swing at the perpetrator when I heard the deafening bang of a gun going
off. The next thing I remember is me standing over my own dead body, staring at
the gaping bullet hole smack in between my eyes. It felt weird watching my own
body sprawled across the floor with blood pooling up under my head.”
“And it was weird seeing you stand over
your own body,” Rahul interjected, interrupting Neel.
A deafening silence followed.
Neel stared hard at Rahul, in stunned
silence, trying to decipher what he had just heard. “Wha…what?” he stuttered.
“Stop mumbling,” Rahul snapped. “I’m
now going to give you your much needed closure, so that you can take the
stairway to heaven.”
“Please, Rahul, for the love of God,
tell me you’re lying,” Neel stammered.
Rahul sniggered and smirked. “I know
Abhi was your best friend since school. I’ve seen the two of you grow up
together, sit together on the same bench in class, share silent jokes, laugh
silently. I knew what she was to you and yes, I knew what you were to her.
Sitting in a corner and watching the two of you make merry used to make me
seethe in anger. Even though I was surprised that she had turned you down when
you asked her out, I couldn’t help but smile. Perhaps God is being nice on
me, I thought. But you guys continued being in touch getting closer and
closer, never realizing the blooming love between the two of you.”
Neel stood dumbfounded as Rahul went
on.
“Things changed when you finally got a
girlfriend, Chandni, who didn’t want you two to be in touch. Do you have any
idea how shattered Abhi was? Do you have any idea what kind of crap you had put
her through because of your puerile girlfriend? No, you don’t. But I was there
for her, wiping away all her excruciating tears, lending her a condoling
shoulder and cracking the odd joke you used to amuse her with. I was there for
her, man, for over five years. Five freaking years! Five beautiful years. Five
torturous years.
“Everything was washed away in a split
second when you decided to call her up after you broke up with Chandni. It was
all so convenient when the both of you realized that deep down inside, all
these years, you really loved each other. As for me, all those mesmerizing
memories, captivating moments and our intimate intimacies were flushed down the
gutter, crumpled into a ball of paper and flung into oblivion. My heart felt
trampled upon, as if someone had stomped on it repeatedly with his shoes. I let
go, deciding to move on, giving time to work its magic on a broken heart. But
when you guys got married, that was the final nail in the coffin. That did me
in.”
Neel stood flabbergasted, unable to
believe a single word his closest pal was uttering.
“I had your house keys and decided to
pay Abhi a visit. I was gathering up the nerve to confront her after all these
years, despite being neighbours. So, I took the spare key you had entrusted me
with and walked in. I just wanted to talk, I swear.
“But the moment I saw her, fresh out of
her bath with her wet hair held lose and her signature fragrance engulfing not
the just the room, but my brain as well, something gave away in me. The smile
on her face, her beautiful angelic smile, didn’t help either. I rushed towards
her and grabbed her violently, sweeping her off her feet. I hustled her to the
bedroom……”
“STOP,” Neel bellowed, his eyes a
blazing red.
“….and before I knew it, she was dead,”
Rahul persisted, brushing away a tear. “And you, I’m so sorry I shot you, man.
I panicked. I didn’t mean to do it. And since I practice a bit of necromancy, I
could see you standing over your own dead body. That’s when I knew I had to get
out of there, invocate you, and release you from this world.”
Neel was stunned speechless. But he
slowly began to fade, his body becoming more and more pellucid. He stuck his
hand out, inspecting it, as it faded away into a clear mist. Following his
hands, his legs, body and eventually, his head faded away into the very same
clear mist.
May his soul, perpetually rest in peace
now, Rahul thought. He checked every door and window. The lime chilly
contraption hung decorously from every door and window frame.
What Rahul didn’t notice was
that the telephone receiver had been tactfully knocked out of the hook.
xxxxxxxx
Late past midnight, Rahul, in his deep
slumber, did not notice a mist emanating from the telephone receiver which lay
off the hook.
Neel had very insightfully taken the
receiver off the hook, in anticipation of the lime chilly contraption
Rahul had hung up all over his house to ward off evil. The only way in would
have been through the receiver.
Rahul did not feel nor notice Neel
sitting beside him on his bed. He did not feel a spectral hand slide inside his
chest cavity, nor did he feel that very hand slip around his beating heart,
cradling it in its palm.
Neel looked at Rahul one last time, a
look filled with repugnance, despair and incomprehension. He hung his head and
shook it, dejectedly and he squeezed hard at the throbbing object in his hand.
Rahul would have felt a sharp, seething pain searing through his torso before
engulfing his entire body, as if being invaded by millions of red hot knives,
slicing through every artery, vein and organ. He would soon gasp for air in
vain. With the chemical activities in his brain all messed up, he would end up
choking on his own vomit until he collapsed, dead.
Now, Neel’s soul could rest. He could
finally go back to the place where the love of his life, his soul mate and his
childhood sweetheart, Abhinanda Ganguly was waiting for him with that
entrancing smile on her face.
A place where he would be a peace.
A place he called home.
