UNFINISHED BUSINESS

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.

 

“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.