CHAPTER-4::RemorseRt
The eyeballs under her delicate eyelids moved a bit. When she regained her consciousness she found herself lying on the floor of the washroom. A patch of red blood on those porcelain tiles was getting reflected on her eye lens. She felt a slight pain on the posterior side of her head and as she led her hand on that spot, her fingers sensed some thick liquid pouring out continuously from an abrasion. Her dried lips twitched, her eyes fluttered and at once tears started to shed off. She was fed up from her miserable life. From the last past years she had been only experiencing pain, anguish, grief and harassment. And now these weird happenings from last some days had made her life worsen. Her conscience was telling her that it was the same mysterious man who wanted to kill her. But why? He was appearing time to time and then getting disappeared into the blue like a ghost. But it was the very first time he attacked her or more appropriate way to say, tried to kill her. She noticed one similarity in both the incidents that happened to her today as soon as she come out from her oblivion state neither she could see that man nor any of the bruises he had given on her body (might be the doings of some evil heinous forces…).But now she was sure of one thing. Her instincts were telling her that those things were really happening in her life. It could not simply be a nightmare after all(impossible indeed!) because her experience was real, the pain was real, though she could not explain the after effects of those incidents properly but she knew that somehow it was trying to torture her both mentally and emotionally. At once it struck to her mind, if all that was possible then he would definitely come back again and she had to do something before that quickly. Her facial expression changed suddenly, she wiped out her tears using her hand and then stood up from there promptly. Raya made quick steps towards one of the chest drawers present in front of her bed and then opened the third drawer from the top and swiftly drawn out a small transparent plastic square box from it. She rapidly took out an antiseptic and applied it on her wound. Although it was cold there, sweats were passing down her tawny skin perpetually. She was breathing heavily, her lungs were frequently oscillating like an engine within her chest. After dressing the wound, she left the box opened on her bed and right away went out of the room.
There was complete silence outside. She could not hear the sound of the television anymore, probably the lady had slept already. Raya carefully watched her steps on the hardwood while climbing down the stairs in order to not make any sound and then headed towards the kitchen slowly. Reaching there, she leaned her body against the granite slab to grab a knife from the wooden holder residing at the leftmost part and grabbed its pink ivory handle tightly in her right hand. As she was turning around from the countertop she heard a thud from the living room.
(He was here)
Subsequently, she moved forward in the direction of the living room, this time holding the knife more tightly in her right hand, near to her chest. As she was proceeding towards the entrance, she could felt her heartbeat rising and pounding against her chest profoundly. Her conscience told her to be more watchful. Few minutes later, she was standing outside the living room near its door. It was cold there, much colder than rest of the rooms in that house. Some bit of twilight coming through one of the windows on the right side was illuminating the central area of that room. Although she could barely see the lady but she could hear her breathing clearly from the couch. Then suddenly she saw a shadow moving beside that. At once she felt like her heart had come in her mouth and sensed her body had frozen for a second.(You just have to do it my girl! Overcome your fear unless he will get you!!). She made up her mind and then cautiously advanced in his direction. Each step towards him was filling up her mind with more ominous thoughts. Soon she was around the corner of the couch. She felt the lady sleeping in the couch peacefully. Then Raya turned left in the direction of the couch, lifted up her right hand holding the knife high in the air and right away with all her strength stroke in the darkness. She felt the knife as it pierced through the human flesh.
(silence…)
She again swirled her knife in the air ,now using both hands and made its way through his flesh. This time the blood got splattered on her clothes.
(still silence…)
She did not hear his screams, literally not a single word come out from his mouth. (But it really didn’t matter at all because now he was dead for sure).Raya standing over the blood soaked carpet chuckled mischievously.
After sometime she was in the bathroom, cleaning the blood thoroughly from the knife in the running water. Later on she changed her clothes and put the knife along with the square box into the drawer. The pain in her body had become severe and she was feeling extremely tired. She could felt her muscles tearing and convulsing violently. All the energy left in her body had already been used up in tackling that man. She knew that she would certainly faint if she pushed herself further. After pondering over the situation for quiet sometime, in the end she decided to hide the man’s body before dawn with the help of the lady. Although it was quiet risky but for this she required some help from someone she could trust.(I know! she would understand me why I have to do it? It was necessary. Finally, no more worries from now on!).Then she took out some painkillers from the small desk beside her bed and swallowed it along with some warm water. Raya checked her cellphone, it was showing 2:17am,19 December 2018,wednesday. Her eyes got fixed for some time on her phone’s screen but then she kept it back on the desk and lied down comfortably under the quilt. She glanced back at her phone one more time and then closed her eyes. A tear drop just slid down from one of her eye.
. . . (December 18 2011)
She was not inside the house again, not even in the backyard. The snow had already started to fall. Raya felt worried about her grandmother. Nearly fifteen minutes earlier, the old woman was sitting on her rocking chair while she was in the kitchen but now she was not there. Raya rushed through the front door and went outside on the streets, standing alone in the middle of the road all she could see was the glistening white snow everywhere, barely any living creature outside besides her. It was really chilling outside. Her teeth were chattering and her ears turned plum red as the blood flow increased in that part. She could feel the warmth near her ears. Suddenly she felt like someone was calling her from above and in the very next moment she found herself floating amidst the clouds. Before she could understand anything, she saw her Oma at some distance, standing peacefully and looking at her with a warm smile on her face. Raya at once felt overwhelmed to see her safe and then forgetting about everything around her she started running towards her. But why she was going back? Raya run faster and faster as she could do in order to catch her but the more she run, the more the distance become. At last she fell down on the flocculent floor being completely exhausted. From there she could no longer see her grandmother. Raya felt defeated of loosing her chance to get to her grandmother. Eventually grief filled the tiny space of her heart, leaving behind the hope in the dark abyss. The floor underneath her disappeared and soon she started to fall. Raya closed her eyes and set herself free to meet her end.
She woke up promptly, found herself lying on the couch in the living room and saw her grandmother sleeping on her rocking chair. Oma was looking a bit tired but she was fine(off course she would be, she have to be…absolutely).It was just one of her bad dreams, Raya felt relieved. She stood up hastily from there and then looked at the clock. It was already 9:23 in the morning. She could not remember when she had fallen asleep. Raya put on her sleepers and then went to the kitchen for preparing the breakfast.
(Time-9:58pm, in the night)
They had had their dinner already. The house seemed to be quiet as usual but some sort of sound from the TV could be heard from the living room. A news reporter was informing about the bad weather in that region for the next few days. Raya leaned forward from her seat and switched off the TV. She thought about the appointment next day with the doctor and then looked at her grandmother who had already fallen asleep on the couch with the quilt over her, covering her whole body except the plum face. By looking at her Oma, it reminded her of the earlier days when the old lady used to enjoy the late night shows laying on that same couch and sometimes been sleeping there till the morning. She laughed by herself and then moved towards the old lady and kissed her forehead gently. Thereafter she returned to her own seat, curdled herself in the blanket and turned the lights off.
(Time-7:12am,19 December 2011)
Suddenly she felt a tremor in her whole body like a current passing down her vertebrae and agitating each and every bone of her skeletal framework. Raya woke up at once and looked at herself. She was alright but sweating a little. It was misty outside. The sun was hiding behind those snow clouds which were eager to let their flakes fall down and buried themselves within the ground. Raya settled her legs smoothly on the carpet and then turned her head upward to see her grandmother. The old woman was lying serenely under the quilt with one of her hand hanging outside lifelessly ,her mouth half opened and her pale face covered partially with the silver hairs. She stood up from there and then made her sit on the rug right beside her Oma’s couch. Her heart had started to palpitate at a faster pace. She gradually moved her hand from her lap to hold hers. They were cold(indeed very cold ).Raya tightened the grip. Tears had started to make a thin film over her eyes. Her timid trembling fingers gradually touched the old woman’s wrist and they felt no pulse. She immediately put aside the quilt from over her body and rest her ears swiftly on her chest. No heart beat. Raya at once fell backward on the carpet. The sound of that thud echoed in the desolate house. It was really hard for her to believe the present. She could not think of anything. It’s like her whole world had torn apart. She soon started to feel very empty and numb. The numbness gradually grew in her mind and desensitized all of her emotions. The tears got dried up in her eyes. She left that room at once and thereafter made a call.
In the next moment Raya was standing outside, below the willow tree. A few people, maybe one or two went inside the house and come out after sometime carrying a body on a stretcher. Her eyes moved sideways as that body was loaded in the ambulance. She looked at the van for sometime and then shifted her attention towards the people standing near the road at some distant. Their eyes were telling exactly what they were thinking( what a pity ! The poor old lady lost her life due to the that absent-minded girl…she had brought a bad fortune in that old woman’s house which ultimately led to her death…that jinx was responsible for this tragedy).Raya could not hear it anymore. She looked away from their site but their blaming evil eyes kept wandering in her mind. At last the protecting barrier which was holding back all her emotions broke and she burst out in tears.
. . .
Comments