CHAPTER 15
Sujal----
I have no freaking idea how it happened, when it happened, why it happened. But I sure as hell am glad it happened!!…. Wait a min, am I really? Seems like now I am in a bigger problem then what I was in. Earlier I had no idea what she wanted; now I have no idea where I am gonna take her…. Yeah! It felt great to have her at a disadvantage, see her get surprised, frown, blush… I can't deny the pleasure which I derived from the play of expressions on her face… They were so simple, so sincere so undisguised. It was almost as if my old kashish was back, the one who was wasn't conscious of expressing her opinions, no less forcing them. But what am I to do now??? I have no clue how to proceed from here. Not that I am not grateful for this wonderful, out of the blue opportunity but…. How to use it? Where to take her? How to understand her psychology? How to impress the darn, Unpredictable Princess??
Kashish----
Follow the plan!!! Completely over him! Hate him! Totally unaffected by him!! What a pack of bullshit lies Kashish Sinha!!! I am so ashamed of my self. How cud I have been living in a fools paradise as glamorous as this. How cud I have, even for a moment, believed that he has no power over me? He had me under his charm since I didn't even know how to spell psychology! Why did I delude my self into believing that I can reverse the effect of so many years in just a month? Oh yeah I was away in college to get him outa my hair…. But didn't I always get his b'day cards along with every1 else's and preserved them with extra care? Read them at least 10 times? I was always hopeless, I am still hopeless and maybe i always will be! Ohhhhh god please please please!!!!! Help me! I know next time he breaks my stupid, venerable heart I will not b able to stand strong again. I know I will crumble and fall apart in front of him. I will lose what so ever self dignity I have left, in front of him and my family…..
NO! I can't think like this. I have to stop this madness. I know what I feel. I know what he feels, and the two feelings are poles apart. It's too late to pretend indifference, he knows I am pretending and the more I act, more he wud try and remove my mask. But what do I do? If not put on a fake strong front then what? What? What!!? I've got to stop behaving like a desperate Stepford Woman right now! First I have to stop agreeing to everything. But isn't that going back to what I have already tried? Then maybe I need to try a combination of 2 acts. That is my last chance. Last hope…
Friday
Only one day left!! I have to take her out tomorrow and I have no idea where should I take her. This is so frustrating!! First I don't get her and when I do, I don't know where to take her!!
"Sir here are the books u ordered." Sujal's secretary, upon entering his cabin.
S giving his worrying thoughts a break-"Hmm… Thank you."
Sec-"Can I get u anything else sir? U look a bit tiered, perhaps coffee..?"
S smiled gratefully-"No thank you. Mrs. Morse. U may leave."
Sec nodding her head leaves.
S-"Umm.. Wait. Mrs. Morse….. I was wondering if I cud ask u a private ques."
Sec smiling kindly at her young boss-"Of course u may… But only if it doesn't incriminate me…"
S let out small laugh... He always felt nice talking to ppl close to him… Though he wished there was some1 whom he cud tell and ask everything, some1 who wudnt even put that condition… Maybe someday he wud find such a person.. Maybe soon….
S-"No its nothing related to court. Please have a seat… I wanted to ask u that.. Aah… u had a love marriage right?"
Mrs. Morse nods her head her smile widening..
S-"Wud u mind telling me where ur husband proposed?"
Mrs. Morse's face stilled and eyes widened. She wasn't sure what she had heard was right or wrong..-"U….U.. Proposing some1….?!!??". She finally asked holding her breath. It was a miracle if he was proposing .The casonova was in love??!!!! Impossible!!!
Sujal too understanding what his words might have sounded like quickly corrected him self.
S-"No!! It's nothing like what u think. I mean, there is this girl. No I mean, there is.. umm.. There is some1 I am trying to impress and I just thought that u might tell me a romantic place which I may have missed."
Mrs. Morse coming out of one shock fell into another, upon hearing Sujal's keeness to impress A Girl.. well this was a first a BIG first.
Sec-"Actually.. Sir.. Well my husband wasn't very rich so he didn't have much money to arrange something fancy.. He knew that I loved water and full moon nights, so he arranged a small wooden boat for us and anchored us in middle of the sea. There he gave me the choice of either marrying him or staying there till I said yes."
S chuckled at the picture and realized that except for a very few things he had no idea about k's likes and dislikes. Actually he had completely overlooked this fact and had made no effort to find out a little about them..... How cud I have missed that? Why didn't I find out sooner about her interests? Serves me right for being such a dumb a**.
S-"Well I guess it was a proposal u couldn't refuse huh?"
Mrs. Morse getting up smiles at him and gets ready to leave.
Sec-"Well I did take me 2 hrs to say yes.. I don't like being cornered…. I am sure… this girl, whom u r trying to impress… wud like u just for the fact that u r being so thoughtful abt her.. that is if she Is really worth all this worrying abt." And she leaves.
Sujal muttered-"Oh yes she is worth it. She is worth every sleepless night of mine. I am sure abt that!"
S started skimming through his books… The case of wife and mistress was still unsolved. Apparently the husband wasn't the killer and his alibi was his 2nd mistress. Now Sujal was sure it was psychotic killer pretending to b normal.. living amongst them as a friend who had done this… The ques was who? To find this, the only way was to now think like a psychopath himself or find what all events can mentally disturb a person…. Sujal was tiered and weary. For the first time, his brain wasn't giving him ans. either related to his work or to his personal life. What a fine mess.
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Sujal awoke from another nightmare that night and saw that it was 2am. This time he dreamed that one of the dead women (from wife and mistress case) was actually Kashish.. She was brutally stabbed in heart and her throat slit, her beautiful hair soaked in blood…. As if it wasn't enough to chill his blood the dream changed drastically. K suddenly got up, all traces of blood disappearing from her. Now she was advancing towards him with a butcher's knife and he was the bigamous husband and she was the estranged wife she was chasing him, to first slit his balls and then his throat. Then he suddenly fell in a deep sea of water with no land visible save a boat and she stood in it laughing cruelly at him. Slowly approaching him, with a glass of juice in her hand. Cooingly telling him to drink it and be freed from all his torments and threatened that if he didn't she wud chop him into little pieces with her surgery equipments…..
That was a horrible nightmare.. Perhaps the worst one yet… Yah she might have threatened his life a few times in his dreams but she had never come out this strongly .. Was it because he dated some1 else? Impossible she hadn't cared… or was it just an act……
'Psychopaths are not born, they are made. To understand their present u must understand their past….'
Sujal read the line again. He had fallen asleep reading this… Perhaps his mental tiredness with the case was the reason he had the nightmare….
Wait a min..! sujal read the line again and then again….. Sure as hell his princess was no psychopath but she was damm mysterious as one… Perhaps.. Maybe if cud.. go and see her past.. childhood he cud understand her resent too… But I was always there when she was growing up! What cud I have missed?...Humph.. Maybe there was something I missed? I have to find out! Yes! This is the way! But how??
Sujal got up from his bed and made a strong cup of coffee, still remembering the poisoned drink she offered him from the boat in his dream… Wait a min! She has offered me juice b4…. When? When? Ah yes…. Yeh.. Didn't she make 3 things for me? Who does that? Maybe I did miss something.. There must have been a reason she took my side and took care of me instead of siding with Nick… Why the hell had she done that? I must know now. Thts the only way. Killer or no killer, u very much have been playing mind games with me and now the time has come to find out a few things about u….
Sujal began slipping his coffee and slowly a plan started forming in his mind….
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