ArHi FF! Dante's Labyrinth: Thread 2 [Completed] - Page 11

Chapter 21: The beginning of the beginning

Several years ago

"What is the meaning of this Mr. Shukla?" The principal yelled at the history teacher slapping a photo on the table.

Vikram Shukla sat stunned in his chair when the accusation became all real with the photo on table.

"How did you…get this?" Vikram asked wiping thin layer of sweat above his eyebrow.

"Are you implying this is true?" The principal hissed leaning forward, his eyes wide.

"Khushi…came on to me…I didn't…" Vikram stammered.

"You didn't what Mr. Shukla? You didn't see the camera that was catching your affair with you student?"

"Sir…please I didn't mean that way…" Vikram stood up suddenly. The chair screeched near his leg and toppled behind him.

"Sit down Mr. Shukla and give me the details. The family is pressing charges and has threatened to make it public." The principal had less patience to deal with Vikram Shukla's loss in morality.

Vikram Shukla felt shiver run up his spine. If it went public then the shame it would bring…

"Sit down Mr. Shukla. Please." The old principal channeled all the patience he could muster in an event such as this. Vikram nodded and pulled the chair up.

"You are a good man Mr. Shukla, newly married and come from a fine family. I don't want any part of this misunderstanding to get out which could potentially ostracize your family. So please tell me what happened. "

Vikram slumped on the chair and took a deep breath. "It started two months ago. Khushi started hovering around me day by day. She is a troubled teenager…or at least that's what she told me. So I started talking to her about…other things. The trouble she has with her family…"

"Troubles? What kind of troubles?" The principal interjected.

"Her step father abused her." Vikram replied. "Psychologically, that is."

The principal sighed.

"Did she also tell you that her sister was trying to make her insane by spreading lies and making her do horrible stuff?" The principal looked at him with a sympathetic look.

Vikram felt his throat go dry. He nodded.

"Khushi Gupta is an artistic liar Mr. Shukla." He sighed and took off his spectacles. "She made herself look vulnerable so that it was easy for her to approach you with her issues. You are good man and you wouldn't have the heart to turn a young person hurting away and would definitely try to help her."

Vikram shook his head vehemently. "She told me her sister, Tara Gupta, didn't want her come to me but she did anyways because she was scared of Tara too. Tara apparently thought that I am some sort of pedophile…a pervert preying on young girls because of-"

"Because of what happened in the previous school you worked." The principal nodded remembering the complaint. He didn't believe it and had trusted Vimal Shukla then. But he wasn't sure about Vimal Shukla anymore. But he had to listen to the whole thing. "What happened next?"

"She started coming to me with her family problems and talked about it. I counseled her after school and she would sometime talk about her dreams and running away from home and starting a new life in a small town. A couple of weeks later the topics changed to more personal things," he stopped.

The principal pushed a glass of water towards him and he took it gladly. After drinking one more glass and prepping up psychologically, he breathed out the next part. "Well the things got personal when she started to…umm…invade my personal space. A touch on my back, pinching my cheek when I said something she thought was funny…she hugged me one day sobbing as if all the tragedies of the world had come to her bosom at the same time. In retrospect I shouldn't have, but I did. I hugged her back to offer the comfort that only physical warmth can. I didn't think I was breaching any sort of moral code," he added hurriedly when he saw the older man's lips set in a straight line.

"Explain this photo to me," the principal said tapping on the photo.

"I received a frantic call from Khushi on a Sunday. She was calling from a payphone and she said her step father had walked into her room with a single minded purpose and she had managed to get away in time after her shirt was ripped. She had grabbed a jacket while running and thankfully found a coin purse inside. I met her that day with a purpose to report to the authorities and talk to her mother if it comes to that."

"Was it then you realized she was lying?"

Vikram nodded and rubbed his eyes. There was a massive ache behind his eyes threatening to burst out but he was doing everything in his power to hold it at bay. "She came on to me that day. She wasn't the vulnerable girl who wore a mask of strength but she was a conniving bitch who wore a mask of vulnerability. I didn't realize what was going on when she hugged and then…kissed me. Her shirt was gone and for few moments, I just stood there and complied. And then my senses kicked in. I tried to fight her off but she wouldn't let me so in the end I had to use all my power to throw her off me. After which I pretty much ran the hell out of that place."

"Was it the first time you met her outside this school campus?"

Vimal hesitated. He slowly shook his head, crimson flooding his cheeks.

"I am not sure how much of this is true Mr. Shukla, to be honest. Because I already spoke to Khushi and she told me something else." Vimal could see that the principal was torn. "This is pure conjecture. There are two stories by both the parties involved and a bunch of photographs implicating you as a person who took advantage of a young woman."

"But sir! I didn't! I swear I didn't! Please believe me." Vimal groveled.

"Mr. Shukla, even if I believe you, I cannot have you in this school. If this gets out the reputation of the school will be on line which I am not ready to gamble. I will convince the girl's parents to let the matter drop. Please clean out your desk by end of the day." The older man was good about it. He gave Vikram a stack of photographs which was mailed to him anonymously. Vimal was sure it was all Khushi's doing.

It took him thirty minutes to pack everything on his desk and shove it in a large polythene cover bearing the word "Mafatlal". He could see the odd glances thrown in his way and the whispers that laced his path. He held his head high though the ground beneath him was falling apart and walked out of the gates without looking aback.

If he had indeed looked back, he would have seen Khushi and Tara standing among group of students with an unseen smile on their faces. Maybe then he would have understood that the game was over even before he had accepted to help Khushi Gupta.

He walked towards the lake where he and his new wife often walked. He saw the photos the principal had given him. There were photos of him and Khushi – with him laughing at something she had said, him offering an ice-cream to her or when he took more than five minutes to shrug off her arm hooked inside his arm. But those five minutes were enough to change the way their relationship looked.

He took an auto back home to find his house submerged in eerie grey. His parents and younger brother were attending a wedding in their hometown and it was just his wife and him but the bleakness of the house gave him an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach. He walked inside and switched on lights to see his wife sitting on sofa with…photos in her hand.

His heart sank.

"Urmila…" He whispered.

His wife looked up, eyes blank and face devoid of any expression. "How could you do this to me?" She whispered softly.

"Urmila…I…I was tricked into believing something that wasn't there. Please, trust me." He begged. He kneeled in front of her and started to collect photos she had surrounded herself with.

"Today morning when you were in school, the girl's parents came and told me everything in front of all our neighbors. They even threw these photos near my feet asking me to give my husband what he wanted instead of him baiting the girls in the school where he worked." Her voice was blas. He stumbled back, his knees collapsing and he landed on his hips with a definite thud.

"Urmila, I never did anything immoral. Please believe me. I…" He trailed when he saw his wife's eyes flutter close and yelled "Urmila!" when her body leaned on the side.

Present day…

"You should thank me ACP Shukla." Khushi said tapping the table and peering at him. Shukla's eyes were stone hard and he displayed his signature expressionless face. But she could see the storm behind his eyes, the rage pulsing through his veins. She smiled. "Didn't punishing me give you a whole new purpose in life? Look at you – a celebrated police officer who plotted this extensive revenge plan which, trust me, no one in their sane mind could ever decipher it. Unless of course they look past the obvious and connect the invisible dots that are definitely out there."

Shukla felt his composure crack. "My brother was innocent. He didn't do anything wrong. He believed he was helping a troubled teenager."

"Oh, but I was a troubled teenager ACP Shukla. Just not the way he thought I was," Khushi grinned at the last part. "But I never got to say this: I am sorry for your loss. I didn't expect that the reactions to what I did were going to be this extreme." Khushi averted her eyes and lowered her voice.

"My sister-in-law was a simpleton who couldn't handle the news or the situation so she overdosed on sleeping pills stolen from my father's medicine supply. My brother couldn't handle multiple blows on his mind at the same time and became uncontrollable for several months before hanging himself. My mother went into depression and till last days of her life, she never smiled again – not when I became a police officer or got married or even when I had my first child. My father was the silent type but I could tell that the tragedy was eating him away slowly. He didn't see me wearing my police uniform or fall in love. He was long gone then. So yes, Ms. Gupta, one cannot fathom the repercussion of a small joke or a prank let alone the kind of damage you did to my brother."

Khushi looked at her lap didn't speak for several moments and Shukla wondered if she was crying. When she looked up there were no traces of tears of humiliation or repentance. They were beguilingly clear and void of any emotions. Tiredness of the day crept and a yawn escaped him.

What came after surprised him the most.

There was no contagious yawn or even traces of it on her face. She continued to look at him blankly.

It chilled him.

"So that's why you wanted to avenge me and my sister, is it not?" She asked. Shukla was still hooked on to the latest revelation and managed to nod his head. "I think that is noble and…understandable. But choosing loose cannon like Shyam to kill people was highly stupid."

"I think it served the purpose," Shukla replied dropping all the reservation about him. It was easier to be open and it would all finish very soon.

Khushi chuckled. "But it didn't. I mean, Shyam couldn't kill me. I am still alive."

"Kill you? That would be too easy Ms. Gupta. No, killing you wouldn't be satisfying. Not as satisfying as everything that has happened to you after your sister's death."

"I can understand your moral compass going haywire whenever I am around, but why kill Tara? Why kill her and not me?" Khushi couldn't hypothesize this. Tara was equally or probably even more guilty than her.

"Tell me Ms. Gupta, the 'task' Tara gave you was to seduce my brother. But you took it to next level by taking photographs and sending them to his wife and to the principal, were it not?" Shukla raised an eyebrow.

Khushi shrugged. "I improvised." She bit her lip and furrowed her eyebrows. "How do you know that? How did you know the exact nature of the task?"

Shukla smiled. "Tara told me, of course."

"Why would she tell you?" Khushi said, her voice raising a little.

Shukla smirked. Khushi stared at him for a whole minute when everything fell into place.

"Tara planned all this." Khushi's voice was soft but Shukla was appalled at the apathy in it.