Posted:
A/N: I will not be writing an introduction because the mystery will be revealed otherwise. I hope you can figure out the characters and their past from the story itself.
[Spring 2012,
Federal Martial Prison,
Location Unknown]
His heavy footsteps stopped just short of her cell. He watched her sleep in a cloud of darkness, like a grim reaper floating away from light. Rays of sun seeping through the cracks in the solitary confinement glistened the dust in their glory. Mocking laughter escaped his lungs before he could control himself. She stirred awake watching him without any semblance of an expression. He stood still, waiting. This silent exchange of establishing power went on for ten minutes. Then, he kicked open the iron door blocking him from ringing his hands around her neck and choking her to the Satan's den.
She wriggled under his touch but the protest was still silent, not a cry of help escaped her chapped lips.
"You disgust me", he said as he let go and watched her settle back down into her original position.
She curved her lip into a lopsided smile and wiped the bottom of her chin with a knuckle.
"I am going to make sure you never get out of here alive", he screamed so close to her face she could count the number of veins pulsating in his throat. Her cuffed hands reached out to caress his stubble. He pushed her back with so much force a fresh cut appeared on a recently treated wound. She placed her fingers on the site of injury and drew blood, waving it to the guards waiting outside. They rushed to her rescue, escorting the angry man of the cell. Then, stormed her off to the jail's infirmary.
Rishabh Kundra berated himself, now in vain. He'd lost his cool yet again. He'd come here to crack her, not crack open her skull. And here he was banned from visits for another week. He promised not to repeat his mistakes the next time and took off.
One week later, he was back. This time with a colleague from the prosecutor's office. He'd promised to hold Rishabh back should he lose his shit in front of that devilish criminal. He was sure he would. And he did.
"You f**king baby killer!" he puffed up his hair in frustration as the shouting in Madhubala's cell escalated.
"I don't care if I have to starve you to death, you are not getting anything until you tell me how you killed that kid".
She sat below the angry man holding on to her last shred of dignity, if there was one for a convicted murder like her. They'd starved her for six weeks now, refused medical treatment to the many wounds made on her skull. She was pretty sure the last one Rishabh made last week was seeping pus now. And no amount of turmeric dressing could replace the antibiotics she was denied. Even an elementary school kid would tell you her human rights were violated. But in a nation that had tagged her the reincarnation of devil himself, she stood no chance. So she stopped speaking up and started rebelling instead. If this pretentious rich lawyer was going to get anything out of her, it would be over her dead body.
"Tell me, you f**king bitch, are you happy now? Happy that you victims are rotting in a sewer somewhere in Andheri? What did you do to them?"
She broke out into another fit of laughter, one that invited more scorn from the man pacing above her. He kicked her in the abdomen and she fell off the wall on impact. Her hands involuntarily guarded her stomach as she could nothing more than cry in pain. Her black and white striped pajamas were suddenly stained red like a forest of clouds taking over bright skies. He seemed alarmed as he watched her slip in and out of consciousness. The terrified co-lawyer called the doctor.
Five hours passed in darkness until she opened her eyes to his figure again.
"You didn't tell me", Rishabh hesitated getting words out of his mouth. "You were pregnant?"
She remained silent, perhaps absorbing the shock that was now inevitable.
"Haha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, haha", she pointed a finger toward him and continued her insane laughter seizure until every soul in the infirmary was silenced by the jarring meaning of her words.
"I am a baby killer, now I turned you into a baby killer. We're no different now, are we Kundra? Haha, haha, haha, haha, ha,...,ha...ha".
She suddenly turned silent. Rishabh lowered his head afraid of what she might discover about his own demons that he'd rather keep hidden. This woman was a mirror into his own evil, one that he was too terrified to confront. Yet here he was staring at himself as seen through her clear eyes.
"Don't worry", she said at the very moment he needed it. "It wasn't alive, just a clump of cells. It wouldn't have survived even without you starving me. I don't blame you. You're not me".
"We're different", he added like it was the straw he'd been looking for to escape and she very easily handed it to him.
Kabhi Neem Neem Kabhi Shahad Shahad
