The Final Call-Part 3.

He was awake, he was awake all night. Every now and then, he would peep through the curtains, and look at the dazzled sky. The stars flickered, and so did his heart. He saw the moon, all white and milky and beautiful, of course. And occasionally the cool breeze flew. It ran through the curtains at the open window, and it ran through his hair. He closed his eyes, to feel them go right through him. On the other side of the bed lay Swarna. The night was nothing but vengeful. They tore each other apart, in its very literal sense. She didn’t moan, but she screamed in pleasure. He wasn’t soft, rather he ran through her. Both of them looked into each other’s eyes, occasionally, and things were spoken. She needed more and he was not done. They ravished love, all night long, and when they were tired, they dozed off, into the deep slumbers of theirs, without uttering a single word, at the far ends of the bed, with no promises of invading each other for the whole of what was left of the night! 

For her, it was more of an adventure. That well known guy, he ended up being in the bed with me, kind off a feeling. She had nothing to ponder over, or worry about. She knew, once the morning settled in, he would be gone, and so will the aura. She was doing, what human beings are supposed to do the best, living in the moment. And with all of this in her mind, she had gone off to sleep. 

In each moment that he had made love to her, there was less of love and more of hunger inside him. He was being driven by a strange pleasure. The pleasure that promised him an ecstasy the next time when he was to meet Isha, a force so powerful, that it made him shed all of his colours of humanity, and made him become a hound, for the very sake of his selfishness. Each time he thrust himself into her, in his mind, he was counting, a beat less, a moment reduced, before his union with Isha. And this very thought made him go all out. When he was done, he threw Swarna away. She was, now, nothing more than carcass for him. He was done with her. All that now he could think of, was about the sun and the mist and the morning. The clock ticked, and he slithered. The morning was going to be special. Things were going to come to an end. He had made a promise to himself and Isha. He was to put a stop to all of this, he was to begin things from a new knot. He was to untangle things, and unleash the love, all of it that was hidden inside that trembling heart of his. He looked at the sky, it was still dark and cold. He counted starts, he made shapes out of them. The night was young, and he was as restless as he was determined. Like a sad toddle, he dragged himself through it.

                                                                              ***

The glance was quick, the act was even quicker. The very moment he felt his skin getting lit up against the morning sun, he was out of the bed. No good bye, leaving no words behind, he put on his clothes and climbed down the stairs. He did not give a fuck about the girl he slept with last night. All that mattered to him was Isha, and every other woman he met, was only supposed to bring them closer. They are destined to work that way, he had always taught himself, he had made himself believe. For sometimes truth is what we want to believe, and not what we should believe in. He walked through the pathway. It was wet. There was water on the pavements. The Lily was drenched, and it sparkled, in the sun light. It had rained the night before. He was astonished, why he didn’t realize any of it. As a matter of fact, he didn’t remember much about the night before. He stopped. He looked at his watch. 7:05 am. I have an hour to kill, he told himself. He took out a cigarette, and lit it. Chewing on the first puff and letting it out, he thought and he smiled. All of the fury and the fragility were coming to an end today. The epilogue of a fable, that had been around for long, wandering through the same old lanes of lust, agony and misunderstandings.
 
                                                                         ***

Isha woke up broken, worse that what she had been the previous night and there was no consoling her. She loved him. That was a fact there. She despised him to the core that he was the only person that she could not stand. That was a fact there too. She was poised, unable and uncertain, of the call that she had to make. The final call. In her heart, she had already been through a lot of it. In her mind, she had to get the answers. And in those moments of restoring believes and believing that things will be restored, there was a moment, a split second, when she knew that he was coming to her. She knew it had to happen. It had happened many a times in the past. She curled back into the corner. Her slashed skin lay bathed in the dried blood. Her clothes had red spilled all over them. Those gentle red eyes begged of mercy, the splashed kohl, of forgiveness. All of those emotions, they were running away from something, something of which she was made a part of, and something of which, she never knew she was a part of. 


Ash made her way to the corner, she curled up besides Isha. She consoled her, she confronted her. She took her into her arms. The dried blood, mixed with sweat and blood gave out an odour. The ones that you get in creepy places, pungently sweet. She fetched for both of them drinks and they sat down, and they talked, or at least tried to. To get rid of all of what they had been through, to spare for themselves a little moment, when all that matters is that small talk. Then there was a knock. Isha’s eyes sprung out. Ash eyes were blood red with anger. They looked at each other. It was anticipated, an unwritten scroll, a foreseen occurrence that was to happen, that had to happen. The girls spoke to each other, not in words, but they understood what the other wanted. Isha begged for forgiveness, Ash sprayed disgust all over. She darted to the door, and he was there. Without uttering a single word, she went away, leaving the hunted and the poacher in each other’s proximity. He stepped in, he closed the door behind him, he bolted every lock on it. He did not wished to be stopped, he didn’t wish to be interrupted. He then walked through the house, he knew exactly where he would find her.

                                                                               ***

The moment, the very first moment, when he had met her, he knew this was not something that would pass away as the monsoon clouds. It was there to stay, and he wanted to flow. He wished to be powerless, he wished to be tattered and he wished to be loved, as never before. And that was the very reason that he decided to give into the insatiable desire, the irresistible urge. 

And then, as time passed he weaved all of his world around her, and saved all of it for the last. He wanted the final act to be special. There had been enough words, already. He was cruel, he knew it, and it was time, he decided, that he stepped up! And while swaying through the turbulence, he knew it. This was just the beginning. He had just met her. He was still to be in the turbulence, for she was to be there. And he let himself drown in the scented stings, that she embarked upon him.

                                                                             ***

He found her, exactly where he had thought she would be. Their eyes met. He walked towards her, and sat right next to her. She leaned over on his shoulders, and he put his arm around her.

“I have missed you” Anuj said, with all of the love and affection that he could churn up from his decayed inside. He was in love with her, and that was all that she had to know, and with the very assurance of the words that he had uttered, she knew that she had not lost him. Saved again, she sighed. And at the very moment, she started getting filled with agony, hatred.

“Who was it, this time?”Isha asked, her fury evident.

“Someone, who could never get to be you, for me. No one has been there yet, except, of course, you."


With two different people, in this or any other scenario, this would have been nothing buy a cheesy smart talk, the ones that people put to use, once they are caught red handed. But here, it was very much plain, more than evident, that it was their love speaking. Anuj did love her, with all of his heart, and it was this very love, that drove him to do all of the acts, the ones, that other’s considered brutal. She never understood why he did it, she never asked. She always had that invisible assurance of having him, right in her arms. He kissed those open sores of hers. The smell of blood still lingered on her skin. 

Their lips met, vigorously squeezing out all of the lust that they had in store for one another. He bit her neck and she scratched his back. Sweat drops rolled over their bodies as they fondled each other. His naked flesh felt cold on her. He devoured on her breasts. Their hands clasped and he entered her. She moaned, for this was the pleasure for which she undertook the ordeal, he screeched, for this was his ultimate prize, both of them drove each other to a new level of ecstasy and pleasure, each time they looked into each other’s eyes. And it ended. The innocent act, that the society has killed and butchered, reaching at the pinnacles of joy and contentment. And most importantly, a new horizon of whatever they had for each other. Love is a very over-rated emotion, he had once told her. He said he had read it somewhere. 

She lay on his bare bosom, their beats felt by one another, and then they drifted off to sleep. One last time, he remembered again, this last time, and it will all come to an end. 

***

She felt complete, she woke up from her slumber. It had been a while she had had the feeling. And then it dawned upon her, Anuj was with her. She scrambled for her clothes, she rushed out of the room, and there he saw him sitting right in front of her. And in his hand, he held a knife.

“Anuj.......”

“Shhh, come, sit. Right here, right next to me, right in my arms.”

“What is this?”

“This, oh nothing. This is how I make sure I don’t hurt you and you still be mine.”

“You are scaring me. Stop this right now. Drop that thing, throw it off. Please, I beg of you.”

“I have not turned crazy Isha. This has been something that I had been planning for long. I won’t put you through all of it anymore. I wont hurt you anymore. This shall end, and it will end today. It ends right now.”

He stood up, facing her. He made her stand up. He held her hands, for one last time, he said to himself, and then, into those trembling, scared hands, he thrust the knife. And she gave him a look, and he knew he had to explain it to her. He had to make her put an end to things.

“Love is only a part of what I feel for you. I need to be loved back, but that is not the only thing I want from you. I want your body, I want your emotions, I want to be what you wish you were, for that will bring me closer to you. I want to be your Pandora’s box, the one that you fear opening. I wish to be the surge, the wave, that rides up all of it inside you.”

“And every time I touch you, I wish to feel the feeling of the very first warmth that you gave me, our very first kiss, the very first time we made love, I want it to be the same all the time, I wish and I want to make it last forever. And when I do that, I put you through things, that you were never a part of. You got entwined in the universe, of which you are not of. I give it life, and I put it to death, and I kill you breath by breath, and then, still I feel I have what they call love, for you. But, now, things have to end, and for one first and last time, I am putting things into your hands.”

“You know I wont do it. The hurt has become my blood and sweat now. Without you....”

“Without me, you wont exist, I know. Do it, hurt me, put me to the purgatory, and then unshackle yourself.”

She looked at him, flabbergasted. He knelt down in front of her. In his eyes, there were no fears, but a smile flashed rather. A smile, that said the tale of a story, beautiful fable coming to an end. And it was then she knew it. This had to happen. This has to happen. Only then he would live on, somewhere else to feast upon her, and she would be waiting to be preyed upon.

She gripped it tight, and then in a flash, she ran it through him, right into his heart, and then crimson emerged, and it engulfed everything around them, and the he fell, on to the floor. His eyes wide open, his lips still sported the smile. A smile of love, a smile that spoke of contentment. Anuj was a dead man now.

And she, she felt calmer. Been ages, since she had felt that. Somewhere, she knew things would come to an end, at this corner, this very same corner. But she never anticipated it, so quickly. All her life, he had submitted to him, and today he bent down in front of her. He had given her, what she had always wanted, the assurance, the promise that he would not touch anyone else. And she knew too, that it was an end for her too. She would never be complete anymore, she would never be inconsolable, she would never weep, she would never scar herself, and neither would he kiss those scars. The circle of life had come to a full circle. The wind blew her hair as she looked out. The sun was brighter than ever. All of it, now made sense to her, and she knew what she had to do now. And then she flew, she fell. And in those tiny frames of time, she sported a smile, the very smile that Anuj had. 

 

Bang!! She fell on to the floor below, and as she saw her blood oozing out, she knew she had done it. He never wanted anyone to touch her again. No one would touch her again. No one would know what they stood for or what they meant, but only them. Their worlds, they created, they lived in it, and when they knew it was the time, they brought down every brick from it. The promised land did exist, they had travelled to the neverland together, and she knew no one would ever believe that, for no one could see the world as they saw it. She knew no one would live their lives again, for you need to see it with their eyes, eyes that would never come to life again. The tale had now come to an end, not a head to start with, not a tail to end it at. People said they destroyed the gift, they knew they had lived a thousand lives together.

                                                                              THE END