Into The Shadows

by Aayush Borulkar

  Everyone in the room ran towards the window and leaned out in disbelief.

  “Holy shit!” exclaimed Ishaan as he saw a disfigured Abhimanyu on the top of a shattered SUV.

  Richa could not believe what she had done, and the whole villa reverberated with her shrill scream.

  They all scrambled back to the entrance of the house. Kaajal and Vibha were already standing there and turned in shock as they heard footsteps behind them. Abhimanyu’s disfigured body was lying on the top of the shattered SUV.

  “How did this even happen?!” asked Vibha, still in shock.

  Avinash went up to the body. “He is dead,” he announced, after checking the pulse.

  Everyone except Erika and the constables turned away as they could not stand the sight of their friend lying dead on the roof of a car. Richa sat on the pavement, crying hysterically, as if all her emotions were flowing out, all at once.

  “No one is at fault here,” said Erika coldly. “It was just an accident, and that is what is going to be mentioned in the report.”

  “What?!’ exclaimed Nishant. “Our friend here is dead, and you are suggesting that it is going to be reported as an accident?”

  “This must be a normal scenario for you guys, but that is our friend there, who is lying dead on that car,” said Kaajal.

  “Richa pushed him away in self-defence as he held her at gunpoint and threatened to kill her,” Erika explained. “And even if she gets charged and convicted, she will be admitted to an asylum which she already is in,” she added as Richa was still on the floor crying out loud.

  Nobody could believe that their friend was actually dead and that too, in such a gruesome manner. They could never forgive him for the horrendous crimes he had committed. But still, he was their friend and a companion. And nobody deserves a death like this, not even the devil himself.

  “So what do you suggest we should do?” asked Vibha.

  “We are going make a report stating that we had conclusive evidence that this is a homicide case where a total of four murders took place on the night of 23rd September 2000. Abhimanyu confessed of committing three of the four murders. But after realizing that his arrest was inevitable he became violent and held Richa at gunpoint, trying to abduct her and escape. In self-defence Richa pushed him, and he fell off the window. Hence it was nothing more than an act of self-defence,” Erika said. “Avinash, you contact the forensics team, and I will get the DCP on the phone and fill him in on everything,”

  Within an hour, the whole villa was filled with the sound of sirens as police vans and ambulances rushed in. Police officers and the forensic staff crowded the entire place. The five of them sat on the stairs at the front door, sipping on some hot tea, still shaken by the series of events, that had unfolded that day.

  “There arrives our transportation,” said Avinash as a police van came inside the gates. “You all will be traveling in this van, while Erika and I will be in the front car,’ he added.

  Everyone filed into the van, and turning back and looked at the villa for one last time and wished that they would never have to return to this scary place again. Erika and Avinash got into the SUV, and they all drove off, putting the villa and its horrors behind them.

  Three vehicles were now driving on the outskirts of Bardez. The van carrying the five friends in between the two SUVs carrying the police personnel, on either end of the van.

  “We finally cracked this one, huh,” said Avinash, leading the way for the other two vehicles behind him.

  “Yeah, I guess. But I am no less shaken than those five. This was indeed an intriguing case,” Erika replied.

  ‘Yeah, how can someone be…

  “Watch Out!!!!” exclaimed Erika.

  Two trucks came speeding in from the left side at full speed and crashed into the van and the SUV. Both the vehicles toppled and fell into the jungle while the third one spun and crashed into a tree. KABOOM!! The first two vehicles blew up in flames!

  There was debris everywhere, and both the vehicles caught fire, and their parts scattered all around. But suddenly from behind a nearby tree, came out Erika. Blood smeared all over her face and her right arm broken. Trying to walk her way out, she collapsed to the ground unconscious.

  Back at the Sethi’s…

  There was dead silence in the room. Arnav was now standing at the window peeking outside. As he finished with the story, he turned around to the couple. Malini was nowhere to be seen. Rishikesh had untied a few buttons of his shirt and was sitting comfortably on the chair. Sagarika was sitting beside Rishikesh, listening with utmost interest.

  “And with that, we end the story,” said Arnav clasping his palms as he walked back to the bed.

  “Uh-huh. That was one intriguing story, to be honest,” said Rishikesh, stretching as he got up.

  “One hell of a night huh. It always amazes me, that how do you even come up with such tangled plots?” said Sagrika to which Arnav modestly chuckled.

  “We will get going then,” said Rishikesh, falling prey to his contagious yawn.

  “It was a fabulous party Arnav” complimented Sagarika, as all three of them left the room.

  Malini was watching the television in the living room as she heard the footsteps, making her get up from the couch at once. The couple bid Rishikesh and Sagarika a goodbye.

  “Let’s watch something before we crash in,” requested Malini, as the couple made their way back into the living room.

  “When did you leave the room?” asked Arnav.

  “Arnav, I never came back inside the room again. I put Sania and her friends to sleep, and came into the living room” replied Malini

  “Is it?” asked a puzzled Arnav.

  “You and your story telling sessions, Arnav. You get completely engrossed in them and that’s the best thing I like about you” said Malini giving a peck on his cheeks.

  “Look at her. She is so young, but fate has such different plans for her,” said Malini, now turning her attention towards the television.

  “ACP Erika Lobo takes an early retirement,” read Arnav from the news headline.

  “She was the sole survivor when there was a prisoner transit, I guess. Ek saal pehele ki baath hai” Malini informed.

  “Damn! That’s sad. She is pretty young though,” said Arnav yawning widely as the news channel flashed a picture of Erika. “This is how it is. Finding someone guilty is just the tip of the iceberg. The real task is, getting them behind bars. And especially having a safe transit,” he added, yawning.

  “Come, let’s go to bed,” said Malini getting up from the couch.

  Arnav got up lazily. He turned the television off as they both made their way to the bedroom.

  ———————–x————————————–x——————–

  The complexity of the truth lies not only in finding it, but also lies in what you do with it once you have it. This is because, truth is like a shadow. A shadow is a part of a person, never leaves his company. It’s right there with us, even when we feel that it has left us. It’s just a matter of time, when the shadow creeps upon us again and becomes one. Just like that, the truth is also a part of our lives and will always remain so. How much ever we try to escape it, it somehow finds a way to creep into our lives

  A person wants to hide any truth only when he/she falls prey mainly to two emotions, Fear or Love.

  Fear and Love are relinquishments of logic and sanity. They can either build you or break you. But you just can’t meet it halfway.

  The walls stood steady, the floors held in tight, and the doors remained locked. Fear still lingered in the air that passed through these bricks as silence lay permanently on its walls. But tonight, the doors of this villa opened again after a long time as a man walked in.

  “The truth has been told, baba,” said Arnav kneeling down on the floor of the Bardez Villa as it stood still in the dead of night.

  * * *

  Please find my son↩︎

  I dont forge
t my son‘s belongings.We gifted him this on his birthday↩︎