It’d been a month since I joined the office and was working under the madman, I mean my boss Samar. Yes, I said he was stunning and gorgeous and what not, but then I didn’t know he was also a jerk. A stupid workaholic. I understood office space was for work, but then wasn’t it the space where we spent most of our lives? So, a little bit of chitchat and a light atmosphere would only make the place pleasant. The rebel in me protested to work under such a stringent atmosphere.
I looked around. No one was watching. Good.
Shewww…I threw it at Sakshi.
“EEEEKKKKKK!” Sakshi screamed and jumped on her chair, pushing the fake lizard down.
“Oh god, Tia, grow up,” Sakshi groaned, shooting a warning glare at me. “You are 24, not four.”
“And you? How old are you? Scared of a fake lizard.” I managed to speak in-between my nonstop laughter as I picked up the fake lizard from the floor.
We gained a few eyes, but I didn’t care.
“Look, Devansh is coming, now it’s his turn.” I smiled cunningly.
“No…” Sakshi warned me, but it was too late, and the lizard went flying on Devansh’s white shirt. He didn’t shout like Sakshi, but he was startled for sure. He simply pulled the lizard from his shirt and threw it back at me. “Silly girl.” He smiled and walked farther inside the pantry to get his tea from the machine.
“God Tia, grow up.” Sakshi rolled her eyes.
“God Sakshi, grow down.” I laughed at my own silly joke and resumed eating my lunch.
After 20 minutes of break, we were back to work. As we entered our bay, I read through the motivational quotes lined on the left wall, then I gazed at the right side where three half partitioned cubicles ran side by side occupied by Admin employees. I wondered why their faces were so sullen. Well, maybe it was because they didn’t throw fake lizards at each other.
I turned around to enter my cubicle, and only when I ran into my HR manager, Neena, who was eyeing me suspiciously, did I realize I was smiling.
“Girl, tell me what makes you smile all the time.” She asked titling her head a little with one hand on her waist.
“This.” I threw the lizard at her and she gave out a little ‘Ouch’. Huh, no one entertained me the way Sakshi did, she was the easiest to fool.
“Grow up Tia.” she said nothing new, but why would I grow up when being a child was so much fun?
My intercom buzzed as soon as I reached my desk; it was my arrogant cum hot boss, Samar.
“Come in the cabin. Right now.” He said and disconnected the phone. I had readied the reports he’d asked for so, I expected some appreciation when I entered his cabin.
“What’s going on outside?” he wasn’t shouting, but his tone had an undercurrent of reprimand.
“What?” I asked innocently.
“I hope I don’t need to control you like a teacher controls a ten-year-old. This is an office, not a day care. Do you understand that?” he was signing some papers, as if looking at me would have been a waste of his precious time.
“I don’t understand.”
“You don’t?” He finally looked at me and his cold stare gave me chills.
Sakshi loved his eyes, so captivating and intense, but she failed to see the lack of emotions in them. The stillness of them was…was…I don’t know…it wasn’t normal.
But for the first time, emotion glinted in his eyes.
Anger.
He got up from his chair and walked up to me. I tilted my head at 90 degrees to look at him.
“I don’t want any complaints from anyone regarding any of my team members. You can’t throw off silly lizards like a kindergarten kid. Do you understand that?” It wasn’t a question; it was a command with a hint of finality, but the rebel in me refused to surrender.
“Mr. Dixit, I always finish the work allotted to me, so please be rest assured that the work won’t suffer. And regarding any complaints, don’t worry, no one is going to complain. Thankfully, I joke around only with those who get my sense of humour.”
Though I was shivering internally at the way he was staring at me, I didn’t let it show on my face. Our glare game continued for a while when he finally broke it and turned back to his desk.
“You finished your work on time. I see. You can leave.” His demeanour was calm with his hands in his pocket and his voice low, but the undertone of warning was evidently clear.
Within an hour, I was overloaded with so many tasks that I didn’t even get time to use the washroom. Finally, I shut down my laptop at 8.00 p.m. Only me, Sakshi and Samar were in the office. And when we left, Samar was still working. I guess he didn’t mind sleeping on his desk and then waking up there on his laptop.
Sakshi and I walked towards the basement parking. The place seemed straight out of a horror movie; strange vibes of unease mixed with the smell of fresh paint lingered in the air. The click clack of Sakshi’s high heels echoed in the eerie silence of the secluded basement. Our shadows grew taller and shorter as we walked from light to dark, light to dark beneath the overhead LED lights.
I saw something on my two-wheeler as we got closer. I strained my eyes to adjust to the darkness.
It was a rose.
A red rose.
I brushed aside the anxiety that was about to raise its head, picked up the rose, and smelt it. Of course, my colleagues couldn’t fool me so easily.
“A red rose…oh so…who’s he?” Sakshi made a face.
“Who?”
“Your secret admirer, the rose boy.”
“Some silly colleague trying to get even.” I winked at her, trying to hint at the obvious.
“Or maybe your secret boyfriend.” She hit my elbow with her own.
“I don’t have a boyfriend. Ok?”
She stopped, and when the only sound of her heels cracking on the floor stopped with her, the silence became scary. “If you don’t have a boyfriend, then this is serious Tia.”
I pulled out my tongue, she couldn’t fool me so easily.
But looking back, I should have been scared. Isn’t fear the first step towards precaution?
6. The
Dark Room
…Now
The room is dead dark and smells of fear, vengeance, and sin.
Tia tries to open her eyes, but fails miserably, her eyelids flutter against a black cloth tied around her eyes. She tries to bring her hand to her eyes, but she fails again; her hands are handcuffed with chains behind her back. A flicker of a memory passes through and panic consumes her; the injured puppy, the dark night, the large burlap sack that came over her head before she could react, and then the strange smell coming from the sack that made her dizzy first and then unconscious.
NOOO!
Every single nerve of her body shivers with panic…It must be a nightmare…it has to be…such things don’t happen in real life.
Her stomach is in knots and a tremor passes through her body, and within no time her whole body is rocking back and forth, without her control. Her breathing becomes heavier as she gasps for breath, tears wet her blindfold and mixes with the sweat dripping down her forehead before reaching her lips. She licks it maniacally to soothe her drying throat. But it doesn’t help, her breathing gets heavier and heavier, her body continues to shake violently…
Suddenly she is aware of someone’s presence in the room. The hairs on the back of her neck straighten when rapid breathing other than her own fills the room. The breathing screams of excitement as it grows louder and nearer, and then a hand reaches out to her, grabs her and traces her body from her head to her toe. It’s not the touch of flesh on her skin, what is it? leather gloves? Tia struggles to revolt but her body freezes, her voice traps in her throat and she hates herself for being so weak. Her mind screams to revolt but it seems her body is totally disconnected from her mind; it has surrendered to the fear that has consumed her. Then the evil hand holds her hair in a tight grasp and pushes her head downwards as cold metal touches her lips.
Tip of a steel
glass…
Water…
She gulps it down as if her life depends on it. The captor raises the glass as she drinks and only half of the water makes it through her throat, the remaining drops wet her fitted silk top and her captor’s eyes washes over her.
It’s quite a while before she finds her voice.
“Where …where…am I? and…and… who…who…who… are you?” Her voice comes out in small gasps.
A high-pitched voice of a little boy pierces through the stale cold air.
“Don’t ask me who I am,
because you will fail to understand
I am love.
I am hatred
I lie somewhere in between.
You know?
Love can pe pure.
Love can be sinful.
My love for you lies somewhere in-between.”
The lisp in the voice would have been endearing in normal situations, but this small shady room, thick with humidity, hatred and vengeance is anything but normal.
“Who… who are you? what do you want?” Tia’s voice trembles and she stops trying to free herself from the unbreakable chains that are binding her hands.
A cold, cunning smile spreads across her captor’s face. As much as the captor wants to see the expression in her eyes, the blindfold is their lifeline; it will push Tia into illusions from which there will be no escape.
“Who are you? For god’s sake, please open my blindfold, please open…”
A sharp slap across her right cheek stuns her before shutting her up. The slap is so forceful that it reverberates through her whole body before leaving a dark mark on her face. She can’t bring herself to ask anything anymore.
The hands reach to her hair and pulls her towards one side of the room. She almost stumbles from a small bed she didn’t know she was lying on.
A cry locks in her throat as she’s pushed towards a door that she feels with her hands, then she is pushed inside. It’s a while before she understands the captor is showing her the washroom. She is then dragged back to her room.
She feels a prick on her right arm and then she slips into a daze, tears wet her blindfold and slowly she cuts off from this world and slips into oblivion.
In the drift, she is still waiting to wake up from the nightmare. Hasn’t she woken up from such nightmares many times? But deep in her core she knows it’s real this time and is creepier than any of her nightmares.
Dreams are a figment of imagination and Tia’s imagination was never dark enough to match this reality.
7. Tia
Then…
Since that ‘lizard incident’ my boss had submerged me in work. I didn’t even get time to look up from my laptop.
“What happened, Tia? Are you ok?”
I turned back at Sakshi’s voice. “Yes, why?” When did she come?
“Its past lunch time and no pranks yet.” She teased me.
“It’s the silence before a storm is about to strike.” I winked. But no storm came, only silence followed.
Finally, for the first time in a while, I was able to finish my work by 7 p.m. and I was ready to shut down my computer when a new email titled ‘Urgent’ from ‘Samar Dixit’ popped up. I tried to ignore it, but I knew that he knew I was still in office, so I opened the email. I contemplated doing the job next day, but my intercom buzzed. “Tia, I need those reports, fast.” Samar’s authoritative tone cut through the line.
“Mr. Dixit, I will finish this work, but for next time, I would appreciate it if the deadlines are realistic and new tasks are assigned a little in advance of leaving time.”
“There are two types of people in this world,” he said. “Those who fear work and others who are always ready to take on new challenges. You have to decide which category you belong to.” Before I could reply, the line disconnected.
I controlled the urge to bang the phone back in its place, slumped back in my chair and closed my eyes for five minutes. I badly needed that break. Then I started with the job. It was almost 9 p.m. by the time I finished the work. Everyone had left except Samar, Devansh and me.
“Huh, it’s so late.” I complained to Devansh who was also packing his bag.
“Get used to it. You are working under Mr. Dixit.” He rolled his eyes.
We walked outside the office leaving Mr. Dixit alone in his office.
“Does this guy ever go home?” I pointed back with my thumb.
“Not that I know of,” he smiled.
“How long have you been working with him?”
“It’s been four years.” We reached the lift and entered in.
“Four years? I am not sure I can survive that long with him.”
“I agree it’s difficult to work under him, but that man is a reservoir of intellect and new ideas. Every day I learn something new from him. He taught me to push my limits, challenge my beliefs. There were so many deals we had lost, but he didn’t give up. His new ideas brought back all of our lost clients. He doesn’t know how to accept defeat.”
He doesn’t know how to accept defeat. His words reverberated in my mind. Was it good or bad?
“You know his philosophy? If someone denies you something, make sure they return to you begging for the same thing someday.”
“Isn’t that arrogance?”
“When put into right direction, it’s not. Believe me, when I tell you that you will learn a lot from him.”
The lift opened and we walked into the isolated basement.
Maybe Devansh was right, but I wished he also learnt something from us; to keep a balance between a professional life and a personal life. Smiling a little and allowing others to breathe wouldn’t’ hurt.
“What’s that?” Devansh asked when we were near our vehicles.
There was again, a red rose on my two-wheeler. A small folded chit fluttered beneath the rose. So, now they were trying to scare me with a chit, a rose wasn’t enough. I opened the chit and struggled to read in the dim light. The words haphazardly written over with the red ink gave me chills.
“My little doll, stop coming to my dreams, stop doing crazy things to me.”
I crushed the chit and threw it away forcefully. Why the hell was I trembling all over? I wasn’t scared. Of course, I wasn’t scared.
I looked around to see if I could catch anyone hiding away, but nobody was there.
Except Devansh.
I wasn’t sure if he read those words, I hoped not. Would he go to that extent to take his sweet revenge? Or was it Sakshi’s plan? Or, had they all come together to freak me out?
“See, it’s none of my business, but…” Devansh tried to say something but I cut him off.
“Oh my god, you all want to freak me out. it’s not going to work.” Why was my voice trembling? They couldn’t fool me so easily.
“No, we are not trying to freak you out. None of us would write something like that.” He pointed towards the chit lying on the floor.
He’d read those words. Shit.
He pulled out his wallet from his pocket and contemplated opening it. His hands stopped once and his eyes looked lost, then finally he pulled out a photo.
“She is Ruhi, my sister.” He showed me the photo. The light in the basement was dim but I could easily see that she was beautiful.
“She was like you, Tia.”
Was…
When I looked at him, he avoided eye contact and his gaze shifted back to the photo. In the momentary silence that followed, my mind was still stuck on his word ‘was’. Was she dead?
“Someone was stalking her.” He finally broke the silence, still staring at his sister’s photo. In that moment, he didn’t look like the ambitious determined man I’d known him to be, he looked helpless. Vulnerable. “He claimed be her secret admirer, but she took it lightly. She didn’t’ even tell us. She thought she was old enough to handle her issues. She even admitted that for a while she thought it was exciting, that she thought her admirer was some hunk who would sweep her of her feet. But when the s
talker came face to face with her, she was shocked. He confessed his love in a slurred voice reeking of alcohol, his hairs were dyed purple, and he was shorter than her. He didn’t take her rejection in good spirit. He blamed her for misleading him by her silence all the time. When he started following her everywhere, we filed a police report, but before they could reach him, he attacked her with acid.” His voice cracked and he closed his eyes to hide the moisture brewing in them.
“I am so sorry Devansh.” I touched his hand that was still holding the photo.
He shook his head “She…she… never allowed us to take any other photo of her. Her face…her face... She is in there, I mean in that body somewhere, but we can’t find her. She is lost.”
Is… she is alive. That word should have comforted me. Should have.
“She was just like you Tia; trusting and innocent.” He paused, hesitated. “And beautiful.” The intensity of his eyes boring into mine made me uncomfortable so my gaze shifted from him and finally rested on Ruhi’s photo. She was smiling like she had no worry in the world. A deep sadness covered me, and I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t find the right words, so I just remained silent.
He put the photo back into his wallet and gently touched my shoulder. “Please be careful.”
I nodded, diverting my gaze from his eyes that were filled with so much concern that I felt awkward. I walked to my two-wheeler and allowed myself to calm down, but not long enough for Devansh to read me, then I pulled out my vehicle.
He didn’t say anything, but in my mirror I saw him following me to my home.
He wanted to protect me.
Or so I thought.
8. Tia
“Tia, are the reports for the meeting with Taneja’s ready? We have to leave in 20 minutes.” Samar tapped on my desk.
“Yes, Mr. Dixit.” I said to nobody in particular, he had already walked away.
Beyond Lies Page 2