Meet Her Eyes

Part 8

I know all of you have waited a long time for this and I have no excuse for that. It's just that- I want this story to be perfect....better than the rest of my work atleast.
And I have written and deleted this chapter 3 times in the last month.

Hope you enjoy this 4th draft.

Please click on the star icon at the bottom of the page to vote.

Somewhere far off, in another part of the forest, a lone wolf was howling againt the dark backdrop of the night, while his vicious predatory eyes glinted as he looked at the dazzling moon, up in the sky.

And Roopak saw the same vicious, animalistic glint reflected in his opponet's eyes, half of his face covered in hair, but through those dark locks, his bared teeth glinted at him like a savage half-human, half beast that had lost all control over reality..... panting, sweating - Animalistic in his behavior with a kind of madness that he had seen in no other human face before.

And with a voilent start, Roopak realized something else too - that those red rimmed eyes flashing before him - bore little resemblance to anything humane.

They were beastly, fanatical, crazy!

'My God!' He sharply inhaled to get through the haze of pain in his head that was increasing with every passing second. 'He has gone mad!'

Something flashed in the dim firelight, and it was only a moment before a humongous axe striked the ground where he had been laying just a heart beat ago.
He had slithered away from that fatal blow, just in the nick of time.

'But for how long?' He asked himself as his heart raced at a fanatic pace, black spots appearing in front of his eyes with pain while he lay there covered in muddy ditch.

With a slight tuck and a loud grunt, the axe was picked up again. "I will show you, what pain is.....you bastard! You son-of-a-bitch! Scoundrel....you took away my family! You destroyed me! My pride! My everything!'
The words were barely comprehensible, thrown at him like pelting stones - tangled in years of agony and bitterness.

But Roopak understood it, oh he understood it alright!....after all, he had felt the same pain and agony day after day, year after year, when he had realized the truth of his marriage.

"I-I..." 'Slash!' The axe striked again and Roopak saved himself with an inch to space, his thread of life hanging between that one inch of muddied ground.
Bent on his knees, he threw himself sideways and rolled until his back hit a thick tree trunk. He pulled himself upwards leaning on it and tried to find his horse in the darkened jungle, beacuse his life literally depended on it, now.

His sword, was on that horse and if he didn't get hold of it soon enough, he was going to be cut in half with that mad man's bloody axe.
Even now, he could hear the footsteps behind him, coming closer and closer.... the sound of dry leaves crunching beneath feet.....he squinted his eyes, trying to locate his steed, silently - while he leaned on the tree trunk for support, hiding away from his assailant.

And then he saw it, beneath an old fir tree, just a few feet away... the hazy shilhoutte of his white stallion stood restlessly swinging his head from side to side.

The approaching footsteps were too close now, too close for that giant axe to end his life with a single strike. And if he could see his horse in the dark, there was little doubt that his assailant could see him too.

Suddenly the sound of oncoming footsteps stopped, the dead silence of the night wrecked half his mind with fright of the unknown, while the rest half stung like death, from that earlier wound. There was little time to think now!

Now there was only time to act!

He knew what was coming and so he lurched, leaping away from that tree as fast as he could....as far as he could!

His heart was racing like a wild horse, as he scrambled like zealously through the forest, not looking back- never looking back!

There was no point of doing so, because he knew what was behind him! He could hear the deep animal like panting right behind him, the moans and grunts of the beast following him at his toes - who carried that axe - ready to finish him off!

But he kept his eyes fixed on his goal - at his swords hanging off his saddle -- the only thing that could save him tonight.
And god knows how it happened, but it did. He was successful in getting the sword that he pulled out of its sheath, and the horse kneighed loudly in the dark as he felt two bodies clashed togather on the ground.

The sound of clanging metals reverberated throughout the glade as the axe hit the sword. There was no light to see anything, nor was there time....it was a mad dance of blood and torn flesh on the angry tune of revenge that could only end with death.

It was that resounding clash that finally woke Sukanya up from her unconsious stupor.

"You killed herrr!" The gruff voice was so agonised that for a moment Roopak pitied the man in front of him. A man, who had gone half crazy for a lying cheating woman.
But who was he to judge him? Roopak asked himself cynically. Despite knowing all her failures, he had also loved Charu, hadn't he?

"I did not kill her! I loved her!" He knew there was no point in saying all these things, in fact there was no point of saying anything to this half deranged man who was only fixated at killing him.

"She was my wife!" The large body fell on the ground with that tortured groan as Roopak's blade sliced through his chest.
Blood gushed out of that deep wound that drenched his tunic in red as he writhed like a wingless bird in the dirt, while the blade of his sword still pointed at his neck.

The beast now caged and under his mercy.

"Move one inch and I shall slice your throat in two!" Roopak hissed through his clenched teeth, as he stood over his enemy in triumph!

'You killed my... wife!' He repeated in his anguished, shaking voice over and over again and Roopak watched in pity as his axe fell away from his grasp, and he whimpered in utter pain.

'And look at that - waste of yet another life, chasing after revenge for a crime that he had never committed.' Roopak sighed ready to finish this game....when his eyes caught sight of a long shadow moving near the fire, where he had last seen his wife.

He jerked away in surprise and turned to look ......and that proved to be his deadliest mistake of all time.

All of it happened in a blink, like a ghastly nightmare of hell. A nocturnal predator was wailing somewhere nearby, calling for its mate while a large owl hooted errily from afar.

And before Roopak understood anything, he was lying on the ground, kicked down viciously like a rag doll while his hand was twisted behind his back like a rope - round and round and round it went, until he heard his wrist snap, the crack of the bones splintered into little pieces like a dry twig.

'Aaarrrrghhh...' A very loud beastly cry resounded through the trees, so loud in fact that his horse kneighed in a panic stricken voice and bolted away from the glade. The voice had come from him...his torn broken hand lay uselessly on one side, while he tried breathing through his nose.

While an equally agonised voice repeated the same haunted words over and over and over again, right beneath his ear 'you killed my...wife!' 'You killed her!'

It was hell, the pain of his arm was so sharp and agonising, the wound on his head throbbing....and those words- those hauntingly drasted words were enough to turn him mad.....so much so that he was ready to die and end it for once and for all!

And then he heard it - the soft feminine voice of his wife was calling out to him through the dark! She was asking for him! She needed him!

He can't loose now!