Sun Moon & Stars Volume II Call Of The Skull Men

CHAPTER 39

Half-past ten in the night it had started to rain. Three hours since the intensity had increased. Shomak and Ragnik had come back after performing Sashidhar's last rites. Shomak's heart was ripping into pieces inside his chest. He felt a cruel press on his neck choking him. His fingers had started to feel numb as he pulled them tightly into a fist.

The heavy downpour had waterlogged the entire area. The small pond of Bougunvillaea's garden overflowed to form a running stream towards the main gate. Shomak saw the water running around his ankles in a high force while he stood under a tree getting drenched. There was a light breeze casually blowing over the greens. As the trees shook gently a soft brush of air touched Shomak's face trying to reach his grief and take it away.

He looked up breathing heavily not getting bothered by the falling raindrops from the tree leaves. The disturbance of nature somehow soothed him. Drastic changes were appearing in him, which he disliked. He craved to go back to the life he knew. All these were becoming hard to accept.

"Seven, eight, nine, ten..." Shomak kept counting to calm himself. When he had touched the fire stick to Sashidhar's corpse the pain that he was holding up erupted; escaping from his mouth in the form of a long scream.

"Seventeen, eighteen, twenty..."

Usually, Shomak believed in patience. He knew any decision taken over anger could never be the right one. However, that belief had changed along with the recent changes he went through.

"Twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven..."

His mind burned in the thirst for revenge. He wanted to slash those Kaanthalis exactly in two parts the way Raktim had done to Sashidhar.

Pressing his head to the trunk of the tree he gritted his teeth, "Thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty–"

His hands relaxed. The rage that was boiling his blood suddenly started to subside. Through the wetness of the downpour, he felt Ela's warm touch. He looked down to see Ela's fingers entangled with his.

Ela held his hand firmly leaning closer to him, not letting even an inch of empty space in between. Shomak frowned looking up. She was smiling at him. Her saree clinging to her like a second skin, her face washed by the rain, her hair soaking wet, and she smile; so calm, so peaceful.

"You are not alone Shomak," she said looking down to where their feet rested deep in the stream of water. "I know how it feels. How you are feeling. Not connected by blood but some bonds are thicker." She gulped strictly refusing to cry.

She gripped his hand tighter before asking, "I'll be going to meet Priya di. Will you come with me?"

Shomak didn't reply.

"It is okay if you do not want to."

He still didn't reply.

"It-it would be supporting for me if you do."

Still silent, he nodded. Leaning back on the tree trunk he heaved a sigh. He felt relief that not everything was lost in between them. At least Ela didn't move away after that failed display of love he had shone earlier towards her.

Ragnik didn't sleep. He smoked and smoked while correcting all those wrong spots Madhumita had marked on the map.

"What are you doing?" Geeta almost yelled finding him tampering with their map. "Who gave you the permission to touch this?" She snatched the pencil from Ragnik's hand.