Love And Lies Are Red

15

Bang!

And it hit her straight above her waist. Abhimanyu had tried to stop her from shooting Rafeen on impulse when she had pulled out the gun from the rear pocket of her jeans. He had no idea how did she get that gun or if she stole it from the police station but the revolver in her hand could put a lot of lives at stake. The moment she had aimed straight at her sister's head, the orifice of the gun was guarded by Abhimanyu's palm. He held its mouth and tried to snatch it from her but Arshia had gained some type of supernatural power that prohibited his dominance on her. He knew he had to calm Arshia down before she could.....but he was too late. A glance fell somewhere else for a minute and blasphemy happened. Arshia had pulled the trigger and the bullet was in Rafeen's abdomen within seconds. She wanted to shoot more but luck had it that it was the last cursed bullet in that gun. Thus, Arshia marked the asymptote of her safe zone.
Even Abhimanyu couldn't hold his shriek in that sudden moment. Aadil started patting on the door vigorously as if there was a monster inside that room.

Sense then entered Arshia's brain. She had just shot her sister with a damn gun. She who had helped her in so many times. The only substitute of her mother.
Abhimanyu then screamed such that made his throat cough following it,
"How could you kill your sister, Arshia!! Your reflexes have taken upon you and driven you insane".
Arshia's adrenaline was trying to burst her blood vessels. Her hand felt a strong seismic sensation and she dropped the gun to hold her throbbing head. Abhimanyu caught her dizzy self dropping to the ground on time and made her sit carefully on the couch. She immediately hid her face in his chest and weeped with horrible trembles. There was gooseflesh all over her body and her body, her breath and specially her forehead felt like iron having absorbed all the thermal energy of the sun.
He was in two minds whether to call an ambulance for Rafeen or try to soothe Arshia's heightened emotions. He brought out his phone to dial for ambulance but Arshia nodded her head in disregard, saying,
"She doesn't deserve this. Please, no, Abhi". Rafeen smirked at her words as she kept grabbing onto the skin around her profusely bleeding wound.
"Why did you do this, di? Why!", Arshia said in muffles without looking at Rafeen. Her head was still immersed in Abhimanyu's chest. He did not even have the strength to put an arm around Arshia. He was witnessing an evolving Arshia who grew vile day by day.
"Okay, I change my mind. I will tell you why. Why!!", Rafeen said into oblivion as her pupils dilated and in an instant, her pain disappeared. She felt numb on every part of her body as her mind ran like revolving around the world a hundred times per second.
"There was no one in the house that day", she started. Arshia raised her head to look straight into her eyes. She could not bear any hidden faces now. Anymore.

~

Little sister,
I wish I could tell you this earlier. At the same time, it did not feel right to do so. Let us start with what happened between me and your mother before delving into that one dark segment of our past which rendered me with a baggage of broken aspirations and unfulfilled dreams for life. It was a day before the bloody incident with my hands took place. You'd think how did I figure out that she was all alone at home. Well, it was her only who had sent me the invitation about it. Normally, she would never wish to see my face in front of Ghanendra and Pragati. And let me tell you, I did not go there with the intention to kill her. But somewhere in my subconscious mind, I always had this last wish since childhood.
To kill my mother for ruining my life.

Tasha had met me earlier during the day when I was in a grocery market. She bumped into me which I believe was intentional. The mother who never called her daughter after giving her hand away to a fickle man had suddenly started feeling the need to so-called connect her family back. Tasha had started stalking me and I was aware of this. Some days, I had started buying groceries online to avoid seeing her face. She reminded me that I was a man's mere slave for life. I hated that feeling. Every time I would try to do something about myself, to improve my life, my husband would never let me do it. I am stuck in an abusive marriage and hence going to Akash is kind of an escapism, though at the end, the world will raise fingers at my character only. None of the men have their fault in it. I accept that gladly. I don't complain anymore.