The Wrath of Gammon
Disclaimer: This story is my humble attempt to write a fanfiction of the epic Mahabharata. My intention is not to hurt anyone's sentiment.
Aum Namah Shivay!!
Major Jayant Roy, SM is a fictitious character. Any similarity with any living person is merely a coincidence.
Chapter 27
Hastinapur, Dwapar Yuga
Jayant/Duryodhana POV
I was standing in front of the punching bag, focusing on my breath. In the next moment, a powerful left hook landed on it. The bag shook violently. Then another jab, followed by an uppercut, then a hook kick landed on it.
I was practicing martial arts alone for last two hours. My body was wet with perspiration. I looked at the bag then started hitting it again.
From yesterday night, my gut feeling was telling me that something was wrong. But, I couldn't understand the reason. There was also another thing, which was bothering me. Yesterday evening, I along with Karna went to take a walk. We entered the palace garden...
Then my memory was totally blank. I tried hard, but there was no result. It looked like someone very swiftly deleted a part of my memory.
I landed another punch, frustrated. The sand bag now had three tears and sand was falling down on the ground. This blank spots in memory was not a good thing.
Was I losing my mind?
Suddenly, I heard the sweet, calming, soft voice of my wife, "I think you should stop now, Aryaputra."
I turned my head and saw her standing. She had a wet cloth in hand. I took it and wiped my face with it.
"Daruka is here from Mathura. He says that he has a letter from Shri Balrama."
The name of Dau Balrama was enough to calm my mind. Priya looked at the guard beside the door, and he walked out, only to get back with Daruka. The charioteer of Sri Krishna stood in front of me and bowed his head. Then he took out a letter and handed it to me. I quickly read it. It was an invitation for me along with my wife to Mathura.
"Priya, Dau has invited both of us to Mathura."
Priya smiled and nodded.
"That's great. I will be very happy to meet him. I want to meet Vasudev Krishna for a long time too. He is an incredible personality! He is the one with the purest knowledge of Shastra and Dharma."
My fists clenched automatically. Destiny was funny...it seemed that my wife was also another devotee of Shri Krishna. Great, just great!
Daruka bowed to us and left us alone. Priya looked at me. Her smile slowly faded.
"What happened, Aryaputra? Why your eyes are burning with murderous intent? Did I do something wrong?"
Her pleading eyes, the fear in her voice, her trembling lips....
I looked at the guard, who understood my meaning, and left us. I came to my wife and placed my right hand on her head.
"No, you did nothing wrong."
I turned towards the gate, hoping to escape and try to calm my mind. I did not want to see her some other side of me, a side scarred heavily by my anger. But her voice stopped me on my track.
"Yes, you are right, because, this time, you did the wrong thing. You do not have the right to insult Devi Draupadi so viciously."
My blood froze inside my veins.
"The whole palace was whispering, telling that you showed no remorse. While you said those vile words to her, your voice was dripping venom. There were rumours among the people in the palace, that you told her that she would be the reason of the death of Pitamah, Dronacharya, Angraaj and you. But I know very well that this is not rumour. I know that you said those vile words to her."
F**k! What had I done? But, not what, why? How?
"When did I insult her?" I somehow found my voice.
"Yesterday evening, when you went to walk with Angraaj in the garden; she was there along with Arjun. Then, suddenly, you started saying those cruel words. Angraaj somehow managed to drag you out of the garden, and then he took you to our room. You looked at me like you don't know me, and went to sleep. I asked Angraaj, and after some persuasion, he told me everything. Why do you have so much malice towards her in your heart, Aryaputra?"
I heaved a sigh. Really, I didn't have an answer of her question. I was never a fan of Pandavas, and their common wife, but, I was never a person who wished evil for them. I was never behind their lives.
"Whom are you trying to convince, Jayant?" a voice said inside my mind.
"Sala Kalir Baccha!" I muttered inside my mind, hoping fully well that he could hear me. All I got a maniacal laughter as a response.
The silence between us was becoming thicker with every passing minute.
"Aryaputra, please, talk to me. I can feel that something is hurting you. I can feel that you are not happy. I am your wife, your other half, your companion for the seven lives. You can always open your heart to me. I will wait for the day when you are finally ready to break this last wall between us and allow me inside the deepest, darkest corner of your heart. If you allow me, then I promise that I will do everything in my capacity to destroy the darkness there, with the light of everything pure and sacred."
Then she turned her back towards me and left me alone in the room. I turned towards the punching bag, and balled my fist again, but stopped myself. I took out a knife and started stabbing it, slashing it mercilessly. Each and every amount of frustration was coming out from my inside. A few moments later, I stopped. The bag was now beyond recognition. Deep slashes were on it, and the sand was pouring out from it. I tried to channel out the final amount of frustration from my mind, and with a loud roar, I lunged on the bag again. My knife entered the midsection of the sandbag, and it was literally disembowelled.
I took a deep breath, and turned around. I found that I was not alone. I was so preoccupied in stabbing the bag that I completely missed the arrival of three people in the room. Well done Jayant, what a lousy commando you are!
Priya was standing at the left, a horrified expression in her face. Her eyes were constantly moving from the knife in my hand to the slashed bag. Yudhisthir was standing at the middle, with the natural calm expression, and beside him in the right...I quickly stopped my eyes and looked at my wife again.
"Son of Dharma, to what do I owe this pleasure?"
Yudhisthir looked at me for a couple of seconds, then he spoke, "Vasudev left a gift for you. He gave it to Panchali, and instructed her to deliver it to you."
Now that was something that was beyond my understanding. Shri Krishna left a gift for me, and he gave it to Draupadi of all people! Though the supreme one was also the ultimate prankster and this may be another trick.
I looked at my wife who probably understood my intention. She nodded at me with her hard eyes admonishing me for my behaviour. I saw her walking towards Panchali, but one gesture of a dark hand stopped her in her path. I was not looking at Draupadi, but I could feel everything. I felt her walking towards me. The soft sound of her anklet was becoming nearer. She came in front of me, and I quickly lowered my head, careful not to look at her face. I only saw two dark, but beautiful hands offering a wooden box to me.
"Govind ordered me to personally deliver this to you." her soft, melodious voice rang into my ear. It was so beautiful, hearing it while looking at her lotus like soft hands and breathing her fragrance, my mind automatically started pushing my head upwards. My eyes were looking at her feet, now it was moving upwards through her beautiful red dress, then it went towards her uncovered belly...
F**k!
It took a sheer amount of will power to focus on my left hand, which was still holding the knife blade, to will it becoming normal and clenching the fist around it. The sudden pain and flowing blood was enough to put my mind at his proper place. I did not pay any attention to it and slowly held out my right hand to her. She handed me the box when her gaze fall on my bleeding hand.
"Oh Narayana, your hand is bleeding!" Draupadi's shocked voice entered into my ear. Before I could react, she quickly tore a part of her dress. The sound of tearing of the cloth jerked me in my sense.
"No, stop. ", I shouted, "I don't deserve it!"
But my words were in vain, because at the next moment I found her soft hands grabbing my injured hand and started tying the cloth around it. But while tying, suddenly a small amount of blood literally spurted out like a fountain, and it landed on her naked belly, and some of it landed on the box in my right hand. She tightly tied the bandage and let go of my hand.
"A bleeding wound needs to be covered and treated. If you let it open, then it would become septic and cause you immense pain. Every wound, no matter how deep it is, needs healing, and can be healed. But I don't understand that what wound have I ever caused you? If you are angry with me refusing your friend then it was my right to choose my husband. I do not understand what prompts you to hate me so much, that you refuse to even look at my face? I don't care that you can see the future or not, but I am telling you one thing today."
She took a deep breath, and I could feel her angry eyes were literally drilling a hole in my body.
"I will prove you wrong! I will prove how wrong you are!"
She took a few heavy breaths, desperately trying to calm herself down. But her breaths sounded like the angry hissings of a magical snake woman.
"Look into my eyes. Do not turn around, if you are a real man then face me!"
The insult started burning inside my heart. But before I could say, or do anything, Yudhisthir, the ever peacemaker, intervened.
"Panchali, that's enough! We are leaving, now!"
He held her hand and literally dragged her towards the exit, after giving me an odd look. But before they could cross the door, I shouted at him.
"Yudhisthir, tell her I am sorry for yesterday. What I did, was wrong. But it doesn't mean..."
"...that you will renounce your claim. Yes, I know that.", His voice was sad. After a few minutes of silence, I heard Draupadi speaking to my wife.
"Sister, tell your husband that I accept his apology, only because I know that he has swallowed his massive ego.", Her melodious laughter echoed in the room.
"Tell him to open the box and show us what Govind has sent for him?"
I heaved a sigh and slowly opened the box. But the thing lied inside it was very familiar, but very shocking to me. I looked at it with utter disbelief.
The 0.22 calibre pistol was lying inside it, with a silencer lying just beside it. On the opposite side of the lid, there are five magazines, each could carry ten bullets. I closed the box again, turned it around and saw something written in English. It was a small message written by Shri Viswakarma himself. I slowly took the pistol out, and showed the piece to all of them. I was not happy. Inside my mind, I was literally burning with anger.
"Well done, Shri Krishna, well done indeed. But you forget one thing, that I am a commando, trained to make everything lethal, be it a stone, or a pin. Thanks to Shri Viswakarma to give me this thing. But there was another thing.", I looked at the gun in my hand again.
"This is not the weapon of a warrior, but a perfect choice for an assassin."
Sorry for the delay, but I was very busy with my assignments. I have to complete four of them with a relatively short time. So, I could not spare time to update.
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