Anay woke up to find Kautuk on his bed next to him. He sat up and suddenly looked at his miserable state. He still felt naked and humiliated; he felt touched. Visuals of the harrowing experience at the police station with the groggy criminals' eyes leering at him danced in front of his eyes. Kautuk stirred and snored. Anay thought of waking him up but knowing that the guy had been out for him the entire night, he let him sleep.
He walked to the bathroom, suddenly alive to the many places that his body had started to ache in. Standing in front of his mirror, he looked at the bruise on the corner of his lip. It was a reminder of the slap. He kept his foot on the commode with great difficulty and looked at his knee. It was bruised blue. He would be stumbling for a few days. He applied an ointment and winced as it burned through the sore skin. But then another visual sprang to his mind with the momentum of a runaway truck—the thought of the poor dead body of Renee on the ground of the building, that was there just a few hours ago. In a blink, it obliterated every other thought from his mind.
He washed his face and hobbled up to the balcony. He leaned out and could see the chalk outline drawn by the police on the ground below. The corpse was gone but the bloodstains were there. Two constables were sitting at the building gate. They had perhaps been stationed for the final formalities. Just then, they looked up and saw him at the window. He hastily retreated into the room and closed the window with a bang.
Kautuk stirred and sat up. "Fuck, is it eleven already?" was the first thing he said.
Anay came up to him. "Thank you, buddy. How can I ever thank you? If it were not for you..." That thought remained unspoken, but it played out in his mind and his voice broke.
Kautuk let his friend's emotions flow. He lit a cigarette, blew a puff, and handed it over to Anay. "Have it. You'll feel better." Anay took a long drag. Staring at him, Kautuk said, "I knew Renee and you were up to something. That blind fool Vishwa could not see it, but nothing escapes me. Now tell me exactly what happened."
"I don't know, man!" Anay said. "Yes, we came up here to the house. No, it wasn't a plan. She just met me and then we came up here together. It was all her idea. You cannot blame me. You know how Renee can get when she needs something. She was all over me."
"And then?"
"Well, I couldn't do it. I really couldn't. I told her so. And then she got wild. She called me all sorts of names and ran out of the house, slamming the door behind her. That was the last I saw of her."
"You didn't run behind her?"
"Nope. I was, in a way, happy that she left." Anay buried his head in his hands.
Kautuk placed his arm on Anay's shoulder. "Look, brother. I trust you. I spoke to my lawyer uncle before coming over. He has represented some of the biggest criminals in town and got them acquitted. This one will be a breeze for him. Apart from that woman's statement, the police have nothing. My will get you out of this and you'll not even know. Just stay put."
Anay nodded. "How did you know?"
"Well, the police called Vishwa as soon as they found her body. Vishwa called me up and asked me if I knew anything about Renee being here, in your house. He didn't even seem to register that she is dead. He was only going on and on about 'Why was she in his house?'"
"So Vishwa knows?"
"Vishwa knows."
"And what about Salil? I need to get back to work."
"Take it easy for a couple of days," Kautuk said. "Salil surely knows about it by now. He'll understand."
"But the project, man... I promised Sen a week."
"An employee of our firm has died. If Sen has a single human bone in his body, he'll understand. If he does not, you'll be happier to not be associated with him anymore."
Anay buried his face in his palms. "My life is fucked, man! Someone is trying to screw up my life. It's that same thing that has been stalking me. Fuck that cocksucker! Everything was going so right..."
"All will be well," said Kautuk, patting his friend on the shoulder. "There is some bad luck in your life right now, but we will sort it out."
There was a long spell of silence. Kautuk did not refer to his previous conversation, though the allusion of 'bad luck' had been made. Those two words remained hanging in the air even after he left.
***
In the late afternoon, there was a wild knocking on the door.
Anay, who had dozed off again after Kautuk left, woke up with a spasm. He realized it wasn't a nightmare. There was someone at the door, someone very pissed off by the way they were thumping at it. Terror coursing through him again, Anay crept cautiously to the door and opened it.
Before he could see who it was, a hand flew at his throat. Angry words fell upon him like rapid fire, "You bastard motherfucker! Why did you do this to my daughter? Why?"
Anay blinked his eyes to see. It was Joaquim Pinto, Renee's father. He had met him only once when Renee had taken him to talk to him about finding accommodation. Behind him was Mukesh Patel, the owner of the house he was renting.
"I didn't do anything, Mr Pinto! It was an accident," Anay said with a shudder.
"But she was here in your house. Why?"
"It was her idea, sir."
"And you got carried away. What are you, a six-year-old?"
Anay stepped back, fearing an assault. "Mr Pinto, please hear me out."
"No. I will not. I will not give you that chance. I am sure the police are dealing with you," Pinto said, staring at his torn lip. "I hope they hang you from the highest noose. You killed my delicate child." He sat down on the bed, breaking down into profuse tears.
Anay did not know what to say. He flinched at the sight of a grown man crying thus. There was no way he could imagine the sorrow and anger the man felt at that moment. Anay realized that.
The landlord stepped forward. "Young man, I have come to tell you to pack your stuff and clear out of here by tomorrow morning."
Now, Anay's world spun around him. All at once, he realized the import of those words. "No, Mr Patel, please don't do that!" he said, falling at his feet in an extreme reflex action. "I have not done anything, sir. Renee's death was just an accident. My name will clear out soon, I promise."
"Don't you dare take my daughter's name with your filthy mouth!" Pinto screamed and landed a full-blown slap right across Anay's face.
Anay was stunned. It felt as if his bearings had come loose. That was the slap of man who was livid with rage and sadness. It hit like an explosion.
"It's not just about her," Anay heard Patel's words over the ringing in his ears. "I thought you were a decent boy. I cannot allow this kind of thing. You are bringing girls to my house. What will I tell the society members? This is a decent society; people with families live here. All my friends told me not to rent my apartment to a single young man. Pinto, if it were not for your request... Anyway, young man, get out of my house by morning." He turned to Pinto. "Pinto, come on. We have to make the arrangements for the funeral of our little girl."
Pinto broke into a loud wail and he turned to the door, his mind relapsing to an unconscious wrap. Anay tried to beseech, to implore, to make them see reason despite their mourning, but it was to no avail.
The men left the house and, that very moment, the door slammed shut with a deafening noise. Anay looked at it, speechless. He knew instantly that there was something behind that slamming. It hadn't happened because of any natural reason. Then, his fears were confirmed. Standing by the door, he saw a hazy misty figure, a figure looming large over him, its bright blue eyes the only thing clear and visible. Then it disappeared but left behind in its wake was the unbearable sound of a faint chuckle.
Anay screamed out loud, "Are you happy with how you are screwing my life, motherfucker?"
His words echoed in the empty apartment, but Anay knew someone had heard, for the laughing still continued in his ears.
***
Anay did not know for how long he had been lying on the floor. His mind was inundated with thoughts, which, like a medley of ghosts refused to leave him. He thought of Salil, who must be fuming as well. The project was as good as gone. Maybe his job too. His name was tarnished because of no fault of his. And he was suddenly homeless. The feeling of loneliness had increased a hundredfold. Who did he have that he could call his own? He remembered the many cautions from his family members that the city would eat him up, that he would find himself alone with no support whatsoever, and it was probably coming true. But, now, where would he go? Could he go back to his family home? He remembered the miserable way in which he had gotten away from there to come to the city. Would they accept him back? Would he be able to live down the humiliation of it even if they did?
The devil had succeeded in his mission of wrecking his life. For some reason, the devil had made him his marked child, and his blessings were curses. It was probably his karma that had brought the devil to him. That was all it was about; what else could it be?
Everything that he had until yesterday had been snatched away. A young confident chap who was ready to take on the world had now been reduced to a beggar dependent on the mercies of other people. What had brought him to this?
That talk of bad luck, it came back to him. It had been playing on his mind. He could feel it now too. It was in the air around him, that thick black aura that was threatening him. It was drawing closer and closer upon him, and he did not know what it was. The face of Shanaya loomed in his mind, but he did not dare to entertain her even in a vision. What if the devil saw her in his imaginations and targeted her as well? Or was she a lure sent by the devil to him? Was she really a jinx for him? Not having the courage to face her, he had kept his cellphone switched off the entire day.
From his position on the floor, he looked at the balcony window outside the apartment, the apartment that he would soon leave. He had spent many nights in that balcony, just smiling at the good turns of his fortune. Those good turns were gone, and now the balcony would go as well. Everything drifting away, like a memory and nothing more.
Somehow, he stood up, bearing heavily on his still-throbbing knee, and came into the balcony. It had turned evening already. He hadn't even realized how the hours had passed. He lit up another cigarette and stood there. He could not see the police constables. There were the security guards and they were talking to some of the senior residents of the building. Now and then, they looked up at his window, leaving no doubt of the topic of discussion. He was a criminal without a crime.
That chalk outline was still there like an indelible stain, drawing his attention. Poor, poor Renee! She had been so alive just a few hours ago, a girl filled with passions and aspirations, and now she was nothing but a few bloodstains on the ground. Those vestiges of death stirred something in his soul. The blackness consumed his completely. It rose from his innards and grabbed his throat, choking him, making him realize the futility of fighting. There was no fight in him left.
His life was a long black tunnel without a way out.
Or perhaps there was a way out.
As he looked at that chalk outline, he saw that way out.
Yes. That was the only way out...
He snuffed out the half-smoked cigarette under his bare foot, and he didn't even wince at the burn. His eyes were only on that outline now. In a flash, he saw Renee there again, writhing and squirming, and then she paused and looked right at him and smiled with her bloody teeth. "Come," she said through her smashed jaw. "Come to me, Anay. You can do it. Just a moment of pain and then freedom from all this misery."
Drowned in his stupor, Anay could think of nothing else, or see nothing else. He placed one foot on the railing of his balcony and then another. He was now up there, perched precariously on his balcony ledge, four stories above the hard unforgiving concrete ground below, tearfully prepared to dive to his doom and end it all.
***
Dear readers,
It was quite difficult for me to write this chapter.
Anay, a lonely man in the city, is mired by huge problems, which he thinks are insurmountable. He thinks there is no one for him and has decided to take the ultimate step. Will he go through with it?
Read on in the next chapter...