Forever Is True

by Novoneel Chakraborty

  ‘Thanks for the guilt trip,’ Prisha said and grabbed the bottle from her. She took a few swigs. Prisha had never drunk rum neat. It burnt her throat but she gulped down some more. And some more until her senses dimmed. In the meantime, Gauri passed out while blabbering continuously. When not even a drop fell in her mouth even after inverting the bottle completely, Prisha kept it aside and stood up. She was finding it difficult to focus. And yet there was something on her mind that even her drunk self was determined about.

  How can we not kiss one last time? she thought and stumbled towards the main door. I’m sure Saveer will agree too.

  ‘We both deserve one last kiss. In fact, we owe it to each other,’ she mumbled to herself as she struggled to wear Gauri’s shoes thinking they were hers. She staggered her way downstairs to the main gate where the two-wheeler was parked. As she fumbled with the keys, a woman said something from behind.

  ‘Did you say something to me?’ Prisha asked.

  ‘I asked if I may help you?’ the woman, standing across the road, repeated her question.

  19

  ‘Can you? I need to go to Saveer’s place,’ Prisha’s speech slurred. She didn’t know who the woman was. She wasn’t even interested.

  ‘Sure,’ the woman said. ‘Do you know why I was here?’

  ‘No. Why?’

  ‘I had a feeling that you might do something stupid tonight.’

  ‘Really? Do you know me?’

  ‘A little bit. Nobody can ever know anyone well. Can they? We only think we do. Till the person betrays us and we realize how little we knew about them.’

  ‘Take the shortcut, okay?’ Prisha said.

  ‘I know where he stays,’ the woman said matter-of-factly.

  ‘You know where he stays? Don’t tell me you are one of Mean Monster’s girls?’ Prisha grasped the seat of the two-wheeler tightly in order to stand straight. The woman didn’t react. She crossed the lane and boarded the scooty, starting the engine. Almost as if she was programmed, Prisha sat on the pillion. The woman drove off.

  ‘Didn’t you guys break up?’ the woman asked.

  ‘Yeah, we did,’ Prisha said, too drunk to even wonder how the woman knew about it.

  ‘Then why are you going to his place?’

  ‘For one last kiss,’ Prisha blabbered.

  The woman scoffed. ‘You love him a lot?’

  ‘More than a lot.’

  ‘There was a time when I too wished to experience love. I don’t know if it will ever happen. Not that I wish it any more but just saying,’ she said, driving slowly.

  ‘You should experience it. It’s a good thing but remember only to experience Complete Love. Like I experienced with Saveer. It’s important to understand Complete Love. Only then will you know that the rest is bullshit.’

  ‘But I’ve been manipulated not to experience it. Not to feel it. Not to even love the sound of it.’

  ‘Oh! Who did that to you? In fact, why would anyone do that? This is so wrong,’ Prisha said, hardly registering anything.

  ‘The same person whose house we are driving to.’

  ‘Saveer? He couldn’t possibly do such a thing,’ Prisha frowned.

  ‘Just shows how little you know about him.’

  Prisha was leaning on the woman, her head against her back and her eyes closed.

  ‘He isn’t Saveer. He is someone else,’ the woman said. She was expecting a reaction. But none came. She stopped the scooty. Turning back, she found Prisha asleep. The woman managed to hold on to Prisha and took a U-turn. She drove her back to her apartment. She parked the two-wheeler next to the gate and took her upstairs. Initially, she thought of leaving her outside the flat. But when she reached upstairs, she found the door ajar. Prisha must have forgotten to lock it, she guessed, and peeped inside. There was nobody. So she dragged her inside and lay her down on the couch in the living room and left immediately.

  The next morning when Prisha woke up, she had the worst hangover of her life. Gauri was still asleep. Try as she did, she could not recall what had transpired the night before. Only scenes of her break-up kept flashing in front of her eyes. She tried to go back to sleep. She had no memory of the scooter ride with the woman who had raped Diggy. And killed Saveer’s family members.

  The first thing Saveer did after waking up was pull out all the CCTV cameras from his house.

  ‘There is no need for these any more,’ he said out loud. ‘If I have to suffer, I have to suffer. Let’s not make hue and cry over it. It’s been twenty-five years already. Another twenty-five years maybe.’

  The last camera left was in the store room. While pulling it out, Saveer couldn’t help but reminisce how Prisha and he had made love in the same room a few weeks ago. He looked at the chair and could almost hear their cries. It was one of the most passionate moments of his life. So passionate that he was convinced that he would surpass any crisis with Prisha by his side. The hangover of that day jabbed at his insides.

  I have to live with it and die with it, Saveer thought, anger replacing the pain. He dumped the cameras in the garbage bin outside the main gate. Then he went back inside and deleted all the stored footage in the computer and plugged out the console. Life was back to being what it was earlier: a big zero.

  In office, Saveer asked Krishna to mail Prisha and Gauri their official termination letters. He tried hard to concentrate on his work, but couldn’t. In the end, he gave up and decided to hit the gym instead. After a strenuous workout, he went home and crashed early.

  It was some time during the night when someone unlocked the main door of his house. A woman entered. She closed the door behind her and went upstairs to the bedroom.

  Saveer was fast asleep on his bed, facing the door. She noticed the tattoo that she had inked on him as a warning to not attempt what he had been trying for years now—to gift himself happiness. It irked her.

  As she walked inside the bedroom, the light on top of the bed switched on. She looked at Saveer. He looked dead. The drug had done its work, she thought. She had overheard him through the microphone in his cufflink about the removal of the CCTV cameras. From the house opposite his, she had even seen him dump them in the garbage bin outside. Everything was going back to how it used to be. Perhaps, from now onwards, she wouldn’t have to kill anyone any more.

  She sat on the edge of the bed and taking Saveer’s head on her lap, caressed it like a mother. ‘Good to know you have finally realized this, little one. Though it took you more than two decades, I’m happy it has finally happened. You can’t escape me. Just like I can’t escape you. And for me to be happy, you will have to be unhappy. I’m sorry that’s the way it is,’ she said softly. ‘No, wait a minute,’ she said, her face hardening. ‘I’m not sorry. You deserve every bit of my wrath. You should feel lucky that I spared Prisha. You know why? I’m tired of killing people. I know what it is to kill innocent people. How their families have cursed me even though they didn’t know who I was. But what could I have done? You left me with no choice. Prisha is a nice girl. She will come out of this bullshit-bubble of forever kind of love. There’s nothing of that sort. Everything that humans do has a selfish motive. Just that we are intelligent enough to cover up and convince ourselves that the reason aren’t selfish. Look at you!’ The woman paused for a moment, restraining herself from digging her nails into his skin.

  ‘Just look at you, Mr Fraudster Rathod. One cheeky bastard you are, who knows how to feel sympathetic towards his own self when he himself invited trouble with his own karma. Huh! I’m appalled how people don’t see through you? You robbed me of the right to be myself. Do you understand how big an emotional crime that is? To do something so dastardly to someone, for no fault of his, that the victim never ever comes out of that trauma. It is like carrying your own corpse with you all the time. I’ve lost my ability to feel for others because of you. I’ve lost my instinct to trust others because of you. I never developed the urge to be loved by someone because of you. And I couldn’t let anyone
explain to me what it feels like when two bodies, wrapped in their skins and smelling of their raw fragrances, come together to experience one of the most basic activities there is. And you thought I would let you go? You wish, Mr Fraudster.’ The woman placed Saveer’s head back on the pillow and stood up. She sat on the rocking chair beside the bed. She had tears in her eyes. She could count the number of times she had cried in her life—there weren’t many. But tonight she did. Tonight she was sure she wouldn’t have to kill anyone any more. She wasn’t a psychopath who revelled in someone’s death. She was a human being who had been wronged. She took out her phone and switched on the front camera. She hated what she saw in the screen. And yet she knew she had to live with it. Just like the man on the bed would have to live with the fact that he had been fucked for life. She chuckled devilishly.

  Saveer had put ten alarms, each fifteen minutes apart, before he had dozed off that night. Yet, he woke up late. For a moment, he sat looking around, suspecting something untoward. The digital clock on the bedside table showed 9.13 a.m. Still drowsy, he got out of bed and went to the store room. There was a ladder there, which he picked up and went to the living room. He climbed up the ladder and touched every bulb in the room. After the inspection, he was disappointed. He did the same thing in the kitchen, then in the store room and in the washroom. He came back to the living room and sat on the couch, disappointed. He frowned when he realized that he was yet to check his bedroom. Saveer rushed upstairs with the ladder. He checked all the bulbs and slowly a smile appeared on his lips. The light bulb above his bed was warm. Someone was there in the room all night, perhaps till the morning.

  Saveer punched the air. Yes! The plan had worked. He had intentionally removed the cameras. He had hoped it would lure the person back and it had. When he had chosen to prepare his dinner with the slightly stale vegetables in the refrigerator, he had hoped they would be spiked. They were. He hoped the person would come back. He did. But how did the person know he had uninstalled the cameras? Saveer wondered. He would soon find out. Now it was time to act as if he didn’t know anything. As if everything was how it used to be. Meanwhile, he would install a few secret cameras and wait for the person to visit him again.

  ‘Someone will be waiting for him this time,’ Saveer murmured, smirking.

  20

  Saveer felt a surge of excitement. He went to office but one question kept nagging him. How did the person know that he had removed the cameras? That too so quickly. Saveer racked his brains but couldn’t think of anything. Was he being watched?

  In between his meetings, Saveer asked Krishna to arrange a few micro cameras whose live feed could be seen on his phone. He also asked him to keep it strictly confidential. Saveer was itching to text Prisha about the development but held himself back. He decided to wait for some more time before reaching out to her.

  Meanwhile, Saveer went about his daily routine the way he had before Prisha had come into his life. He went out alone to Ishanvi’s for lunch and in the evening hit the gym. When he came back home, he followed the user’s manual and installed the cameras himself. Saveer was careful not to install the cameras in their old locations. He was satisfied with the results—he could see the visuals clearly on his phone. As he went to the kitchen to prepare his dinner, Saveer hoped that the food would be spiked. He had ordered fresh vegetables before going to office. By now he was sure the person had a spare key and had used it to enter his house in his absence, spiked the food and . . .what did the person do after drugging him? Some unanswered questions were finally resolved—that was how he had that tattoo on his body, and that was how Prisha and Zinnia were seduced. But the real question was why? Why had the person been doing what he had been doing for all these years? Saveer had a gut feeling that he was closing in on the answer. He ate his food and waited for sleep to take over. But he didn’t feel sleepy. He read, worked a bit on his laptop, even watched some television, but sleep remained elusive. Wasn’t his food spiked? Nothing happened that night, or on the next two nights. Frustration started building up inside Saveer.

  It was on the third day when he was in office and casually decided to check the live camera feed that his suspicion proved to be true. He had installed three cameras—one in the bedroom, one in the living room and the other in the kitchen. The bedroom and the living room were empty, but when he switched on the kitchen camera, he literally jumped from his seat. There was someone sitting on the floor with all the vegetables scattered around her. He tried to zoom in but wasn’t able to. He saw the person taking one vegetable at a time and injecting something into them, especially the ones he used in his daily salads. The woman then took out the chicken from the freezer and repeated the same procedure. But for the life of him, Saveer couldn’t believe that it was a woman. He had always assumed it was a man. He remembered when Prisha had told him about a woman visiting her in the hospital and warning her not to meet him. Didn’t she also say that she had almost sounded like him? Who was this woman? Saveer stared at his phone without blinking. The woman’s face wasn’t visible.

  Saveer watched as the woman neatly put back all the veggies and the chicken inside the refrigerator and left. He switched to the living room camera. The woman was now standing on the couch and reaching for the wall clock in the room. Saveer couldn’t understand what exactly she was doing with it. The clock, as far as he knew, was working perfectly. Once she was done, she stepped down from the couch and went towards the stair case. It was clear that she was heading to the bedroom. Saveer switched to the bedroom’s camera. If only I had put the camera in its old place, I would’ve been able to see her face, Saveer thought.

  Inside the bedroom, the woman picked up the digital clock on bedside table. Saveer frowned. What the hell was she doing with the clocks? After doing something to clock, the woman left the room. Saveer switched back to the living room camera. The woman came downstairs and left the house, closing the main door behind her. Saveer tapped the live feed close. He sat back on his chair, unable to think of anything conclusive. It wasn’t really about who the woman was. There was something else. He could sense it sitting in his office. Saveer touched his forehead and thought hard. What if he now informed the police, and asked them to keep an eye on the house and catch the woman the moment she tried to enter the house? A sudden smile appeared on his face. He felt a resurgence of hope. He quickly called Krishna.

  ‘Yes, sir,’ Krishna said, stepping inside the room.

  ‘Please connect me to officer Shetty as soon as possible. Tell him I know who could have killed Digambar. And why.’

  ‘Right, sir.’

  Saveer controlled his urge to call up Prisha. Soon! He told himself. What he didn’t know was that he had been heard by the same person he was watching a minute ago.

  21

  Krishna peeped inside the room and said, ‘Sir, officer Shetty is on the line.’

  ‘Hello, officer, this is Saveer.’

  ‘Hello, Mr Rathod, tell me, how may I help you?’ Shetty said.

  ‘This may take a while so I hope you aren’t busy.’

  ‘I have time. If you want, we can meet and talk as well,’ Shetty suggested.

  ‘I can’t meet you right now. I mean I can meet you but I think I am being watched.’

  ‘Being watched?’

  ‘That’s right. And meeting you may just push me away from what I think is a proof to Digambar’s murder. . .’ Saveer paused.

  ‘Go on, Mr Rathod, I’m listening.’ Shetty sounded interested now.

  Saveer took his time explaining the strange sequence of events. How he had assumed that the deaths were a series of coincidences till recent developments. He also told Shetty that he was convinced that a woman was behind everything: the one he saw in his house through the secret cameras. Throwing Diggy’s body outside his house wasn’t just a coincidence, he said, just like Prisha’s fall wasn’t a standalone act. Just that he still wasn’t sure about the motive of the woman. Or her identity.

  There was silence
on the other end once Saveer was done narrating his story.

  ‘You there, officer?’ Saveer asked.

  ‘I think this is one of the most intriguing cases of my career.’

  ‘And the most frustrating one of my life.’

  ‘I understand, Mr Rathod. But don’t you suspect anyone? There’s always someone.’

  ‘No one at all.’

  ‘What if she is one of the women you slept with?’

  Saveer had told him about his Mean Monster phase as well. He didn’t want to hide anything. There was too much at stake.

  ‘She may have gone crazy for you or something,’ Shetty suggested.

  ‘I wasn’t sleeping around since I was ten.’

  ‘Ah, yes. But what if the earlier deaths really were coincidences while there is actually someone who pushed off your girlfriend from the cliff and killed Digambar?

  ‘That could explain Prisha’s fall but why kill Digambar?’

  There was silence.

  ‘I guess we’ll get the answers once we nab this woman who had entered your house after drugging you.’

  ‘Exactly.’

  ‘Could you send the video to me now?’

  ‘Sure. My assistant, Krishna, will get it for you in a pen drive.’

  ‘Let me call you once my team and I have watched it.’

  ‘Thank you so much, officer.’

  Saveer immediately copied the footage in a pen drive and asked Krishna to deliver it to the officer. Saveer was dying to go back home and check what the woman had done with the clocks but he controlled himself. He didn’t want to do anything that might tip the woman off. Everything needed to be normal, he told himself, and got back to work.

  * * *

  The professor was giving a lecture on ethics in journalism. Prisha was sitting with Gauri. Though she was looking at the professor, her mind was blank. She knew she had to concentrate in class because her exams were near and she had to take two sets together. But no matter what she couldn’t focus. Normal seemed like a distant possibility. Everyone has that one life-altering incident which changes them—the way one thinks, the outlook towards life, priorities, likes and dislikes. Her experience with Saveer had been a coming-of-age moment for her. The professor’s voice faded as Prisha thought about the past year and a half. She knew that she had grown up. The layer of innocence that had cocooned her for so long had been peeled off. She thought about how people often romanticize that which they cannot have. Like I will be romanticizing Saveer and my relationship. It will soon, who knows maybe it has already, become an emotional benchmark for me to match all my future relationships against. She also knew that to romanticize her relationship with Saveer would automatically result in a constant rejection of all her future relationships. They would never live up to that standard. Maybe the same happened with Saveer after Ishanvi’s death? Maybe he didn’t tell me lest I got upset. And . . .