The child is grown, the dream is gone..
Showing posts with label short story. Show all posts
Showing posts with label short story. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The Cigar on the Table..


There is a flare of furious emotions in his bones and cold hatred flowing through his veins as he walks heavily through the hallway, lit with dim chandeliers. The effect of marijuana emanates through his body and he feels oddly calm for what he is about to do. He chucks the joint aside that he had been smoking for some last eight minutes and immediately lights a Cuban cigar drawing it out of his breast pocket. As he takes a long drag, he flexes his arms to reveal a large ambigram of life and death tattooed on his muscles. The unkempt beard, his sweaty brow, ragged clothes and a small scar over his right eye add to his haggard appearance. The weary, troubled and cold look in his eyes express the suffering they have witnessed and the torture he went through. In his right hand, he carries a pistol which he stole along with the box of cigars from an anorexic stranger he bumped in the dark alley about an hour ago from then. High on marijuana now, he can see the hallway swaying in and out of focus and the dim yellow halogen lights dance around dizzily. Even with all the anger surging inside him and the cannabis doing their bit, his mind is transfixed upon his target sitting in the room at the end of the corridor: Marlon Gonzales, the man who was directly and indirectly responsible for all the black marks, criminal records, wrongdoings, agony and loss in the present day situation of the man's life. There was nothing more that the man wanted, than unloading the gun into Gonzales's fucking head. 


Finally reaching at the end of the hallway, he reaches out for the knob to open the door which is the only thing now between him and his revenge. The knob feels cold as he wraps his hand around it and as the door creaks open; a room with a table and chair appears in front of him, with Gonzales’s back facing him. The man points the gun at the back of his head, as it cocks off the safety lever with a meticulous click and his finger moves steadily on the metallic trigger. Gonzales turns back slowly because of the stench of smoke and the click of lever, to face his assassin. He takes a look at the man’s premeditated face and nods with a lopsided smile, accepting his fate. The man stares back at the smiling face of Marlon Gonzales for a lingering moment, as if savouring it; and then, with a swift action he pulls back the trigger of his gun. The room that was swallowed into dead silence, echoes shrilly with the sound of the ricocheting bullet, as it fires out from the man’s pistol and leaves a conspicuous mark on Gonzales’s forehead. He can see the blood oozing out menacingly from the back of his head and splattering out on the glass windows of the room making it look like a painting of modern art. He can see shreds of the dead man’s skull covered in blood flying all around the place. Gonzales’s head comes crashing down with a bang on the table and his eyes stare away blankly into darkness. The man flings away his gun carelessly, sets the cigar upon the table and bends down to take one last look at the man who plagued his entire life. As the blood furiously gushes out from his forehead, he lies there spread-eagled and lifeless on the wooden table. Marlon Gonzales is dead and the evil has finally been vanquished forever, into the realms of hell.









As the man steps out of the room, the blood starts draining down languidly from the windows and the fragments of skull slowly fade out of existence. Hearing the sound of the gunshot, the guards immediately rush frantically trying to locate the source of sound. Quickly crossing the hallway, they enter the room and see the abandoned table and chair. The smoke of the nearly extinguished cigar has now filled up the room, and the guards take a quick look around for the shooter. They cannot see anyone or anything except for a rat eating itself lying in a desolated corner by the dumped weapon, a small bullet sized crater in the middle of the table, and the cigar burning itself away on the table.



The man breathes in fresh air and with a deep sigh of relief, he starts walking towards a small store at the end of the street. He enters inside and asks crisply for a pint of beer and a pack of cigarettes. As he reaches out for his wallet to pay the bill, his driving license slips out indistinctly and lands on the floor with a soft thud. As he bends down to pick it up, his eyes widen in disbelief and he is taken aback with an amalgamation of bewilderment, shock and satisfaction as the face of Marlon Gonzales looks back smugly from the photo imprinted upon the license. Finally, Marlon Gonzales smiles knowingly for what he just did.




Back at the hallway, the guards stare in confusion and astonishment at the spot where the rat ate itself away, and the now extinguished Cigar on the Table..







Tuesday, December 06, 2011

The Passion of Love..

"Do you, Katherine Stevens take Mark Stanford to be your lawfully wedded husband? Do you promise to love, honor, cherish and protect him, forsaking all others and holding only onto him?"
Katherine: "I do.."
She was just so happy being married to the man she loved the most, the man she adored and respected. The man she thought the world of, the man she cared for. The man, who in her eyes, was her Hero.



As Katherine Stanford reflected on that magical day 5 years back, when she had become a woman, a wife to the most wonderful husband that could have ever been, she was jolted back to the present. Sitting on her arm-chair, in front of the T.V. that she had turned off, tears gushed out from her eyes. She started crying like she had never cried in her life. How could it happen? How could it all go wrong, so suddenly? Was it just 2 hours before when she heard it? How could Mark leave her so empty, so alone? The voice from the T.V. started blaring like a terror tone in her ears once again, like a never ending reel of some horror film; she was still too numb in shock to believe it. Her mind was completely paralyzed. 



As, she said firmly to herself, Mark's plane could not just crash. He could not go, just like that. He could not die. Even as she said it, she knew that she was wrong, it had happened. She felt the Adam's apple rising in her throat. For Katherine, time had stopped. She wanted to disappear somewhere. She wanted to curl up into a tiny ball. She wanted to die. She didn't want to accept that Mark was gone, that his plane had crashed, that he would never come back to her. She would never see him again..






Katherine had never known that she would want someone so badly. She craved for Mark, she wanted him to come home at that very moment. She wanted him to hold her close to him, saying that everything would be alright. Katherine could hear Mark so close to her, whispering in her ears, talking to her, saying that he loved her so much.. She wanted to feel his arms around her one more time, sit next to him for hours in silence, letting their eyes speak. How she missed Mark, the way he would touch her, hug her, kiss her, console her, fondle her, love her. How she wished, to feel his stubble caressing her cheeks when he would surprisingly hug her from back. She wanted to feel him, one more time..one last time. Katherine felt that the world had ended for her, she started sobbing uncontrollably on the pillow on which Mark used to put his head. Her mind could not come out of the situation, she knew she had lost everything. Mark not only meant a husband for her, he was her life, her magic, the reason behind her smile and her happiness. She knew she would never be happy again, she would never smile again. She knew that all her happiness was gone, vanished in thin air. Katherine felt cold, lost and incomplete. She knew that she could not survive without Mark. He was everything for her.


It slowly dawned upon Katherine, that there was no hope left, for her to see Mark again. Reality suddenly struck her like lightning. She felt a chill down her spine and her insides squirmed with agony. She was totally broken apart in pieces, realizing that she would never ever see her husband. 


Katherine Stanford, then suddenly knew what she had to do, to meet him once again.. She would see her Mark again. She saw the blade the razor with which Mark had shaved, just 8 hours before, for the last time. She detached the blade, saw their wedding photo hanging on the wall, for one last time and slashed her wrist with the blade..She could see her life flash in front of her in the final 10 seconds, could feel the blood gushing out of her body, her pulse rapidly going down. She could see Mark's face so clearly now, shining with joy, when she had told him that she was going to have a baby, 2 months back. That was the happiest she had ever seen him. It sketched the beautiful final image of Katherine's life.


2 hours later...
The telephone in the hall started ringing. It continued ringing, for Katherine was no more, to answer it. It finally went to the answering machine. It looked like someone had left one last message. It said, 




"Hello, Kathy darling. It's Mark here. I saw the dreadful news, and I just called to inform you that I am safe. I missed my flight, I could not make it to the airport. One of my friends met with an accident, so I had to rush him to the hospital.The operation lasted for 4 hours, and there was no way in which I could have called you. I called you as soon as I came to know about the mishap. I know you must be worried about me, I will be home in an hour baby. I love you, please don't worry, I am safe. Love, Mark.."




This post is for all those people who are madly, truly, completely in love. Love is the most beautiful, passionate and complete feeling in the world, but because of love, don't stop thinking. Think a thousand times before taking any wrong step. Don't hurt yourself. Don't do something, that would make you regret forever.. 






"Somethings in our life are never foreseen; but when they come, they destroy everything we ever had..that was once only ours.."