Chapter one: Parallel worlds

“Shreya wake-up, wake-up”, said her mother. “In a minute”, replied the dutiful daughter. “Hurry up! It’s your big day!” exclaimed her mother. Big indeed, it was the day 12th HSC results were going to be declared, Shreya being good at academics expected big things.

She lived in Mumbai with her small nuclear family comprising of her mother and father. Her father was a chief engineer at MNC and her mother was a teacher at the nearby school. She was a dutiful daughter who worked hard to fulfill her dreams as well as those of her family.

After brushing her teeth and bathing, she dressed up and headed for Puja room with her mother and father. After offering her prayers she booted-up her laptop to check the results. The servers were jammed up by the simultaneous logging in of thousands of students and it was taking a long time for the screen to load up.

Each passing moment was adding up to the stress and anxiety. Her mother urged her to stay patient and keep praying, soon the page showed the following message “server busy, cannot display your page right now”. “Is God testing my faith?” Shreya wondered silently.

Thirty minutes went by without any activity, suddenly Shreya’s phone started ringing. It was Sakshi, her best friend. “Hi Shreya, congratulations!” said Sakshi, “what for?” asked Shreya. “You have topped the city with 99 percent that’s why!” replied Sakshi. Shreya was ecstatic on hearing this news, she thanked her friend and asked about her result as well. Then she conveyed this result to her parents, who were really proud of their daughter and congratulated her.

She received a text message from Sakshi which read “hey there, let’s meet for coffee and do some shopping to celebrate this joyous occasion. Meet me at the Café Coffee day near our school at 5 pm”.

She asked permission from her parents for the evening. They agreed without any fuss, after all, she deserved an evening of fun considering the hard work she had put in during the past two years.

She dressed up and waited in her building compound for Sakshi. She wore a floral print top along with brown cotton pants, she was buzzing with happiness and positivity. Sakshi arrived in fifteen minutes and they took an auto-rickshaw to the shopping center. First, they drank some coffee at a nearby café coffee day outlet, before setting out on a shopping spree. The place had a steady crowd, considering it was a Saturday.

The last thing Shreya saw before she was pushed into a dark and dingy alleyway by strange and rough hands was the silhouette of a retreating Sakshi. After that, her vision blurred and she fell into a deep slumber.

It was pretty late in the night, maybe around 10 pm, Aashish Malhotra got out of his car to head into a seedy-looking bar in a dirty alleyway of Mumbai. The streets were deserted, if you ignored the sex workers selling their wares along the filthy sidewalks.

The halogen lighting read “Bliss”, shouting out loud the name of this filthy establishment selling intoxicants, which made you forget the world. What an Irony! Aashish wondered to himself.

He stepped inside, eyeing one man in particular as he ordered his drink of choice for the night. The man was a pedophile who molested young schoolgirls and taped the heinous deeds, although he had a perfect family complete with wife and two children. A perfect cover for the demon inside wondered Aashish, who had researched his background thoroughly and tracked his movements over the course of last week.

After all, he was Mumbai’s best hitman, who had never failed a mission in his illustrious career spanning two decades. His clientele contained people from all walks of life, from politicians to businessmen. Although he was a killer on hire, had his principles. He never killed children, women or innocent people. Only the worst scums of the earth.

The latest assassination was a pro-bono thing, a giving back to the society kind of deal. His latest target was a pedophile who assaulted and filmed minors. The police had been working on incidents directly caused by him, but due to his meticulous ways, they hadn’t caught up to him. According to Aashish, it was only a matter of time before the guy’s madness made him lose control and leave traces. Aashish had a personal agenda as well, one of his nieces had been assaulted a few months back and police had hit a dead end in their investigations. Aashish had used his underworld contacts and the experience of years to track this guy down, it had not been that difficult. Recalling the events made him chuckle at the efficacy of the judiciary system of the country. His mood instantly turned somber as he remembered the ordeals of his sweet niece, only nine years old.

As the man finished his drink and headed out, Aashish followed him. As he was about to get into his car Aashish slowly grabbed him from behind and injected a sedative, before slowly letting him into his car. The area being seedy and comparatively deserted from other parts of Mumbai, no one saw this event take place.

Aashish drove his car really fast into the deep mangrove forests of Aarey colony, the lungs of Mumbai. The sedatives had worn down and the man was conscious, but a semblance of drowsiness hovered in his body.

He wanted to convey his surprise but slurred his speech thanks to the sedative. Aashish got his regular tools a plier and some special-purpose blades designed by his special friend and partner in crime Ramesh “genius” Rao. He was a fat nerd specializing in creating customized tools and weapons for the right price and had been working with Aashish for the past 15 years.

The night was eerily quiet and he could literally hear the leaves rustling by in the nearby Aarey forests.

Ignoring his surroundings, Aashish proceeded with his mission with machine-like proficiency plucking out a finger from the drugged man who screamed like a wounded dog. “Don’t worry, we have only the forest cover and nightly darkness for company. Your screaming is pretty useless” Aashish guffawed. He secured the finger in a zip-pouch and kept it in the glove compartment and pulled out his Berretta gun with specialized silencer. He shot the pedophile in the head, killing him instantly.

Now he had to dispose of the body like a professional. He proceeded to get gasoline from the luggage compartment of his car and doused the dead corpse before lighting up the pyre using a lighter. The flames burnt for a few hours before they were extinguished and Aashish’s job was done. “Time to head home”, he smirked to himself.

What will happen next?

Are you excited for the next chapter or terrified?

Fasten your seatbelts and get ready for a ride to remember!

Devil’s advocate. was originally published in Weeds & Wildflowers on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A myth ?

or

A sham?

or

A way of life?

Religion was originally published in Weeds & Wildflowers on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Rain is a puzzle,

Sprinkles life into nature,

yet fills me with gloom.

Losing a close friend is melancholic.

You feel the soul sucked out of your body, bit-by-bit.

Losing a close friend is like death itself.

Close friend. was originally published in 3 Line Poetry on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Laying on the bed ,shadows consuming me

someone please put a curtain over my mind.

Your Turn

THEME: Curtains

Share your own one-line poem on the theme as a response to this post or write a stand-alone piece if you prefer. Tag your piece “One Line”. If you have a stand-alone poem, be sure to leave a link in the response section below.

Its been almost half a year since my last post I am glad to be back. I wont promise anything but I will try my best to be consistent.

Curtains over my mind was originally published in Chalkboard on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Feet on the ground head in the clouds

shadows looming in the corner of my eyes

where exactly is my mind?, is the question I ask.

Where is my mind? was originally published in 3 Line Poetry on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

She Crunches numbers,

all day long yearning to feel,

the breeze in her face.

From the author

Hey there lovely reader.

Thanks for spending your precious time reading my little piece. I hope you enjoyed it. If you love my writing, feel free to follow my account to be updated with my latest works. I am really happy and count myself lucky to be able to share my soul with you. Goodbye for now but I expect you on my next post!

Until then stay safe and keep smiling!

Life is a mystery,
We are all in the race to create history,
losing our true selves in the process.

The Mystery of Life was originally published in 3 Line Poetry on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I hade many a reasons to let go,

the love in my heart,

a reason enough to hold on.

Your Turn — 
THEME: Reasons
Share your own one-line poem (16 to 30 words) or a Chalkboard Espresso (1 to 15 words) on the theme. Tag your piece in response to this post piece and tag your piece “One Line” or “Chalkboard Espresso” as appropriate. If you have a stand-alone poem, be sure to leave a link in the response section below.

Love. was originally published in Chalkboard on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A non-fiction story

The life of a elephant is a sad one, in today’s vile times.

Don’t mistake my words as a direct attack on the creature’s shortcomings. Far from it, this magnificent beast is a gentleman amongst ferocious predators.

It’s us humans the fury of my words spray fire on.

We destroy the life of this peace-loving animal and make its life a sob story.
We poach them for their hide and tusk, enticing them using petty tricks like bombs inside pineapples.

You must have read or seen the vicious killing of a pregnant female elephant on news in recent times.

This heinous act, which killed two lives at the same time, for what, a piece of hide and tusks? Acts like these occur everywhere world-over.

Elephants are so nice and warm, rarely attack anyone without provocation if they haven’t gone mad. I have only received love and positive vibes from an elephant whenever I have interacted with them.

I believe it’s our humanly duty to allow such a magnificent creature to thrive peacefully in its natural habitat, without the perils of poaching. We cannot eliminate the bad guys or change their mentality, we can only stop them by setting up stringent laws and taking swift actions against them.

If we dont mend our ways and keep meddling with nature, nature has its ways of mending ours.

Before nature shows us its dark side, we need to take care of our destructive habits!

Pratik Routray 2020

From the author

Hey there lovely reader.

Thanks for spending your precious time reading my little piece. I hope you enjoyed it. If you love my writing, feel free to follow my account to be updated with my latest works. I am really happy and count myself lucky to be able to share my soul with you. Goodbye for now but I expect you on my next post!

Until then stay safe and keep smiling!

Sad story of an elephant. was originally published in Storymaker on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.