>> The Final Adieu<<

Admin Posts : 1961 Join date : 2012-01-26

The Final Adieu - 1

Day 1, 08:15 am

She read the mail on her laptop screen for the umpteenth time.

She had read it so many times that she now remembered it word by word. She thought for a while if she should really go. She could easily say that some important guests had come. But that would be a downright lie. She tried to convince herself that white lies are not bad. She read the mail again. She wondered why the sender picked up such a remote beach late in the evening. She thought of calling her husband to get his advice. She picked up her cell phone and dialed the speed dial digit of her husband. But before the ring went, she disconnected the call. She knew her husband would give a straight NO to go visit some virtual friend, whom she had never met. She thought for a while about the options she had before her. Then with one final wave of her head, she decided she would go.

Part 1

Day 1, 08:30 am

The room was pitch black. He was tied to a chair. He did not know what time it was. He was not even sure if it was day or night. The last thing he remembered was getting inside his car. Then there was total darkness. He tried calling out for help. But there was no answer. He did not lose hope. He was sure someone who hears his scream would come for his rescue. He kept shouting until he became tired. Suddenly he saw someone open the door to the room. His pupil had become used to the darkness. He was able to see the figure that opened the door. It was hard to say if the figure was a man or a woman. He wondered if it was someone he knew. The figure came closer to him.

"Who are you?" he asked

"You know me" the figure replied. "I have been waiting for you for a very long time. But you never came. So I decided to come to you, my love"

The figure switched on a light in the room and moved closer to him.

"Oh...you........."

The figure suddenly threw a bucket of cold water on him and started laughing uncontrollably.

Sagar got up from his bed with a start. His mom was standing nearby, with an empty bucket in one hand and another hand on her mouth trying to control her laughter. He looked completely lost for an instant. Then he too joined his mom in the laughter.

"Ma, this is just too much. I was having one of the exotic dreams. You spoiled it"

"Really, what was that?"

"Bollywood queen Bipasha Basu had kidnapped me. She was about to do the unthinkable, when you interrupted" Sagar replied without concealing his irritation.

"Oh sagy, I was just worried if John Abraham would harm you" Vani winked. "Even your dream contemplates with your profession. Anyways, I suppose you should marry some one soon. Your aunt was talking about this girl...."

"Oh ma, please stop. I can’t marry some stranger. I am yet to see the right girl"

"Alright, but just make sure you marry before my death" she used her last but most powerful weapon.

Sagar chose to ignore that remark and pushed his way to the restroom. Vani sighed and went to the kitchen.

Sagar ran the hot shower on him. He checked himself on the mirror. He stood 5'11" tall. He had a well built and maintained body. Regular exercise and dieting had gifted him the six pack abs any guy would dream for. Almost everyone who saw him for the first time would compliment that he resembled Anbuchelvan (actor Surya from Kaaka Kaaka). His eyes were his best feature. When he spoke, only 10% would be conveyed through his mouth. The rest would be taken care of by his eyes. Once his girl friend at college had commented that there were at least a dozen girls flocking behind her to get his intro. His next best attribute was his smile. The same friend had commented that only if he smiled more often than he actually did, the entire college girls would fall head over heels for him.

Not only in physique did he resemble Anbuchelvan. He is the Assistant commissioner of Police (ACP). He thought for a while if there was any problem with him. 'Why don't I feel attracted to any girl?' he thought. He had seen many women in his life. But none turned him on. He did go for a few blind dates. But all the episodes were a major flop. There was one girl who really impressed him on one such date. But the girl refused saying he did not give her the undivided attention. 'What the hell does that mean?' he questioned himself. But he could not come up with an answer.

He finished his shower soon and came out. He wore a T-shirt and shorts. He switched on his laptop and started checking his mails. He read some of the important mails. He deleted the useless forwards his friends usually sent. He cleared the trash folder. He was about to clear the spam folder when one mail caught his attention. There was something peculiar about the subject. He opened the mail and started reading it.

Sagar had to read the mail few more times until he could come to a conclusion. First he thought if one of his friends was teasing him. Then he thought if it could be some spammer's prank. He read the from address again. The mail server had hidden the sender's identity. This could be possible only by a software geek. So he decided that it must be a spam. He was about to shutdown his laptop when Vani barged in.

"Hey, wait. Don't shut down. I want to check something"

What?"

"Does it matter?"

"Of course yes. This is my laptop. What happened to yours?"

"I think there is some Virus. Network is too slow. And the laptop hangs intermittently"

"Did you run the anti-virus software? It would fix the problem"

"Are you having some girl's snap in your laptop? What is the big deal in sharing it with me just for a day?"

Sagar blushed for a moment. He shrugged his shoulders and continued

"Alright ma, you win. Please use it for however long you wish to" saying so he handed over the laptop to her. Vani sat with the laptop with a victorious smile.

"Ma, I am hungry. Can't you check after breakfast?"

"No"

"What is so interesting that even your son's hunger seems secondary to you?" he exclaimed in a clearly irritated voice.

"Didn’t I tell you about the daily serial in that blog site? I want to check the next episode"

"What blog site?"

"Aah, I guess I have to buy Vallarai capsules for you. Don't you remember me saying about this site "WonderWomen" for Indian ladies? Anyone could sign in and start blogging. There are also many forums for various discussions.

"Oh yes, I remember"

"Good! In that site, there is a user whose posts daily serials. I just love all her stories"

"Oh please! Don't be silly. I was happy that you don’t watch those stupid TV serials. Now don’t depress me with some online serial"

"No, this is not a normal serial where all women do nothing but cry. It is a thriller. Yesterday the protagonist had sent a suicide note to the police. I am eager to know what happened next"

"Suicide note to police?"

"Yeah, but not the normal suicide note. This one is very different. I wonder how the author comes with such ideas."

"Can I take a look at it ma?"

"See, even you are impressed with it. Wait, I will open that site"

Vani opened firefox web browser and clicked on the link "The Final Adieu - Part 9" from the site. The page opened. Vani scrolled down to the last paragraph and moved the laptop towards Sagar.

Sagar leaned forward to have a closer look at the screen. He read the suicide note the author of the blog had written for her serial. When finished reading, he was shocked to a great extent. The suicide note was exactly same as the mail he had read a few minutes ago.

(*All email ids, sites referred in this story are purely fictional)

Admin Posts : 1961 Join date : 2012-01-26

The Final Adieu - 2

Day 1, 09:10 am

Asheeta was lying on her bed face up. She was staring at the ceiling point blank. But her mind was else where. She thought about her childhood days and how life had changed now. She was the only child to her parents. She got all the benefits of what a single would get.

She was treated like a princess. Her father was very strict with her mom. But when it came to Asheeta, he just melted. And Asheeta never took advantage of his love. She had a close bond with her father until she attained puberty. Even then, her love for him did not reduce a bit. But she started moving more close with her mother. Her mother was a great inspiration for her. She was Asheeta's best friend. They went out a lot, passed comments on guys they came across, talked about everything under the Sun. All was well.

She shook herself. 'No! I should not think about the past' she told herself. To deviate her mind, she recalled the lunch meeting she had yesterday with someone. She had started looking for prospective matches for herself through matrimonial sites. There was this guy whose profile was very impressive. She decided to meet him for lunch in a restaurant.

She was 5'6" tall. Daily exercise kept her slim and fit. She wore a white knee length kurta and a white leggins. She wore matching accessories, all white. The white dress complimented her fair skin very well. She looked like an angel. She went to the restaurant and reserved one more chair for the guy. He came 10 minutes late.

"Hi." she said

"Hi. I have to tell, you look absolutely stunning" he smiled

'Wow! Flirting at the first opportunity. Negative one' she thought.

"Oh, thanks"

"Umm...my mom asked me to meet you, so...you know..." he blushed.

"Mama's boy, Red alert one'

"Oh, so sweet of her. Ummm...what do you like to have?"

"I have heard mutton biriyani and crab fry is very good here. Let us try it" he said and without waiting for her consent, he called the waiter to place the order.

"Great, he does not have the courtesy to ask me if I like. Negative two'

"Err...no thanks. I prefer chicken"

"Oh, no problem"

He placed the order and turned towards her.

"So, what do you do?"

She told him about her job.

"And what do you do?" she asked

"I worked in Java platform. Now I am doing my MBA and planning to switch to administration. You know, development sucks big time"

'Definitive career objective. Positive one'

"Oh yeah, that is great. Good luck!"

"Hey thanks! Ummm...what are your hobbies?"

"Me… I love singing, dancing and reading. At times you can see me sitting with one big fat book even in the middle of the night"

"Wow! That is cool. Even I am an avid reader"

'Similar tastes. Positive two'

"Great! Which is your favorite book?"

"A lot to mention. But none can beat the book 'Java made easy'. That was the first book I ever read"

'??????????!!!!!!!!!!! Positive one, Negative three'

"Oh...ok ok"

"What is your favorite?"

"Da Vinci Code" she said in a low voice. As hard as she tried to sound enthusiastic, she found it difficult.

"Oh...you read story books too? "

'Story books??????? Oh God, what am I still doing here?'

"Yeah...Umm...You know, I think I should start. It is getting late"

"Oh sure! So, what do I tell my mom?"

'Oh no, Red Alert 2. I can't even give him a second thought'

"I have this uncle who takes care of me. I will consult with him and get back to you. It was nice talking with you"

Asheeta laughed her heart out thinking how she almost ran away from the restaurant, when she was interrupted by her phone. She looked at it startled for a moment. She never gave her home number to anyone. All her friends and relatives had only her mobile number. Infact she never used her landline number except for internet connection. Confused, she answered the call.

"Hello"

"May I speak to Ms. Kannama"

"Kannama...Oh yeah...speaking. May I know who this is?"

"I am calling from WonderWomen. You must be knowing me. I am one of the administrators of the site. My name is Yamuna"

"Oh, yeah…of course, I know you. It is a pleasure talking to you mam. But..."

"Please listen to me. Half an hour back we got a call from the police department. They asked our network team to trace your address for an enquiry. They refused to let us know the details. Being a long time active member, I thought of informing you"

Asheeta was dumbstruck for a second. She was completely lost. 'This is a prank call', she thought.

"Hello...Ms.Kannama. Are you with me?"

"Yeah...Yes mam. I...I did not do anything"

"Neither did I say you did something. They said this was something about your story. So you need not worry"

"Oh...ok mam. Thanks for taking the time to call me"

"Any time. Bye"

Asheeta disconnected the call and sat on the sofa.

"Did someone sue me for writing some rubbish in the name of stories?"

"Or did I write something controversial?"

"Or worst, did someone steal my story and is suing me for copyright issues?"

She thought of all kind of possible reasons and each reason scared her more than the previous. But not in her wildest imagination was she prepared for what was about to come.

Sagar alighted from his car and locked it. He opened the gate of the house. He stood still at the majesty of the house. 'This is a palace' he thought.

He knocked the door. A minute later, the door opened and some school girl came out.

"Umm...Are there any elders inside honey?"

Asheeta stared at him for a second. No one had insulted her like that.

"I don't care if I don't look like an elder to you. Who are you?" she demanded.

Now it was Sagar's turn to stare. He recovered quickly.

"Err...sorry mam" he stressed the word Mam more than he intended.

"I am from the police department, ACP. I would like to meet Ms.Kannama" he flashed his id card.

Asheeta's cheeks turned bright scarlet. She quickly turned around and prompted him to come inside.

"Sorry Sir, I...I hate it when people don't treat me like an elder"

"That's fine. I can understand. And you can't blame me entirely. You look so young. And by your name Kannama, I was expecting an aunty to open the door"

"That is my pen name. My real name is Asheeta"

"Oh...nice name"

"Thank you. BTW, coffee?"

"No thanks. This is just a formal enquiry. You have been writing a serial story in this site WonderWomen right?"

"Yes sir" she said. Her stomach was churning, and she felt nauseated. She knew something bad was coming, but she was not sure what.

"Hmmm...Take a look at this first" he said and handed over a piece of paper to her.

With trembling hands she picked the paper from him. She read it soon and looked up at him confused.

"You remember writing this?" he asked

"Of course yes. This came in the yesterday's episode of my serial story"

"Correct! But what you are holding is not a printout from your story. I received this as a mail from some unknown sender"

"Oh...but who?"

"I was expecting you would answer that question"

"What do you mean?" she said, beginning to lose her patience.

"You know what I mean"

"This is...this is just crazy. Do you think I would send such a mail?"

Sagar stared at Asheeta for one long minute.

"Can you tell me what is the nature of your job?" he asked

"Yeah...I work in IT. I develop network applications"

"Ummm...So it is possible that you know how to block an email id while sending, isn't it?"

Asheeta glared at Sagar for a while. She was fuming inside. She hated him for what he was doing to her.

"Alright, you sound convinced that I was the one who sent you the mail. And you must be having an idea about my motive too. Care to explain?" she said with a clear mark of sarcasm.

"Who knows? May be you wanted to know how a real police officer would react to such a mail"

"Wow! That is one good reason. So what are you waiting for? Are you going arrest me?"

"No"

"No?"

"No! Because I know it was not you"

"Are you playing some kind of mind games with me?"

"I initially suspected you. But now I am convinced it was not you"

"Oh great! And how did you find it now?"

"Your eyes, they are in sync with your words. When we lie, our eyes do not cooperate, you know"

"Oh, then thank God you knew that" she replied without an attempt to conceal her anger.

"Now, can you think of anyone who would send such a mail?"

"Nope...sorry"

"No, you don’t have to answer that so fast. Take your time. Think of anything unusual that has been happening lately. Anything that does not happen in your normal routine, but you may have noticed recently. Any phone calls, messages, mail, you get the point?"

Asheeta closed her eyes and thought for a while. She was murmuring few words that did not make any sense to Sagar.

"Ummm...could it be something that is happening for a while" she asked.

"For a while...like?

"Two years..."

"Yeah, tell me. Let us not ignore anything"

"For the past two years, I have been receiving flowers on the 2nd of every month. Does it matter?"

"Who is sending it?"

"I don’t know. There is no sender name or address."

"And you did not think it was worth a police report?"

"I...I thought it was someone who knows me" she almost whispered.

"Two years Asheeta...how could you be so naive?"

She looked away and mumbled something which Sagar did not hear.

"Alright, why 2nd? Does your birthday fall on the 2nd"

"No...It was...It...."

Asheeta remembered that day very well. She was in a project meeting when she received a call from her dad. She disconnected the call few times. But when she received it the 4th time, her project manager asked her to go ahead with the call.

She answered the call and was about to yell at her father when she heard some unknown voice. She remembered only bits and pieces of what the voice said. "Accident...Bus...Hospital...". Everything was vague. She never knew who took her to the hospital, what the doctor said, when she reached home. Her mind was totally blank. It was like a sleep walk. But she did not shed a tear. She just kept staring at her parent's bodies.

"Asheeta...Asheeta...What happened?"

She heard Sagar's voice and came back to the reality.

"Sorry, It was...my parents died on the 2nd" she managed to complete.

"Oh...I am terribly sorry" he said with real concern.

"Yeah, me too" she said and turned her face away from him.

Sagar knew she did not want him to see her cry. He suddenly felt the urge to hold her tight and assure that everything would be fine. His hands almost moved, but he constrained himself. He waited till she regained her composure. A minute later, she turned back at him and smiled. It was not a forced smile. It was a true genuine one. Sagar was deeply touched.

"This may not be the right time to ask you, but..."

"Oh no please go ahead. I am fine" she waved her hands.

"Well, I still can’t believe you did not take any measure to find who sent you the flowers"

"My father's friends circle is very big. So I really did not think it was something to be alarmed of. I actually felt good, and these days I expect the flowers on the 2nd of every month" she smiled.

"Alright, I will try to trace the sender. Any other unusual activities?"

"Absolutely no"

"Well, thanks for your time. Can I have some water please?"

She went inside her kitchen and returned in a minute. He drank and started to leave. Before going out, he turned towards her.

"If at all you remember anything else, feel free to give me a call" he said and handed over his card to her. She thanked him and waved him goodbye.

She checked through the window if he left. After she made sure that he was gone, she quickly took her cell phone and dialed some number from the contact list. After a few rings, a male voice answered the call.

"Hello..."

"Hey listen...We are in serious trouble. Come to the besant nagar beach now. I will be waiting for you and no excuses" she said and without waiting for his reply disconnected the call. .

Admin Posts : 1961 Join date : 2012-01-26

The Final Adieu - 3

Day 1, 10:30 am

Jacob was sitting on his bike parked near the besant nagar beach. He was tall, dark and lean. He was wearing a black T-shirt and a blue jean. One of his ears was pierced and a Sun-glass was hung on his shirt. It was evident that he had tried to give a macho look, but failed miserably. He was pondering about why Asheeta had called him so urgently. He remembered how frantic Asheeta sounded during the call.

It was the freshers day at college when both first met. Jacob was on his way to the restroom when he was caught by a group of senior girls. He being very sensitive by nature sent shivers through his body. Yet he tried to remain calm. The girls made him turn left, right, sit, walk, swim on the ground and so much more. He did everything dutifully. Then they started evaluating his worth. He heard different voices scream

Bring 10 rupees and take Jacob along

Buy anything and get Jacob free

They taunted him and made him feel like dirt. He felt humiliated and his whole body started to tremble. But he forced a smile on his lips. He acted as if he was also enjoying the joke played on him. But his heart was pleading for help, someone to rescue him from his agony. Just then a female voice startled him.

"Jacob is worth more than all of you put together"

It was Asheeta standing behind them with their department HOD.

After that incident, Jacob and Asheeta quickly bonded together as the best of friends. They had nothing in common. It was a mystery for the entire college how they could get along. When she was interested in rap and hip-hop, he liked soft melodies. When her favorite sports were tennis and cricket, he was more into chess and carrom board. When she liked watching National Geographic’s and Discovery channel, he would watch speech delivered by his favorite guru. But when the same guru was later convicted for fraud and crime, she made sure not to mention anything about it to him. That is exactly what he liked her for. They accepted that they were different and did not force themselves with each others views.

Jacob kept checking his cell phone for any calls or messages every now and then. The beach was deserted except for few guys playing cricket. Here and there, young couples were scattered not minding the hot Sun directly above them. He spent time watching them in action. After what seemed to be an eternity, he received a message on his mobile.

I am here. Wer r u?

He alighted from his bike and locked it. He spotted Asheeta standing far away next to an arch constructed in the middle of the beach. She seemed to be checking her mobile, possibly waiting for his call or message. He started walking towards her.

Sensing that he was behind her, Asheeta spun around.

"Hey Jacob" she said in a cold voice.

"Hey yourself. What..."

"What the hell do you think you are doing? Have you gone nuts?" she growled without giving him a chance to complete

"Slow down Ash. Tell me what happened?" he said in a pacifying tone.

"You happened"

"Can you speak proper English?" he asked still patiently

The calmness in his voice made her succumb to his request. She explained about the meeting she had with Sagar and showed the mail printout to him. He read it carefully and looked up at her.

"You think it was me, huh?" he asked mildly irritated.

Just then they both felt someone walk behind them. Asheeta's immediate instinct was to hide the paper, but a strong hand quickly held her and grabbed the paper from her. She looked up to check who it was and froze. It was Sagar.

"So...is this your little secret?" he asked with acute sarcasm.

"What...What are you doing here?" she asked trying to keep her voice calm.

"May I ask you the same question?"

"From when did chatting with friends in a beach became a crime?" Jacob interjected.

Sagar studied him for a moment and continued.

"Are you her boy friend?"

"That is none of your business" replied Asheeta who had regained her composure by now.

"Well, then let us talk about our business. I want to know what exactly happened"

Asheeta remained silent for a while. Then,

"Well, I was not completely honest with you this morning. But whatever I am going to say now, is the truth to the best of my knowledge"

"I am all ears"

"Normally, whenever I finish writing an episode, it is my routine to send a copy to Jacob. He acts like an editor for me. He reviews my blog and presents with feedback. Day before yesterday, I had sent him yesterday's episode. Later when I was asking him for his review, he said he had this idea to increase the popularity of my story by playing a prank. He said he would send a mail similar to the one in my story, and if police got involved, my blog would become an instant success. So, I thought..." she left the sentence incomplete and looked at Jacob.

"This is insane. It was a joke" Jacob said alarmed.

Sagar did not look convinced. Jacob's eyes moved back and forth between Asheeta and Sagar for a while and finally rested on Asheeta.

"Ash, you knew it was a joke, didn’t you? We both had a hearty laugh about it later"

Asheeta did not utter a word.

"Oh bloody hell Ash, don't you believe me?" he almost screamed

Asheeta turned away unable to bear his gaze.

"I believe you" said Sagar

"You what?" Jacob asked disbelievingly.

"I know when I am being lied to"

"Oh...thank you...thanks a lot Sir. I can't believe this is happening. Someone who met me just 5 minutes back believes me, but someone who is supposedly my best friend does not" he smiled wryly.

"It is not like that Jacob, you...you don’t understand" Asheeta said trying to defend herself.

"Try me"

But Sagar came to her rescue.

"It was not her fault. She thought she was saving you by hiding this from me. Don't blame her"

Asheeta looked up at him with gratitude.

"I am so sorry Sir for hiding it. As you said, I thought it was Jacob, and I thought I should not turn him down"

"Yeah, I understand"

"By the way, what did you say your name was Sir?"

"I never told you my name"

"Aaah, yeah right"

"Sagar, but feel free to call me Sagy" he said and smiled.

Asheeta was lost for a while.

Oh God! The smile...And his eyes...He looks dangerously handsome

The second that thought crossed her mind, she felt her cheeks turn red. Oh No! Not now. But the more she tried to control it, the redder her cheeks became. She turned away to avoid his stare.

But Sagar did not miss it. He saw her blushing and his heart skipped a beat. Till then he saw her as just a kid. But now he realized that she was a young pretty girl. He could only see her profile as she had turned away from him. Her arched eyebrows, dark grey eyes, pointed nose, scarlet cheek, tiny ears, full lips, everything made him go crazy. He had been with women more beautiful, but there was something else in her, something he had not seen in any other woman.

Out of the corner of her eye, Asheeta noticed that he was staring at her. It was all she could do to stop blushing. A smile lit her face. She felt on top of the world.

Jacob who was silently watching all this instantly realized what was happening. He was happy for his best friend. He excused himself saying he had some urgent work and left them to their privacy.

Asheeta waved him goodbye and turned towards Sagar. She wanted to know something.

"So...how did you find out?"

"Find out what?"

"That I was meeting Jacob here"

"Umm....You will get mad at me if I told you"

"Really?" she said raising one of her eyebrows.

"Well, I bugged your house"

"You what?"

"When I asked you to get water, I placed a mike under the sofa. My instinct told me you were hiding something. I had to find it"

"How could you do such a thing? You had invaded my privacy" she yelled.

"But, my hunch was true right?"

"Hell with your hunch. What if I had had an intimate conversation with my boy friend" she snorted without realizing what she just said.

Sagar felt a sudden stab in his heart. This was not something he had expected.

"Then thank God you had not called your boy friend" he retorted

"I...I don't have a boy friend" she admitted guiltily

"Whatever!" he said. "But you should know, in today’s world, the word privacy has no meaning. All your calls, mails, messages even if deleted at your end are stored in some remote server. Any one with authorization could access it. This applies everywhere, facebook, orkut, skype, you name it"

Asheeta was still glaring at him angrily. Sagar thought he chould somehow convince her.

"You know, the first time I saw you, I was really angry at your parents for naming you such an insane one like Kannama. Only when you told your real name was I relieved. Your name is very beautiful..." he said and added "...just like you"

If he had expected her to blush, he was wrong. She stared at him with much more hatred than before. He did not understand what had gone wrong.

"Kannama is my mother's name" she clarified with gritted teeth

For a second Sagar wished he could vanish into thin air. He grinned sheepishly.

"So...anything else?" she asked curtly.

"We haven't yet found who sent the mail Ash"

"Can we just drop it?"

Sagar looked at her meaningfully. She understood what he intended to say.

"Don't start your instinct crap please. It was just some jobless guy, trying to play some prank on you. Don't you have some real job to do rather than following a faceless coward?" she said in a mocking tone.

"Hmm...you are right..." he said and after a pause added "At least hold yourself from posting any further episodes until we are sure it was just a joke"

"Not possible Sagy, the next episode would have already been posted"

"What do you mean by would have been?"

"Mine is a daily serial, posted at morning 07:00. I generally save the episodes the previous night as draft and schedule it to be posted on the next day 07:00 am. It saves me the trouble of waking up early, you know"

"Oh...any idea how many would have already read today's episode"

"Wait, let me check"

She took her mobile and browsed her blog.

"In the past 4 hours, there have been 74 views and 6 replies"

"hmm...What happened in today's episode Ash? Did he commit suicide or was he saved by the police?"

"I dont think it matters Sagy. Trust me"

"Ummmm....Fine...I just hope you are right" he said though he was not convinced.

They got up on their feet. There was nothing more to help them prolong their conversation.

Sagar extended his right hand and said "So...I guess this is a goodbye then"

Asheeta hesitated for a second and then shook hands with him. She felt a sudden chill spreading and involuntarily her cheeks turned bright red once again. Sagar admired it for a while and let go of her hands.

"Bye. See you later" she managed to say.

"When?"

"What?"

"Never mind, Bye"

Sagar stood there for a long time watching her go. He lost track of time. He did not remember how long he was standing there when he was suddenly interrupted by a call. It was his senior officer asking him to come immediately for some urgent work. He disconnected the call and said to himself My dear Ash, I can't just let you go. Very soon I will come to you my dearest.

Asheeta was driving to her office. She was taking the usual left and right turns at the appropriate signals without her realization. Her mind was in a whirlpool of emotions. She had never believed in love at first sight. But this was second sight she heard herself justify. She shrugged her shoulders and tried to distract her mind by listening to some songs. She turned on the radio and tuned to mirchi FM. It played her all time favorite track 'Vizhi moodi yosithaal' from Ayan. She was so much engrossed in the sensual voice of Karthik that she almost shook when her mobile rang. It was some unknown land line number. She attended the call unsure if she should have answered the call. She heard only someone breathe heavily. She repeatedly shouted Hello, but there was no other sound at the other end. Frustrated she disconnected the call. The next instant she remembered the morning episode she had posted. She froze for a while not knowing what to do. Could it be a coincidence? May be I should call Sagar and tell him about the call. She took the visiting card he had given earlier and noted the number in her mobile. She kept sliding her mobile up and down debating if she should call him. What if he thinks it was a ploy to talk to him. May be my mind is thinking of excuses to get in touch with him. I wont give him that satisfaction. If he wants, let him come to me. But she could not help thinking Hope he does come real soon.

Both had no idea how soon it was going to be.

Day 1, 06:05 pm

"Hey Saby, can you do me a small favor"

Sabitha heard a voice call out. She did not even bother to check who was calling her.

"Oh no dear. I am leaving" she said and started off without waiting for any acknowledgment.

She was in no mood of any extra work. She had got permission to start early cajoling her project manager. She was not going to allow anyone spoil it. She had been fully thinking about the evening plan she had made with her friend. She was sure about meeting her until 10 minutes back. But then her husband had called and wanted her to come home early. He said he had some surprise for her and wanted to see her eyes bulge in happiness when he told her. She smiled thinking how much her husband had changed in the last few years; more understanding, more supportive and more expressive. She checked the time. She decided she could not meet her friend. She had to tell some lie like she had extra work, some guests came, or whatever that came to her mind.

She went out of the magnificent 10 storey building. She walked on the platform and kept checking for any empty autos. After around 5 minutes, an auto came. The driver asked her where she wanted to go.

"Thiruvanmyur beach" she replied.

I will be with her for just 15 minutes. I may be delayed a little, but what difference is it going to make she thought

She had no idea how much difference it was going to make.

Admin Posts : 1961 Join date : 2012-01-26

The Final Adieu - 4

Day 1, 06:20 pm

Sagar was euphoric. He was sitting in his room, replaying the conversation he had with Asheeta over and over in his mind. He recalled the incident when one of his dates complained he did not give her the undivided attention. Now he knew what it meant.

He had called his mother earlier and had told her about the new angel in his life. Vani had always dreaded the possibility of Sagar never finding his soul mate. But now she was relieved. She asked him to bring Asheeta home. Sagar said he would bring Asheeta provided she accepted his proposal. Vani had laughed out loud saying who would ever deny him. His mother was just like any other mother; she thought her son was the world's most eligible bachelor. Sagar smiled to himself. He wanted to make Asheeta echo his mother's thoughts. But before all that, there was something else he had to take care of.

Sagar always believed in his instincts. It never failed him. It all started when he was 6 years old. He was in his house backyard with his pet Julie, a dark brown German Shepard dog. It was the usual game he always played with Julie. He would throw the ball somewhere far and Julie would fetch it and give it to him. And the cycle continued. Both never got tired playing the same game.

On that particular day, he was playing with Julie, when suddenly he sensed danger. He felt he should not stay there any more. He dragged Julie into the house and tied her to a door. He then ran to his mother. and told her that something bad was going to happen. His mother dismissed him saying she was not ready for his pranks. The next second they heard a blast, like some bomb exploded. His mom ran out to check what happened. The tree, under which seconds earlier Sagar was playing, had uprooted itself and fell on the ground.

From then on, many times he had had that feeling, which had saved one or more lives. Now it was the same feeling. Though he tried to divert his attention by concentrating on his work, he could not stop worrying. His feelings had always been right. He wondered what might have happened to the man in Asheeta's story; if he died or was he saved. He decided he could not ignore it any more.

He opened the WonderWoman site on his laptop and started reading the morning episode.

********************

Day 1, 06:55 pm

Sabitha stood staring at the sea oblivious to the surrounding. She saw the waves rise and advance towards her as if to fill her with a tight embrace. Cool breeze crept on her every now and then making her shiver. She had been waiting for 5 minutes, but to her it felt like 5 hours.

She suddenly felt a strong pricking sensation pierce at her back. She immediately turned back and found a short and stout man staring at her. He was dark skinned and half bald. He was wearing a dirty lungi and he looked like he never took bath. Sabitha turned away from him but could not remove his image from her mind. She was used to stares pierce right through her body. Those were the times she felt she was naked and thousand blood thirsty eyes mercilessly relishing on her nudity. She felt the same now. She wanted to get away from there immediately. She glanced the beach once to check if her friend had come. There was no sign of her. She heaved sigh and continued waiting for her friend.

After a while she again felt something strange. The man who was staring at her had now moved closer to her. He was breathing on her neck. She felt sick to her stomach. She thought of moving away when a voice startled her

"What is your rate?"

Sabitha tried to ignore him but the man seemed persistent. He came closer and repeated the same question. Sabitha could not control herself any longer. She turned and glared at him for one long minute. She thought of so many things to yell at him. She wanted to call him names. She wanted to slap him. She wanted to beat him to death. She wanted to strangulate him. She wanted to kill him. But she could do nothing. She was overwhelmed with anger that her mouth failed her. Her body did not coordinate with her thought process. With great deal of effort she managed to raise her hand and warned him to get lost. He saw the look on her face and was gone.

Sabitha tried hard to catch her breath. It took her several minutes to come back to normal. She turned back to check if the man was gone. He was nowhere to be seen. She checked the time. It was 15 minutes past 7. She thought it was no use waiting for her friend any more. She could meet her next time. She turned back to move when something caught her attention.

She saw someone walk past her towards the sea. He looked like he was in his late 20s. At first look he seemed normal. But the closer she saw, she found an unmistakable streak of despair on his face. Without her realization, she was staring at him open mouthed. He went near the sea and removed his shoes. He stood still for an instant and started walking towards the sea.

The look on his face professed he had not come for fun. The man did not care about the huge waves splashing all over him. He did not bother to stop for anything. He just went on and on. Sabitha wondered what the man was about to do. And then the reality struck her. This was a suicide attempt.

Sabitha turned her head fiercely towards all sides of the beach. There was not a single soul nearby. All she saw was a couple with a kid and a group of young boys playing far away from her. She tried shouting for help. The wind took care to divert her voice anywhere but them. Only then she realized the situation she was in. There was a man's life at stake and she was the only possible one who could save him.

Sabitha went a little further into the beach. She called him to return. She did not know if he heard her or not. He had stopped in the middle as if waiting for some big wave to gobble him to the vast depth of the ocean. She was scared to go any further. She had learned swimming due to her father's persistence. But that was in a pool. Swimming in a sea was not the same. She may also become a victim.

She had read several stories about rescuers drowning along with the victims. When someone is drowning, their first instinct would be to breathe. So if they felt anyone move close to them, they would put their entire weight on the rescuer trying to come out, involuntarily drowning the rescuer along with them. So the first basic rule was to keep a safe distance from them and pull them with their hair.

Sabitha shook herself. She knew that applied only for people who wanted to live. But this man had gone into the sea to die. She shuddered thinking what would happen if he pulled her too along with him. But she knew her conscience would prick her all her life, if she stood there watching him die. She took one last breath and sprang into the sea.

It took enormous amount of her strength to walk past the waves. All the while she kept calling him, but he did not care to respond. She knew he would resist coming back with her. She thought she would plead with him to come back and if it did not work she would slap him. But even then what would a single slap mean to him? He was already distressed for God-only-knows-why.

This should have never happened, she thought. I should have stayed at my office. I should have gone home directly. I should have never come to the beach.

Suddenly she found herself directly behind the man.

She touched his shoulder and made herself ready to face his protest. But to her surprise, he did not. He held her hands tight and walked back with her. Sabitha did not expect this type of a reaction. She decided the man was too scared to die. She remembered reading somewhere that out of all who try to commit suicide, only few succeed. She was glad the man fell under the majority category.

After coming out of the sea, she made him sit on the ground. He kept looking down not daring to look at her eyes. He looked very scared. Sabitha felt sorry for him. He did not even have the courage to die. She patted his back. She remained silent for a while allowing him to come out of the initial shock.

"What is your name?"

There was no response.

She held his hands tightly and whispered

"Everything is alright now, don’t worry"

There was still no response.

"Where is your house? Do you want me to drop you?"

Not a muscle moved in him. His eyes simply stared back at her. She could not deduce anything from his eyes. It was cold and blank, expressionless. She knew there was some deep pain inside him. But she did not know what. She felt his hand tighten his grip.

First positive sign she thought happily. She looked around searching for someone whom she might know, who could help her carry him. She suddenly felt the grip tighten very much that it almost hurt. She tried to withdraw her hand but could not.

He is scared she told herself.

"It is OK, I will take care of you" she said and again tried to withdraw her hand. But he did not seem to give in. He looked deep into her eyes and said "I am sorry".

For a moment Sabitha did not understand what he meant. And then she knew. Her body secreted a rush of adrenaline demanding her to flee from the scene immediately. She tried to rise on her feet but stopped mid way when she saw him clutching a knife on his other hand. She started to call for help but he placed the knife on her neck and said

"One word and you die"

********************

Sagar was driving his bike like a mad animal. He had finished reading the morning episode of Asheeta's story. He had learned that the man was not planning to die, but to kidnap an unsuspecting woman.

One part of his brain was blaming Asheeta for not warning him. Another part was blaming him for not reading the episode earlier. Somehow he knew that the man was real and he was going to kidnap some woman. Asheeta had mentioned in her story that the kidnap was going to happen in a beach. Sagar concluded that Thiruvanmyur beach was one of the most remote beaches and he decided to check there.

Sagar reached the beach in a few minutes. He did not bother to park his bike. He just pushed the bike down and searched frantically for any sign of abduction. At a distance he saw a man usher a woman towards a car.

Sagar lunged towards them. He saw the woman almost being pushed into the car. He did not want to let them go. If he missed them, he may never catch up with them. He shouted at them to stop.

The man turned and looked at Sagar for a second. Then he quickly moved to the driver seat and started his car.

Sagar immediately pulled his gun. He did not have any other choice. He fired a shot close to the car. The man immediately stopped the car engine. By now Sagar had moved close to the car.

"Put both your hands out where I can see them" Sagar shouted.

"Look, you don't understand. She..."

"Do as I say" Sagar roared.

The man obeyed.

"Now open your door using your right hand from the outside"

The man again obliged.

"On your kneels and hands on your head, now"

"I...I was just..."

"Shut up"

He then opened the car and pulled the woman out.

"You are safe now ma'am" Sagar assured her

"Oh please, don't hurt my brother"

Sagar looked up at her shocked.

"What did you say ma'am?"

"It was my fault. I fought with my husband and came here. My brother..."

Sagar was not standing there any more.

He ran throughout the beach. He searched everywhere. But there was no one he found guilty. He thought if he was mistaken. He debated if he was too late or was it all his imagination.

The woman and her brother were still staring at Sagar clueless of what was happening. Sagar went to them and apologized. They did not seem convinced. But since they already had their own set of problems, they did not proceed with any argument. They left the scene immediately.

Sagar suddenly remembered how tired he felt. He decided he needed some rest. He made a call to one of his junior officers.

"Hello" a voice answered.

"Hello, Sagar speaking. Will it be too much if I ask you a small favor?"

"Definitely no sir. Please go ahead"

"Thank you. If there is any missing woman report, I would like to be notified immediately."

"Sure Sir. Any other specifics?"

Sagar thought for a while.

"Nothing, this is sufficient"

Sagar disconnected the call and went to his bike. He would have to wait to know if his hunch was correct.

********************

Sabitha was sitting in the car shell shocked. She was so close to getting rescued yet she could not. She looked at the man who was now keen on driving. Sensing she was staring at him, he stopped the car and put it on neutral. There was not a soul in the street, it was totally deserted. He turned and moved towards her face. Sabitha tried to block him with her hands, but he was too strong for her. He pressed his lips hard on her ears and whispered.

"Good job done my dear. Continue your cooperation and I will let you go soon". He paused and added "I promise, you are going to have a great time with me"

He then smiled and resumed driving.

Admin Posts : 1961 Join date : 2012-01-26

The Final Adieu - 5

Day 2, 05:50 am

Asheeta was driving her car at top speed. Her father was sitting in the front set and mother in the rear seat. Her mother was pleading her to slow down, but Asheeta did not care to respond. She was laughing merrily and her father too joined her in her laughter.

They were interrupted by the honking sound of a vehicle behind. Asheeta looked at the rear view mirror to check who it was. She could not see the man's face, but the vehicle was a lorry. She realized it was the same lorry that had killed her parents in a car accident few years ago. And she realized it was going to happen again. She frantically did a zigzag trying to move away from the lorry's path. She quickly turned to her parents to assure them she would not allow them to die again. But they were both gone.

She realized she was sitting alone in the car, and the man behind was continuously honking which irritated her to a great extent. Unable to control herself any longer, she shouted NO! NO! NO!

Her screams thankfully aborted her nightmare and she opened her eyes wide. She sat in an upright position unsure if it was just a dream. She heard the same honking sound from her dream, which turned out to be the calling bell.

She was perspirating heavily. She took in some deep breaths, allowing herself to calm down. Her eyes glanced at the clock next to her bed. She wondered who was calling her at that time. She slipped on her night robes and went out. She peeped through the key hole and found Sagar impatiently buzzing the calling bell.

Asheeta could not imagine why Sagar had come so early. Unsure she opened the door.

"Hey Ash, you..." Sagar said and stopped mid-way.

Asheeta was wearing a semi-transparent night dress which did not fail to project the curves of her femininity in an elegant manner. It rose where it had to rise and fell where it had to fall.

Sagar simply stood staring at her for a couple of seconds. Then he quickly gathered his thoughts back to the issue at his hands.

"Can't you wear some proper dress?" Sagar managed to ask

"It is morning 5:50 and I was still sleeping. What else did you expect?" Asheeta replied with gritted teeth and stormed inside.

She came back after 5 minutes and was wearing a white Tops and pink skirt. Sagar was still standing outside the house unsure if he could go in. He thought Asheeta still looked extremely gorgeous. Asheeta greeted him inside and made him sit on a sofa in the living room.

"So...what is the matter?" Asheeta asked

"Um...We have got ourselves a situation Ash. Take a look at this photo" Sagar said and handed over a photo to Asheeta.

Asheeta stared at the photo for a few seconds trying to recognize the woman in it.

"Who is this?" she asked confused.

"This woman's name is Sabitha and she is missing from last night"

"Oh...So?"

"Can you recall what you wrote in your serial story yesterday?"

"Oh my God! Do you still believe it? And you woke me up for this?" she asked irritably.

"Sabitha was kidnapped the same way as you have described in your story"

Asheeta stared at him unbelievingly.

"You have got to be kidding me"

"No, I am not"

"Are you sure about this?"

"I was there when she was kidnapped"

"What do you mean?"

"Yeah, I...I was there with her. I read your story last evening and I was sure someone was going to make it real. I just knew. I raced to the beach and found a man usher a woman into a car. But the woman claimed it was some personal problem and that the man was her brother. And I just let them go. It was my fault"

"But why did the woman lie to you?"

"I don't know. But after learning that she is missing, I remembered something else. The woman kept staring at me all the while, like she wanted to convey something through her eyes. She would have been begging me to understand. But I missed it. I can never forgive myself if something happens to her"

"Did you see the man who kidnapped her?"

"Yes, but he kept staring down. He never dared to look up at me. I should have known" Sagar admitted guiltily.

"Don't blame yourself" Asheeta said in a pacifying tone. "I can't believe all this. Why should someone do what I write in a story?"

"I don't know. First tell me what is going to happen in the next episode? Why did he kidnap? I want to know everything"

"See, the protagonist of my story is..."

"Sorry to interrupt, but what is his name?"

"Kathir"

"OK, carry on"

"Yeah, as I was saying, Kathir is a sexual psychopath, who was abused by his parents as a kid. His girl friend breaks up with him, which acts as a stressor and he devolves into a serial rapist cum killer. He kidnaps women, tortures them, rapes them and finally kills them"

"So, why did he send a suicide note to the police?"

"Um...He feels nothing can stop him and to stop him, he has to die. He is a narcissist and to gain attention from the public and press, he sends a suicide note"

"So, is he going to kill Sabitha today?"

White writing the story, Asheeta found it pretty interesting. But now the fact that it is really happening somewhere sent her shivers through her body.

"Um...actually he does not kill the woman he kidnaps immediately. He kidnaps two women. He tortures and kills the first woman right before the second woman. Then he kidnaps a third woman and does the same to the second woman. And the cycle continues" Asheeta replied uncomfortably

"Why"

"To give the psychological pain before the actual physical pain"

"So you mean there is already a woman kidnapped before Sabitha?"

"Um...yeah..."

Asheeta appeared more uncomfortable now.

"See, I know how you are feeling. But be assured, this has nothing to do with you. You just wrote a story and some psychopath is making it real. Don't beat yourself"

"Hmm..."

"Spit it out, how many women have been kidnapped before Sabitha?"

"Uh...If he is following my story from the beginning, he would have already killed 3 women and now there is Sabitha and another woman held prisoners"

"Can you tell me the dates when the previous women were kidnapped and killed?"

Asheeta told the dates. Sagar made a call and spoke to someone. He was on the call for a few minutes.

"I just spoke to my junior officer. I have asked him to check if these kidnappings are real"

"I am so sorry"

"Don't! Don't do that to yourself. As I already said, this is not your fault"

Asheeta barely nodded. Sagar held her hands in his and continued

"Look, we are now going to save those two women. And I need your cooperation. And for that to happen, I need you to be strong and able. Is that clear?"

"Yes"

"Good! Now listen carefully. Kathir knows that I saw him. But still he would stick to your version of the story. He is obsessed with your story and will be unable to deviate from what you write. He will do exactly as you write. So, I want you to modify the story such that Sabitha manages to escape unscathed. Is that possible?"

"What about the other woman?"

"She would have already been terrified. She may not have the physical or emotional strength in her to escape. Let us first get Sabitha. Then through her we can rescue the other"

"Alright! But there is a problem. Kathir makes the woman nude and burns their clothes immediately after their kidnap. Do you think Sabitha would be able to find a spare dress?"

"Why does he do that?"

"Nudity makes a woman vulnerable and she never dares to escape"

"Very good! Nice thinking, you know" he said in a mocking tone.

Asheeta looked hurt. Sagar immediately changed his tone.

"Fine, but there must be a way" he said

"Why don’t we make Kathir surrender voluntarily? I will make him feel guilty and he will turn over himself to the police"

"Till now you have thought like a serial killer. But now you are talking like a B grade masala movie. Only in movies the villain changes with one sentimental scene or fight"

"You have a point"

"Think like a serial killer. He does something that goes wrong and the police sets their hands on him."

"What about this?" she said in an exciting voice. "He makes a call from Sabitha's mobile to warn the police that he needs to be found soon otherwise which there is no stopping him. We will open a trace on Sabitha's mobile and when he makes the call, we can figure out his location"

"Good idea! Start editing your story. I will make the necessary arrangements"

The next half an hour flew like a second. Sagar was mostly on calls, convincing people to help and cooperate with him. Asheeta modified her story and let the call creep in without much notice to it, so that the real Kathir would not find it suspicious.

At exactly 07:00 am, the edited story was published in the site. Asheeta and Sagar started waiting with fingers crossed that the real Kathir should make the call.

Day 2, 07:30 am

Sabitha was lying on the floor naked. Different images kept flashing before her eyes. She tried to block the images by closing her eyes tight, but it never stopped.

Sabitha was 5 years old. It was a bright sunny morning. She was at the beach with her father. Her brother and their dog were playing in the water. Sabitha was scared to enter the sea. She held her father's hands tight and pleaded not to put her in the water. Her father pulled her close and whispered "Never sweety, I will never do anything that would hurt you."

Sabitha was 6 years old. She was riding in a swing that her father got exclusively for her. He was pushing the swing from behind. Sabitha was screaming hysterically "Higher papa...higher...higher..."

Sabitha was 9 years old. She came running all hurt, blood oozing from several pores in her left knee. She had fallen down from her bicycle and started crying. Her mother applied some medicine whereas her father hugged her tight and consoled her.

Sabitha was 12 years old. She came home drenched in sweat. She hugged her mom tight and said she was going to die soon. Her mother later figured out that she had attained puberty. Her mother introduced a lot of restrictions whereas her father secretly supported her.

Sabitha was 17 years old. It was her first day at college. She met the most handsome guy in the world. It was love at first sight. He had swept her off her feet. Oh my dear Raju, where are you now

Sabitha was 23 years old. It was her marriage. Rajesh was sitting next to him, beaming at her. Sabitha tried to steal a glance at him. Someone nudged her from behind to be patient. Her cheeks went bright scarlet and she never dared to look up for the next few minutes. After a while Rajesh tied the mangalsutra and she was his wife. They were one now. The best moment in her life was beautifully captured and still decorates her bedroom.

Sabitha was 25 years old. She was at the maternity ward. The doctor was asking her to push. As hard as she tried, she found a part of her body tearing from herself. She thought she was not going to make it. She felt nauseated and was about to faint. Someone slapped her hard on her face and warned her not to faint. She again pushed with all her might and then it was easy. She then heard a shrill cry. It was her baby, a boy, her boy. She was laughing as well as crying. The doctor laid her son on her arms. She kissed him on his forehead. She was overwhelmed with emotions. She felt happy, sad, tired, dehydrated, and was in pain. She closed her eyes content.

Sabitha was 27 years old. She was looking at the diamond ring presented for her birthday. She was feeling depressed. Her husband had been avoiding her for the past few months. But that was not the reason for her depression. There was someone else, someone new in her life. It was Kamal, her new colleague. He was not prince charming, but he gave all the attention Sabitha needed. He made her feel like a woman again. Kamal gifted her the diamond ring for her birthday whereas her dear husband Rajesh forgot to even wish for her birthday.

Sabitha was 28 years old. She had been trying to come out of the affair with Kamal, but Kamal would not allow. Sabitha grew more and more anxious and she did not have anyone to share her problems or seek advice. That was when she accidentally stumbled upon the WonderWoman site. She shared her issues as an anonymous user and with wonderful advices from her online friends, she managed to come out of her affair as a clean slate. They also made her realize what went wrong between her and Rajesh and she managed to get back the old romance she shared with him.

Rajesh had called her yesterday about some sweet surprise and had asked her to come home early. How stupid of me. I should have gone home straight. Why did I go to the beach. Oh Raju, please save me. I really need you now.

Sabitha was ushered into the car by the man who held a knife at her neck. She saw a man at a distant waving his hand and calling them to stop. Sabitha felt relieved for a second thinking she was saved. But the man next to her had other plans. He pushed her into the car and sat in the diver seat. He ignited the car engine and then turned to her.

He looked deep into her eyes and said

"One word you say anything against me, I will tell your husband about the illegal affair you had with your colleague. The ball is in your court now"

It was a hard blow on her face. How could she ever let her husband know about Kamal. Many times she had wondered if she should confess to Rajesh. She had even tried talking but all in vain, she never gathered the courage to tell him. She would rather die than letting Rajesh know through someone else. She cursed herself for hiding it from Rajesh. If she had told him, there was a possibility that he might have accepted. But now, if he heard it from a third person, he would never forgive her. In comparison to that, death felt much better.

Just then they heard a gun shot close to their car. Sabitha decided what she had to do. She lied to the police officer that the man was her brother and managed to convince him. Though she knew she had no hope for rescue, she kept staring at the police officer hoping he would deduce something from her. But it never happened. They were allowed to go.

Sabitha was pushed into a room. Her clothes were forced out of her and she was made to stand naked for a while. She felt ashamed and disgusted. It was at that instant when she realized she was never going to leave the room alive.

The man then came close to her and forced some injection into her. She was drained out from all energy, so she did not protest. The last thing she remembered was the man kissing her hard on her forehead.

Sabitha woke up with a start. She tried to remember what happened to her. She felt wet on her forehead. She rubbed it off thinking the man had kissed her just then. She then thought that it was all her dream. She ran through her fingers on her body and realized she was naked. Only then did she realize it was not a dream.

She tried to lift her head, but it felt so heavy and dizzy. She managed to turn around to check where she was. The room in which she was lying was pitch black except for a small ray of light originating from a distant window that was left ajar. She tried to open her mouth to scream, but just then the window was shut tight from outside.

In a moment a door in the room opened and the man entered. He turned on a switch and the room plunged into a bright light. Sabitha had to close her eyes for a moment. She waited until her pupil got adjusted to the light. Then she turned around to check the room.

At a distance she saw a woman in her early 30s sitting naked in a fetus position. That sight totally caught her off guard and she let out a wail. She hastily covered her body as much as possible with her hands.

The man let out a giggle.

"Scared are you?" he asked.

Sabitha did not dare to open her mouth. She did not even look up at him. The man bent down and grasped her shoulders. He said in a husky voice.

"Today is not your day. But you are going to see what fate has in store for whores like you. Enjoy baby" he smiled and continued "But before that we have some work to do"

Sabitha looked up at him terror stricken. She could not imagine what the man was going to do. He pulled out something from his pant pocket. It looked very similar; she remembered seeing it somewhere else. On a closer look, she realized it was her cell phone.

He moved the phone closer to Sabitha and said "Shall we start our game, baby" .

Admin Posts : 1961 Join date : 2012-01-26

The Final Adieu - 6

Day 2, 08:00 am

Sagar was walking back and forth in the living room. Asheeta was sitting on the sofa and checking her blog in her laptop.

"Has anyone else commented, Ash?"

"I told you, I will get an instant email alert if someone commented. And for your information, this is the eleventh time you are asking this question in the last 15 minutes" replied Asheeta wearing an exasperated look on her face.

"How many views?" Sagar asked ignoring her remark.

Asheeta threw her hands up high in the air and said

"Give me a break Sagy. What is the use in knowing the number of views?"

"I am wondering why Kathir hasn't made the call yet"

"I don't know. But what I know is you are losing your grip. Just slow down and think"

"Alright! Let us focus" Sagar said and sat next to Asheeta. "Now think and tell me, how many members regularly comment on all your blogs, especially the TFA series?"

"Around 20"

"Fine! Out of them, how many comment within the first 2 hours of posting your story?"

"Um, 6 or 7"

"Hmm. Now this man, the real Kathir, is obsessed with your story. He believes you are writing about him. He waits for 7:00 every morning just to read your story"

"So?"

"Now listen carefully; I spoke to Sabitha's husband Rajesh this morning. He told that when he figured Sabitha did not return last night, he had checked Sabitha's mail id for any clues as to where she might have gone. The last mail that she received was from a friend, who Rajesh never knew existed. What if Sabitha was a member of this site and this friend is the lunatic who befriended Sabitha and then tricked her into coming to the beach?"

"What do you imply?"

"If we find Sabitha's site id, we can find the one id of the 20 members who reply to your story who is also in Sabitha's friend list?"

"That is under the assumption that Kathir comments on my story, right?"

"This man correlates with your Kathir character. He could not restrain himself from commenting”

"Let us hope your assumption is correct. By the way, how do we find Sabitha's site id?"

"No worries, I have her mail id. I have contacted Yamuna and she is on her way here. She said she will provide us with all the support required"

"What...You mean the WonderWomen site admin Yamuna?"

"Yes"

"Oh my God! You mean Yamuna mam is coming here?"

"What is so surprising?"

"Wow! When were you planning to tell me this?"

"I guess, just now"

Asheeta threw him an angry stare and ran to her bedroom mumbling about changing to some other clothes. Sagar could not understand what the hype about Yamuna was. And that was because he had never met Yamuna.

**********************
"Juice, mam"

The air hostess, who had seen so many film stars and models, decided she had never seen a woman like the one sitting before her. Yamuna had an olive complexion. She was wearing a white denim shirt and a dark blue denim skirt that came down to her knee. She was wearing a white gold, round shaped stud that had intricate flower designs and glittered like a diamond. She had let her hair fall free on her shoulders. Her hands were beautifully manicured and her legs were long and slender. The rigidity of a man and her femininity had blended well in the right proportions. There was no trace of make up found on her face, yet she managed to look extraordinarily stunning.

Yamuna looked up at her interrupter mildly irritated. She never liked being interrupted, especially when she was reading. But her anger vanished the moment she saw the smiling face of the air hostess. She briefly shook her head and resumed reading the book 'Practicing the Power of Now' by Eckhart Tolle.

"Ask yourself what problem you have right now, not next year, tomorrow, or five minutes from now. What is wrong with this moment?

You can always cope with the Now, but you can never cope with the future - nor do you have to. The answer, the strength, the right action, or the resource will be there when you need it, not before, not after"

Yamuna closed the book for a while and let the lines sink in her mind.

This was the sixth time she was reading that book. Every time she read it, she learned something new and felt rejuvenated. She always carried it wherever she went. And she knew it was now she needed the book more than any other time.

Yamuna was born in Madurai. She lost her father when she was 2 and her mother when she was 3. She had only one elder brother left for a blood relation who ran away when she was 6. She later stayed in a hostel and studied. Her expenses were taken care of by her aunt and uncle. They never loved her, nor did they ill-treat her. They just acted as guardians but never once called her to stay with them for weekends or holidays.

When all the children of her age played with barbie dolls and teddy bears, she spent her time dreaming. All her dreams were different yet the same. In one dream, she was a little princess for who all were fighting among themselves to adopt her. In another dream, she was a charming witch and with one swoosh of her magical wand she got herself a handsome father and a beautiful mother.

When she was 13, nature took care to turn her into a beautiful young girl. She kept staring at the mirror. And she did not stop dreaming. But this time, it was not about her parents, but handsome young men competing for her proposal. She kept rejecting all the men in her dreams saying to herself that her man was none like the ones in her dreams.

When she was 17 she realized that just dreaming was not going to do her any good. She decided it was time to make her dream come true. Her uncle had told her that he could not afford for her studies any more. But he promised to get her a job or to get her married. Yamuna replied firmly with a bright smile lit on her face

"I am first going to become famous. The rest will follow on its own"

Her uncle thought for a while and asked suspiciously "So, how do you plan to become famous?"

"Simple...Media" Yamuna replied and walked out of her pathetic life with her head held high in the air.

She heard her aunt mutter under her breath "She will only become a s**t", but that did not stop Yamuna. She decided that nothing was going to stop her thereafter.

Yamuna flew to Chennai the next day. She always had a passion for writing. She wrote innumerable articles in her school magazine. When she sat and thought how she was going to attain her dream, she could only think of journalism. She started sending articles to news papers. Her first was rejected. Her second was also rejected. Her third, forth, fifth, every one of her articles were rejected. That was the time when she wondered if she was wrong. May be she should have got married like her uncle suggested. But she did not realize that with every article she wrote, her writing skills were getting sharpened.

It took her 13 failure articles to reach one successful article. When she was her name and article on print in one of the top selling news paper, she flew without wings. It was just a kick start for her career. From then on, she encountered only success.

She learned she could not survive in the competitive field without proper training. She did part time jobs and did courses as well. Her natural talent and her hard work paid well. She became a well known journalist.

One common thing that she faced wherever she went interviewing people was, women were not acknowledged. She once interviewed a female artist who said how much she yearned for one comment for her works from her friends and family members. There was another female chef working in a 5 star hotel who admitted reluctantly that her husband never complimented her recipes at home.

Yamuna met hundreds of women who had no one to share their works, exchange ideas and interact without any barriers. She wanted to do something for these women. It was on a bright Sunday morning that the idea of a site for such women to meet and interact popped in her mind. She raced to her friends to share about her idea. Most of them rejected saying it was the most stupid idea they had ever come across. Some, who encouraged her initially, backed off when she took measures to make the site come true.

Yamuna stood all alone yet bold and vivacious. Even before starting her dream project, she knew how she was going to call her site - WonderWomen.

At first, due to her persistence her friends joined WW. But after seeing the creativity and hard work she put for the site, they actively participated in the discussions. Word about WW spread through their mouth. Then it was banners and news paper advertisements that took care to bring in more viewers for WW. Women all around the world found almost all their questions answered from WW and only then did they turn to Google.

When WW reached thousand members, her friends thought Yamuna achieved what she had wanted to. But Yamuna was insatiable. She worked even harder. She introduced blogs in addition to the forums. She included many more sub-forums for nation wide discussions. WW grew enormously and there was no stopping.

The latest statistics states that WW has more than a million members and there were at least a million hits every month.

Yamuna was stationed at Mumbai for an interview with one of an upcoming model when she received a call from a police officer about one of her active members, but she did not give it much of her attention then. But one hour back she had received a call from the same officer who now claimed that a psychopath serial killer was making a story in her site come real. Such popularity was the last thing she wanted for WW. She had immediately booked a flight to Chennai.

Yamuna's mind was in turmoil and she was reading her favorite book to keep herself calm. The pilot flipped the seat belt sign. She knew her flight was going to land in a couple of minutes. She closed her eyes and prayed for the women and for WW.

**********************
"How do I look?" Asheeta asked Sagar adjusting her hair.

Sagar studied her closely. She was wearing baby pink georgette Kurti with sequins and crystal work and dark blue skinny jeans. A heart shaped silver stud adorned her ears. She looked dazzling as ever.

"Beautiful...!!" Sagar answered unable to move his eyes off her. Asheeta blushed instantly and she felt the need to change the topic.

"So, what were you doing all this time?"

"I was reading your story. Actually, I wanted to ask you something. You never mentioned about the call Kathir makes to all the women before kidnapping them...?"

Asheeta felt a sudden chill spread inside her. She remembered the call she received from an unknown number the previous day after meeting Sagar at the beach. She debated for a second if she had to mention about the call to Sagar. Then she decided against it and said

"Oh yeah, I...I forgot"

Sagar raised an eyebrow and eyed her suspiciously. He opened his mouth to say something when they heard the calling bell ring. Sagar opened the door. It was a woman in her late 20s.

She briskly marched into the living room and quickly glanced around the house. Then she turned to Sagar and said

"You must be Sagar?"

"Yes, and you are?"

"Yamuna, WW admin. I believe you requested my help" Yamuna smiled courteously.

"Oh yeah, sorry for the trouble"

"Absolutely not. And is this Asheeta?" she asked turning towards Asheeta.

"Yes mam, I..." Asheeta started but was interrupted by Yamuna.

"Just call me Yamuna"

"Ah...yeah...I am sorry, Yamuna"

"For what?"

"About this TFA series. I never thought in my wildest imagination that a serial killer will land up in my blog. I..."

"Oh no no, this is not your fault. Don't worry" Yamuna said and turned towards Sagar and said in business like tone

"So, what do you want me to do?"

"I have an email id. Can you get me the corresponding WonderWomen site id?"

"It is just a matter of seconds. I have an excellent team working with me waiting for my word. Please wait" Yamuna said and made a call on her mobile. Then she put it on speaker and prompted Sagar to continue.

"OK. I have an email id - cutesaby.r@gmail.com. I need the corresponding WonderWomen site id"

After a couple of seconds, a voice said

"Please take it down Sir. It is sabsneedhelp"

Asheeta saw the id, written on a piece of paper by Sagar, open mouthed. She picked the paper with trembling hands and looked up at Sagar terror stricken. Sagar immediately knew that something was wrong.

"What happened Ash?"

"This...this id..."

"Come on speak, what about this id?"

"She...she is a regular reader of all my blogs"

"Does she comment on your blogs?"

"No, she sends me a PM"

"What is a PM?"

"PM means Private mail. It works only within WW, for the members to interact and get personal" clarified Yamuna.

"Wow! We police officers are working our a** off to provide security and reduce crime, and here you have provided a site for criminals to barge-in victim's lives" Sagar said in a sarcastic tone.

"Oh really! And you were the one who let a serial killer kidnap a woman right before your eyes, right?" Yamuna retorted.

Sagar and Yamuna stood for a while glaring at each other.

"Alright! I was wrong. Sorry" Sagar said in a pacifying tone.

"Fine! Let us get back to business" Yamuna said.

"So, what do we do now?" Asheeta asked.

"Give me the id's of the members who regularly comment on your stories" Sagar asked.

Asheeta gave the list. Then they cross checked with Sabitha's friend list but found no match. They also checked with the few members who sent her PMs, but none matched.

"So, we are back to square one, I guess?" Asheeta asked.

"No, we know that the real Kathir never commented on your story" Sagar replied.

"What about the sender mail id to Sabitha's mail? We can check for the corresponding side id?"

"He might have used a different id. Anyways, let us get it confirmed"

Sagar was right. The voice on the call said that there was no id in WW corresponding to goldie.in4u@gmail.com.

There was a moment of silence for a while.

"Wait, you have a point" Yamuna said suddenly

"What?" Sagar asked.

"You accused me of providing platform to criminals to barge-in their victim's lives. But, tell me something. Four women from this site have shared their email ids with this man they have never met. Though they thought they were interacting with a woman, when will a woman trust another woman so soon?"

"What do you mean?"

"If I have a problem, anyone who interacts with me claiming she too has a similar problem will make me move closer to her, isn't it?"

"Hmm, true"

"So, if we could check the threads started by Sabitha and find out the one id who had been empathizing with her recently could lead us to the serial killer"

"But, why can't we find the other women ids that were killed and find the common friend?" Asheeta asked.

"Good idea. But the serial killer would have used different ids for each of these women. We need to match the ip addresses for the ids. That is a long shot" Yamuna said.

"But it still is a shot. Let one team work on that and another team work on what you said. I have asked my team to track the sender of the mail that I received. One of these should work" Sagar said.

Asheeta let out a sarcastic laugh and she broke into tears almost immediately. Sagar held her in his arms and said

"Hey, what happened Ash?"

"While framing the script of this story, I thought of making Kathir record all the killings and present it to his nephew. You know, it was so interesting to frame such thrillers then. But now I just can't believe it is happening for real"

Sagar did not know how to comfort Asheeta. He watched her helplessly when Yamuna barged in and almost pulled Asheeta from Sagar's arms.

"Is there anything else useful you can do other than crying?"

Asheeta looked at Yamuna perplexed for a while. The shock treatment seemed to work, as Asheeta had stopped crying instantly.

Sagar just then received a call on his mobile. He was on the call for a few minutes and then turned to Asheeta.

"Um, Ash, I need to go now."

"What happened?"

"I will tell you as soon as I get back, I promise" he said and hurried to the door.

"I am also coming" Yamuna said.

"No, this is..."

But Yamuna did not allow him to finish.

"I am not asking your permission. I am just informing"

Sagar did not want to delay any further, so he accepted half heartedly.

Sagar and Yamuna were traveling in the jeep. Yamuna waited patiently for Sagar to start the conversation. After a while, Sagar spoke.

"So, why did you want to come?"

"I wanted to see the body"

"What...what do you mean?"

"The other woman who was kidnapped, she was killed right?"

"How did you know?"

"The look on your face"

"Yeah, and I don't know how I am going to break this news to Asheeta"

"That is your problem. I will discuss only about the problem at our hands"

Sagar looked at Yamuna surprised. He could not understand Yamuna. But since there were more critical problems breaking his head, he ignored Yamuna.

They reached the location in 45 minutes. It was a new building in the ECR road where construction work was going on. It was said that due to some legal issues, the construction work was stopped temporarily.

They saw the corpse of the woman on the ground naked. The head was shaved. There were burns and knife wounds all over the body. The ring finger was cut from the right hand and was placed in a small polythene cover next to the body.

Yamuna let out a wail and she closed her eyes in disgust. She knew the sight she had just witnessed would haunt her for the rest of her life. Sagar studied the body for a while, and then he too turned away as he could not bear the sight.

An on the spot post-mortem revealed that the woman was alive all the while she was tortured. And the cause of death was found to be strangulation.

It took Sagar two hours to finish his interrogations. On their way back, both Sagar and Yamuna did not utter a word.

Asheeta was devastated on hearing the news. This time nothing could stop her from crying. Yamuna was holding her hands and offering comforting words, whereas Sagar kept wondering why Kathir went off script.

He opened WW and started reading Asheeta's story from the beginning.

It was the 9th part, where Kathir sent the suicide mail to police, that raised an alarm in Sagar. Sagar checked the mail printout he received the previous morning. A smile lit his face.

Sagar knew how he was going to trace the real Kathir.

**********************

Day 2, 01:30 pm

Sabitha was lying on the ground eyes shut tight and she was blocking her ears with her hands fiercely. Yet she could hear the screams of the woman who was tortured and killed hours earlier. The harder she tried to shut her ears, the stronger the screams wear.

She heard the woman scream for help, wail in pain and beg him to kill her. But the man showed no mercy. He kept shouting

“You asked for this Mother, you asked, you asked, you asked…..”

The screams went higher and higher until it reached a peak and then there was silence.

Sabitha opened her eyes. She glanced around the room for a while. She then looked down at herself. She smiled at herself. Slowly her smile turned into a wild laughter. She then started laughing hysterically.

Suddenly she felt a strong hand slap her hard on her face.

“What is so funny?” asked an angry and irritated voice.

Sabitha looked up at the man who kidnapped her.

“I know who you are”

“Really? I am myself searching the answer to that question. Why don’t you clarify?”

“You are the Yama and this is hell” Sabitha smiled deliriously.

The man smiled and knelt down before Sabitha. He moved closer to her and whispered

“For once, you are right baby” .

Admin Posts : 1961 Join date : 2012-01-26

The Final Adieu - 7

Day 2, 02:30 pm

Sagar waited for Asheeta to stop crying. Whatever information he wanted to know, he needed Asheeta's full attention while interrogating her. It took some time for Asheeta to regain her composure. Once she stopped crying, Sagar began questioning her. Yamuna was observing both of them intently.

"Ash, I need you to tell me something that would help us find the real Kathir"

"Yes, tell me"

"Um, the other day you told me you share your story draft with Jacob for reviewing right"

"Yea..."

"Do you share the draft with anyone else, other than Jacob?"

"Oh yeah, one of my friends at office"

"Anyone else?"

"Um, no"

"OK, can you share the draft with me? I need to take a look at it"

Asheeta looked confused, but without uttering a word she opened the folder in her laptop where she had stored her draft. The folder contained a list of word documents, each dedicated to each episode of her story. Sagar opened the document having the ninth episode and read it.

Just then Sagar received a call in his mobile. He spoke for a few minutes and disconnected the call. He then turned to Asheeta.

"Um, what is that friend's name?"

"Naresh"

"Where does he stay?"

"An apartment for rent at T.Nagar"

"Uh, fine, I need to go now. I will try to come back in an hour or so"

"What is all this about Sagy?"

"Um, nothing, just a routine check. I will let you know once I am back"

He then turned to Yamuna and asked if she would also like to join. Yamuna threw a stare that stated it was obvious that she would come along. Before leaving the house, Sagar did something he had never done before. He went near the door, and then he came back and kissed Asheeta on her forehead gently and left.

Asheeta was standing for a while unable to believe what just happened. She felt the wetness on her forehead and it felt good. A smile automatically crept on her lips. She locked her house and started listening to her favorite tracks on her ipod.

***************************

"Do you think it is Naresh?" Yamuna asked in a curious voice.

"I don't think so. I know it" Sagar replied and handed over the mail printout to her.

"This is the mail I received yesterday. Just read it once"

Yamuna read the mail and looked at Sagar confused.

"OK. Now what?" Yamuna asked.

"Just check the spelling of the word 'Humor' in the mail. It is the American spelling, right?"

"So?"

"In the blog, Asheeta had used the British spelling 'Humour'"

"What are trying to imply?"

"In the draft, she had used the American spelling. But while posting the story, she had changed it to the British spelling..."

"...which implies the serial killer took the mail from Asheeta's draft and not blog" Yamuna completed with her eyes wide.

"Exactly! From the beginning, we were under the assumption that the real Kathir was someone from WW. But we had been wrong"

"Hmm, by the way, what was the call you received few minutes back?"

"We had sought cyber crime office to assist us in tracking the mail id sent to me. We just got the location of the sender"

"Let me guess, somewhere at T.nagar?"

"Absolutely"

"The case is now cleared I guess"

"Except for the fact that we must find Sabitha"

"And hopefully Naresh should be at home"

The rest of the journey continued in silence, each immersed deep in their own thoughts.

***************************

Asheeta was listening to the song 'Nenjukkul peidhidum maamazhai' from the movie 'Varanam Aayiram ' when she heard the calling bell ring. She peeped through the key hole to check who it was, but she could not find anyone. So she just opened the door. She found Naresh standing near a window and peeping in.

"Naresh..." Asheeta almost screamed.

Naresh spun around immediately.

"What the f**k are you doing Ash? I have been ringing the bell for more than 5 minutes. I was sure you were home as the door was locked inside. So I just checked through the window if I could find you" Naresh grinned.

"Oh, I was listening to songs in my ipod. So may be I did not hear. I just now heard the calling bell. Sorry yaar"

"Hey no problem. By the way, won't you call me inside?"

"Oh yeah sure, come in"

Naresh went in and took a look around the house. He made sure that no one was inside.

"What Naresh, you are acting as if this is the first time you are coming here?"

"Hey no, it looked like something has changed in the house. So I was just checking"

"The house hasn't changed anything, only I have" Asheeta said in a dull voice.

"Hey, even I was thinking on the same lines. You look awful. What happened?"

"I will tell you sometime later Naresh. Actually it is so nice of you to drop in. Are you busy with something else?"

"No, I just dropped in to have a chit-chat"

"Thank God! I really need a company now, someone to divert my mind"

"Anything serious, Ash?"

"I don't feel like discussing it yet. Just talk about something else"

At that instant Asheeta realized that there was something different about Naresh. First of all, he had never visited her without prior informing. Second, he looked very tensed and nervous. Third, he had never before addressed her as Ash.

Naresh was staring at Asheeta for a while. He was occupied by a zillion thoughts. He knew he had very less time and had to make the move soon.

"Um, why not we talk about your serial story?" Naresh asked and immediately bit his lips. He knew this was not the best time to talk about her story. He wanted to do things he had rehearsed million times, yet at this close proximity, he could not do anything.

"Oh Naresh, let us not talk about the story now. This is not the best time" Asheeta said in a low voice. She again remembered the woman's death and her body shuddered involuntarily.

"Hey Ash, it is your story. An author should not be afraid of her own story" Naresh said and laughed at his own joke. But then he saw the look on Asheeta's face and changed his tone.

"Oh come on Ash, I came here to have some fun, but you are spoiling my mood" he said in a complaining voice.

"Alright, tell me, what do you want to know"

"You told me about the possible climax you have thought for your story right. Have you changed your idea or is it still the same?"

But in his mind, he was screaming What are you doing Naresh, come on, don't loose the chance. Get her now

"Yeah, same, kill his beloved and bid his final adieu to the World" Asheeta replied in a dry voice.

***************************

Sagar and Yamuna had reached the apartment in half an hour. They rang the calling bell, which was answered by a tall, lean man.

"I am Sagar, ACP. Does someone called Naresh stay here?"

"Oh yeah, he is my friend. At present he has gone out" the man replied in a shaken voice. It was evident he had not expected a police at that hour.

"What is your name?"

"Vikash. May I know what this is about?"

"Yeah, I will tell you. Mind if we come in?"

Vikash glanced at both of them for a moment and asked Sagar to show his id card. Once Sagar showed it, Vikash seemed convinced and prompted them to enter the house.

It was a small two bed room apartment with a kitchen and a bathroom.

Sagar checked the house and continued "Which is Naresh's bed room?"

"Um, the one on the right"

Sagar moved towards the room, but was blocked by Vikash. Sagar considered pushing Vikash away for an instant. Vikash was too lean and Sagar knew that Vikash would not stand even a single blow from him. But he restrained himself and continued

"I am not in the mood of dueling with you. Just let me in"

"Do you have a warrant?"

Sagar glared at him for a while.

"It wouldn't take me a second before pushing you away, but I want to give you some respect. Now if you don't mind, can you please move?"

Vikash just stared at Sagar, and then gave in.

"Naresh had never allowed me to enter his room. He always locked it. I don't have the keys"

"I don't need a key" Sagar said in a dismissive tone.

Sagar took out something that resembled an electronic device from his pocket. He inserted one of the sharp edges of the device in the lock and twisted for a while in all possible directions. In a couple of seconds, they heard a click and the lock opened.

"Oh, they teach you this too in your training?" Yamuna asked surprised.

Sagar just ignored her remark and went in. The sight that he saw totally caught him off guard. Yamuna followed him, whereas Vikash was standing outside.

"Oh my, what is this?" Yamuna asked glancing around the room.

"Obsession" Sagar replied.

Sagar saw a laptop on a study table next to the bed. He switched on the laptop.

"Don't you need a password?"

"I have a hunch" Sagar said and typed a password. The system dutifully accepted and logged him in.

"Was the password Asheeta?" Yamuna asked.

"May be you could join our branch, you seem to pick up things pretty fast"

"Yeah, as if..." Yamuna smirked but did not complete what she intended to say.

Sagar went through several folders in the system. He was not sure which folder contained vital information.

"I think you should just search for folder names like 'Asheeta'. It will save you some time"

Sagar agreed and did the same. It returned hundreds of folders with her name.

"Try something like 'The Final Adieu'" Yamuna said.

This time the system returned just a single folder. It contained all the drafts of Asheeta's story. There was also a separate document which contained just the mail Sagar had received.

"I think the evidence is overwhelming. Why don't we just get him?" Yamuna asked

"I was just checking if we can get some clues on Sabitha's location"

"Once we get him, can't you make him tell?"

"Fine, let’s go and get him"

Sagar closed the laptop and went out. He moved swiftly towards Vikash and pushed him inside the room.

"Just look around, this is exactly what he did not want you to see"

Vikash looked around. Asheeta was smiling in various photos all around the room.

***************************

"Hey Ash, can I use the restroom?"

"Oh yeah sure"

Naresh went inside leaving Asheeta staring at him. She could feel something wrong about him but could not identify what it was. Her thought was suddenly interrupted by her mobile. She picked it up and checked who was calling. It was Sagar.

"Hey Sagy, where are you?"

"Ash, listen to me carefully. Don't answer any call other than mine. Lock the door and stay safe. Don't open unless it is me. Do this without asking me any further questions. Is that clear?"

"Whoa whoa, slow down. I am totally lost. What is the problem?"

Asheeta heard a long sigh at the other end. Then Sagar continued

"OK listen. We have identified the real Kathir. It is none other than Naresh"

"What...What do you mean?"

"Yes Ash, just stay safe and follow my instructions. I will get back to you in a while. OK?"

Exactly at that instant Asheeta felt a strong sensation pierce at her back. She realized Naresh was staring at her from behind. Asheeta wanted to somehow convey to Sagar that Naresh was in her house. But she realized she could not do so without alarming Naresh.

Asheeta felt a chill spread through her spine. She did not have the nerve to turn around and look at Naresh. She was still holding her mobile and was debating within herself what to do next. Sagar was still on the call waiting for her response.

"Ash, Ash, are you there?"

Asheeta's heart raced thinking all kind of possibilities for an escape. Finally when she noted she had none, she managed to say a 'Bye' and disconnected the call.

Slowly she turned around. Naresh was staring at her with a knife in his hand.

Asheeta was stunned to silence. By reflex she moved back and looked at Naresh terror stricken.

"Hey Ash, what happened?"

"Noth...Nothing. What are you doing with a knife?"

"Oh, never mind that, I saw an apple in the kitchen and thought of eating one."

Naresh showed the apple he was having in his other hand. He then slowly started slicing the apple, but his full attention was on Asheeta. Asheeta was staring at Naresh dumbstruck. With each cut Naresh sliced on the apple, Asheeta felt her flesh being cut.

Asheeta remembered how a great friend Naresh had been. On her first few days at office, it was Naresh who helped her familiarizing with her job. He was always praising her and was always with her. Asheeta had shared all her personal issues with Naresh, including her parent’s death. She had never been that intimate with anyone else.

Many times she felt Naresh touch her at improper places which looked like an accident. But later she dismissed her thoughts and convinced herself that it was indeed an accident. But she did have doubts if he loved her. That was because Naresh never moved that close with anyone else. Slowly she felt all the pieces fall together. Naresh had never shared his childhood memories with her. Even if she initiated a conversation about his parents, Naresh would tactfully divert the topic.

What if Naresh had had a bad childhood?

What if he connected himself with Kathir?

What if he loved me?

What if he decides to make my story climax come true?

With these thoughts in mind, she blurted out something, even before she could consider what she wanted to say.

"I want to change my story climax"

Naresh stopped cutting the apple and looked at her intently.

"What?"

"Yeah, I want to...um...change it to...um....something like....you know..."

Asheeta could not come up with any possible alternative. Her heart was throbbing fast and she could not think. Just then to her relief someone rang the calling bell.

"Wait, I will check who it is" Naresh waved her to sit back and went out.

He peeped through the key hole, but could not find anyone. He turned back at Asheeta and shrugged his shoulders.

"Are you expecting someone?"

"Um, yeah, uh...my friend" Asheeta said hoping it must be Sagar.

Naresh opened the door and stepped out. The next moment he found someone punch him hard on his face. Naresh fell down unconscious.

***************************

"Yes! Naresh was captured by my men, Yamuna. I am relieved now" Sagar said in an excited voice.

"But how did you know he was at Asheeta's house?"

"I just..."

"Cut the hunch crap and give me a logical reason" Yamuna interrupted.

Sagar smiled and continued "Asheeta sounded very distressed. Though you call it a crap, it was really my hunch"

Yamuna smiled and Sagar noted that Yamuna looked even more beautiful when she smiled.

"Why don't you smile more often?"

"Men made me so. It has been ages since I smiled. You are the first man who made me smile"

Sagar looked at Yamuna closely. He did not want to cultivate any false hopes in Yamuna.

"You know, after we recover Sabitha, I am planning to propose to Asheeta"

"Did you actually think I would fall for you?" Yamuna asked in a sarcastic tone.

Sagar looked at her alarmed. This is a woman who could read other's mind. I should be careful with her he told himself.

"No, I was just informing you, as a friend" Sagar smiled sheepishly.

"Actually you are good at everything and I really admire you for that. But you don't know how to bluff. You need to work on that"

Sagar decided it was better if he just shut his mouth.

They reached the police station in an hour. Sagar went to the cell where Naresh was held captive. Just then he received a call.

"Hello, Sagar speaking"

"Hello, we are calling from cyber crime. I called you sometime back about the mail id you received, remember?"

"Yes, of course!"

"Yeah, and you had also given us another id to track 'goldie.in4u@gmail.com' right?"

"Yes"

"Well, the sender of that id seems to be more sophisticated. He had routed the mail through several proxy servers across the globe. So, I called to inform you that it would take some more time"

"Wait! You mean, the senders of both the mail ids are different?"

"Yeah, I mean, you knew that right? You had given two ids"

Sagar realized that the speaker had no idea that they were dealing with one man. Sagar had assumed that the both the ids would lead to the same man. But at cyber crime, they had assumed that both the ids were of two different people. And it seemed the cyber crime people were right.

Sagar disconnected the call and went inside the cell. As he had expected, Naresh was not the one who kidnapped Sabitha right before him.

***************************

Day 2, 06:30 pm

Sabitha was lying on the floor. She tried to open her eyes, but found it too difficult. Her head felt very heavy. She tried to remember where she was, but she could not remember anything. Suddenly she heard foot steps nearing her.

Sabitha tried to sit but her whole body was aching, and she could not move an inch. She felt a hand caress her body. She tried to push the hand, but she was too weak for the move. The hand then moved to her face and pulled her forward.

"I will be leaving you for a while. But don't worry baby, I am going to bring you a company" a husky voice whispered in her ears. .

Admin Posts : 1961 Join date : 2012-01-26

The Final Adieu - 8

Day 2, 07:00 pm

"So...we are back to square one, I guess?" Yamuna questioned Sagar in a concerned voice.

Yamuna was sitting opposite to Sagar in his room. Sagar was sitting on his chair, his hands on his head and eyes closed. He nodded his head in acknowledgment to Yamuna's query. But his mind was elsewhere. When he had thought he had almost caught the serial killer, there was a hard blow on his face. And there was much more he wanted to know. He needed to find out Naresh's true intentions of visiting Asheeta's house, if Naresh shared the story draft with anyone else, if Naresh worked with the serial killer as a duo, if it was Naresh that sent the mail or someone else that used his laptop.

"You seem to be in deep thoughts. Many unanswered questions, huh?" Yamuna questioned again.

Sagar understood her intention. She was trying to make a conversation in order to make him feel relaxed. But Sagar knew that until he laid his hands on the serial killer, he would not be relaxed.

"Hmm, yeah..." Sagar replied in a disturbed voice.

"So, what are you waiting for? Can't we start interrogating Naresh?"

"He is in the cell for only half an hour. Let him wait for some more time. I want to scare the s*** out of him"

"Does he know why he is arrested?"

"We have not told him anything. He would have known that it is something related to the mail, if he was the one that sent it to me"

"You still believe it could be someone else that sent the mail?"

"No, I am just suggesting that could be a possibility. Anyways, we will know the truth in some time."

"All right! I want to be with you during the interrogation"

"Very much appreciated" Sagar smiled.

Sagar and Yamuna decided they would start the interrogation after half an hour. Sagar spent the time by discussing the case details with his senior officers. He also made several calls to the cyber crime office regarding tracing the sender of the mail that Sabitha received. They still could not trace the mail. Meanwhile, Sagar also called Asheeta and told her the developments in the case. He instructed her not to open the house for anyone or answer any other calls, but him.

Yamuna found it hard to kill time. So, she opened the WW site in Sagar's laptop and started reading Asheeta's story from the beginning, hoping to see any clues that Sagar might have missed.

After reading the first two parts of the story, she understood the pattern in which Asheeta had written the story. The whole story was written from Kathir's point of view. It was like Kathir was telling his story to the readers. The story had two time lines; one time-line talked about how women were abducted and killed by him, whereas the other time-line talked about his past.

Yamuna found the abduction and killing highly improper to read. Asheeta had explicitly mentioned the way Kathir tortured the women before killing them. If it had been just a story, Yamuna would have had no problem in reading it. But now since she knew it happened to real women, she skipped reading it and chose to read only Kathir's past.

I was fast asleep in my bedroom. Suddenly I woke up hearing a loud scream. First, I could not identify the voice, but then in a moment I understood it was my mom. It has become a routine these days, my mom would scream on top of her voice, yell at dad and do things I never understood. I used to be so scared that I went underneath my bed until the scream slowly faded and eventually stopped. But the next day my mom would act as if nothing happened, and would come around with a smile on her lips. I never understood her behaviour. Only later did I realize that women all are great actors.

Yamuna could not imagine what Kathir would have gone through as a child. She tried to understand, but the dead woman's image kept popping in her mind making it impossible to empathize.

I had just come back from school. Due to fever, I had started from school earlier than usual. I wanted to surprise my mom, so I slowly sneaked through the back door of my house and reached the bedroom. I was about to knock the door, when I heard some strange voices from inside. I tried to peep in through the key hole. There, I saw my mom holding my neighbor uncle's hands and crying. I immediately understood what had happened. I was wild with anger, I wanted to smash the door open and kick that uncle out of our house. But being so small in size, I could do nothing. I slowly sneaked out and went to a nearby park. I stayed there until my mom found me and took me back to our house. I looked up at her face and searched for any guilt. But there she was, smiling as always. I could not understand her behavior. Only later did I realize that women are all big liars.

Yamuna understood that Kathir's mom had been in an extra marital affair. With heavy heart, she continued to read the story.

I could not sleep the night I learned my mom's affair. I was lying on my bed staring at the ceiling. I was awake for a long time and never knew when I dozed off. Suddenly I felt someone caress my body. I immediately knew it was my mom. Was she going to leave me? Was she going to run away with that uncle? I tried so hard to control my tears, but I did not dare to open my eyes. I did not want my mom to know that I knew everything about her. My mom kissed me on my forehead. Please don't leave me mom, please, please. I was screaming silently. And then I heard my mom whisper something. I could not understand her. I immediately opened my eyes, and the sight caught me totally off guard. My mom was crying.

"Hey Yams, shall we start the interrogation?" Sagar's voice brought Yamuna back to the present. She very badly wanted to continue reading the story, but did not want to miss the interrogation. So she half heartedly closed the site and followed Sagar to the cell where Naresh was kept.

"Hello Naresh, how are you doing?" Sagar said in a low yet authoritative voice.

"If you could just tell me what is going on, I would feel much better" Naresh retorted.

Sagar studied Naresh closely. Naresh was trying hard to put a brave look. It was evident he was scared to heights, but did not want to show it. He was made to sit on a chair, and his hands were chained. There was dry blood near his nose, which Sagar concluded, would have been the result of the punch from his man. Sagar made a mental note to appreciate the man who had done a fair job.

Sagar signaled his men, who then brought two chairs, one for Sagar and another for Yamuna. They sat opposite to Naresh.

"So, tell me Naresh, what were you doing at Asheeta's house?"

"Oh that, Um...actually from when did visiting a friend's house became a crime?"

Sagar paused for a moment and then pulled out a cover from his pocket. He opened the cover and took some photos and flashed each of the photos before Naresh. Naresh took a look at all the snaps. Sagar closely watched Naresh for any signs of emotional response in his body language. But there was none.

"Do you remember these women from somewhere?"

"No! Why are you asking me this?"

Sagar ignored his question and pulled out another cover from his pocket. It was the printout of the mail he had received. He gave it to Naresh and asked,

"Remember this mail?"

Naresh's face did not change a bit, but Sagar noted something else. Naresh's hands were clutching the paper tight and his feet were pressing the ground hard.

"No. I don't know who sent this mail" Naresh finally managed to say.

"Look, I do not want to treat you the usual way we treat criminals. Don't force me to do so"

Naresh gulped down his own saliva and shook his head.

"No, I really don't know who sent it"

"Hmm...You know what? I checked your bedroom. Any guess what I found?"

Now Naresh's face showed a clear trace of terror. He did not want to believe what he was hearing.

"You are lying" Naresh said completely shaken.

Sagar smiled to himself thinking how easy it was to break down someone.

"Am I? Lets see...what is his laptop password Yamuna, we checked right" Sagar said turning towards Yamuna.

Yamuna knew she need not reply anything. She understood Sagar was trying to make Naresh speak the truth. So she kept quite.

"Aah!! Well, if you she does not want to open her mouth, let me do it. it was 'Asheeta', right?"

Now Naresh was totally horrified. He realized it was time to speak the truth

"Oh please Sir, I will tell you whatever I know"

"Good! So, why don't you start from the mail you sent?"

"Yeah, Um...Actually before that, please promise me you won't tell any of this to Asheeta"

"Why?"

"Well, she holds me in high regard, I don’t want to spoil it, please Sir"

Sagar for the first time pitied Naresh. He did not want to beak his heart by saying that Asheeta already knew it. So he just nodded his head and prompted Naresh to continue.

"Well, everything started two years back. The very first day I set my eyes on Asheeta, I knew I loved her. It was not her beauty, it was not a physical attraction, it was a feeling I never felt before. I knew we were lovers in our previous birth, but could not unite for some reason. We had born again to reunite in this birth"

Sagar felt uneasy listening to Naresh for two reasons; one, he was in love with Asheeta and two, Naresh seemed to be too much obsessed. But he wanted to know the truth, so without uttering a word, he allowed Naresh to continue.

"I moved very close to her, and I was always with her. I tried all possible things to impress her, but I never got the courage to reveal my feelings towards her. And then two weeks back, she came to me with her new serial story. In one of the episodes, she had written that the serial killer sends a suicide note to police. I thought if I wrote a real mail similar to that, then if it becomes a police case, her story would gain popularity and she would be impressed"

Naresh finished and hung his head in shame.

"You are a software engineer right? Didn't you think twice before sending that mail?"

Naresh did not dare to lift up his head.

"Hmm...and the purpose of your visit to Asheeta's house today?"

"Uh...I had planned to propose to her"

Sagar felt his face turn red in anger.

"Did you?"

"No Sir! Your men stopped me"

Sagar heaved a sigh and continued,

"Is there anything else you are hiding from me?"

"No...No Sir!"

The answer came too fast, Sagar thought.

"All right. Thanks for your confession" Sagar said and called some number from his mobile.

"Hello...Sagar speaking Sir. We got Naresh's confession. We can arrest him for the murders of the women. I will bring him shortly"

Naresh almost jumped out of his chair.

"Hey..no...what murders? I don't understand anything"

Sagar turned to Naresh.

"You accepted you sent that mail to me right? Similarly you killed those women hoping the story would gain more popularity. What a psycho you are?"

"No...no way Sir"

"Yeah, I know. You did it. Want to know how Asheeta would react when she comes to know about it?"

"No...." Naresh screamed.

Sagar remained silent allowing Naresh to regain his composure. After a while, Naresh started to speak.

"Fine. There is one thing I hid from you Sir"

"What is that?"

At exactly that instant Sagar received a call on his mobile. It was Asheeta calling. Sagar was immediately alarmed and excused himself out of the room.

Naresh studied Yamuna for a moment and asked,

"Were those women really killed?"

Yamuna nodded her head.

"I can’t believe it"

"Me neither"

"Who are you by the way?"

"I am Yamuna, the founder of WW site"

"Oh...Ash had told a lot about you. I wish we could have met in a better situation"

Just then Sagar came inside the cell. He called Yamuna to come out with him. Yamuna sensed that something was bothering him. She immediately followed him.

"What happened Sagar? Any bad news"

"I don’t know how bad it is. Asheeta says a man is watching her house for a long time and that she had never seen him before"

"Oh...what are you going to do?"

"I will be sending one of my men to bring her here. I don’t think anywhere else is safe for her. I want her to be with me until the serial killer is caught"

Yamuna noted that Sagar was extremely worried.

"Dont worry, she will be safe"

"Yeah...I know. By the way, you were reading the story right. Did you find any clue about the real Kathir?"

"No. I haven't yet completed reading it"

"Fine. You complete the story. Meanwhile I will interrogate Naresh"

"OK, done!" Yamuna shook Sagar's hands and left to his room.

She opened the site and continued reading from where she quit.

My mom was crying. That was the first time I was seeing her cry. Immediately I too started crying. She hugged me hard and assured me that everything was alright. She then picked me from my bed and slowly sneaked out. She seemed scared of something, but I did not know what. Without making a noise, step by step she went past our kitchen, dining room and finally my parent’s bedroom. Now she looked even more scared. She moved very slowly and without making a noise, she opened the front door. But I don’t want to leave daddy, please mom, let us take daddy too. I did not know if I said it aloud or if she read my mind, she shut my mouth softy and asked me to keep quiet.

We had come out of the house. The uncle was standing outside our house. I knew what was going to happen. I did not want to go with my mom. I was about to scream when someone pushed my mom from back, and my mom and myself fell hard on the ground. It was my dad standing there. Immediately I noticed that the uncle fled from the scene. My mom and dad argued for sometime. My dad kept accusing me for deserting him. I tried to tell him that it was not my fault. But he did not listen to me. He shut the door and went inside his house. I looked at my mom. She was still crying. I hate her, hate her, hate her.

Yamuna realized all this had happened to the serial killer. But still, could it validate the brutal death of the poor women? She shook her head and continued reading.

I was so angry at my mom. I wanted to hurt her. There was only one bad word that I knew. I said that to her and fled away from her grip. She was completely shocked. She told me that dad was always hurting her and so she requested that uncle's help to flee to her native place. But am I a fool to believe her? I repeated the bad word to her and asked her to stop lying and get out of my life. She gave me one final glance and that was the last time I saw her alive.

Yamuna closed the site and lied down on the table. So, it was never the mother's fault. It was the father. And Kathir never realized it. Yamuna needed some time to rest.

*****************************

Asheeta was sitting in her living room when she heard the calling bell ring. She peeped out through the key hole to check on the visitor. A young man was standing, waiting for her to open the door.

"Who is this?" Asheeta called out.

"Shankar ma'am. Sagar had sent me to bring you safely"

Asheeta heaved a sigh of relief. Sagar had told the man's name who will come to get her. Asheeta felt safe and opened the door.

"Thanks for coming" Asheeta smiled.

"My pleasure ma'am. By the way, is the man still standing outside?"

Asheeta peeped outside, but did not find the man who was standing there few minutes back.

"No! May be he fled seeing you"

"May be! Let us not delay any more. Please guide me to your back door"

Asheeta looked at him surprised.

"But Sagar never told me anything like that"

"Yes ma'am. He spoke to you right before me. After speaking to you, he instructed me to get you through the back door, so that no one will notice. Then our plan is to catch that man who was watching your house. Sagar Sir did not want to take any risk in your presence"

"Oh...OK" Asheeta replied though still unconvinced.

Asheeta stared at him for a while. The she suddenly remembered something.

"Um...please don't mistake me. Can you show me your id card?"

Now it was Shankar's turn to stare at her. But he recovered quickly. He went through his shirt and pant pockets. He then bit his lips and said,

"Sorry ma'am. I think I left it at the office itself. Please trust me and come with me ma'am"

"OK. Then let me call Sagar. I want to confirm"

"Ma'am, please don’t delay any further. We have no time ma'am"

"Step back please" Asheeta warned.

Shanker stared at her for a while.

"Please don't do this" Shankar said.

"I just want to make a phone call" Asheeta said and picked her mobile. She noticed that there was no signal.

"Can you give me your mobile" Asheeta asked Shankar.

But Shankar's mobile too did not have any signal. Asheeta lost all her hopes and knew that her only choice was to trust the man before her. She hesitated for a while and then continued with him towards the back door. Exactly at the instant when they reached the back door, the calling bell rang again.

Asheeta was immediately alarmed. She wanted to know who the second visitor was. But Shankar did not give her the chance. He almost pushed her out when the voice from the front door called out

"Ma'am, please open the door. Shankar reporting, sent by Sagar Sir"

Asheeta stood rooted to the spot dumbstruck. Her mouth failed her and she felt paralyzed with fear. She realized the danger she was in and she knew she had to act soon. She immediately opened her mouth to scream for help when the man inside shut her mouth tight and shook his head.

*****************************

Sagar was back in Naresh's cell. Naresh started telling the remaining truth he had hid from Sagar.

"There was this man who worked in our office previously. He was in a different department. I knew him because we stayed just two streets apart. Asheeta never even knew he existed. He knows I like her. It was his stupid idea that I should send the mail to police, and that it would impress Asheeta and fall for me"

"Where is he now?"

"He quit two months back. He said he does not have a contact number. So I can never call him. It is always he that contacts me. He is working in a different company now."

"What is the name of the company?"

Naresh said it.

"Did you share the story draft with him?"

"Yes. I told him that about the story. He was interested in it and wanted to read all the episodes up to the climax"

"Did Asheeta share the climax with you?"

"Yes"

"What was it?"

"Well, she did not write it down. But her idea was that the psycho would kill his beloved and bid his final adieu to the World"

"Hmm...What is the name of that friend of yours?"

"Madhu"

It was at that instant when Sagar received a call on his mobile. It was again Asheeta calling.

This time Sagar did not care to go out of Naresh's cell. He was so happy on hearing her voice, he forgot everything else.

"Ash...Oh Ash...I tried your number so many times. I could not reach you and I was so worried"

"It is OK Sagar. I am fine now. It looks like the real Kathir uses many men to work for him. The man standing outside my house could have not been the serial killer. He was probably set up by the serial killer to watch me. And you know what, someone who called himself as Shankar tried to take me away few minutes back"

"Oh God! What happened?"

"Nothing. I was almost fooled when the real Shankar rang the calling bell. I bit the imposter's hands and ran out. Shankar took care of him"

"Oh! Thank God. But how did he know the name Shankar?"

"I don't know. Oh Sagy, how I wish you were here with me"

"I will be with you in a while. Is Shankar there with you?"

"Yes. I am coming with him. He is driving the car now"

"Can you give your mobile to him?"

Asheeta obliged and handed over her mobile to Shankar.

"Shankar, what did you do with that imposter?"

"What do you think?"

Sagar looked confused at his mobile. This did not sound like Shankar at all. He was immediately alarmed.

"Who is this?" Sagar asked unable to contain himself.

"Uh-ho...Didn't my dear friend Naresh tell you?"

Sagar did not utter a word. He knew what was coming and waited with bated breath to hear it.

"I am Madhu" the voice said.

And the call was disconnected, and the mobile was switched off, never to be turned on again. .

Admin Posts : 1961 Join date : 2012-01-26

The Final Adieu - 9

Day 2, 09:00 pm

Sagar was screaming at everyone who tried to talk to him. He had put a shield around himself and did not allow anyone to come anywhere close to him. He could not believe what had just happened. He, who always prided in himself for manipulating criminals, had been manipulated and fooled by a psycho serial killer. The thought gave him shivers through his body and he promised to himself to catch Madhu alive. Madhu was going to pay for what he had done.

Yamuna tried to console him, but then gave up concluding there was nothing she could do to console him. She tried to talk to him, only to get yelled at by him. Initially she felt offended, but then she knew how much Sagar loved Asheeta, so she let it go. She waited patiently for Sagar to return back to his normal self. She waited in his room for around half an hour when she was suddenly startled by a voice.

"Sorry!"

It was Sagar, and his apology sounded with utmost sincerity.

"Hey Sags, no problem. Do you think I can't understand what you are going through?"

Sagar remained silent for a while. Now it was Yamuna who broke the silence.

"Any news about the real Shankar?"

"Yeah, he was handled hard, but no serious damage. I am surprised why Madhu did not kill him. It only proves Madhu has absolutely no interest in men."

"But how did Madhu know the name Shankar?"

"Science and Technology has its own pros and cons, you know"

"Um...I totally lost you"

"Do you remember I was trying to call Asheeta, but her mobile was not reachable? Madhu had placed a cell phone jammer nearby, it blocks all the cell phone signals, so Asheeta's mobile would have lost signal, and that was why we could not reach her. Similarly he had also used an antenna that could capture and barge-in calls at a close perimeter. He must have listened to our calls and he would have known the name Shankar"

"He did not take the devices back with him"

"No! I guess he does not need them any more"

"Where is he right now? And what is he doing?"

"I will find out soon" replied Sagar in a firm voice.

Just then, their conversation was interrupted by a call. The call was from the cyber crime office. Sagar answered the call immediately. He spoke for a few minutes. After a long time, Yamuna found a streak of hope in Sagar's face as he disconnected the call.

"Yams, they got the location of Madhu. I am going now. For your own safety, please don’t compel me to take you along, I have no such intentions"

Having said that Sagar did not wait for an answer from Yamuna and sped off. Yamuna started waiting for a good news from Sagar.

*************************************

Asheeta tried hard to open her eyes. But as hard as she tried, it was difficult. She tried to remember what happened to her. And then a series of images played in her mind. She realized how she was fooled by Madhu. She again tried to open her eyes and with much difficulty, was finally successful. She was lying on the ground. She checked if she was wearing her dress and to her relief she was not undressed.

Asheeta saw a small glass window at a distance. She tried to open it, but it proved very hard. After innumerable attempts, she could open it a little. The next second she heard a sound that sounded like a whistle. But she was not sure what it was. She squinted her eyes trying to figure our where she was. But all that she saw was darkness. She thought she saw something when she heard a cough. She quickly closed the window and looked around the room.

At a distance Asheeta saw a woman lying at the corner naked. She immediately realized it was Sabitha. Asheeta felt a pang of guilt. It was all because of me. She tried hard to push away that feeling and walked slowly to Sabitha. Asheeta touched her softly and immediately Sabitha started wailing loudly.

"Please, please leave me. Please"

Asheeta did not know what to do for a moment. Then she quickly turned around to check if Madhu was back. But there was no sign of him. Asheeta sighed and tried to shut Sabitha's mouth.

"Shhhh...It is me, Asheeta...Please open your eyes and look at me"

It took Sabitha a while to realize it was not a man's voice, but a woman. She opened her eyes very slowly and looked at Asheeta.

"Who are you? Are you an angel? Is this heaven?"

Asheeta understood Sabitha was confused and did not know how to explain to her.

"Uh...no...I am Asheeta, a story writer in WW site"

"Oh! So you are dead too?" Sabitha asked and started laughing uncontrollably. "I am a fool. For a second I thought if I was moved from hell to heaven. So why are you in hell? What sin did you commit?"

Asheeta sat thinking what to reply, when she was startled by a male voice.

"Don't waste your time, Ash. She is convinced this is hell."

It was Madhu smiling.

"Who are you?"

"For starters, I am Madhu"

"Why are doing this to us?"

"You asked me to Ash"

"I don’t even know you"

"Aah! I thought the same until few months back. And then I came to know about your story from Naresh. Only then did I realize how much you had loved me, that you had taken all the pain to find my past and also started writing it as a story"

Asheeta understood Madhu's mental state was no different from that of Sabitha. Both believed in something that did not exist and there was nothing she could do to prove them otherwise. She chose to remain silent, but her mind started racing to find all possibilities for an escape.

"I want you to write the final chapter of TFA"

"Now?"

"Yes! But this time the climax will be mine. Tell the viewers that you preponed posting the final chapter by one night. Is it clear?"

Asheeta nodded her head. She was given a laptop. Madhu showed her a word document which had the final chapter of TFA. Asheeta posted it in her blog and shut down the system.

"Good! Now do you want to know what happened after my mother died?"

"Yeah, tell me" Asheeta replied. Though she had no interest in it, she wanted to buy some time.

"My dad was my mentor, guru, everything. I stopped going to school as it meant nothing to both of us. We had better things to do in the World. He taught me how to handle women. He..."

Asheeta was not listening to Madhu any more. Her mind was in deep thoughts struggling hard to keep her calm. I am going to make it. I will find a way out and see Sagar again. I can and will do it. She kept repeating the same to herself until she believed in herself.

"You don’t seem to be listening to me" Madhu's voice interrupted Asheeta's thoughts.

"No! I am listening to you"

"You B***H! You are just like my mom. Don't you women ever speak the truth?" Madhu's voice echoed all around the room. Asheeta tried hard to keep her voice calm and said

"Believe me, please"

Madhu stared at her for a while.

"Alright! I know what is disturbing you. I will be back in a while. I need to make an important call" Madhu said and left Asheeta in the darkness.

Once Madhu left, Asheeta tried hard to make Sabitha get back to her sense. She reminded Sabitha about the TFA story and how Sabitha always commented on her story. Finally when nothing helped, Asheeta slapped her hard which immediately proved effective. Sabitha stared at Asheeta for some time. Then slowly Asheeta explained to her about their current situation.

"Can you tell me what all happened after you were kidnapped?"

"I...I was brought here, and then the first thing he did was to destroy my mobile phone"

"Then?"

"He...He killed...Oh...that poor woman...He..."

Asheeta held her hands tightly and comforted her.

"Everything is fine now. Don't worry"

Sabitha barely nodded her head.

*************************************

Sagar and his team of five entered the remote building at the ECR. It was a guest house owned by some big shot and was mainly used for rent for movie shootings. Sagar and his men stayed out for some time, and tried to find any movement inside. But there was absolute silence. Sagar discussed with his men about the different options that they had before them. They could break in and risk getting the women hurt. They could wait outside for any movement, but it could be too late to save the women.

After a long discussion it was decided that they would break in.

The front door was not locked. So they had no issues in entering the house. They turned on the lights. The living room looked like someone had been living there for some time. The men dispersed in each direction in search of any clue as to where Madhu was hiding the women. Sagar slowly analyzed each and every object in the house. He was on the look for any potential clues when an object caught his attention.

It was a small black cube, with a small opening in the front. Sagar had never seen anything like that before. He turned it all around the sides, but could not figure out what it was. Just then his men came out and claimed that they could find nothing.

"Ram, take a look at this. Do you have any idea what it is?"

One of his men, Ram, came forward and analyzed the object.

"No! This looks totally new to me"

"Hmm...Did you guys find anything useful?"

"Nothing Sir"

"But this is the place from where Madhu sent that mail. At least there must be a laptop"

"I think he shifted from this place Sir"

"Even I was thinking the same. But there is something around here sending me an alarm. I just don't know what"

Just then Sagar received a call on his mobile. It was Yamuna. Before he could answer the call, he heard some buzzing noise from the object he was holding on the other hand.

Sagar stared at the object for a while. Then he moved his mobile close to the object, the buzzing sound grew more. When he moved his mobile away, the buzzing sound reduced. Sagar rejected the call and brought the object close to him. His body immediately turned rigid.

"Boys, Madhu is currently looking at us"

"Sir!!?

"Yes! Don’t show any change in your facial expression. Continue talking to me naturally. Don’t look at this object"

"What is it Sir?"

"This is a camera device with video calling facility. You might have known the latest Video calling facility our service providers are offering us. This object that I am holding is something similar to our mobile. It has a camera and a SIM card inserted in it. The device has a dedicated number just like our mobile number. Now anyone who calls this number would be able to see us through the camera. I believe Madhu is watching us from somewhere"

"But Sir, won't there be a mike attached too"

"I know. I am holding the mike with my thumb. Now I am going to release it. We need to act as if nothing happened and quietly leave this house. Understand?"

The men just nodded their heads.

Sagar released the camera device. He then placed it back on the table from where he took it. Sagar and his men was about to leave the house when the camera device beeped twice and turned silent. Sagar was immediately alarmed. He sensed something was going to happen. He shouted,

"Come on, quick guys, let us get the hell out of here"

They ran out of the house. Sagar was the first to run out and when he turned to check if all had made out, he heard a huge blast. The sound deafened him for a second and the last thing he saw was bright light before closing his eyes.

*************************************

Asheeta was sitting on the floor, still unable to find a method to escape. She was tired thinking of all possibilities. Sabitha was in no way of any help. So Asheeta had to think for both of them.

Oh Sagar! Why are you not with me? Why did you leave me and go? Was that the last time you touched me? Was that the last time you kissed me? Will I ever see you again? Will I ever tell you how much I love you? I need you Sagar. Oh please God! Give me the strength

Asheeta was silently praying, and tears rolled down her eyes when Madhu entered the room.

"Ash..."

Madhu called her in a husky voice.

Asheeta lifted her head, and to her surprise found Madhu much more calm than before.

"Ash...you know what?"

Asheeta was simply staring at Madhu. She was not sure if she wanted to hear what Madhu was about to tell.

"Sagar is dead"

"No!" Asheeta retorted even before the message Madhu said sank in her.

"I killed him just now, my dear"

"Nooo!!"

This time Asheeta's voice went high.

"Yes!" Madhu said and shut the door behind leaving Asheeta gape at him.

"No...No...No..."

Asheeta's voice turned to a scream and then to tears. She burst out crying and there was no stopping. Outside the door, Madhu was listening to her cry and was smiling, pleased with himself.

*************************************

Sagar was unconscious for over an hour. When he got up, the first person he saw was Ram.

"Ram...Ram...What happened?"

"The camera device was designed such that after the call disconnected, a bomb inside was to go off in a few seconds."

"Are...Are all safe?"

Ram remained silent.

"Ram...please answer me"

"Only we both made out in time Sir. For the rest, it was too late"

"B*****D. I will kill him. I will find him and kill him" Sagar screamed.

"Sir, please be quiet. This is a hospital. Please try to control yourself Sir"

"No Ram! This Madhu is always ahead of us. We need to stop him. Oh my poor Ash, she is with him. I need to get her. Do you understand?"

"Yes Sir"

Suddenly Sagar realized something.

"BTW, where is Yamuna?"

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Yamuna had left you a note and she has gone Sir"

"Gone where?" asked a surprised Sagar.

"We don’t know Sir. This is the note she had asked to be given to you" Ram said and handed over a small piece of paper to Sagar. Sagar read the note. Yamuna had asked her to call a number. Sagar did not understand head or tail of the note. He did not understand what could have been all the more urgent that Yamuna had left in such a hurry. As if reading his mind, Ram continued,

"Sir! I have a small doubt"

"Hmm...what?" Sagar asked though he knew what was coming.

"What if Yamuna was somehow involved in the murders? May be she is doing all this to gain popularity for her site."

Sagar did not comment anything. Neither could he accept it totally, nor could he deny it totally. He remained silent. Then he called the number mentioned in the note, hoping he should not hear any more bad news.

*************************************

Asheeta was drained of all her emotions. She had nothing left to live. It was always the same. Whenever she loved someone with all her heart, God took them away from her. First it was her parents, not it was Sagar. Asheeta did not find any reason to live. She was ready to die. She was ready to see Sagar again, in heaven.

Madhu pushed his way inside the room. He saw Asheeta and screamed

"That lucky son of a B***H, he escaped you know"

Asheeta was not sure if she heard him correctly. She simply stared at Madhu.

"Your Sagar did not die. He is not brave enough to die. He is so scared of death, that he just ran away. And do you want a coward like him? Look at me, I am ready to die. Don’t you realize who is better?"

Asheeta's happiness knew no bounds. The news that Sagar was alive was enough to bring her back to her normal self. All the hope that had drained came back again. She smiled and decided to play the game along with Madhu. She understood that was her only way to escape.

"Yes Madhu. It took me so long to realize the truth. Definitely you are the better one" Asheeta replied and smiled graciously at Madhu.

The next minute, she got a hard slap on her face. She failed to realize what had gone wrong.

"You smile just like my mom. I hate that. Don’t you ever smile again"

Madhu roared and stared at her. Asheeta realized it was not an easy task. She tried hard to control her tears and nodded her head.

"OK! Now, I am going to kill this w***e, just as you had described in your story. Ready?"

Asheeta looked at him scared. She had to try real hard to hide her fear. She managed to smile and then remembered his warning. So she immediately changed her facial expression. Madhu glared at her for a while, and then turned to Sabitha.

Sabitha did not cry, nor was she scared. She stared back at Madhu, her eyes and face totally void. She then turned to Asheeta.

"I told you this was hell. You did not believe me"

She then closed her eyes and continued,

"I am ready"

"Open your eyes, baby" Madhu whispered in her ears. "I want to see you when I do things to you"

Sabitha opened her eyes, and Asheeta noted that Sabitha had fully surrendered herself to Madhu.

It took every bit of her self control, for Asheeta to keep her eyes open. Whenever she closed her eyes, Madhu would shake her strongly and would force her to open her eyes. She saw Madhu mounting on Sabitha, and rocking back and forth. He cut her all over her body and finally he snatched her ring finger.

Exactly at the moment when Madhu was about to chop the finger, he let out a wail and fell down unconscious.

*************************************

"Hello, Janani speaking"

"Hello! This is Sagar, ACP Chennai. Yamuna, founder of WW site had given me this number to contact you"

"Oh yeah! I am from the network team of WW"

"OK"

"Actually there was some activity in Asheeta's WW account."

"What was it?"

"She had logged in and posted a blog"

"TFA?"

"Yes, the final chapter"

"Oh! Could you trace the location?"

"No! But we found something else"

"What?"

"Well Sir, actually Asheeta had posted a blog first at 10:35 pm and then modified it at 10:36 pm"

"So?"

"We wanted to make sure what she had modified. So we checked in our database, and found an address"

"What? Just an address?"

"Yes Sir! She must have known the place where she is kept. She had first posted the address and then modified it with the story"

"Can you give me the address?"

Janani gave the address. Sagar thanked Janani profusely and immediately left for the place with Ram and few other men.

*************************************

Asheeta did not understand what had happened for a while. She was so shocked that she felt like she was paralyzed. She slowly turned around and to her relief found Yamuna holding a long iron rod.

Asheeta ran to Yamuna and hugged her very hard. Both were very happy on seeing each other. They hugged and cried for a long time.

"How Yamuna....How did you know I was here?" Asheeta managed to ask.

"Aah! You did everything and now you are asking me, huh? That was a very thoughtful idea Ash, to post the address and then modify it with the story"

"Oh Yamuna, I was praying so badly that you should see it and the address should be correct"

"How did you find this place Ash?"

"Oh! It was that sound. I have heard it so many times in my childhood. My father used to take me to a resort and I used to get so scared of that sound, a kind of a whistle from one of the nearby factories. That sound used to freak me out and I remember hugging my dad tight. My dad used to take me to the beach nearby to make me feel better. When I heard the same sound here, and when I saw what I thought was waves from one of the windows here, I just roughly guessed it should be the same beach resort"

"And thank God you were right"

"BTW, how is Sagy? Is he fine? Where is he?"

"Cool down Ash! Just ask me one question at a time. Sagar is doing great. I wanted to bring him along, but he was not ready yet. I did not want to delay any further, so I came first. He will come soon, I hope"

"Oh, thanks Yamuna. Thank you so much"

"Are we going to stay here forever? This place gives me creeps"

"Oh yeah! Let us move. But Sabitha is in a very bad shape. I think we need to carry her"

It was only then that Yamuna noticed Sabitha. Yamuna felt Sabitha's heart beat. It was very feeble.

Yamuna removed Madhu's shirt and put it on Sabitha. She then held Sabitha's head and Asheeta held her legs and they both carried Sabitha out.

The room was in a basement. It tired them out while carrying Sabitha on the staircase. But the image of Madhu kept them going. They slowly reached the ground floor. Then they rested for a while. Then again they carried Sabitha towards the front door.

Both Yamuna and Asheeta were sweating heavily now. They had come near the front door. It was just few foot away and then they would be free. Yamuna tried to push open the door, but the door did not give in.

Yamuna stared at it confused. She again pushed it, but the door was shut tight.

“How did you come in Yamuna?"

"The door was open, so I just walked in. Looks like now it is locked. May be it is auto lock and I did not notice it. Now we need a key"

"Wait! I remember seeing a key in Madhu's pocket. Let me go and get it"

"No, you wait. Already you look very tired. I will get it" Yamuna said and started walking back to the basement.

Yamuna felt like it would take forever before she reached the basement. She did not like the idea of going back, but she knew that was her only was to escape. With pounding heart she climbed down the stair. With each step she took, she felt her heart race and she could hear her own heart beat.

She reached the end of the stairs and she slowly opened the door. Madhu was still lying on the floor. Yamuna slowly walked towards him. She made the steps as small as possible, scared that she may wake him up.

She went near him and slowly touched his arms. Madhu did not respond, he lied there like a dead man. Yamuna heaved a sigh of relied and sat down and put her hands inside Madhu's left pant pocket. She did not find the keys. Then she searched the right pocket, and finally she felt the keys. She slowly pulled it out and stood up. She was happy that she finally made it.

She turned around to leave when something caught her legs. She quickly turned alarmed, but to her relief found her slipper caught under Madhu's hands. She raised his hands when he suddenly grabbed her hands.

Yamuna reflexively screamed. But Immediately Madhu shut her mouth and whispered

"Did you really think you escaped?"

*************************************

Asheeta heard Yamuna scream and instantly realized what could have happened. She wanted to go down and help Yamuna, but, she was not sure in what condition Madhu was. She remembered Madhu falling down in a pool of blood, so she was sure if she went, she along with Yamuna could bring down Madhu. But she was scared to leave Sabitha alone.

Asheeta then realized that there must be a back door. She left Sabitha and went searching for a back door. She went past a master bedroom, then a dining room and a kitchen. She knew the back door must be somewhere close by. She kept walking until she found it. And thanks to her prayers, the door was open. She again went front and started pulling Sabitha towards the back door.

Pulling Sabitha proved much more difficult. But Asheeta utilized her last bit of strength to pull her. She reached the back door and peeped out to check if someone was there. There was no one. Then she pulled Sabitha out and stood there for a while debating within herself if she should go back inside for Yamuna, or bring some help.

Just then someone closed her mouth from back. Alarmed she turned around, only to find Sagar.

Asheeta found it difficult to express her emotions. Words went meaningless, and she hugged Sagar with all her might, almost crushing his bones. Sagar was no less in his hug. He cried on her shoulders and kissed her gently on her eyes.

Then suddenly Asheeta remembered something and whispered in his ears

"Sabitha..."

"I know" Sagar said and immediately called for an ambulance. One of his men started giving her first aid.

"Ash...Where is Yamuna?"

"She is with Madhu in the basement. She hit him hard on his head. It knocked him unconscious temporarily. But he came back to his senses pretty soon. Oh Sagy, please save Yamuna. She came here for me" Asheeta pleaded.

Sagar comforted her. He then called his men and when they were about to enter the house, Ram stopped Sagar.

"Sir, look at that"

All turned towards the direction where Ram pointed. It was smoke.

There was an immediate tension among them. Sagar did not waste any time. He pushed everyone and went inside the house. He ran towards the basement.

There he saw Madhu being burned alive. Next to Madhu was Yamuna lying down unconscious.

*************************************

Epilogue 1

Day 3, 07:30 am

Yamuna was lying on the hospital bed. Sagar and Asheeta were sitting on both sides of the bed.

"So, you thought you were some Jhansi Rani?" Sagar asked Yamuna in a teasing voice.

"What? You police are always late as in movies. So I had to take charge"

"Oh yeah...And you decided to go and catch Madhu single handedly, without any police force. Very Good! I thought you had some brains"

"Oh come on...Accept the truth that you wanted to save Asheeta. I spoiled that chance of yours and now you are blaming me" Yamuna teased him back.

All started laughing and it was very hard for Asheeta to control her cheeks from turning pink.

"Oh...look at that...Guess those cheeks are inviting for a kiss" Yamuna teased again.

This time Asheeta’s cheeks bright scarlet.

"Oh come on...stop teasing her" Sagar supported Asheeta.

Sagar and Asheeta looked into the depth of their eyes and Yamuna saw a burning passion in them. She smiled and mumbled about taking a walk and went out.

The next moment, Asheeta was in Sagar's hands.

"Hey Sagy, did you ever find out who kept sending me those flowers?"

"Of course, it was Naresh"

"Hmm...how is Sabitha?"

"She is fine now, my love. She needs some professional help to come out of her trauma, but along with Rajesh she would make it"

"Oh...I am so happy. But the other women...."

Sagar gently closed Asheeta's mouth and said

"Let us make a deal. We are not going to speak about the past. Only present and future, what do you say?"

"Sure, my dearest. But I have one last question. What happened in there? Did Yamuna tell you?"

"Yeah! When Madhu realized that we had surrounded the house and that he had no escape, he pushed Yamuna and set fire on himself. Yamuna had fallen on the sharp edge of a wall, so she hurt herself and was knocked to the ground. I wonder what would have been Madhu's last thoughts"

"Who cares...Such a monster is better dead. I still can’t imagine Kathir was real. I will never write a thriller story again. TFA would be my last"

"Uh-ho...Why don’t you try some nice romantic love stories?" Sagar asked and winked.

Asheeta smiled and blushed again.

The fire in them reignited and Sagar locked his lips in hers in a tight embrace, never to leave her again.

*************************************

Epilogue 2

Day 3, 07:30 am

"What is he doing?" he asked her, pointing at their son's locked room.

"The usual stuff. Watching cartoon, I guess" she replied.

"Who knows, may be he is watching some porn"

"Oh God! He is just 9. He does not know such stuff."

"When has he ever behaved like a kid? Your brother spoiled him for the few years he stayed with us"

"Now please don't talk about him. I don’t even want to call him my brother"

"Of course he is your brother. How else do you want me to call him?

"First of all, he is just a cousin and not my own brother. Secondly, you need not have to call him by any name. Let us forget that such a person existed in our life. If we stop talking about him, our son would eventually forget that such an uncle existed"

"Hmm...you are right. BTW, I saw our son bringing home some package from school. Did you check it?"

"He is our son, not a criminal. Please give him some space. He needs his privacy"

"Whatever you say, my dear" he laughed and she too joined in his laughter.

Inside the room, the 9 year old boy was watching the TV without batting his eye lid.

On the screen was a woman being brutally raped, tortured and murdered. In the background was Madhu's voice...

"This is what you need to do when you grow up..."

*************** THE END ***************