He felt suffocated as the cops held him tight on the ground with one of them strangling him with a wooden baton pressing on his neck. He grunted and groaned in pain as they captured him and pushed him into the dark cold cell, locking the iron gate. Fallen on the cold floor of the cell, Rohtesh writhed in pain before he managed to get up gathering all his strength and dragged his ass till, he reached the wall so that he could sit down resting his back.
The images of the previous day flashed in front of his eyes. It was in the afternoon; he dragged a stranger by his hand out of his own bed who was with his wife fu#king. Once he kicked the man out of his house, he walked back to confront his wife raging in anger. He caught his wife cheating on him behind his back when he was on a tour. If he would not have returned cancelling his tour in the middle of it, he could not have known about her and what she was up to all this time.
“How the fu#k can you do this to me, Reema? What did I withhold from you that you had to do this behind my back?” Rohtesh asked, looking at his wife as he was shivering in fits of anger.
And she, she had no face in front of her husband who has truly been the best husband to her, all these times. It was for her lust and sexual perversion she got engaged with a stranger who fulfilled her carnal urges.
She held his hands and tried to explain. “I have no face, Rohtesh. But I still love you. When you go out for days, I feel very lonely and vulnerable. My carnal urges led me to this. I don’t love that man at all. It was all because of my sexual vulnerability and depravity I committed this sin, against you. But… but it is true that I love you and will always love you.” She pleaded falling at his feet and confessed all her misdeeds truthfully as tears rolled down her face. He pulled off his legs from her clutches and rushed to the kitchen. He pulled out a kitchen knife and walked back towards her screaming at the top of his voice. “Fuck off from my sight and do not say you love me… Or else I will kill you right now.”
“Rohtesh, No… No… Pleaseeee…” She yelled as she ran towards the bedroom in fear seeing a knife in his hand but she didn’t lock the door.
Rohtesh had always loved his wife very much. He could not understand what he will do in that situation. He could not imagine his wife would ever do that. He didn’t say anything anymore but simply went to the living room and lay there wondering what all had happened. It has been three years since they have married. They were known to be an ideal married couple because of their love for each other. But for the last one year he has been touring a lot, trying to earn more so that they can plan for a baby.
Alas…
They both rarely could sleep till late that night. Those images troubled him. That night, they did not do anything other than just locking themselves in their distress and emotional despair. But the very next morning when he woke up, he found something was not right. He felt his head heavy. He didn’t find his wife around. He was still extremely mad at his wife, but he decided to forgive her because he loves her dearly and moreover, she confessed to him truthfully.
“Is she still in the room, without food and all?” He thought and walked towards the room to check on her. When he pushed open the door, he could not believe his eyes. He saw her body in a blood-soaked bedsheet with a knife stuck to her chest. She was stabbed by the same kitchen knife that he brought last night in anger.
“Reeeemmmaaaa…!!!” He ran to her and pulled the knife out of her chest, trying to wake her up, embracing her body with his arms, sadly she was not alive anymore. But before he even could decide anything or grieve about his wife’s death he was surrounded by cops, dragging him off that room… and arrested him accusing of murdering his own wife.
“Whom do you want to be here to help you in your case, do you have a lawyer?” A voice shook him off completely, bringing him back to his senses, to his present. It was a gentle police officer unlike the other rude and rough officers who had kicked him and behaved insanely.
Rohtesh was an orphan and Reema had cut off from her family members. He had only Reema as his own but he was accused of murdering her, so he was left with no one now. One name he took right away who was surely a person that can actually help him out of this mess… Shaken up by the horrific incident, he stammered as he tried to utter her name, “Rraak… Ms. Raktima Mu… Mukherjee. Bu..t… she stays in Mumbai.”
She was contacted right away with the number Rohtesh provided to the officer in charge. And fortunately, Raktima was present in the city. She wanted to give a surprise to Reema and Rohtesh but she was shocked to hear about what all happened to them. She rushed to the police custody within an hour.
Rohtesh broke down seeing their best friend as the officer let them talk in the visitor’s room. But to Rohtesh’s surprise Raktima didn’t have a trace of grief on her face.
“Reema had her punishment for what she did to you behind your back, isn’t it?” She remarked as Rohtesh looked at her stunned.
“I know she did wrong but she was murdered, Rakti…” Rohtesh couldn’t complete.
“Oh, fuck it, Rohtesh. She got what she did to you and you are having it for what you did to me.” Raktima’s curt, cold voice shivered Rohtesh’s spine.
“What are you saying, Raktima? What did I do to you? Are you not the one we loved so much as our own?” Rohtesh was so comforted seeing her but now he is feeling a gut-wrenching pain in his heart witnessing the new her, filled with vices.
“Loved! You both? Give me a break. I loved you both but you two used me from the day one. I suffered so much for you both emotionally, now it is payback time. So, suffer now… And oh, the man who fucked your wife!!! I arranged him to satisfy your perverted wife.” She said with an evil grin and stood up to walk out of the cell…
But before walking out, she came close to Rohtesh’s face and whispered in his right ear, “Do you know who killed Reema? I did. But I have the video of you holding the same knife threatening your beloved wife to kill.” Rohtesh could not even digest what he heard and before he could even react, Raktima was gone.
His mind involuntarily went back to the memory lanes of them having fun together during their college days. Raktima and Rohtesh were best friends and she was the one who introduced Reema to him. But he fell in love with Reema and she reciprocated right away. Raktima was deeply in love with Rohtesh and she broke down terribly but didn’t express anything to Reema or Rohtesh even, her best friend. She simply teased both and remained with them for some time, pretending to be happy for them. But she was burning within in jealousy and anger without the knowledge of Reema and Rohtesh.
After Rohetsh and Reema got married, Raktima left the city and was literally disappeared for 2 complete years. They tried to contact her but could not find her. She had suffered a serious psychoneurosis and was treated in a hospital for a few days. But for the last 5 months, she showed up again and reappeared in their lives. Though they never knew that she would return with darkness and death for the duo.
Raktima was Rohtesh’s last hope whom he lost completely though he had lost her years ago without being aware of her intentions and mental conditions. The main accused was roaming free, but he can’t prove his innocence at all, because all the evidences are pointing at him to be the accused.
Who will believe what Rohtesh knows about Raktima and what the real truth was? Who can really investigate the whole thing all over again? He wanted to scream at the top of the voice but he could not as tears rolled down from his eyes incessantly.
(I wrote this starter more than a year back and thought of converting it to a story by giving it a twist)