Rachipraty

Ananya walked through the empty lane. The flickering street light was the only thing that saved her from the darkness of the lane, but another step and she would be engulfed by this darkness, by its silence as her heart was engulfed by the fear of the dark. Unfortunately the poor don't have the time to feel emotions like fear, for survival takes up most of their time thus Ananya too, walked right into the dark; but little did she know what awaited her in that alley. As she took her first step into the shadows somebody, or something, grabbed her by the ankle. She tried to pull her feet back, but it was in vain, for her attacker was much stronger. It pulled her by the ankle deep into the shadows, not the shadows of the dark lane that she was familiar with, no, it was a different darkness which she knew but didn't recognise. There was a familiar scent to this darkness, a scent she could never forget. It was the scent of her house, the scent of the house she grew up in.

'How is this possible?' she thought. She was hundreds of miles away from that place. Then she saw it, it was like a lone star in a night sky, a hole in the darkness with rays of light cutting through the hole, tearing apart this wretched black sheath and before she realised it she was running towards the light. No, the light was coming to her as if to save her. Then finally she saw, she saw beyond the light, it was her house, the house she ran away from. The house that destroyed her, here it was, right in front of her and as she tried to run she felt funny— 'Something isn't right' she thought —she looked at herself and then she saw it. She was 12 again and in her hands was a report card, one with her name on it. She knew this moment, she knew what was going to happen next but why was she reliving this moment? And this wasn't a hallucination or a flashback, she was literally in that moment. She could feel it. "ANU!! Come here right now!" she could not believe her ears, it was her father's voice. 

'No, no, no, no, no. Please god no, what is this? Why is this happening? This is not real, it's not real. I don't need to go there. He's not real' Ananya thought. But her body had other plans. Anticipation of what was to come sent chills down her spine. Yet she kept walking. She just couldn't stop, she kept on walking, until she reached her father's room. A strange fear gripped her, one she had not felt ever before. Regardless, she walked into the room but the man inside was not her father. It was her friend, only friend, and colleague at the Coffee Shop— Naman. She had not entered her father's room it seemed, this was her workplace and there seemed nothing unusual about it. She quickly turned around and found that there was no living room behind her, a bustling road with honking cars. She was confused, but more than that she was scared. She did not know what scared her, but that strange and new fear had not left her yet. "What happened? All good?" Naman asked. Ananya nodded yes and walked away, nervous and anxious as usual. Nobody knew what she was nervous or fearful about and many doubted that even she did.

Ananya changed into her apron and started working her shift. On her way to the dining area, she peeked into the manager's cabin to check if he was there. The cabin was empty, a relieving sight for her. She quickly made her way into the dining area as a customer entered the cafe. Just when Ananya brought him the menu he responded, "Oh I won't be needing this. I already know what to order". Ananya brought out her pen and pocket notebook to take down the order— "Toasted bread, one butter poach and a cup of tea, no milk or sugar and make it strong. Did you get all that?" —Ananya froze. It was her brother's voice and not just the voice, the man in front of her, the cafe around her, she herself had completely transformed. She was not in the cafe anymore, she was in her home and the 14 year old boy in front of her was her brother; another incident of her past that was haunting her, but once again, it did not feel like an illusion or hallucination, it felt real. She could not wrap her head around the possibility of it being real but her instincts were convinced that it was. "ANU! What are you looking at? Go make me my breakfast. Or do you want me to wake dad up?"; once again she couldn't move a muscle, not even an inch. "Nah, this won't work. I'm being too soft with you right? Papa always says that you cannot be soft with women. They need to be disciplined or they turn into disobedient harlots. It is better to tame them when they're young. So maybe this will bring you to your senses.". Her brother picked up an empty glass bottle and swung it towards Ananya, she blocked it with her hand somehow but the bottle broke on her hand. The glass pierced her skin, drops of blood poured from her hand and before she could completely comprehend what was happening, she tripped on something and started falling backwards but someone held her— Naman —and as soon he held her she was back in the cafe and in front of her was a very confused man, the customer, who was still unable to understand what happened. 'It was just a hallucination, just another flashback' she thought with a sigh of relief but a sharp pain in her hands made its disagreement to the notion very loud and very clear. As she looked towards her hands, her heart almost stopped for a second and then started beating so hard that she could hear it because there were little shards of glass stuck in her hand and blood flowed from it. Unable to make any sense of this dreadful condition, she did what her instincts told her, what they always told her, to run, to run home so she could be safe. But there was no home for her, there was no safety for her, yet she ran.

She didn't have to run for long. A few minutes later, she stood in front of that same dark lane where it all began. That same wretched lane. There was no way Ananya was walking into that lane again, not after what happened in the cafe. Instead she walked in the opposite direction and took the longer route to her apartment. While walking, she felt something was not right. As she walked further on the street, she felt something was wrong with the street. But she just couldn't place it, until she saw it— she was standing in front of that lane, again, 'But, how?' she thought. She was certain that she walked away from the lane to take the other route. Without giving it much thought, especially because it was perhaps the least absurd thing that happened to her all day, she walked away from the lane and took the longer route, again. This time she was conscious of the directions in which she went, everything was right yet her instincts suggested otherwise and just as she took the last turn of the alley, the route that should've ended right in front of her apartment, led her in front of the dark alley again. She was petrified, but fear was not the emotion affecting her right now. The most prominent emotion in her mind was despair, a sense of crushing defeat, her shoulders felt heavy as if carrying the corpse of her willpower on them. But she was stubborn, a stubbornness that led her to the main road. She would try walking to Naman's house. He was the only person could trust in this situation. It was right on the main road, a straight walk, no turns into any lanes or alleys and only at a distance of a few minutes. She reached his apartment, took the stairs instead of the elevator to avoid any more 'incidents'. She reached his flat and looked for his keys under the doormat, their usual place. She opened the gate, entered the flat and froze. She was standing in front of the dark lane. Once again.

"It is futile, dear. You can't run from me and you never will.", the voice was her father's but this wasn't a memory. The tone of the sentence, the elegance with which it was spoken was alien to her. This could never be her father, yet it was just his voice. "Wh- who are you? And why are you doing this?", her voice cracked and tears flowed from her eyes unwillingly as she completed the sentence. "I'm your father, don't you recognise me? It's been so long, come closer, take a good look. Then you'll see me, the real me. Step into the dark, honey.", the voice said. Once again her body defied her commands, as if it had a mind of its own, and stepped into the dark. With her first step the dark, empty alley immediately transformed into a sun–filled room; her father and in front of her, a report card in his hands. He was talking to her brother. She remembered this day very well, she remembered all her traumatic moments as if they were etched into her mind(But that's the thing with pain, it lasts much longer than happiness). "Rahul, what the hell is this? You failed in THREE subjects? You have to run this household in the future, you have to get a job. With these marks you won't even get a butler's job! Do you want to depend on a woman to run your household? Is that the kind of cuckold you want to be when you grow up?" Ananya's father spoke in an angry tone, but his anger never lasted for long when it came to his beloved son. "Never mind, let bygones be bygones. Perform better next time. Now leave us. I need to have a word with your sister", there was a sinister tone to the way he referred to Ananya.

"Your teacher told me something about you when I went to collect your report card Anu, he told me that you've enlisted your name in the Debate club? And that you're very good at singing apparently.", there was no hint of frustration or anger in his voice but there was also no sense of politeness either. It was devoid of any emotions, just a deep heavy voice with a mechanical tone that seemed impossible for any human except this man; in that same tone, Ananya's father started mumbling something, she couldn't make out what he saying, it was too soft but it was getting louder slowly as he kept speaking and with it rose the level of anger in his voice. The mere whispers would soon turn into roars at this rate. But he wasn't saying much. He was only repeating something, over and over. Just two sentences— "You will sing on a stage. You will debate in an auditorium. You will sing on a stage. You will debate in an auditorium. You will sing on a stage. You will debate in an auditorium. YOU WILL SING ON A STAGE! YOU WILL DEBATE IN AN AUDITORIUM! LIKE A BLOODY WHORE! IS THAT WHAT YOU BECOME!? A BLOODY WHORE!?", his voice boomed in the room like a thunder strike. Chills ran through Ananya's spine, she froze like a statue and after long she felt a very familiar fear gripping her heart as a dark pit began growing in her stomach as her legs gave out because of fear. Ananya's father, without wasting a second, opened the topmost drawer and brought out his whip while Ananya just watched, paralysed by the poison of fear; her father raised his whip and lashed the whip with his full strength but the whip never hit her because it vanished right before making contact along with her father. She was back in Naman's Flat. Ananya just sat there. Frozen. Not because of fear but because she was overwhelmed. Her mind was blank and her body motionless.

She was brought back to her senses by the sound of a calling bell. 'It must be Naman' she thought and jumped onto her feet. She practically leapt at the door, something about Naman was different. He wasn't like other men, Ananya always felt a sense of safety when she was around him, she felt like she was finally at home. She did not know why she felt the way she did and nor did she want to. It was irrelevant to her. All that mattered was the feeling of safety that he brought her, the feeling of home— something she desperately needed right now, if there was anyone she could share this with then it was Naman. She reached the door and swung it open, then regretted it. It wasn't Naman on the other side of the door, it was her father, whip in one hand, ready to strike at her and the whip was not even an inch from her face. The whip didn't vanish this time nor did it stop, not for a long time. She cried in pain but the pain wasn't just caused by the whip, it was also caused by destroyed hope. After what seemed an eternity, her father stopped and said "If you ever decide to, umm, aah yes, perform again then remind yourself of today and wipe that thought off your filthy mind. Do what civilised women of good character do, clean the house, do the dishes, take care of your family. I would have you dropped out of school but these days boys want a 'matric pass' girl to marry. Now get out.", Ananya silently got up and headed for the door as her father commanded. "Listen, you don't have to prepare dinner today, we'll order something.", Ananya nodded in agreement "Why don't you behave properly? Why do you make me do these things? Do you think I enjoy all this? But no, you had to inherit your mother's character.", just as he finished his sentence Ananya came back to Naman's flat with the scars on her body. The door of the flat was still wide open and Naman's landlord was standing on the side this time, a horrified look on his face. Ananya, without thinking much, just headed to her apartment as the landlord kept calling for her. She just wanted to be alone.

Ananya was glued to a corner of her bed by fear, scared to even move lest the slightest movement put her into another flashback or whatever these things were. She did not care what it was, or why this was happening to her, all she wanted to know was a way of getting out of this hell. She needed a solution and she needed it soon. As these thoughts ran through Ananya's mind, something about the room changed, something not visible but also not very subtle. At first she was too distracted to notice it but then she realised it— the temperature of the room had suddenly dropped greatly as if it was a winter night in a hill station. This was weird because she lived in Kolkata and it was not normal for it to be this cold there, so she tried to check the temperature on her phone but couldn't. Google couldn't find any results for her search. Then suddenly there was a ring, a landline ring, from the other corner of the room. Ananya did not have a landline, nobody did these days, and she never owned one after leaving Darjeeling but there was a landline ringing right in front of her. Amidst the rings of the mysterious landline, Ananya noticed a faint sound which was getting louder every moment. Footsteps but not just any footsteps, they were rhythmic and calculated steps and as the sound got louder Ananya realised that the person who's footsteps she was hearing was wearing boots and then— there was a moment of realisation followed by, fear. Only fear, for she was familiar with these footsteps, they were her father's. Soon her father entered the room and it seemed like reality was changing after him, as he walked through the room, the room was changing after him. It was turning into the living room of Ananya's paternal home. The walls transformed as he crossed, her bed turned into a sofa, the lifeless light of the LED turned into lively sunlight and Ananya herself transformed into her 15 year old self. She was devastated, she hadn't even moved or even left the room. For some reason she felt that locking herself up in her home would stop her harassment but she was wrong.

"Hello, who is it? Hello? Hello? What the hell, this is the third call since last night. This person just calls and never says anything other than a hello! Who are these jobless people?" her father spoke in an angry tone. Suddenly her brother went up to his father and whispered something in his ear, as he whispered, his father's expressions changed from angry to furious. He finished speaking and left the room, while leaving he gave a sinister smile to Ananya as their father practically shouted "Ananya!! What do you know about these calls?"chills ran down Ananya's spine. " I–, I–" Ananya stuttered out of fear and anticipation but to her father this was a guilty plea, "Wow! Just brilliant! I sent you to school, did you a favour, let you study and the first thing you do is get a boyfriend? A goddamned boyfriend? HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN OUR VALUES!? HAVE YOU NO SHAME OR REMORSE!? YOU DIDN'T THINK OF MY HONOUR ONCE!?" her father was howling like a wolf now, "You belong to only three people in the world, your father, your husband and your son. That is your eternal duty. But you… . … … You disgusting trollop!" her father said as he approached her, but then he stopped midway. She thought he had had a change of heart, but then she noticed that the birds in the sky, the children in the playground and the cars in the streets had all stopped as if someone had stopped time itself. If she was confused before, she was absolutely puzzled now. Then there was a whisper, a very faint whisper, which said "To the Kitchen. Run.", she didn't know what got into her but she ran to the kitchen as the voice commanded. As she reached there, she again heard the voice "Knife. Pick. Up." she obliged once again, like a machine almost and picked up a knife from the kitchen slab. As soon as she did, everything changed again. She was now 13, in the living room, her father had his right hand raised and was holding a metal rod in it. He was about to bring the rod down on her. Everything had changed, but one thing— she still had that knife in her hand and as the realisation hit her, she heard the mysterious voice say "Do or Die". This was different, it wasn't a command, she had two choices— she could change her past with this and suddenly all her fear turned into anger, she did not want relief anymore, she wanted revenge. She drove the knife into her father's chest. For a second she felt a calming relief but then the fear kicked back in, because in front of her was Naman. He had come here to enquire about the episode she had in his apartment and at the cafe, which had gotten her fired by now. But now he was standing in front of her. Shock was the only expression his face bore and then it bore no expressions at all as his lifeless legs gave out and his body fell to the ground. She had just killed her only friend. Her legs gave out, she fell to her knees and as soon as she did— everything changed. Then she heard a voice, her father's but the tone was too comforting, the voice said "Since you never asked, I'll just go ahead and introduce myself. My name is Rachipraty"

*******

The Police had been knocking on the door for the last 15 minutes but there was no response. Ananya's neighbours had complained about a rotting smell and the fact nobody was responding to their relentless knocking, nobody had seen Ananya for a couple of weeks either. But that wasn't the only thing the police were investigating, Ananya's friend and coworker Naman Gaikwad had also been missing for 20 days now. The police were now knocking the door down to enter Ananya's flat and as soon as they did, they were met with a surprise or a shock to be precise. Naman's corpse was lying in the living room, rotting, disintegrating, being consumed by maggots and bugs but they weren't the only ones eating away at the corpse— Ananya was eating it with them. She seemed unnerved by their presence, she just kept eating and the cops were too stunned to speak, they had never seen anything like this in all of their careers. Finally their OC ordered them to stop Ananya and take her into custody. As soon as the lady constable touched Ananya, she stopped. It was as if she got back to her senses suddenly and immediately she fell back bawling, horrified at what she had done. The constable took a minute to rearrange her thoughts and grabbed her to push her to the ground. "Madam please, calm down! Don't make me use more force. Calm down!", the constable shouted. Ananya stopped struggling and said "Rachipraty you prom-", before she could complete the sentence it seemed that she slipped into a state of shock or semi-consciousness. A second later she spoke, with disgust and anger in her voice, "No not Naman, you won't take this from me. NOT NOW, NOT EVER!", saying this, she turned around with ease as if the constable wasn't there at all. The constable lost balance and fell to the ground, Ananya immediately climbed atop her and started brutally stabbing her with a pair of scissors. Even the seasoned OC and head constable freaked out as none of them had seen any scissors or weapons in her hand even a second before. "Where did she get the scissors from!? Don't just look, go stop her!!" the OC shouted. Two more constables went and pushed Ananya off of the lady constable, whose brains were spilling on the ground in front of them. As Ananya rolled off, she gained back her senses again. She immediately started crying, "Please Rachipraty stop. I beg o–". She stopped mid sentence and began smiling, before leaping on one of the constables.

The head constable was the only survivor that day, because he ran from the flat, he ran for his life as Ananya ate the corpses of his colleagues. Later a larger unit was called in to capture Ananya, which they succeeded in but only half of them survived the operation. They found Ananya in her apartment, she didn't speak or move at all after getting captured. It was like her mind was dead, even though her body was alive. She would still get attacks that made her violent and inhumanly strong, she had to be kept tied with an iron chain in a special vault of a mental institute but that was the only time she seemed alive. The attacks also got more frequent with time. Sometimes, in her normal state, she would speak, or whisper to be precise— "Rachipraty, why?".

The Court deemed Ananya to be mentally unstable and Rachipraty to be a figment of her imagination, an anagram for Patriarchy. Her doctors suggested that it was because of her traumatic childhood and her abusive father. The Court of Public Opinion, though, believed her to be possessed by a demon. A demon, not from the circles of Hell, but rather a demon of our own creation. A demon that possesses many, even today.