The Cockroach Files

Rishi looked out of the window with its grills silhouetted against his face. He expected to consume the aesthetic beauty of nature but the noise coupled with pollution disillusioned him. The grimace on his countenance reflected his disrupted mood. Out of nowhere, a creature coerced him to render company. It was none other than a red smeared cockroach. He had a cockroach phobia and the materialization of the insect on his thigh stimulated his amygdala. "Oh, my word!" he jumped out of his seat by brushing the cockroach off his body. The red insect waited for a while as if to befriend him and later disappeared underneath the wooden bench. The poor guy breathed a sigh of relief. He convulsed for a second revisiting the cockroach's fleeting stay on his body. Reluctantly, he picked biscuits from the plate placed over the table and thrust them into his mouth. Rishi's father Rinku spotted a few cockroaches freely roaming in his house. He decided to teach them a lesson at night time by drawing a line using pest chalk to end their menace. 

After finishing his studies for the day, Rishi called it a day and decided to retire to sleep. He and his father slept on a bed sprawled over the floor. What awaited them next was a secret hidden in the shrouds. Before Rinku could rouse his snores, a mad cockroach tickled his feet.

"What's wrong with you Rishi?" he asked.

Rishi assumed his Dad to have gone mad and refused to answer his irrelevant question. Now, the mad co roach got emboldened and it began crawling over Rishi's legs.

"What the hell?" Rishi scrambled back to his feet dusting the mad co roach off his body.

For a second, Rinku's heartbeat exploded at the scream of his son who looked like a cartoon character on television.

"Are you okay, my son? For no apparent reason, you tickle me and now you seem to have been lost in your mad imaginary world."

"When did I tickle you father? This bloody cockroach is leaving no stones unturned to romance me."

Rinku broke into laughter and he recounted drawing lines using doesn't chalk to end the cockroach menace.

Just like that, a plethora of cockroaches stormed around the hall crawling in a zig-zag path. They seemed to have been drawn by the pest effects and the after-effects of it did not go down well for the father-son duo. Rishi drew his blanket to cover his body from top to bottom to save himself from insane cockroaches. Some of them flew all over the house. A baby cockroach conspired to gain entry into Rinku's ears. It circulated his ears to accelerate its run only to get swatted by the proprietor of the house. The adamant cockroach promised to breach the sleep Rishi and flew and landed over his face despite the latter enjoying the comfort of the blanket. As the guy already had the phobia, even though the cockroach did not directly nudge him, he threw his blanket and squelched like a pussy cat. His father couldn't resist his laughter glancing at his son's face marred by trepidation. 

The propagation of cockroaches all over the house certainly breached the father-son duo's sleep. It appeared as if they had brought their entire army to fight against Rinku and Rishi. With circumstances going out of control, Rinku decided to murder the cockroaches to restore sleep. He pulled out a paper sheet from the cupboard and started whipping the mad red insects. He looked like a blood-thirsty terrorist who relishes killing people. Rishi was a mute spectator observing his father go on a cockroach killing spree. One of the clever cockroaches managed to enter inside the shirt of Rishi, who danced like nuts. Rinku looked at his son in disbelief because he had never beheld such emotions churning out from his son's face. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. 

"Mummy, mummy!" Rishi had turned himself into a clown.

 

He removed his shirt and swung it hard on an impenetrable wall ten times exhibiting his anger which even scared his father. 

"You bloody crap, I will kill you!!" 

Even the cockroach died unable to tolerate his surge of anger. Both of them worked in synergy to murder the breed of cockroaches. Had they turned themselves into murderers? 

At every passing minute, the cockroach population in the house kept dwindling thanks to the macabre attitude of the father-son duo. One of the criminal cockroaches couldn't digest the bitter reality of its with and kin being murdered. It swore to take revenge by rendering Rinku and Rishi sleepless nights. Will they be able to foil its plan by adopting a creative strategy? So far they have been able to execute their plan to perfection by gaining upper hand over the enemy. Will their marauding attitude assure them success or will the criminal cockroach be successful in its master plan? The war continued. The pest chalk that creates a rift between two parties basked under their war. Probably, a movie made about this war would put people on a laughter spree. The duo armed with a paper sheet, enhanced by roused vigilance scanned their detective eyes around. The criminal cockroach, the main antagonist in the movie pricked Rishi's feet before squeezing itself underneath the table. It laughed to have duped the boy. 

"Ouch! It swelled my feet."

"It's playing hide and seek with us but I don't give two hoots," Rinku mopped his hand underneath the table only to be bit by the cockroach.

"How dare he toy with our game? Is he an incarnation of demon king?"

Now, a herd of lizards emanated from all directions to feast on cockroaches. The sight made Rishi almost vomit. 

"Don't surrender my son! We are the brave hearts born to win this war. At this crucial juncture, we must not run away like cowards, if we do so then in tomorrow's history books children will laugh at our timidity," Rinku tried to bolster his son's morale.

Finally, the climax materialized as the dynamic duo murdered the rogue cockroach to register their victory. They slipped back to sleep and woke up in the morning only to see destruction on a large scale. They had massacred hundreds of cockroaches without compassion and the gory sight was a testament to their relentless attack. There was not even a single cockroach alive to testify against them in court. They both shared apprehensive glances at each other for the massacre and admitted to having sinned. They prostrated before God's statue and begged for forgiveness. To attain salvation and avoid karma, they decided to offer prayers to the cockroach God every day.