The Solace

After three long tiring months full of event management and other work, Susanne Mathur definitely needed a break for a day or two, not just to relax, but also to invest her thoughts in something blissful and into something which was out of work, a hobby, her, being writing her heart out in her diary, which included not only private stuff and secrets and emotions, but also many quotes, wishes, and songs of her own. How admirable!

Nothing could’ve been better than a weekend spent at her father’s old farmhouse which was abandoned for years, yet dearly missed, and being a May weekend was the icing on the cake. Therefore, all final calls, reports, and other official tasks were negotiated well by Friday evening and she was all set for a blissful weekend she deserved after all the hard work and stress.

She reached there on Saturday morning with her pet cat Nancy with loads of chicken meat for her. It was such a wonderful morning, she couldn’t describe it to anyone. She hadn’t even seen the sun properly for many days and all that was using her as a puppet every time were the fast-rotating hands of the many watches and clocks she owned.

She felt more alive and peaceful than ever, or probably was it the peace observed before a near approaching thunderstorm? She was, however, the very last person to know what was going to happen that night.

Anant Mathur was a man with a bad temper, very much suited for the underworld, and he, by some mysterious grace, happened to be Susanne’s life-partner. But today he was in need of some real grace- literally-for underworld had finally turned his world under. Susanne had stopped living with him when the obvious dispute broke out horribly and had started living alone, though not divorced, but happy anyway.

Anant was in trouble. He was being followed by his own people when he was caught selling secrets to another gang that happened to be his own gang’s rival. This had let to a bizarre turn of events and now people were after him only to finish him off for good.

Susanne was writing her diary on Saturday evening, filling it up with a song written about lovers who are lost, but the strength of true love bonding them back for life and beyond. It was half-past seven when a sudden and a shockingly heavy knock on the door made her jump and scribble a horrible line on the last few beautiful words of the song.

Someone was desperate to break in. The door was knocked for nearly three times in a row thereafter, and each knock was louder than the previous one. Susanne was terrified, but she built up her courage and marched towards the door, half expecting a bullet, piercing her head the moment she’d open the door.

To her surprise, it was Anant Mathur, her husband, the man she least wanted to see at the moment and was petrified by the way he was looking at her as he burst inside as quickly as possible and bolted the door.

“Please, hide me, save me, they’re following me, they’ll kill me, they’ll kill me…please…please….” He said and was half panting, half crying in agony.

“What’s the matter? And how did you find me? Couldn’t you get a better hideout there in that big bad world? You act like a lion when everything’s under control and become a cowardly fox when all topple upside down?” said Susanne and she was furious as expected.

“I went home first, but obviously you weren’t there and since it was a Saturday, I thought of you being in no other place than here. Please, I beg you, please, and if at all I live and see tomorrow’s sun, I promise I’ll leave this bad sickening world of horrible crimes and we’ll leave this place and start a new life somewhere peacefully. Please hide me for now. Please, I beg you.” Anant pleaded. 

“Alright, but just for tonight. And don’t think it’s an act of love or concern, it’s just for my own peace of mind,” said Susanne and allowed him to hide in the dark kitchen. As soon as she was done with the hiding, the seekers seemed to arrive, for there were many other knocks on the front door louder than ever. She had no choice but to unbolt the door and let them in. They burst inside pushing her. There were four muscular men with different weapons and all looked horribly scary.

 “I saw him knocking this door!” yelled one of them.

“Where is he?” asked the scariest of all but she wasn’t going to tell. The outcome was terrible. She was slapped on both cheeks with her hair being pulled continuously. She still tried to block the kitchen but was, unfortunately, giving more clues to the goons.

She was finally knocked off by a heavy blow on her head with a gun and was too weak to get up. She was already slapped, thrown on the ground and the heavy blow on the head didn’t give her a chance to get up and fight. She heard screams echoing from the kitchen, and maybe even gunshots before she finally passed out.

She opened her bleary eyes when the cat, all seven pounds of squirming flesh, climbed onto her belly. Squinting into the sunlight streaming in from the open window, she discovered that she was now the weary possessor of a pounding headache, and at some point, had managed to lose both a tooth and a spouse.

Sunday morning was completely opposite to what it was the previous day- horrible, painful and full of agony and despair, her hair all messy and bloody and the face all red with slap marks. The sudden collapse on the floor rammed her jaw and broke one of her upper canines, making her mouth taste blood as soon as she gained back consciousness, and her head was splitting with pain. She also felt horrible pain in the stomach when she tried to get up as though she was kicked when she had passed out. 

The surroundings were all messed up and she felt something missing from her body when she tried to get up.  She tried to feel the region around her neck - it seemed blank, she felt only plain skin which hurt upon sensation- her gold necklace was gone-snatched by the ruthless evil gangsters - replacing a thin, long red scar in the region where the necklace once was. The only fortunate thing that happened, miraculously perhaps, was that none of the bones were broken, and this was proved when she was able to get up and stand on her legs, though a little dizzy, but not broken, and the largest scale of pain was her headache due to the heavy smash of the gun.

A few injuries on her face, mouth and elsewhere in her body followed the other painful sensations. When she got up and tried to sense more recent developments, there was another shock- one of her fingers was also injured a little as her ring, her only ring, was also gone, leaving yet another painful scar behind.

She somehow managed to get some primary aid by ordering medicines online and tried to take some rest until she felt better, but how could she? With a corpse lying in the kitchen which was her husband’s and police arriving anytime, all she managed was getting rid of the horrible headache a bit.

Police arrived naturally, and the whole statement was taken, meanwhile ordering to take the body along for forensic tests. But Susanne couldn’t count on them for she wanted to finish off the gangsters once and for all and what law would do at the best was bind them for a few months and somehow they’d be released. After all primary investigation, officers took their leave and Susanne took something out of the sofa cushion - Anant’s gun. She had seen it lying next to the body and wailing and sobbing, she had picked it up and hid it before the police could find out. Her path was clear. All she had to do was to get to the gang’s spot and arrange some bullets. She had some idea of the place for Anant had discussed it a couple of times when the relationship was not yet strained.

She arrived there four days later. It was an old warehouse. Anant was right about the place, for she immediately recognized the four scary faces who shot her husband right in front of her with the rest of the gang. She marched forward, though painfully, yet steadily and all eight eyes that recognized her, were stuck upon her as she confronted them. 

"You evil barbarians! You people can never leave the scum and filth you are born with, and this itself will bring about a scary end to every evil gangster of your lot! You've robbed me of everything I had, my husband, the only one who was separate though, but still my own, and even my other possessions! But I don't need them anymore. All I need is all of you falling on my feet dead." Suzanne said and had never felt more courageous before.

"Who are you, woman? What do you want?" asked a man with utmost aggression as he showed himself out of everyone else before any of the four or the rest of the gang reacted. He was the gang leader, Rana.

"I'm the one who's world is being toppled upside down in just one night. I'm the one who always wanted to be alone and away, but now feel miserable when I've finally got my wish fulfilled. I'm Susanne Mathur, wife of the late gangster Anant Mathur, who was brutally killed by your people, and I’m here to repeat the same.” She said firmly.

“Revenge, eh! To tell the truth, he was a traitor, and every traitor meets the same horrible end as your husband did, and that is the harsh truth of our business. Besides, you are a beauty, and revenge business doesn’t suit you. Come with me and we can have the best times of our lives.” Rana said lustfully.

“NEVER!” yelled Susanne and took out her gun. So did the gangsters. She started firing rapidly and killed two of the culprits. The gangsters fired too, but she’d got some time to escape. She dodged but one bullet pierced her arm sideways. She got up, mustered all her courage, started shooting rapidly and managed to kill, or at least injure all of them, meanwhile being shot five times in the crossfire.

She was drowning down with searing pain in her entire body, but was relieved too, for she had done what she had to do and took her last breath thinking about the song she had written, for though Anant wasn’t the right person, she had once truly loved him and true love has powers to move mountains and even burn oceans. Her final act brought the immense love out of her which was her solace and her ecstasy in that pain was her ultimate triumph.