The Night

Run, Run, Run!!! I told myself and ran as fast as I could. I couldn’t understand what just happened, but I needed to get away from there. “wait” said one of the constables waiting near the paan shop and asked me, “it’s quite late, where are you going? Do you need some help?”. “hmmm, Ummm. (stammering) No, no, sir. I’m good.” What just happened? They say that the unexpected moments are always sweet, but this moment that I’m in right now is as bitter as wormwood. How much can one’s life change within a moment?

“That was fun, wasn’t it? Any plans for tomorrow. How about we go for mission mangal? isn’t it releasing tomorrow?” she said with a glow on her face. I was least interested in what Ayushi was talking and I asked her to leave. There were this emptiness and a feeling of remorse. Probably because I was cheating on my beautiful wife who’s waiting at home worrying where could I have been this late? How could I do this to her? This was a heavy cross to bear, so I decided it’s time for me to confess and pay for my sins. 

It was around 11:30pm, I reached, parked my car, and rehearsing what I will tell her, climbed the stairs. “finally! where were you? I was trying to call you but your phone’s dead. We have a reservation. Hurry!!” Hmm Anshika, I want to tell you something. Shushing me up, she continued. The maid was on leave, I had to do all the chores and the washing machine too stopped working. Ugh! Tomorrow, your first job is to get it fixed Mr IITian!!

"Can you just listen to me? I made a mistake." I said. “okay, tell me something I don’t know. You always make mistakes. Like yesterday you wore my… should I complete? (embarrassed, I did?) That’s not the point. Please understand. I’ve been sleeping with someone else. There was complete silence in the room. I carried on and told her everything. I couldn’t look into her eyes and speak. Now, this was a bolt from the blue for her, and she couldn’t swallow the bitter pill of truth. It had become a bone of contention, and with a heavy heart, she left. I did try to stop her, but she just didn’t listen to me.

I have despaired. Sitting on the couch, thinking about what have I done. Could all this be stopped from happening, if I had a chance? Maybe it could have. But now there’s no point of thinking what could have and what could have not instead of thinking what to do next. The phone rang, “check your email, you might not know what’s going on.” This is strange, I didn’t know who it is, neither did he say anything else besides these 10 words and hung up. I didn’t know whether to even believe and check my email because I was in no mood of a prank right now. But opened it anyways. It was an email from an unknown address, with ten attachments labeled from November 2018 to July 2019.

What was it? Confused, I opened the one titled April. A minute-long video, okay, I began. And what I saw next filled me with loathing… my wife with another man, making love! Furious, perplexed and resentful. This was my current state of mind. But why was I infuriated with her act? Wasn’t I doing the same? Or was it because she did it before me?

I got an SMS, with a location attached and it read, “follow it, you will find your wife with him, now”. Without a second, I kickstarted my bike and rode with a speed of 80kmph! I reached, it was a block away from her office, a luxury hotel. Room no.1806, that’s where she will be with that filthy man! I knocked, saying room service. He opened it. She was there, lying on the bed. This was the sight I could never forget. I pushed the door open and confronted her.

Sudhanshu got violent and tried to punch me in my guts. We got into a fistfight but Somehow I managed to kick him down. Anshika got in between and tried to stop us, and in a hurtle, There was gunfire! Sudhanshu was pointing at me, but because Anshika was in between us, she was shot, and she died in a flash. The room was full of tension. Me standing next to my wife’s body, Sudhanshu with the murder weapon.

Shocked with what he just did, he dropped his gun and started laughing hysterically. I freaked out and told myself, “run, run, run!!. I ran as quickly as possible, and as I left the building, Sudhanshu, with the fear of getting arrested and destroying the empire he had built, he jumped off the window and committed suicide. Two deaths within an hour!

I ran a mile, took a cab from there and hurried home. No sooner I stepped in, I got another call. “hmm, that was unexpected, two deaths in a night, wow. Check your email.” I was petrified. Quickly switched on my mac, opened Gmail and checked for my mails. This time, there was a name. It was Divyansh, her ex. This was a forwarded email from Dr. Romero Fernandes, a psychiatrist and it was sent to Anshika.

The email was:

“good evening, Dr.Anshika. I’ve read your reports, and I am confident that he is indeed suffering from schizophrenia, erotomania and DID. He is on the 3rd stage of schizophrenia, and I’m afraid he needs to be admitted here. We will try our level best to help him out. Give my regards to him. Mary Christmas and enjoy your anniversary because he might not be able to enjoy it later on. Take care.”

What did I just read? Is this real? Was she real? Whatever happened in the past 2 hours, was that real? Or just an illusion? Got another text from Divyansh and this time it a was video in which Anshika spoke and said, “you live in illusion and the appearance of things. There is a reality, but you do not know this. When you understand this, you will see that you are nothing. That is all” the doorbell rang, I opened the door. “Mr. Ishant Parmar, you are under arrest in the conviction of your wife’s murder”