Ch 4- Death row 1

The blood we lose was the price of having it.

I had parted with Nina the last evening and it was Saturday the next day.

It was 3 a.m. and I was sound asleep like any other person. Unexpectedly, my phone rang. It was a call from Mr. Gopi.  Perplexed, I picked up the call.

I was curious about this untimely call but I didn’t know that something worst was awaiting me.

“Hello, Miss. Toya? Miss. Toya…”

“Yes, Mr. Gopi? What happened? Is everything okay?” I grew nervous upon his chocking voice.

“Miss. Toya, Miss. Nina is… she is dead.”

“……..” I- I was – just numb.

Nina was dead?

“Miss Toya? Miss Toya? (Beep)”

I hung up the call and ran towards Nina’s house. I couldn’t feel anything as I ran. My feet were taking me to her by themselves. My heart was frozen. My body was all sweaty and my hands went cold. I couldn’t think straight. I still couldn’t bring myself to believe that the Nina I met and touched yesterday was gone today, just in a matter of few hours. Tears were gushing out of my eyes but the shock prevented me to process any creeping emotions.

I reached her house, three kilometers away from mine, in no time (in seconds) because of my strangely increased physical ability.

Panting, I stepped inside the Taneja’s residency where I found Mr. Gopi waiting for me.  He was crying under his black glasses.

“Mr. Gopi!”

He refrained me from going inside Nina’s room. He said, “Miss. Nina’s body is in a gruesome condition. I think it might be for your better if you don’t go and see her in that condition.” He then pressed my shoulders and wiped his tears.

“What the hell are you talking about Mr. Gopi? I …I don’t know what should be done, but I am going to her. I need to find the reason of it. I have t see it with my own eyes and find it. I have to see her. I should have…protected her...” I rushed inside the house with no control.  

 “The crime investigation team will be here at any minute, we can’t touch the body as instructed! Her parents are devastated and her mother got a heart- attack because of which sir and Madame are at the hospital! I don’t want you to get more hurt than you already are! So, please listen to me, Miss. Toya Kawa! .......”

Mr. Gopi’s voice faded as I was hopping the stairs.

 I was then standing right behind the gate of her room.  My heart was thumping faster than ever. Thoughts of guilt and melancholy smothered my mind as I lifted my hand and held the doorknob. Mixed feelings of anger, frustration, anxiety, heartache, were growing bigger with every second.  

I opened the door to a room of horror. The carpet and the floor were covered with red blood.  Also, I could see the traces of black blood which was obviously not of a human. There were splashes of a green slimy liquid here and there on the walls, on the frames, and a big black burn mark of a swastika on the wall behind Nina’s bed.

Her body was placed on the bed. The white bed sheet and pillows were soaked red with her blood.

My legs were shaking but I managed to get closer to the bed, carefully, not to leave any significant footprint.

She was lying on her bed like a dead doll. Her two pigtails were messy. There were black fingerprints of a big hand on her neck. Her right cheek was bitten and her facial bones were visible. Her flesh was cut in a curved pattern as if cut by a big mouth. Her eyes were closed but a blue liquid had come out of it. She had wounds all over her body. Her nails were all purple and black and her body was heavily scarred. And her frock was tattered along her stomach on the right side; the skin underneath it had a long cut, probably from a sword, from where the maximum blood might have escaped her body. Her leg had marks of octopus-like- tentacles.  Her toenails were misplaced and her limbs had turned blue and lifeless. Her body was cold. Her body was dead. She was dead.

They chewed her and left the rest of her to rot like that. They…how could someone--- do –this to a human—to a living being?

How –was Nina dead? Why?

I had so hoped for all of it to be a gross joke pulled by her to meet me or show me something or even torture me. I had so hoped that she was only playing with my heart and was actually alive, that she was just testing my love for her in her own way. I would have embraced that. That would have been a great relief. Only if it was true…I wish…it was true… that she would be alive.

WHY DID THEY KILL HER? WHY WOULD THEY TAKE MY NINA AWAY FROM ME? WHY WOULD SOMEONE DO THAT TO her? Why?

WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY?

I will kill that person? I am going to kill that monster!

NINA! HOW am I SUPPOSED TO LIVE WITHOUT YOU? Nina!!! These thoughts were dancing rampantly in my mind.

Before I realized it, I was on the floor beside her, crying beyond the boundaries of pain. 'Pain' was a small word to describe how I was feeling.  I had dropped on the floor unable to control myself and was screaming at the top of my lungs when suddenly the blood on the floor reached my toe; I flinched as my toe touched the cold blood and dragged myself away from it. It was yet flowing towards me. I panicked and was vigorously trying to avoid it by dragging myself away from it, further, and at that moment when I was struggling, Mr. Gopi lifted and carried me out of that room.

“I am here. I am here Miss. Toya, I am here. Please calm down!”

“Mr. Gopi! Nina! Nina’s body—she is – we have to do something! Please do something! Mr. Gopi----” I blabbered to him in a quavering voice.

“ENOUGH! Miss. Toya, Miss. Nina is dead. There’s nothing we can do about that. We are helpless.” He stated to me firmly.  His voice was filled with melancholy.

“……………….”

“I told you not to go in the room but you didn’t listen to Me.” he carried me all the way to a restroom and placed me on the sofa. He then poured me a glass of water and seated himself adjacent to me. He then removed his black glasses for the first time in front of me.

His eye…he had lost his left eye.

How?

He then said, “I have lost my sister twice today. I, more than anyone, can understand how it feels to lose someone precious to the heart.”

I took the sip of water and looked at him with eyes still blurry with tears. My body was still shaking as he put his hands on my shoulder and tried to comfort me.

“This is yet another scar on the same spot. But the damage is more than what is visible, Miss. Toya.”

“………..”

Do I just accept the fate now?

Is it over?

Now, I go back to my house and do what? Get ready for her funeral?

See her body turn into ashes? And cry my share to merely wet the wounds and hide it?

Is that what you want me to do, god?

…………..;

 God, if there is any possibility for me to rewrite this day, please show it to me!

Please.

 I tried to suppress it but my heart was cut into several pieces and I bursted with tears and screams, again. Mr. Gopi, seated beside me, could only give me his hand of comfort on my shoulders in consolation. And all I could do at that point was cry my heart out.