A candle light dinner

Rani was so excited today as she was going to have dinner, a candle-light dinner with her husband, Ramesh who is coming home early. She had prepared some finest dishes for him, his favorite’s ones, and have recollected some of his favorite DVDs from the DVD store, and will be playing that once he comes in. It will be a perfect night for her and that too after a long time since we got married three years back. She could still remember that eventful day..how can she forget it! Ramesh's parents had come along to our house to meet them. It was that typical arranged marriage stuff as her mom's sister-in-law had arranged a match for her. According to her, Ramesh would be the one of the most wonderful person on earth, and I would be the lucky one.
Anyways, here she was waiting for her husband after 3 years of marriage, excited about the fact that he himself had asked to have a candle-light dinner with her, and nowhere else but at our own home. She asked him in the morning, "Darling, why don't we go to some restaurant?" He replied, "No, sweetheart. I want to be all alone with you, and want to have some intimate relations with you." That word "intimate" generated a kind of dizziness among her..but nevertheless, Indian wives are supposed to follow what their husband says. At least, this was what was said to Rani by her mother on the day of her marriage.

An then, suddenly, there was a knock at the door. It has to be Ramesh. He had promised to come early today so it had to be him. But, it was quite an unusual knock and was getting harder and harder...she slowly went closer to the door. She was afraid for a while as she heard in the news that there is a bogeyman wondering around our locality, and has already brutally murdered two housewives. This thought suddenly bought shivers to me, and she suddenly felt a little weak.

She looked from the peep hole..no one was there. She took a deep breath. At last, the person has gone. She turned around, and as soon as she started to move away from the door, it started to slam again. She turned around with a bang, and started to take step backwards slowly to move forward...she looked nervous. Suddenly, the door was banging even harder, and it frightened her even more. Then, again, it went silent. Now, the lights went off. There was darkness all around.

"Oh! Shit." she thought to myself. The inverter was also running out of battery. She had told Ramesh in the morning only to replace the battery, and he had consoled me that he will do it during this weekend. "But, what am she supposed to do right now?" she told to herself. "This darkness is going to kill me. Please, God! Help me. Don't let me die in the hands of this bogeyman." she pleaded before the God because once her grandmother had told her that if you are in danger, and you ask for something, God will always be there for you to help you. She turned to move towards the kitchen, and I turned on the gas stove. She lit the candle from the gas stove, and turned it off. She started to move towards the dining hall along with the candle. Suddenly, someone pulled her from behind, and put one over my mouth so that she couldn't shout, and with the other hand, tied both of her hands to her back. Then, he put tape on my mouth, and then moved to bring out his dagger from his pocket. She could only see his eyes as he was wearing a mask on his face, and I went pale when She saw dagger approaching her belly. Suddenly, a power came within her, and she kicked him hard on his stomach that allowed her to run hard for her safety. She quickly ran towards the bedroom. He came running towards me, and he caught hold of my legs. She bit his hands to release her legs from his knuckles, and then he quickly ran inside her bedroom, and slammed the door. He stood outside, started to bang the door, as if trying force it open. She pulled the bed, and threw it before the bed so that he couldn't open the door. Suddenly, the banging stopped. I could hear him speaking on his cell phone.

"She has locked herself from inside. What shall I do now?" He said. Then, there was a pause, and he said, "What? Are you serious? No, I cant. What if something goes wrong?" He said again, I am not going to do this." "What was it that someone was asking him to do?" she thought to herself. Her heart started to race with speed. She could hear her heartbeat in the dark, and she was sweating. Suddenly, she could hear the phone ringing. It was coming from downstairs as the phone was kept in the drawing room. "Shit" she told to herself. "What will I do now? What if he is standing outside? what if Ramesh is there on the phone. I could tell him about this thing, and he could help me take out of this. The phone kept on ringing. I slowly started to move towards the door, and pulled the bed a little, and peeped outside only to see no one outside. "Where the hell has he gone?" she told to herself. Her heart suddenly started to pound again. She slowly pulled the door open, and went downstairs, and picked up the receiver. She said in a trembling voice, "Hello! Whos this?"

"Sweetheart, what happened? What took you so long in picking up the phone?" said Ramesh. It was Ramesh, and I felt at ease. She started to cry, and told him that a man had barged inside our house, and was trying to kill me. "What?" He said shocked probably. "What are you telling?"

She told him that it was serious, and someone was deliberately trying to kill me. "Please save me, honey. I don't want to die."

"OK OK" He said. "Calm Down, first, and tell me where he is?"

I looked around only to find him nowhere. "He is not there, now" I told him.

"Sweetheart, you must be dreaming. It must be your own imagination."

She started crying as Ramesh did not believe her that there was someone in the house, trying to kill me. She said in sobbed voice, "There is someone in this house. Why dont you believe me dammit?"

"OK OK!". He said, "Do one thing. Close all the windows and lock it from inside, and do not open the door to any stranger until I come. As soon as she could say, Yes, someone pulled her again from behind, and pulled the phone cord and tied it over her neck. He was there again..she had told Ramesh, that he is trying to kill her. And, now, everything went blind befire her. She could hear Ramesh's last words, "I will be there in the evening, and we will have a candle-light dinner". Suddenly, she started to realize that she was dying. She could hear her mother's voices, she could hear herself screaming at her mother to let her go to the park, and she even see that she was hugging her maa & paa. And, then, suddenly, there was something that caught her eye. It was a dagger. It must have dropped from his hands on the floor in order to pull the cord. She caught hold of the dagger, and stabbed it on his belly. This loosened the grip of his hands, and cord went loose. She was stunned for a second, and then fell on the floor, as if she was unconscious. The man was lying in the pool of blood. Suddenly, she could hear the door open. A man stepped inside. She could hear the footsteps but she was in no position to get up on her own as she was too weak. She kept lying on the floor as if in an unconscious state. The man went close to the bogeyman’s body first, and said "What a waste of life? I told him to kill her and win the 5 lakh lottery." "Anyways, the money wasn't there for him maybe." said the stranger. Suddenly, she felt to recognize the voice but she wasn't able to hear him as he was speaking in a mild tone. He came towards her, and slowly knelt down, and said "Sweetheart, Look what a candle-light dinner I have got for you." and she could hear him laughing. And, this surprised her, and it shocked her even more. She felt like crying. So it was him..she couldn't believe herself...maybe he is someone else. "OH God! It shouldn't be him." she pleaded before GOD as she loved her husband so much and she couldn't imagine why he betrayed her, why did he wanted to kill her? Why? Why only me? She was suddenly lying there feeling both the pain in her body and in her heart, realizing the harsh truth of her life that her husband had tried to kill me but the question why he did so arose more often now.

She could sense that Ramesh had come close to her face, and she suddenly her eyes with a bang. Ramesh stood there, stunned, and in a state of shock that I was still alive.

"Why did u do this to me?" I asked him. "Why do you want to kill me?"

And, suddenly, the attacker came nowhere from behind and tried to stab her again. Rani bent down in an event to save myself, and the attacker stabbed Ramesh instead. There was silence for a moment, and she was trying to realize what has happened at that moment. Ramesh had tried to kill her, but instead he died his own fate. He is no more now. She will be now called the widow of Ramesh Khurana.

After Five Days

It has been five days since the boogeyman killed Rani’s husband, and she was been consoled by her parents and relatives. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. She got afraid as it was the fateful night that had killed her husband with that knock at the door. She opened to door, only to greet a handsome looking man, standing there. It was the Ramesh’s insurance agent. Rani asked him to com inside, and he handed her over the insurance papers to be signed. She completed all the formalities only to receive a cheque of two crores. She started to sob before him, holding the cheque in her hand, and saying, “What will I do of this money?” He consoled her, and said, “Please, Ma’am. You have the whole life in front of you. This money can give you all that which you want.” She stopped crying, and he asked her permission to leave. As he left, Rani closed the door behind him. Now, it was the telephone bell to catch her attention. She said, “Hello! Who’s this?” She then said, “Ok, I have the cheque. Yes I am coming.”

Rani went to the bedroom, and came outside with the changed outfit. She went to the bank to collect the money. Then, she came outside the bank where a car blocked her way. She opened the door of the car, and sat inside. There was the man wearing the mask sitting on the driver’s seat. She pulled the mask over his head, only to see Ramesh in front of her. She put up a gentle smile on her face, and they both hugged each other, kissed for a while. Rani thought to herself, “It had to be his plan. He was the Mr. Perfect.” She always had said, “This plan is going to fail. It wont work.” But Ramesh always had consoled her saying, “Don’t worry..it will work, and it will fetch us a million of rupees and give us a lifestyle which we cant even dream of.” She started to see the images of how ital happened. How the bogeyman came from behind, trying to stab her, and how she bent down, and then how the bogeyman went forward to stab Ramesh only to allow himself to fall down. And, then Ramesh tried to catch hold of him, and stabbed him on his face. He wounded his face so much so that no one can recognize his face. He then quickly exchanged his clothes with the bogeyman, and according to the plan Rani was already there to send Ramesh throw outside the window so that everyone feels that it was the bogeyman who had killed Ramesh, and had run away. Rani had erased all the traces of evidence that would even arouse suspicion. “It was a perfect plan. It had to be.” Rani thought to herself. She hugged him again, and said to him, smiling, “Darling, What about the candle-light dinner?” They drove away taking the money along with them.