Trembling Shadows
A romantic, psychological thriller
Kotra Siva Rama Krishna
“She is not bedridden and there is no illness in her” Ratnakar said. “She occasionally goes out leaving her body here. I already said that to you people. In one or two days she would come back into her body again.”
There were murmurs suddenly around. All their gazes straightened at Ratnakar. “How anyone can go out leaving his body at some place.”
“All people cannot do like that. But grandma can. She can leave the body here and go on her journey to somewhere else.”
“How she has got such an ability? Is she also a witch? Has she learnt black magic from Nagaraju?” Rajesh asked him.
“I cannot say. I don’t know but she has some peculiar abilities in her. She can do soul journeys, know about the future, etc.”
“Tell us where she has gone now and what is the purpose behind her soul journey?”
“I am sorry I don’t know the answer to this question at all” with a helpless expression in his face Ratnakar said.
“If you know this much about her, you must be known why she is going on so occasionally.” Rajesh said.
“I don’t know. I only know that she occasionally goes out on soul journeys. I do not know at all why she goes like that and where she is going” it seemed to Rajesh more pressing on that topic would not result in much information.
“There is a talk among the people. I shall tell that to you and you have to tell me whether it is true or not.”
“If I know the answer I certainly tell you so” looking into the face of Rajesh, Ratnakar said.
“Is grandmother keeping the dead bodies of Nagaraju and Semanthakam in the upstairs room?”
Suddenly the expression in the face of Ratnakar changed. His forehead frowned. He appeared quite confused and shocked. “I have answered enough questions. I cannot answer anymore. I am going home now” abruptly getting out of the chair Ratnakar said.
“No, please stop for some more time” Rajesh tried to say something more.
“You cannot detain me here anymore” he went straight to the front doors and opened them with a jerk and went out speedily. No one could foresee such a speedy action from him at all. They exchanged anxious glances into each other faces.
“We could not learn much from this man.” Rajesh said.
“He himself may not be known. As he has said, grandmother is an enigma. She did not let anyone know much about her life” Vinod said.
“I think this person knows even more but not interested to tell us about that” Rajesh said again.
“Why it is so? To protect whose interests he is keeping the secrets?” Tanuja asked.
“We cannot say anything about that.” Rajesh paused for a moment and then said looking into the face of Vinod. “You have seen Ratnakar clearly. Observed him a lot of time. Are you thinking that he is mad?”
“Yes, he is mad.” Vinod said thoughtfully. “But his madness is so that it would not come up every time. I can say that he was severely disturbed psychologically at one time. That psychological disturbance is casing madness in him”
“Was he mad while he has been talking with us?” looking into the face of Vinod, Rajesh asked him.
“Not completely mad. He remembered something and warned you.”
“Anyhow he is mad. There is madness in him.” Rajesh knitted his brows together.
“Yes, I agree that he is mad if not always but surely on some occasions.” Vinod nodded his head. “We can say whether a person is mad or not even he is not behaving particularly mad while we are observing him. This Ratnakar is not completely sane or insane while he was talking with us.”
“Why he had become mad then?” there was little irritation in the voice of Rajesh.
“He might have seen something that his mind could not digest at all. It might be that something disturbed him a lot and made him partial mad like this”
Rajesh inhaled deeply and exhaled with an idea to relax himself. But he could not be. He was still feeling uneasily and stiffened. “Is his madness curable? Can we get the truth out from him?” he asked.
“It all has to be seen. Considering his situation a psychologist is not enough. He needs to be put in the hands of a psychiatrist. I cannot say clearly about it.” Vinod hissed out heavily. “When it comes to truth I am afraid he also does not know much.”
There was some painful silence among them then. After few seconds breaking it Rajesh asked. “What is your better suggestion now?”
“Nothing in specific. Forget about that Ratnakar. As his son himself is not interested, we cannot be much helpful to him. Try to get good time pass among ourselves if we wish to stay here long” Vinod said.
“After hearing what Ratnakar said I have got disturbed” Malathi started saying. “Have you seen the reaction in him when he was asked about the dead bodies in the upstairs room?”
“Yes. It is confirming our doubt. Why should he behave like that when he heard about the dead bodies?” Sunanda said.
“None of us can answer that question. But how it would be if we go upstairs, open that room and see inside? If there are any dead bodies kept in it we can know instantly” Sameera suggested.
“How dare you suggest such a thing? The very idea that the dead bodies might have been kept in it itself giving creeps to my spine. If we go upstairs and opened the door of the room and find the dead bodies in it I shall die then and there” Tanuja said.
“I never have thought that you are such a weak hearted person. You are robbing us the chance to know whether there are any dead bodies kept in it or not.” Sameera accusingly said again.
“There is no problem if we don’t know about that. But I am not going to allow you people to go upstairs in the first place. From now on all you people must stay in down stairs only” Tanuja passed the ultimatum.
None of them there were dared to say anything against it then.
&&&
Sameera was considering what Sunanda said to her after her efforts to mingle with Aravind and talk with him amiably to get him out of black world went in vain. In the first place Aravind was not giving her a chance to talk with him. Whenever she approached him to talk something he was going away. She never had faced this type of a situation with any boy. She knew how eagerly the boys used to wait to talk with her. With Aravind’s behavior she felt quite irritated and frustrated.
As she was thinking about Sunanda’s proposal she had seen Aravind going upstairs. There was no one else on upstairs then and Sameera thought that it was the best time to approach him to experiment with what she was thinking. After giving one or two minutes time, she too went upstairs. He was in the same room.
“Why did you come here?” with a frown on his forehead looking at Sameera Aravind asked. He was comfortably seated in a chair in that room and thinking about something.
“Why should not I have come? In fact this is my grate grandmother’s property. I have ownership rights on this room also.” Trying to suppress her smile she said.
“Then I shall go downstairs” Aravind stood up.
“Aravind please” Sameera went across to him. “I want to talk to you. I want to be friendly with you. Why you are trying to avoid me? If you don’t like me at all, tell me straight. Even it is quite difficult to me I shall try not to come to you again.” She pleaded.
“It is not so that I am not liking you Sameera. I too as much eager as you are to make our friendship stronger and understandable. But…” he stopped and turned his head away.
“Please don’t stop. Continue. Pour your heart before me.” Sameera pleaded.
“You will try to make me to leave my very interesting world. I don’t like it. I just cannot give it up. I like it as much as I like you. I had started it so early in my life and it mixed with my blood.” Now looking into her eyes he said.
“But it is not good. We should not adore bad angels. Just think about the angels in the book. How they are to look at? You cannot get good by adoring such angels.” Sameera started trying to reason with him.
“You don’t know about it much. That as well is an art. A separate side of the world. We can do good as well with the help of those bad angels.” He paused for a moment and said. “But we need patience and have full knowledge about them”
She did not say anything and went near to the bed and seated on that. Aravind too dragged the chair near to the bed and once again sat in that.
“But my father and mother don’t like it. If you don’t leave it they would not allow me to love you. We cannot become man and wife. Cannot you please leave all that for me?” while looking at her red polished nails Sameera said.
Aravind fall into thought while looking at her moon like face. It was very first time that such a very beautiful girl pleading with him so for something and it was very good. It was not just her beauty luring and attracting him towards her so but there had already started a strong feeling in him towards her. It was very much painful to him to think to forget about her for whatever reason it might be.
At the same time it was not easier to him to forget about the shadow world either. He already experienced and enjoyed the power of it. Still he possessed some power of it. Even after his father thrown everything out relating to the black world except the book and warned him so, he did not stop practicing witch-cult. He was doing that in his mind and it kept him in some stead. He had plans to do it even more in future and get lots of power. He reclined in the chair and closed his eyes and breathed deeply. But he could not be relaxed. When he closed his eyes he had seen his aunt before his eyes. He remembered how she had guided him. How she had taught him to adore the bad angels. How much happier he had felt when he learnt using the power of bad angels for his benefit. If he had not been interrupted by his father so, he would have got lot of power by now. But still he could maintain some of that. To give up all that was not an easier task to him, it was now just like that to select between his two eyes.
Even she was looking at her nails Sameera observing Aravind in sideways and she realized that he had fallen in thought. He might not be cracked easily. She came to know that the black world had got very strong influence on him. Something even more powerful must be offered to him to make him free of that. She remembered the words of Sunanda again. ‘Give it to him’. Present time might be the perfect time for it. But what if someone suddenly came there, she was thinking. The doors could be latched from inside but it create unnecessary suspicions.
Then there was an ear shuttering thunderbolt. Sameera and Aravind as well startled at once on hearing that. A heavy downpour started falling just following the thunderbolt. A small smile widened the lips of Sameera. Now there was no chance that anyone would come upstairs while the rain was falling heavily like that. Even the environment as well was trying to cooperate with her.
(I hope that you enjoyed upto here. I shall publish the next chapter as soon as possible. Please don’t forget to rate and review.)
