Trembling Shadows
A romantic, psychological thriller
Kotra Siva Rama Krishna
“You people did not feel good when I came in the afternoon. In fact I have decided not to come here at all again. But suddenly an unknown fear started in me. My subconscious started telling me that something wrong is going to happen to you people so I have come here to warn you again. It is midnight like this and I could not come before.” With a sorrowful expression in his face, Ratnakar said.
“Thank you very much Mr.Ratnakar” Vinod said. “You have really taken trouble to come here”
“It is not at all a trouble to me. Sister has done lot of good to me and my family. However much I may do, it would never be equal to what we people have got from sister.”Ratnakar said.
“Your son as well has said the same thing to us” Rajesh said.
“Don’t believe his words. He is a naughty fellow. Only to get the place at grandma, he made me a mad man. Now he is keeping all the money he is getting from grandma with himself for the smooth running of his family affairs. He is not giving anything to me. He is such a bad man.” His voice suddenly turned pathetic.
“You are mad in his opinion” Vinod said
“In fact he made me mad. I have already said that to you. He never tried to get a good job anywhere. Until he placed himself at sister, he wandered along the roads without a job while his wife and children were starving. He started spreading the rumor that I had become mad. Then he took my job too.”
“How grandmother had given your job to your son? Doesn’t she know the nature of him?” Rajesh asked him.
“Of course she knows. But for certain reasons I myself have given my job to my son. But I came to know that he is not doing his job properly at all”
“What a nice man you are!” Rajesh said “are you coming to the house to greet the grandmother occasionally?”
“Yes, I am doing that. But recently she had lost all the interest in the earthly matters. Now a day she is going on soul journey more often” Ratnakar said.
Rajesh and Vinod looked into each other’s eyes. “Why you are saying like that?”
“In before she used to talk with me very cordially. But for about four or five months she made it very limited to talk with me. Now she is not at all bothering to talk with me.” His voice filled with a sort of distress.
“Is there your son’s hand in it in making grandmother like that towards you?” Vinod asked him.
“You just don’t know what grandmother is! She never hears lies. She can very easily know what the truth is. It is not because of that” Ratnakar said thoughtfully.
“Alright… Alright… your grandmother is a very great woman.” after saying that Rajesh paused for a moment. “When she would return into her body from this soul journey?”
“It is difficult to say. Sometimes it takes only one day. Sometimes it takes one month or so too. It all depends for which work she had gone like that.” Ratnakar said.
“On what types of works she goes out like this?” Vinod asked him carefully.
“She never have discussed that matter with me”
“Don’t you have even a little idea on that point?”
“No, I have not” Ratnakar said.
There was the painful silence again. No one could think of what to say then. Before anyone would say anything Ratnakar said “I still remember the very day when your parents have come to this place with you. You were a very small boy at that time. I held you in my hands for some time at that time” looking at Rajesh with love filled eyes Ratnakar said.
Rajesh smiled on hearing that. There came smiles on the other people faces as well.
“Your father had got lot of anger with grandmother. He was very much disturbed. As he was never allowed to come to this house, he was disturbed like that. He was very seldom allowed to talk with his own mother. On that day he questioned grandmother very fiercely.” Ratnakar said.
“What questions he had asked on that day?” Vinod asked him.
“I cannot remember much what he asked on that day. But I still can remember one question he had asked.”
“Tell us about that Ratnakar. A little piece of information too may be useful to us” Rajesh said.
“He asked grandmother whether she kept the dead bodies of Nagaraju and her husband in the upstairs room.”
The same eerie topic was broached again. The unknown fear intensified in their hearts.
“What answer grandmother gave to him then?” Rajesh himself a little disturbed. Anyhow they were all quite eagerly waiting for his answer.
“She did not give a straight answer. She said she was not a mad woman to do such type of a thing.”
“She may be or she may be not. As per your knowledge and information please tell me whether grandma kept the dead bodies of her husband and that Nagaraju in the upstairs room or not” looking pleadingly into the eyes of Ratnakar, Rajesh asked.
“I cannot answer that question. No one knows whether grandmother kept the dead bodies in the upstairs room or not”
Rajesh was irritated on hearing that answer. But he did not show it in his face. He knew Ratnakar was the only hope to get any intimate information on old woman.
“What your parents used to do while you were with grandmother in your childhood.” Rajesh asked.
“My father died. My mother was very poor. She was a distant relative to grandmother. But there used to be lot of intimacy and friendship between my mother and grandmother’s family. That is why my mother left me in grandmother’s house. I had grown up here. My mother used to do some work in grandmother’s house itself.” He said.
“But you still don’t know much about grandmother or other matters related to her. Whatever you are saying is not at all believable to me” Vinod interfered.
It seemed that he was wounded on hearing that. “I always want your people good. If you talk like that I cannot say anything”
“Just think yourself. When you have grown up in grandmother’s house itself how can you don’t know about her, her lover and husband?” Rajesh asked.
“Semanthakam and she used to be very intimate with each other before marriage too. But one thing….” He closed his eyes suddenly as if an important thought struck him.
“Tell us what it is?”Rajesh asked him eagerly.
“Nothing” Ratnakar said.
“No it is not nothing. You wanted to say something to us but you are not. Tell us what it is.” Vinod irritatingly asked him.
“At first she used to be close with Nagaraju. I had found her very close with Nagaraju in the beginning. Later on she had turned her interest to Semanthakam.” There was a guilty feeling in the face of Ratnakar while he was saying that. He might be felt like a traitor giving grandmother’s secrets to the outside people.
“Why … why she had got her interest changed like that?” Vinod asked again.
“I don’t know. I cannot say about that anything”
“What type of person that Nagaraju was?” Rajesh asked him
By that time all the others as well woke up and listening that conversation quite eagerly. It was turned quite interesting to them also.
“It is difficult to say what type of a person he is. He used to adore bad angels. He is a warlock.”
“Did grandmother know about him fully?” Rajesh asked him
“He is a relative to her. So she knew a lot about him”
“Still she preferred to marry him?”
“She never might have thought to marry him I think. But she used to be quite intimate with Nagaraju”
“Ever you have talked with that Nagaraju?”
“Sometimes I did” Ratnakar said. “He did not appear as a good man to me. How and why sister maintained intimacy with that person I cannot understand.”
Rajesh and Vinod looked at each other’s faces. “So there is a mistake on the part of grandmother as well”
“What mistake? She did not do any mistake at all”
“Maintaining intimacy with a person like Nagaraju is a mistake in our opinion. He is a warlock and bad man. Is it is not so in your opinion?” Rajesh asked.
“May be it is, I don’t know. But sister is a very good woman. She always tried to do good to other people. She never hurt anyone.” There was a sorrowful expression on the face of Ratnakar.
“Grandmother’s marrying Semanthakam itself was the main reason for Nagaraju’s killing that many people in this house on that day, is it is not?” Rajesh asked him.
“Yes that is the reason” Ratnakar said. “Now I have to go my home” he suddenly stood up. “I cannot stay here anymore”
“Please wait. Answer some more questions to us” Rajesh asked him
“I have already answered enough questions for you people. I cannot answer any more questions.” He started for the front doors.
“Stop, don’t go. Just answer one question.” Rajesh too stood up and went after him.
“I am not going to answer any more questions” he walked very quickly, opened the front doors wide and moved out of that house after closing the doors behind him.
&&&
“I am not at all feeling that Ratnakar as a mad man.” Rajesh said. “His mind is working quite appreciatively. He might be sometimes pretending mad. But he is not mad at all.”
“He is not completely mad. But his mind is not working completely properly. By looking into his eyes straight we can understand that point” Vinod thoughtfully said.
“Are there such type of techniques ‘looking straight into the eyes and know’ as well in psychology?” Rajesh asked him.
“Yes there are” Vinod replied to him. “But this madness of Ratnakar is treatable. He needs to take the medicines and do in the way a psychiatrist suggests to get rid of his madness. Only a psychiatrist can be helpful to him now. He is beyond understanding.”
“It seems no one at his home wants him to be cured.” Rajesh said. “He is saying that his own son projecting him as mad. How much truth might be in it?”
“It may not be. Some mad people behave most of the time normal and suddenly for a portion of time turned to be mad. Usually we take them as sane people as they behave good most of the time. In fact they are not. They too need treatment.” Vinod said
“Why he has come? Only to disturb us it seems. No new information he has given to us” Aravind said.
“Why he is repeatedly asking us to vacate the house?” Anand asked “Seems only to make us unnecessarily fearful”
“You are right” Aravind said.
Then all they were fall into sleep again
&&&
Malathi opened her eyes and looked around. Why she had got woke up so she could not understand. She had found Sunanda sat beside her. The way Sunanda sat and looking in front of her created a very uneasy feeling in her. She too sat up at once and looked into the face of Sunanda.
There was no particular expression in the face of Sunanda. It seemed she was not looking anything in particular. It appeared as she was possessed by something.
“Sunoo… What happened?” placing her hand firmly on the shoulder of Sunanda, Malathi asked. Her voice was with full of anxiety.
“Take your hand off” Sunanda’s voce was different. It was gruff. It sounded like a male voice.
“Sunanda, what happened to you? Look at me” Malathi’s heart started beating speedily.
“I said take your hand off from me. Why you are still keeping it there?” Still Sunanda did not look at her mother.
(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.)
