"A NIGHT TO REMEMBER"
“Open the damn door!!” I heard someone shouting at the door.
“Open the damn door!!” I heard someone shouting at the door.
“Now, who the hell is this??’ I cursed the person and slowly got up from the bed. I looked for my slippers but it was so dark inside the room that it felt as if I was sitting inside a black hole.
“Life at a slum would have been much better, atleast I didn’t had to pay 25K for this small box hanging 20 floors above the ground.” I cursed myself for taking the exorbitant flat on rent in the so called Green Paradise.
“We provide the best of the facilities and besides that we have the best in class security systems” I wished to kill that agent for landing us up in this hell.
“Open the goddamn door, you sleeping bast**d” the person shouted again.
The sottish voice clearly reflected that the person knocking at the door was drunk. And really pissed off, even more frustrated than me.
“Now, this is the best in class security systems, you find drunk people knocking your door at the middle of the night. I’d kill that agent tomorrow morning.” I thought
“Coming !! Coming!!” I shouted back and started moving barefoot.
By the time I could find my way through the darkness to the door, he started banging the door loudly.
“You bang it one more time and I’ll cut that hand. I swear.” I was really pissed off.
“Then open the door and let me in” now the voice softened. The voice was familiar, so I hurried up till the door.
I was surprised to see the figure leaning against the wall next to the door. He was Chetan, a colleague of mine and one of my best pals at Gurgaon.
“Whats up man?? You look terrible” I said and helped him to get inside.
“Its all f**ked up man.” He said and stumbled against the couch.
“What happened?? You were on a date, didn’t you?? So how was it??”
“Don’t wanna talk about it. Can I spend the night here??” I tried to help but he denied and after a lot of struggle managed to sit on the couch.
“Do you have an alternative??” I mocked at him. “Ofcourse you can. Make yourself comfortable. Though, you chose a wrong time. Can’t help with the electricity.”
“No, its fine. “ He lied down and closed his eyes, still breathing heavily. Something was definitely wrong.
I knew there was no point in probing more so I decided to leave, but just at that moment suddenly the electricity came. It took me some time to adjust to the sudden illumination, but when I finally regained my vision I couldn’t believe the sight. Chetan was lying like a dead man on the couch. His face was full of fresh scars. Left hand was bleeding and there was a trail of blood drops right from the door to the couch. His clothes were torn and that beautiful gold bracelet embedded with precious emerald was also missing.
“What happened to you chetan??” Bewildered I went closer and took a closer look of his hand.
There was no reply. I shook him and suddenly his body fell down on the floor.
“Chetan. Chetan” I tried to help him to get up. But to my utmost surprise, he didn’t even try.
I rolled him over. His eyes still closed. I leaned closer to his face and my heartbeats almost stopped when I realized that he was not breathing anymore. I quickly ran to the kitchen to fetch a bottle. There was no response to the splash of water as well. Scared I leaned further and tried to listen for his heartbeats. Skeptical of my left eardrum, I tried with the right one. I could feel the Goosebumps, sweat rolled over my face and my hands started shivering out of fear. He was dead.
Completely baffled by the scene, I stood still for at least 5 mins, staring at the corpse. Nothing came to my mind. I wanted to run away but then it was my flat. I thought to call police, but then the scenes of those old bollywood movies, where a innocent hero gets charged for a murder of his friend, just because he happened to be there at the crime scene and tried to help the wounded by taking out the dagger from his chest. And just like the hero, I also lacked the evidences.
“Why would they believe me??” I asked myself.
And as they say, even your shadow leaves you in wrong times. My brain stopped working. I tried so hard to find a way but there was no response. I cursed my brain, but then it felt as if just like Microsoft Windows, when I needed it the most. It went down by simply popping an error “Memory Access Violation. Please contact the technical support team for more details.” Damn!
Just when I was wondering for the exit from this labyrinth, I heard a song. “Lets make a night 2 remember…January 2 December..” I had heard this wonderful song by Bryan Adams so many times during college days. But I’d never fathomed that the first line could end up in this way. It kept going.
“Now, who the hell wanna make a night at this hour??” I cursed.
The song kept going. The lyrics which one day used to leave a wide smile and a wonderful dream in my eyes, were a real pain in the ass today. I concentrated to find the source where it was being played. But then I heard a constant buzzing sound. It was Chetan’s cell phone.
I took the cell phone out from his trouser’s pocket. God knows what happened to me; my hands started shivering, when I checked the screen. It said “Mustafa Bhai calling”. The cell kept ringing but I couldn’t gather the guts to answer the call. After sometime it ended.
I had never heard about the person from Chetan and had no idea about him. But my super imaginative brain fed on heavy doses of criminal movies and fiction stories, had already projected an image of the person infront of me. A collage of Daud Ibrahim, Osama Bin Laden and the sorts of Chota Chetan, Pappu pager etc. An image so scary, that just one glimpse at it and you would spend your entire life, sleepless.
Then again it started ringing. I remembered the names of all the gods and goddesses I’d heard off and finally picked the call.
“Where the hell are you??” came the voice from the other end. The harsh tone clearly reflected the agitated state of the person. I stood speechless.
“You’ve betrayed the group; you’ve a last chance to save your life. Hand over the packet to us or my men will cut you down into pieces and leave them infront of your parent’s house. You bast**d.” The man was so agitated and was shouting at the peak of his voice.
“Hello…sir…sir….” I couldn’t gather the guts to speak.
“Who is this?? Where is that pig??”
“Sir…..this is Anish…Chetan’s friend..” I fumbled.
“What the hell are you doing with his phone, you moron?? Hand it over to Chetan.”
“Sir….sir…he has gone to the washroom…”
“Stop telling lies, you dumb a**. Tell him, if he doesn’t gets on phone within a minute, I swear, he will not be able to stand for taking a leak for his entire life.”
I didn’t knew how to handle this mad man. It was apparent that he would not listen to whatever I’d to tell. Also, I was not sure that whether I should tell him about Chetan’s death or not. I disconnected the call and rushed to my bedroom to pick my own cell.
I couldn’t think of anyone to whom I should inform about this first. Nobody would believe me. But I needed someone to know, before it gets too late. Just while I was scrolling up and down the contacts list, my eyes got stuck at one name. I thought for a second and dialed the number. I knew, she directly would not be able to help me out. Tanusha, a common friend of chetan and mine, pursuing her Masters in Law from DU. I was unaware about her prowess in legal matters, as for that matter I was skepticall about all the girls who manage to secure a seat in a coveted university, just because they were girls. But at that moment, she was the only one who could give me some advice.
“Atleast, she might have contacts with some of the good lawyers and may be they would be able to help me out.” I thought, waiting for her to pick the call.
“C’mon, wake up from your dreams” I was getting restless.
“Hh..hello…” came the soft voice from the other end.
“Hello Tanusha..”
“Yeah, who is this??” she sounded as if still half asleep.
“Hey, this is Anish. Wanna talk to you.”
“Anish. Man, don’t you think its quite early in the morning to talk about anything. “her voice told me, she was really pissed off.
“I’m really sorry yaar. But its really urgent. Trust me.” I almost begged.
“What is so urgent dude?? You killed someone or wat??” she mocked.
“I didn’t kill anybody, but someone is dead.” I knew there was no point in beating around the bush.
“What???” she shouted
“Yes. Chetan…chetan is dead.”
“Are you nuts?? Look dude, this ain’t funny. I’ll kick your a** like anything.” She said out of bewilderment.
“No, I’m damn serious tanu. He is dead. I don’t what happened to him. Who did it and why?? But the worst part is he is in my house. I need your help yaar.” I couldn’t control myself. I knew I was gonna pay a heavy price for asking her help, but that was not the point of slightest consideration at this moment.
“What are you saying?? If he is dead then what is he doing at your house?”
I quickly rushed her with the whole story. And just like any girl, she also couldn’t think of anything logical to be done at that moment. All these so called convent educated, sophisticated super achiever girls were like foxes under the skin of a tigress. They would keep boasting about their achievements, but when it comes to real matters in practical life, they simply say-“ Sorry boss, No idea.” I just hated them. I cursed my destiny for landing me in such a situation where I was at the mercy of such a girl.
“You girls, can you be of any help to anyone at any point of time??” I almost shouted at her.
“That’s not one of the best ways to ask for help dude” I knew I had hit the wrong nerve.
“Sorry, sorry. Its just that I’m so confused. I don’t know what to do. “
“Calm down. Calm down. I’ll think of something. But lets get you out of here first.”
“What??”
“You never know, how powerful this guy Mustafa is?? He might be reaching to your place in some time now.”
“Shouldn’t we call the cops??” I asked.
“Yes, but not like a layman. We will go from the top.”
“Meaning?”
“You leave it on me. Do one thing, just get of that place. Just remember don’t touch anything. I’ll pick you up from the Central Park.”
“Ok. But why central park? I can drive down to your place.”
“You should leave un-noticed you fool. Nobody should get to know that at what time you left your place.”
“Then why don’t you to come here?”
“Because, I don’t want to accompany you to jail, if at all you get caught by the cops before we could think of something.”
“But how will I reach Central Park then??”
“Start running..” she said and ended the call. I quickly went back to the room, picked my wallet and rushed of out of my flat. Just when I had reached the main entrance gate, I heard the screeching sounds of more than one car stopping just near the building. I glanced from the gate and could spot two black Endeavors with all the glasses completely black. I quickly ran to the back gate of the building and to my utmost disgust, found it locked. Without hesitating a moment I climbed the gate and just as I jumped on to the floor, I saw an Endeavor taking a turn around the corner and its headlights fell directly on me.
“Catch him.” Shouted, someone.
And as if I had seen a ghost, I started running towards the central park. The car started following me. Just when I was at the end of the road, my eyes fell on a small dark alley on to my right. I quickly went into it and kept running. I knew, it was a shortcut to reach the main road, a 10 mins, dash and I would be at Central Park.
“Reach on time, Tanusha” I prayed and kept running.
Just as I hit the main road, I saw another car coming in my direction. I recognized the noise of the engine. It was Tanusha. And just like the Charlie’s Angels, she applied brakes, made the car to halt just infront of me and in a flash opened the door for me.
Just as I sat inside the car, I spotted the large headlights of Endeavor cruising towards us. She also spotted the demon from the rear-view mirror and pressed the accelerator of her car with full force. The car plunged forward and soon we were heading towards her NH-8. An old 84 model Maruti-800 driving at its top speed towards NH-8 with a Endeavor almost kissing its tail was a sight so horrible, that I was uncertain that whether they will catch me first or I’ll die out of fear of being caught. But just at the start of the flyover, she took a sharp turn towards the left and sped her car into the empty land full of bushes.
I was highly impressed by her smart move. The big demon couldn’t get through the heavy bushes and trees for long and got stuck in the middle. While, we comfortably negotiated the mini-forest and were again running on the road. After 5 mins. we were standing at the parking of her house.
“Lets hide here for some time.” She said and we both ran towards the lift of her building.
I felt terrible for having completely mistaken about her. She was very smart as compared to the image I carried of the girls. The way she had easily maneuvered out by leaving behind those monsters was some really appreciable stuff. I’d only seen such things in Hollywood movies.
Finally we reached her flat. She unlocked the door and signaled me to move in. then after a quick glance to the left and to the right, she came in. Just as she closed the door, I heard a faint sound. Slowly the sound got louder and I was surprised when I realized the tune. It said: “Happy Birthday to you…Happy Birthday to you…” and then I heard balloons being bursted, people clapping and suddenly there came out from different rooms, Raman, Nisha, Hitesh, Sania. They all were laughing like mad persons and pointing at me. And then my eyes fell on Chetan emerging from the kitchen, carrying the big chocolate cake. I knew it was too late. They all knew it from the beginning. I took several deep breathes and lied down on the couch.
“My goodness, You guys almost killed me. You know that??” I was really pissed off.
But then before I could speak anything. Everyone pointed towards Tanusha. Fuming out of anger I stared at her.
“And you said, we girls cant do anything. Wat do u say now??” she said with such a sweet smile on her face that all my anger vaporized and I also bursted into laughter.
“You win, you win….But please don’t do it again. I almost got a heart attack.”
Everyone gathered around the cake. Just as I blow the candles off. Chetan’s cell phone started ringing.
“Lets make a night to remember….January to December..”
A smile came on my face. This was indeed, a night to remember…
__END__
SOURCE BY-ANUPAM
PUBLISHED BY-OURHELLO.COM
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