Xossip Ultimate Story Contest 2014

[Expert]

Epilogue

Drift king21

“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be either good or evil” - Hannah Arendt

“Slap me, please slap me”
“Yes, do it, slap me harder”
“Harder, Harder, Harder…”

He woke up from his dream; his whole body was shaking and sweating. The phone beside his bed was ringing. He took couple of long breaths and then picked up the receiver.

“Hello Manish”

“Yeah Joseph, how are you?”

“I am not fine. Give me good news about the manuscript and make me fine”

“I told you, it’s almost done; just give me a couple of weeks”

“You are saying this for the last 2 months. You are already 4 months behind the schedule, the editing and other formalities will take some time as well. There are other books in the queue, why are you being so difficult?”

“Joseph I am done with the book, I am just stuck at the ending give me some time to find a way out of it”

“Can you tell me exactly where are you stuck?”

“The Epilogue”

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“Tie my hands tightly with cuffs, tie them around my ankles and now give me the punishment I am craving for”

“You can’t imagine the pleasure of pain; it pacifies the ferocity hidden inside me”

“You never hurt me, you appease me. You diagnose my cancer; you are my savior…”

The voice of the door opening behind him disturbed his thought process.

“Finally you have come up with the complete manuscript”… Joseph said in a relieved tone.

“I told you give me couple of weeks and it will be ready”

“You have to thank me for giving you extra months, publishing is not an easy job and people are waiting for your new book”

“Neither you nor they will regret the wait”… Manish said with a smile on his face

“Hopefully not much editing will be required, so we can get it publish as soon as possible”

“No, I want you to read it first. You will read it, every page every word of this book”… There was something in his voice which made Joseph anxious

“Can I ask why?”

“Because I haven’t written something like that before, I want your opinion on it”… Manish got up from his chair and shook hands with Joseph

“Manish, Please move on”… There was plea in Joseph’s voice

“I am moving on”

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“I hurt you last night, isn’t it? The scars on your body disgrace me”

“Don’t feel guilty about it; I am the one who should be ashamed. I persuaded you to do all this and scars given by you felt similar to a kiss given by you”

“You told me that you will draw the limit. I am loosing the control on my nerves; I am becoming more ruthless with every passing day”… He knew that he was beginning to enjoy all this; he was still defying the obvious. But deep down inside the pleasure of the game was getting better of him.

“Sorry to make you wait Manish”… Joseph’s voice brought him back from his thoughts

“It’s ok, so why did you call me to your office on such a short notice?”

“I had to talk about your story, I have read the first two chapters and it surprised me”

“I told you, no one will regret the wait”

“I know it’s different but why a topic like this? Your fans don’t expect this kind of a story from you. They expect romantic sagas the one’s they can read over and over again. This is disturbingly hardcore”

“Joseph have you ever been to mountains?”

“Yes, many times”… Joseph was surprised by the question

“What will you do if the most trusted person in your life tells you that jumping from that mountain is in best of your interest?”

“It’s a very difficult question. I am not sure, maybe I won’t jump from their”

“Hard isn’t it? Making the tough decision is always hard. You are the evil if you don’t jump; the person who makes you jump becomes the evil if you do”


“I don’t understand, what’s your point?”

“I wrote this story to clear this point. Read it again with this question in mind and you will understand my point”

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“Say it hurts, say it, I want to listen it loud and clear”

“No, never, it doesn’t, I enjoy it. Keep doing it”

“I will make you say these words. I will tear you apart but I will make you say that it hurts”

He closed the knob of the shower. The thoughts evaporated with the smoke of hot water. He came out of the bathroom and wore his new suit. Today was an important day; he waited 6 months for it and finally that day arrived. Now he had to make the move because Joseph told him that he was about to finish the manuscript.


He took his bag and came out of the house in which he spent the last 5 years of his life. There were lot of memories connected to that house but the time had come to move on. He looked back at his house for one last time and then ignited the engine of his car. The time had come to set the plan in motion.


*************************
“Riya, we are moving to another place”

“Why Avinash? You kept me away for more than 6 months and now when you have finally come back you are telling me that we are moving to another town, to a new house?”

“I want to make a fresh start. I want to remove all the old disturbing memories from our life”

“What are you talking about?”

“You know what I am talking about. You know the reason which separated us for more than 6 months. You were almost dead; I can’t afford to risk your life again”

“But I have no regrets. It was just a mistake; I know that it won’t happen again. First you decided to keep me away for all this while, you visited me just 3 or 4 times in that period and now you are telling me a story of a fresh start?”

“It’s hard for me to explain, I was away from you because I had to think about our past and our future and I finally came to a conclusion. The first decision I have made in a long while and I will stick to it”

“But how moving to another town will change everything?”

“I have thought about it, in fact that was the only thing I have thought about in all these months. I will tell you about it when we will get there”

“Joseph dinner is ready, come down quickly”… Joseph was engrossed in reading’s Manish manuscript when his wife called her.

“Yeah coming”… Reluctantly, he left the manuscript on the table and went downstairs for the dinner. He was about to reach the epilogue and was curious to know what was so special which kept Manish trapped in it for 2 months. But he had to finish his dinner first before reading it.


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Manish looked at his watch it was 10 p.m. He was still waiting for Joseph’s call. Joseph told him earlier that he will finish the manuscript tonight and will give him his feedback. He tried to concentrate on getting his luggage out of the car but his conscious was waiting for Joseph’ call. Slowly he moved the entire luggage inside his new house.


He locked the gate and his car. When he was finally ready to move inside his cell phone rang. A smile appeared on his face, he looked at the screen of his cell phone, Joseph’s name and number was blinking on it. With another smile he disconnected the call and turned off his cell phone.

There was no need to pick up the call; there was no need for feedback. He didn’t persuade Joseph to read the manuscript for the feedback. All he wanted was that someone in this world must know why “Manish Tyagi” disappeared. The famous writer, the author of 4 romantic sagas, who could bring characters to life, who could make people weep with his words.


He knew right now Joseph must be calling his landline number and after that he will call everyone who was close to Manish. But no one could tell him where he was but he was sure that Joseph can answer anyone why he did that. He didn’t care whether he would tell anyone about it or not but his soul was in peace that somebody knew and that someone will understand why he did it.

He spent his last 6 months in creating the characters of Avinash and Riya. But they were not any factious characters, he knew both of them. Avinash and Riya were the mirror images of “Manish Tyagi”, the writer and “Kaviya Tyagi”, his beloved wife. His manuscript was the truth of his life which he wanted to tell his longtime friend Joseph but for readers it was another “Manish Tyagi” story in which he brought two characters to life. He decided the ending of Avinash and Riya in his manuscript some weeks ago. Now it was time to bring that ending to life. He moved inside his house where his beloved wife “Kaviya” was waiting for him to complete the story.


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Epilogue
“It’s a nice house Manish but don’t you think it’s far away from the city, I haven’t seen any house around”… Kaviya was inspecting the house when he came inside.
“It’s actually a farmhouse”

“Kaviya, why don’t you go upstairs and take that tape along with you. I have recorded a special message for you in it. Meanwhile I will make dinner for both of us”

“Ok, but be quick, I haven’t embraced you for more than 6 months, don’t make me wait any longer”

Kaviya moved upstairs in their bedroom and played the tape. She lay on the bed and started to hear what Manish has recorder for her.

“Kaviya you remember our first meeting, when I saw you it was an instant decision that this is the girl with whom I will spend the rest of my life. Everything was so easy after that and without any bother we got married. Life was so beautiful in your company until the day you told me for the first time that you like to get tortured. It was a shock for me; my beautiful wife which looks absolutely normal has such a dark secret. I must admit I never had the guts to make any decision what should I do. You made a decision on my behalf that I will have to do it because it satisfies you, a coward act of mine.

You don’t know that I tried to figure out whether you had a difficult past, have you been abused or tortured when you were young but I found nothing. Actually I was thinking on the wrong lines, you were never a submissive or a BDSM lover. You were psychologically defected, a patient of “self-victimization”. You wanted to feel like a sufferer, you constantly needed the feeling of victimization. A person who tortures you, who makes scars on your body and those scars satisfied your psychological defects.


Your younger brother once told me that you used to tease him so much that at last he had to hit you. Despite of being the elder kid you never hit him back and when your parents used to lectured your brother that how he is being rude with his sister; you always forgave him after that. A feel good factor, you always wanted to maintain the image of a good person. What you never understood that this crave for the goodness and being looked at as the victim, was deeply damaging your psychology. With every passing day your hunger for victimization amounted so much that you forgot that it can ruin our life.

The fault is not entirely yours; I am your partner in this crime. Instead of making my decision, I left it on you to make the tough call. Just to make myself believe that you need it, I started to do whatever you wanted me to do. But we both forgot that game is never played on the terms of the players. There are basic rules laid down in every game and once we started the game, the rules of the game took over. I went through immense pain at the start, my conscious kept on telling me that I am doing something wrong but instead of curing the disease, I became the victim of it as well. The evil inside me awoke at last and then it became a game of winning and losing.

Torturing you, listening to your screams, scars on your body, were giving me feelings of guilt and pleasure. I hated to do all that but liked do it as well. Then it become a matter of who will blink first. I wanted to make you confess that it hurts but you kept on repeating that its pleasure. Every time you confess the pleasure, the next time it made me tortures you even more. We kept on playing the game when at last we reached the brink and you almost died. One of your friends took care of you otherwise we would have been in a really big mess. This was the time when I decided that it’s time to keep myself away from you. Joseph helped me a lot during that time, for him it was just an accident which I have taken too seriously. But I made my decision that this has to end”.

There was a long silence, for few minutes, Kaviya didn’t realize that tape has ended. She was so engrossed in the tape that she never realized when Manish entered the room. He was sitting on a chair right in front of the bed.

“Manish, I don’t understand, what is the meaning of all this?”

“It’s the harsh reality. Our harsh reality which only two of us know”

“Manish we are not patients; we don’t have any psychological defect. We only seek pleasure, there was nothing wrong in that, what happened was just an accident, why don’t you understand”… Kaviya screamed at him this time

“Sssshhhh… Relax, listen to me, listen to me”… He took her in his arms

“Kaviya, we are diseased with this cancer. No one can help us, not even doctors. We cannot change now; sooner or later we will start playing the same game again”

“You are mad; I know you want to kill me. Tell me the name of the bitch you are fucking? I knew there must be a reason behind keeping me away for so many months. Tell me the truth; you want to get rid of me isn’t it?”… She was screaming at him and was using all her force to break his grip on her

“Look at you. Just at look at you. What have you become, you still think that you are the victim and I am doing something wrong with you?”… Manish let her go from his grip

“Then what is all this nonsense? You are trying to prove that I am a psychological patient. Brought me to a strange place where no one is around, telling me stories through this tape. What’s all this then?”

“You never realized that I never said you, I said us and we have to end this, not just you”

“Forget it; there is nothing which should be ended”

“I said, we have to end this”… For the first time in his life he slapped her unintentionally

“You bastard, how dare you hit me”… For seconds Kaviya was stunned by the slap, but her reaction stunned Manish

“I will kill you. You crazy bastard, I will kill you”

This was not the ending he wrote in his story. He was looking at her with a surprised face. Kaviya was punching him, slapping him with all her force. He was not bothered about it anymore. He moved towards the cupboard, Kaviya was still hitting him but he was lost in another world. He was moving mechanically like he was in a trance. When he moved back towards her, Kaviya suddenly stopped. Manish had a pistol in his hand which was pointed towards her.

“The story ends, the way I ended it”

The environment roared with the shot of gunfire, and after few seconds it roared again by another gunfire. After that there was only silence which followed it...