Blood for lust

A group of students who were in their reflector tops casually hung over a black polo and a pair of jeans, obviously volunteers, had cleaned an area for their rotary club . They were happily taking photographs after the service of litter free zone they had successfully completed. Suddenly they heard a pleading heard voice from a few meters away. As everyone sighed at the beauty of the girl, she came shouting towards them carrying a couple of bags of trash with her. She dumped the trash in the bin behind which they were taking snaps of their group. She strode towards her group and said, “Sorry, for joining you guys late”. Ram, A tall guy who was quite well built, the leader of this who group treats stray dogs, conducts awareness programs, social activities and he was known for his innocence as he don’t even harm single mosquito. Ram replied “Hey Lavanya! That’s not a big deal; you also did your part well. What happened to your eyes?” “No Ram, I was stung by a bee while cleaning up the streets and I lost one of my contact lens while rubbing my eyes. That’s why it is bloodshot. It should be okay within two days. No need of worrying” she explained. Ram took her in his arms and said “I’m glad to have such a bold woman in my team. Common let’s have a group picture”. Ram continued, “We did our best today” waving his hands emphasizing on the clean streets, “we should continue the same and promote our association” his eyes turned into a stare seeing those hands on the clock showing seven past fifteen. Quickly realizing something he said, “Let’s disperse!”. ”Are you coming for dinner with us?” John asked. “Sorry John, I’m taking Sneha out for dinner”.” Don’t delay tonight in returning to our room, then owner will start questioning you” and then another roommate of Ram, Aravind mocked, ”At least this time you pay for the dinner, always don’t keep depending on your girlfriend”. With a deep grin Ram revved up the engine of his motorcycle and rushed towards her house.

Ram reached Sneha’s apartment within five minutes, parked his bike beneath the tree in front of an apartment. Enthusiastically he climbed the stairs to the first floor and carefully observed that just one pair of sandals were in the shoe rack outside. This made him realize that both her parents were out of station and so that he could spend more time with her. He found that the grill gate was open and the main teak wood door locked. “This isn’t like Sneha! “, he thought. His hands ran up towards the calling bell beside the wooden door to ring the bell. He turned back to check the neighbors door that thankfully locked, reckoning it was “the couple in the neighborhood are working who reach home late every night”. He turned back again and he saw no sign of door opening, he thought of she must be playing with me. He started ringing the bell again and again and exclaimed loudly “okay, no more playing I’m going to burst out through the door if you are not opening it!”. He sighed and then placed his hand in the teak door’s brass handle and moved it down. To his surprise he found it unlocked.

Ram pushed the door inside, he gave a sudden jerk back and he was awestricken. He saw his girl lying down on the floor, beside the couch with foam coming out from her mouth. His heart was filled with fear that he would lose Sneha. He ran towards her, tears flowing across his cheeks, knelt down and patted her cheeks trying to wake her up. He searched for water and he found it over the dining table and grabbed the glass and the jug. He sat down over the floor and gently lifted her head and placed it over his lap and sprinkled the hand full of water over her face and wailed “wake up, Sneha! Wake up “. As he turned around he realized someone was watching him very carefully. He was overcome by fear as he turned his head and found her neighbor standing at the door way and observing him with a sense of an open accusation. He picked up his phone and called the police of that locality and informed them that Ram poisoned Sneha. Ram, offended screamed “call the ambulance. I won’t run anywhere”.

The siren was loud and was flashing the abominable red light on the road. Ram absent-mindedly observed all the people leaving way for the ambulance in the roads through the glass window. He saw her with oxygen supplied and some first aid medications given by mobile doctor in that ambulance and her neighbor didn’t speak out a word to him. He was just observing the things going around him blindly, as he saw four nurses laid her up in the stretcher and headed towards the emergency ward. The neighbor and ram were stopped by the securities in front of the emergency ward door. Ram screamed at her as she was taken into the ICU. He felt helpless as he leaned over the wall, his eyes filled with tears. He saw four people in some light brown dress approaching him by the corner of his eye. He couldn’t see clearly as his vision was marred by the tears that didn’t seem to want to stop.

Ram confirmed that those who were approaching him were the police by listening to neighbor’s conversation with them. He wiped his hand and looked at the police and then he recognized the inspector. He was the one who used to come to his house in his native and also happened to be a very close friend of his dad. Ram moved towards the inspector and before he knew it, started crying again. Ram spoke with high emotions coupled with a low tone “Rathnavelu uncle” the inspector turned his head toward him with a mundane glare. Then Ram was about to continue his speaking before that the inspector ordered his constables to handcuff the boy and take him to police station. The boy screamed louder to leave him alone and stating he didn’t do anything to Sneha. The constable forced him to climb into the police car and inspector slowly came towards the car after discussing the words with the doctor and the neighbor.

Ram was crying grabbing the inspector’s shirt “I didn’t do this, uncle. I swear I didn’t do this”, and then he questioned him, “uncle, you spoke with doctor, what did he tell?” Inspector didn’t pay any heed and questioned” when did you reach her apartment, Ram?” Ram recalled “seven fifteen I left my camp and I almost reached her apartment by seven past twenty, uncle”. The inspector took a look at the car’s clock displaying eight radiantly. Ram insisted again “what did doctor speak with you?” Inspector replied “just before you reached there, someone should have poisoned her. The Doctor said that she had been poisoned an hour back”. The inspector truly trusted him as he knew him very well from childhood. Ram continued to mumble through the tears “uncle, spare me a day I promise you to find the person who did this to her and if you don’t trust me enough send a constable with me “.The Inspector hesitated and then after a while he turned back at him, unlocked his handcuff and said “I’m putting my job at stake, I spare you five hours to find the suspect, if you fail to do so I have no choice but to throw you in prison”.

Ram ordered the driver, “Go to the apartment”. There he hesitated to enter that apartment again and he looked at the inspector after getting down from the car and questioned him “did you find any evidence related to this case? Rathnavelu replied “still now we didn’t get any identification from within that apartment”. Ram insisted again “are you sure”? Rathnavelu said “yes, till now all we know is you were there at the crime scene and nothing else apart from that”. “Okay uncle, you better stay connected to the constables through walky-talky” ensured Ram. The Inspector then warned “your time is running. Make sure you return by one AM”. Ram picked up his motorcycle in front of the gate with the constable riding pillion. He was totally puzzled of what might have happened around 7 PM this evening. Constable insisted “9 PM” to Ram. Ram seriously has no idea where to start the search for the man who poisoned his love. He decided to go to his room.

He reached his place and climbed up stairs with constable making sure owner didn’t see the police entering his house. Ram reached the door at the upstairs it was found locked, realizing his friends didn’t return from the dinner. He opened the room with the spare key given to him. He saw John’s cot with the laptop kept on and another roommate, Aravind’s cot had book with a bookmark left. Ram turned to his cot and sat quietly there facing his head down and constable made space for him to sit by moving john’s laptop to a distance. Ram slowly lifted his head and he saw the laptop with photo they took at the end of the camp. Ram moved forward to take the laptop and he just made himself comfortable by looking at the smiling face of his team and then he saw Lavanya behind the focus dumping trashes into bin. He changed to the next photo in which Lavanya was in full focus while the group was blurred. It seemed like Lavanya was dropping something like medicated bottle separately into the bin. Shocked to his shell, he zoomed in the picture to check the label of the bottle. Just a part of the label was visible. It had nothing else than “packaging group II” written on it. He was shocked to see that and he showed it constable and constable read the word “packaging group II”. His uncle’s voice from the walky-talky suddenly shouted”they come under medium danger liquids”. Ram didn’t know to react to this. He copied the image into the pen drive and locked the door and reached his bike with constables. He saw his both of the friends returning casually after their dinner. Ram went up towards them and informed “I will be coming late tonight” and without their reply he kicked his bike to the spark and he disappeared from the view of his friend.

Ram and the constable reached the area where they had dumped all the trash and found that it had not been cleared yet. He headed towards the bin recalling the one in which she had dumped the trash. As he found the bin, he put his bare hands into the bin and started to search it. Finally he found the bottle and he read the label “Ethanol 99%” and handed it to the constable. He informed Rathnavelu to meet him at the apartment soon. Ram and constable reached the apartment and they climbed in a hurry to the first floor. Ram checked her neighbor’s door was still locked realizing he didn’t still return from the hospital. He went to her apartment, switched on the lights and tried observing anything that would help him catch the culprit. He and the constable searched the entire house and yet they found nothing. He sat, tired on the couch and suddenly he felt something at the folds of the cushion seat. He leaned his head down towards it and everything suddenly fell into place. He found a single contact lens and he recalled the words of Lavanya earlier that evening. He was sure the Lavanya must have killed her. He hurried down to hand it over to the Rathnavelu. He went down to see that he hadn’t arrived yet so he decided to wait for him. He turned his head and he suddenly had glimpse of someone whom he started hating just a few hours back. Lavanya screamed “give the pen drive back ram.” What? Why the hell did you do this to her?” “I loved you! That’s the reason. I loved you so much that it made me to such insane things” she started crying “I was very jealous of your relationship with her. I dreamt of so many things with you but you never gave any chance to express my love. Whenever you talk with me you just started talking about her. When she kissed you in front of everyone the day you proposed drove me to this “

“How the hell do you know that I have the pen drive?”. A familiar voice laughed from behind.
It was his room-mate, Aravind. He demanded the pen drive and the lens by placing a knife on the constable’s neck. Ram was in a deep confusion whether to give it or not. He turned to Lavanya to give them both but he stopped. He saw inspector creeping behind the trees and finally he managed to place his hand gun to the head of the Lavanya at her back and his friend John was placed a knife at the back of the Aravind. Lavanya with a shock and fear had no clue how did inspector found them. Inspector catching her mind voice said “I found you both by listening at the conversation through the constable’s walky-talky”. Now Lavanya and Aravind had no choice than to surrender. Ram moved towards Aravind as he was trying to run away from that place was caught by Ram itself. Ram then punched him in his face, screaming in anger “never try to betray an own friend for your temporary gain”. Inspector threw handcuff to Ram and he locked the handcuff in the Aravind’s hand. As Ram turned away, thinking over how he was even going to start getting over the love of his life, he heard a familiar sound of his mobile phone. Wondering who it could be calling at that very hour Ram glances at his phone and his heart skips a beat. Appearing on his phone is Sneha’s number! He picked the phone and her voice said “Hey Ram”.