Sun Moon & Stars Volume II Call Of The Skull Men

CHAPTER 8

Ranik's phone kept on ringing. There were several people calling him including Nishi, lead actors of the film, the director and Nihar Moitra himself. But Shomak didn't; not even once. And that was the call he expected the most.

He knew they were calling to insist to attain the premiere night. He was the cinematographer and it was his first feature-length fiction film apart from working in television series and documentaries, yet he didn't feel like going to the premiere.

Suddenly a wall had come between Shomak and him. He still didn't understand why Shomak snapped at him but it was not the only reason for his disturbed mind. He kept on thinking about Shomak's every word. Was he truly using Mini? Or was it because he wanted to fulfil his sexual desires?

Coming out from the washroom after taking a long cold shower he pulled on a vest and loose tracks and stood on the balcony enjoying the heavy rain. He was constantly sweating because of the knots inside his mind; the cold shower had hardly helped.

He had been in several controversial and short-term relationships but Shomak had never questioned neither did he encourage. He did try to keep advocating for a more stable relationship but never aggressively. Then why did he start accusing him? Did he see something, which Ragnik still didn't want to believe?

He had expected a piece of wise advice from Shomak, that's what he usually did whenever he found himself in messy situations but what Shomak said had made him look guilty.

The trees shook and fell as the strong wind blew in increasing frequencies along with heavy rain. It looked the nature was in a frenzy. There were no lights on the street and his entire apartment was experiencing a power cut. People were dead scared to even peep from the windows. The doors of each apartment in the colony were tightly shut.

Ragnik though enjoyed standing in the dark and loved the brush of the strong winds accompanied with raindrops. He wasn't aware how the evening was turning scarier. He was already disturbed.

The doorbell of his apartment rang. He frowned trying to guess who could it be. He didn't order any food deliveries and it was anyways too difficult to reach in this mad weather. People would have to be completely insane to step out like the guests attending the premiere night.

He thought about the premiere once again, which some of the authorities had asked to cancel. But the production heads and the stars had underestimated the cyclone and thought it would just be another false alarm. Now they will know sometimes it's good to have faith in weather reports.

Again the doorbell rang and this time within seconds of intervals it kept on ringing. "This better be something important," he muttered going towards the main door with his cell phone torch on full power to check who could be the impatient person.

"Mini?" Ragnik opened the door and froze. She was standing at his doorstep drenched and shivering.

Instead of feeling concerned Ragnik was angry and disgusted. What started as a fun teasing might have developed into something, which he was not ready to accept. He should have maintained his earlier opinion about her. Teenagers weren't his cup of tea!

She stared at him shivering badly. Ragnik blinked and out of the little humanity that was left in him he asked her to come in. He cautioned her to be careful while taking the steps as the entire flat was in dark. "Wait here. I'll see if I have candles."

He went into the kitchen and searched the drawers. "Why does it have to be me in babysitting duties every time? Great friends, I have! When I need them the most they develop supernatural abilities to disappear and betray me!" he kept cursing Shomak and Nishi as he banged drawer after drawer which mostly contained kitchen stuff.