Sun Moon & Stars Volume II Call Of The Skull Men

CHAPTER 21

Misty mornings, shivering cold, and rhododendron tree bending over the window panes; that's the kind of morning scenes Ela loved. The refreshing feeling as tender and juicy steamed momos melting in the mouth and gulped down with second flush exotic Darjeeling tea; oh! how much Ela missed them. She was more of a hills' person rather than the plains. It gave her a feeling of belonging. 

Ela opened her eyes, the beautiful dream of hills disappearing in the back of her mind, to find herself back in the sweaty humid weather of Kolkata.  It irritated her skin making her clothes stick; Ela felt suffocated. She hated summers, it irked her.

She sighed, not that she had a right to complain, especially when she wasn't going back to Darjeeling any sooner. Nishi had asked to put on the air conditioner but she had refused. Those artificial machines made her head throb. 

Pulling up her hair in a tied bun she tried to scratch her neck that was itching non-stop. After about a week she was going to take a bath by herself. She was tired of the nurses giving her sponge baths, she wanted the water to fall down over her touching every part of her body.

Oishi was sleeping with Mini and Shomak had kept drilling sense into Ragnik's head all night, so it left Nishi to stay with her. She was fast asleep, a little uncomfortable though since Ela had requested to keep the air conditioner off. She stirred sensing Ela move around her. 

Cautiously getting up not to disturb Nishi's sleep Ela stretched her body. Immediately a sudden pain shot up between her legs and on her joints. She was about to scream but stopped herself by tightly holding her mouth with her hands. However, she couldn't stop the tears.

She had forgotten to take the painkillers last night and in a haste, she couldn't even remember where she had kept those medicines. Panting she came down from the bed and walked towards the bathroom with her lips forcibly shut.

Nishi's bathroom might be small but the marble tiles were the whitest. A large mirror was placed above the sink while the corner shelves had branded shower products only. Ela hasn't unpacked her more simple ones yet so decided to use Nishi's. She would thank her later. 

Ela washed her face feeling some of the pain going away. She splashed her face with a handful of water, loving the feeling of its coldness. Rubbing off the excess water Ela slowly opened her eyes.

She gasped stepping back. Who-Who was that staring at her? 

After a whole week, she was seeing her reflection in the mirror. It was frightening. Ela started breathing heavily touching her face with shaky fingers. The scars on her forehead, deep marks on the neck and chest, cuts on the side of the lips, that horrible wound on the shoulder and a pale complexion; who was that ghostly woman staring at her from the mirror?

Ela panicked. Opening the tap on full force, she threw water on the clean mirror and kept rubbing in the hope to make that woman disappear, but she was not going. It was repeating her actions; gritting her teeth, crying, rubbing on the mirror, all that what she was doing.

Then it crossed her mind. The nurses must not have cleaned her properly. Taking all the products from the shelf she rubbed them all over her body. When her clothes came on the way she ripped off the materials and rubbed the bathing products on her body again and again.

Satisfied with the foams and the amount of product used she stood under the shower and also pulled the bucket and mug from the corner. Filling up the mug she emptied it over her head and kept rubbing herself while the shower knob turned on full force. "Go away! Go away!" she cried. Once she saw the clean water running down her body she thought that now she was clean.

She went back to the mirror but that alien woman was still there. "No! No! That's not me," she frantically rubbed the mirror, this time with soap as well but the clean mirror refused to lie, it kept showing her what the demon had turned her into. Scarred, tainted and destroyed.