Dreamy Red

Episode 29 - Resurrected

"Nab him! Quick!", I instructed Rahul pointing at the man. The man was about to get into a car. Rahul was confused but still did as I asked him to. He grabbed the man by the arms and pulled him backwards holding him tightly. The man was shocked and shook himself to set free. But Rahul was too strong for him. "Thanks", I told Rahul and asked him to give me his phone so that I could call Ravi. "But I don't have Ravi's number", replied Rahul. "Wait. Who are you guys? Police?", the man asked. The man was none other than Chaitanya Gupta who had died three years ago. He even had a death certificate made. But there he was in the ashram roaming freely without anyone's knowledge.

Chaitanya shook with more power. Rahul was struggling to hold him. Just then a middle-aged man wearing the same kind of white and blue pyjamas like everyone else but with golden vertical stripes like that of the Babaji's kurta appeared in front of us. He was as huge as Samarstan baba and appeared muscular. He looked at Rahul with concern and asked him, "What's the matter? Why are you locking him? Did he steal anything? Do you need any help?"

"He didn't steal anything, sir. He has done a crime ten times worse than that. And yes, we need your help. Could you please help us hold him?", I asked him genuinely. Rahul smiled and shrugged at him as if he knew him before. Maybe he did. The middle-aged man then smiled and pulled Chaitanya's arms from Rahul's gracefully and held him tightly such that Chaitanya couldn't even budge. "What do you want?", Chaitanya shouted at me frustrated. "To put you in Jail", I said sharply. "But what did I do?", he asked in an innocent tone. "You are alive and you haven't told anyone. Isn't that a huge crime?!", I questioned him. "I'm not the person whom you think I'm", he screamed. "What do you mean?", I asked him astonished.

"Are you looking for a man who looks like me and has the name Chaitanya?", he asked me. "Of course", I nodded. "Well, I'm not that person. My name is Vaibhav and I'm from Lucknow", he said timidly. "You wanna play games, huh?!", I retorted because I was pretty sure that he was Chaitanya.

The middle-aged man who held Chaitanya spoke, "I always found him suspicious. He has an awful aura." "No, Nisarjan baba. Are you doubting me even after these many years?!", Chaitanya asked him innocently. "Of course, yes. I have seen you sneaking out of the ashram at very odd times. I even told brother to throw you out. But because of his generosity, he let you stay", said Nisarjan baba gruffly while clasping Chaitanya more tighter that he started to wince.

"Believe me, I'm Vaibhav", Chaitanya stressed. "Yeah ok. We will see about that", I told him and rang Karan up using Rahul's phone. "Karan, call Ravi and come to the Samsara Ashram. We have found Chaitanya", I told him. "What?", he asked in surprise. "No time for explaining. Come quick. We can't hold him longer", I commanded. "Okay", he replied and cut the call.

*****

Ravi, Karan and Arush took Chaitanya to the police station. Rahul went home while I went to the police station with the others. It was almost 3 in the evening.

"If you are not Chaitanya, how did you know his name?", I interrogated him. "Well, two years ago a boy named Sidhanshu came and asked me the same. So I thought you guys also must have misunderstood me." Then we asked him to produce his identity proof. He pulled out his government identity card from his pocket. In it was his picture which looked very much recent with his name as Vaibhav Prakat. "When was this id made?", I asked him. "Just before I came to Jaipur two years ago. I know it makes you more suspicious, but believe me before that I never had the need for an identity as I was an orphan. Please, believe me", he pleaded.

None of us wanted to believe him. So we asked him to give us details of the people in Lucknow who knew him. He gave the phone number of his friend named Lal Gopal Krishna. When we rang him up, he said that Vaibhav was grown up in Lucknow with him by his parents. "Can you send us a picture as proof?", I asked Lal. He stammered a bit and said, "I'll search for them. If I find them, I will send them." He paused for a while as though he was thinking and then he spoke, "Actually, we lost most of the photos in the fire that broke out in our home a year ago." Aha. It looked like he made up a story to escape sending pictures. "Who are you, Lal? How do you know Chaitanya? Why are you helping him hide his identity?", I asked him directly. He stuttered even more. "Who...Chaitanya...I don't know any Chaitanya."

"Chaitanya just admitted that he is Chaitanya. You are the only one who is playing along", I said playfully. "Oh shit", he said and cut the call. Thus, it became very clear that Vaibhav was in fact Chaitanya. Chaitanya put his head down in shame. "You are smart", he commented. "I seem to be smart only because your friend was foolish", I remarked and sneered.

Chaitanya was put behind bars and Ravi interrogated him to find out the whereabouts of Armaan and why he killed the innocent lives of Nishanthi, Naveen and Arpitha. "I didn't kill anyone! How could I kill my own love?!", he screamed. "Love?! Come on, we all know you didn't love her. Now shut up and tell me where Armaan is?!", I shouted at him with anger. Ravi walked to me and said, "You have to calm down, Bibbi. You have done enough. Now it's our turn. I'll take care of this. You go home. Viku is waiting for you."

"Who Viku?!", I shouted at him too. He looked at me with raised eyebrows. "Come on, Bibbi. Don't overreact. And don't jump to conclusions without knowing the actual truth. You have already misunderstood a lot!", Ravi said with concern. I felt irritated and terribly angry. Ravi was the best friend of Viku. So it was obvious that he would support him rather than me. The horrible person seemed worthier than I for all of them. "Alright, it's time to go home. I'll go home, a home meant for me!", I said angrily and stormed off.

*****

I knocked on the door and Maa came out. "Oh thank god you came back home", she said with relief and hugged me tightly. Dad came running from inside and joined the hug. I felt immense happiness. Adharv came to the hall as well to greet me. "At least you got your conscience now. Welcome home!", he said.

They gave me a room on the first floor beside Adharv's room. It was Arpitha's room. The arrangement of the room was similar to that of my room in Sawanth Villa except that there were a lot of posters of cinema and cinema stars here and there. She even had figurines of several Marvel characters. The purple vintage clock on the dressing table showed the time as 4:30. There was a purple plastic bookshelf in one corner of the room with a glass sliding door. I glanced through the books and noticed that most of them were fictional novels like the ones I used to have, that too mystery/thrillers.

Then my eyesight fell on a strange thin booklet titled Violet. I had an intense feeling that I had seen a similar book somewhere, but could not recollect where. I pushed the door open and took out the booklet. The author's name was written in bold letters as Samrahul Shabafaaz. Then suddenly I remembered where I had seen such a booklet, it was in Nishanthi's bedroom. The cover design and the size of the booklet were similar, but the colour and the title were different. In Nishanthi's booklet, it was red. I looked around and immediately realised that the room was indeed painted violet in colour and most of the stuff was violet. It was a great clue. I had not given much importance to the colour or the booklet earlier, but it seemed like it was a game-changer. I thought that perhaps there was a connection between the booklets and the murders. So I searched the internet for the author named Samrahul Shabafaaz.