Gowrigaatha - A love story [Completed](The story of Gowri)

10. Life

It was evening when Pranav and Anjaneyan came back home, until then they were in police station talking to Sub Inspector Raheem Koduvally. When they reached home, Malathi screamed seeing blood on their clothes. The elders in the family had gone to attend a ceremony in the town nearby and only Gowri, her cousins, Malathi and Tushar were home.

"What happened?" asked Gowri as she, Nikhil, Akhil, Dinesh and Kartikeyan came running.

"We went to the dam from the PWD office and there was a dead body on the dam", said Pranav.

"Who's? asked Kartikeyan.

"Anand Paarakkal. He was stabbed to death by someone and they dumped the body there", replied Anjaneyan.

Gowri's ears started ringing. She stumbled back and leaned on the wall next to her.

"Oh my God! Who did it?" asked Malthi.

"We don't know. We were late because of the delay in processing the bills", said Anjaneyan.

Gowri heard bits and pieces of what they were saying, Anand's dead body? What does that even mean? How could he be dead, that too stabbed to death? No, that's impossible.

She stumbled into her room, the house was spinning on some axis that made her let go of her balance. She managed to lock her door, grab a pillow and scream into it. She has lost him, the love of her life. How much pain he must have suffered? Tears rained down her eyes into the pillow as she slunk onto the floor on her knees. Her mind was fighting against the thoughts, willing him to be alive, willing him to call her on the phone. Whom could she ask? Whom could she plead to get him back? How much time had passed since she came to the room, she did not know. It was the knocking on the door that got her back into reality. She dried her eyes, kept the tear soaked pillow on her bed and opened the door.

"Gowri, make some tea dear, I can't. I am panicking at what is about to happen. Your brother has called Achachan and told them to stay in the town until things get sorted here. Close all your windows as well, Pranav told that it might be rough tonight", said Malathi wringing her hands.

Gowri silently nodded. She closed the windows and went to the kitchen and made tea for the others who had gathered in the inside courtyard of the house. Pranav was calming Malathi while the rest were on phone speaking to their family, relatives, friends and lawyers.

Gowri did not know how she could stand and hand out the tea to them. She wanted to collapse to the floor and wail her heart out, scream the name of Anand and cry, all she could do was to blink her eyes to stave the tears threatening to pool in them. She did not concentrate on anything that they said and remained like  a frozen doll for the next two days.

Everything had moved as a blur for Vasudev as well. From the news of Anand's dead body being found in the dam, to going to hospital to identify it, making the funeral arrangements and consoling Murali cheriyachan and Dakshayani cheriyamma, parents of Anand. When finally his body came wrapped in a white cloth from postmortem he could not help but break down and cry over it. Of all his cousins, he was closest to Anand since childhood. The past year when he joined the family business, they had become inseparable. He wasn't just a cousin, he was his own brother. Finally, it was a sobbing Lakshmi who pulled him away from the body. Vasant looked like a lost child, the man he looked up to was no more and he could not understand why anyone would hate his brother enough to give such a painful death.

As the day passed after the funeral, the sadness in Paarakkal family had been replaced by anger with a lot of help from Sreekumar who had decided to put oil into the fire raging in their hearts. In the time he got to spend with Vasant, he managed to brainwash the boy into convincing him that Kalarikkal family did it and egged him for revenge. There were many skirmishes and destruction of Kalarikkal property in the village by Paarakkal goons.