An Animal's Deed

Chapter 2: Past Knocking

Chirag reached home, he freshened up and as he was getting ready to sleep, he rubbed his face..

He remembered the victim's body..

He had observed each wound, but the cigarette burns were making him restless..

They had discussed how cruel this was..

But Chirag knew how it felt actually..

Those cigarette burns were exactly like the burn marks he had ..

Chirag gathered courage and lifted his tshirt..

His torso and stomach, right arm, all had burn marks....

He wiped the immediate tears and shook his head..

He took out a file and saw the burn marks on the victim.. exactly same spots, around the cuts..

Chirag froze on his spot..

The cigarette trick was not his foster parents' thing...it was Shaanti's

His foster mother Shweta Pancholi's only sister..

Shaanti Pancholi..

Chirag was around 8 when she had come into his life..

His parents Suraj and Shweta were addicts..they had inherited lot of wealth and worked for 5 hours to stay active..

The whole day they would be home, scaring and torturing Chirag..

20 years ago..

Chirag was 8 years old, and he was crying badly while getting punished for his mistakes...

The doorbell rang and Shweta stood up in glee..

Suraj hit the cane and told Chirag to kneel properly..

Shweta opened the door and hugged her sister..

Chirag looked at them with hope, maybe she wouldn't be like that..

Shaanti saw him kneeling and sighed:"Jiju, kya Kiya isne.."

Suraj hit him with the cane and Chirag lost balance..

Suraj:"Ek saal ho gya...ise ab tak dhang ka khaana nahi banana aata.."

He hit him hard with the cane..

Chirag looked down in tears and got back to position..

Shaanti shook her head:"Toh kuch acchi saza do..he won't learn with same old punishments..give him something more painful that would remind him of not making the mistake.."

Shweta stretched:"We're out of tricks.."

Shaanti leaned back with a small smirk:"I had watched an English film...you guys smoke also..use it on him, it would hurt him a lot and he would remember to follow instructions very well.."

The parents were impressed and did that..

Chirag had screamed the highest..when he was locked in, he had cried so much that he came up with fever that day..

..

Chirag washed his face for another time, he wanted to get rid of these memories..

He looked at himself..he was broken within..

He was tired of living alone...

He wiped his tears and washed his face one more time..

He thought back to the case, Shaanti had regressive thinking...she used to hit him more for crying while getting punished...she used to tell him to stop crying like a girl, to toughen up and behave like a boy..