If people were to stare at her, they would have seen a visible and palpable aura of hatred surrounding her like a cocoon.
But people need not see her; in fact none of them did. She had made sure of that. It was a dark night. She had known today was full moon but at that moment it was hidden behind dark, heavy clouds. She could have wished for nothing more. But there indeed was something more. It was drizzling continuously which was the reason for the lack of crowd on the streets. She guessed – and hoped she was right – that except a couple of unsuspecting folks no one saw her tonight.
*___*
She felt the combined pressure of three years’ jammed up hatred consume her as, at long last, the subject of her hatred came into focus. He was asleep, safely tucked in a blue blanket. The dim light in the room – the same room which was once their Garden of Eden – was also blue. For a moment she was distracted by the overwhelming effect of her favorite color. She wondered whether he had made everything in his room blue to remind himself of her.
With a jerk she returned to her purpose with more determination than ever. He turned in his sleep and was now lying on his back. She slowly walked to his bed and stopped beside it.
Suddenly she was overpowered with emotion. She was seeing his face after more than one year; she just stared for an age-long moment. Then tilting her head in an even more (if possible) stubborn angle she made her second decision that night. Now all she had to do was carry out her decisions. Her vision filled with the beautiful, sleeping face of the man she had fallen in love with six years earlier and will love forever.
*___*
flashback
She had been reading a novel. There was a scene which made her cry. She had not cried for a long time. She had thought her feelings for him were dead; he had made sure of that himself. But that night she realized with a start that her love for him was to increase only. The fact that she could do nothing about her love at present and in the future made her angry at him as she had never been before. He had every right to cause her pain and heartache but so much pain! Had he done anything worthwhile to earn that right? No. Was he aware of the pain he caused her every second? No.
Whenever she thought of him her throat constricted as if the muscles there were unable to expand anymore to let any air in, and her chest hurt. She felt as if a rusted knife was being twisted in her heart. She had lost a lot of valuable people and things in her life but nothing caused her grief like this. It was pain beyond anything! The pain made her forget everything else in the world. There existed nothing but only him and her pain; even she herself seemed to be non-existent. Nothing except his love for her could bring back her into existence. As she was quite sure that it was not going to happen, she had taken her first decision then and there.
*___*
The Law Enforcement Agency
SUB: The report on the dual murder in Pennsylvania at one o’clock in the morning.
It is enclosed that the bodies found were the result of an armed robbery, though the criminals did not seem to have enough time to take anything valuable after committing the murders. They are yet to be identified.
The man’s body was lying askew on the bed, his throat slitted when his body was found. The woman’s body was found on the floor beside the bed. Medical reports show that both of her eyes were stabbed with the same knife that was used on the man. She suffered for a long time before she was dead. The knife mentioned above was also lying a few feet away from the woman. The knife was lying in so much blood that no finger prints were found.
*___*
THE END
