32-B

Ch-2. "Out, out, brief candle!"

SUNAINA

THere come instances in your life when you just don't know what the hell is going on. You can't seem to think any further, you can't seem to register for several minutes, maybe more, what you see in front of you. Because your senses - the horrible stench, the sight of blood, the goosebumps on your skin, the deafening silence - tell you that something is wrong. But your brain just doesn't want to believe just how God damned unlucky you are.

As I stood there, in my silky green dress and my mom's heels that were too big for me, I experienced all of this, because right in front of me was a boy, a boy that I was too afraid to admit was in fact now a body. Maybe it was because of this hesitance to swallow the truth that I found myself reaching out to the hurt boy. He was lying on the dark floor, his body gently arched, as if somebody had sat down beside him, laid his head on their laps and put him to sleep. Only forever. My stomach was twisting itself into knots, I wanted to do something, the realisation that there was a dead body in front of me finally sunk in.

And I threw it all out. I side stepped the body and threw up in the sink. I wanted it all out, the entire incident, the entire day. Finally, when all of me was empty I looked up at the scene. It had started raining hard. Imposing rain drops fell over the roof, yelling at me, blaming me. The house was dark, but I could still make out the mess it was in. And amongst the mess and the body in the kitchen stood Maya, only she looked smaller now. Her face was ghostly pale and she was shivering slightly. She was frozen, her face was hollow. It suddenly felt like I was the only one alive in the house. Unless, it suddenly hit me, whoever did this was still here. The thought made the hair on my arms stand up. And then another thought hit me.

"Maya?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

She looked straight ahead. Staring into the bleak mess that was now her near future. "Maya!" I said, louder. I was scared" you-who did this?"

She was silent as death. I wished I could come up with different expressions. I backed against the wall, my heart racing " Oh my god! Ma-"

She snapped back to reality " What? I didn't do it! Shit!" She clutched her head with her hands. " It was here when I - " she paused. She rushed to his side and put her fingers under his nose. It was obvious he was dead but she did it anyway. She gently pulled the hand away and got up. She took a shaky breath and said "We need to get out of here."

I could not agree more.

The adrenaline was pumping through my body faster than ever, I was ready to run. Maya ran to the door. A sharp sound stopped us both in our tracks. It was the sound of the doorbell, Maya must have locked the door after she pulled me in. Pure panic and fear displayed itself on her face when we locked eyes. I can't say she saw the same on mine. Because I knew exactly who it was.

KARTHIK

"TIku!" my mother's called out from somewhere deep inside the incense filled room. My mother's incapability of giving me a normal nick name was starting to tick me. No pun intended. I looked at myself in the mirror, my skinny bare chest, my long limbs, the bottle of Cologne in my hand that the charismatic actor had promised would get me the attention of all the chicks. I wanted the attention of just one though.

"What if I don't want you to run into me?" She had asked, with teasing, twinkling, chocolate eyes.

"Karthi!" My creative mom called once again. "Coming Amma!" I hastily put on a shirt and went across the long hall that joined all parts of our new house together and joined her in the newly set up prayer room. "Yes Amma?" I asked. She was standing in the middle of a small room with a low platform opposite the threshold. Various miniature, plaster deities stood on it in regal stances and colourful attires. Incense sticks, flowers, holy pastes and powders and platters filled with fruit cluttered around it. My tiny mother, clad in a saree and jasmine in her hair stood with a heavy box in her arms. I assumed that's what she needed help with. "Come and put this up there." She said gesturing towards the alcove built higher up the adjacent wall. I immediately took the box and placed it carefully up. I smiled at my mother, "There." I said, with finality. "Okay ma, go now." She said flicking her wrist and getting back to work. "Okay Amma, I'm going out with some friends of mine. Is tha-"