Lights Out

Chapter 3

In the weeks in which Raj and Lana had lived with her, nothing else significant had taken place. The three still continued to live together, but after Tara’s various pleas, the two had resumed their work. Raj being the CEO of a start-up company, decided to work mainly from home to take care of Tara.
They had formed a stronger bond and had become inseparable.  Years of friendship only made their bond stronger, and soon they were declaring their love for each other on national television. Having Raj by her side at every step, made things easier. She finally felt that her persistent stalker had left for good. Slowly, her life had begun to return back to its normal schedule.
The memory of the lady was now distinct and foggy. Thoughts of the lady no longer left her drenched in sweat and near tears.
It had been a while since she had experienced normality. Everything seemed to get back to the way it was. Lana had decided to move back to her house, when the other two started dating. Tara could finally leave the house alone, without tension.
Even though she was happy, some of her friends still had their doubts. Things seemed to calm to be true. One of her friends, oblivious to the fact that her parents’ did not know, call up Tara’s mother out of sheer concern. Upon hearing the news, her Mother breaks down, and decides to call up Tara to confront her about it.
The phone call between the mother and daughter lasted for an hour, both of them crying. It took a while for Tara to convince her mom that everything was okay now, and she hadn’t heard from the stalker in months. The mother had finally agreed not to come down to Mumbai. But, the condition put forth by her was to lodge a complaint with the authorities regarding the stalker. Tara knew it was futile to go to the police after all these months, so she silently agreed to her mother’s request.