Abstract.

DEMONS INSIDE US.#AntiologyTragedycontest

She took a deep breath and entered the room, knowing that she had to confront him...it was'nt going to be easy. She entered the interrogation room with dilatory steps. His eyes were bloodshot, staring off into void. Her son, Aryan...her only son.

As the tall strong , black haired woman walked towards her son, her strong determination to confront him started fading, all that her feet wanted to do , was take steps back and run away. She feared that her nightmares might be actually true. She gathered all the courage she could muster and softly called out to him "Aryan...son?" ,he did not reply to her, continued to stare into the open space.

She crossed the small distance, took a chair, and sat beside him. Placing a quivering hand on his shoulder , she was obliged to startle him out of oblivion. "son...listen...to me" she tried to calm her voice as much as she could. Tears blinded his eyes, his shoulders shook with resignation, her fears were answered solely by his posture, yet she controlled herself and asked "Did you kill the girl? Was it you?" her tone was soft, yet held the commanding authority of a police officer.

He did not reply but the expressions of the son was enough to make the mother understand. She was starting to crumble, she could feel it, but she had a duty to do, a duty as a officer of India.

"Tell me everything.." the sweetness was lost, her voice was demanding and her son obliged to her wishes. "It was after dad's death-" the worst memories of her past flitted in front of her eyes but she could not interrupt him. All she wanted to do was console her son but she could not loose her resolve now. He continued " You were not there, you were never there, you were out to catch his murderer" the accusations stung her already bleeding heart, yet she kept quiet." I was trying to find solace wherever I could, when, I admit, I fell into bad company, I started taking drugs...it had been going on for a month, when that day, a girl found out about our group. She threatened to tell the police, out of fear the gang leader thrust a knife in my hand and asked me to kill her. The fear of you getting to know and my drug overdose had blinded my judgments...I killed her...YES ,I KILLED HER!" her fears which she refused to believe but somewhere inside her four chambered heart she knew, had finally been confirmed. He had killed . her son had killed. Before she could let her heart win over her mind, she asked the constable outside to take him away.

As she heard the dejected, retreating steps of her son, she could feel the walls around her heart finally crumbling and shattering into a million pieces. Sanyukta rathore had been successful in solving another case, but at what cost, it had cost her the only living part of her. His rejected face flashed in front of her eyes. Finally she lost her calm demeanor. Gone, he was gone. The devil had snatched him away, the devil was the culprit. The devil inside her son. That is when the mourn-filled cries of a hurt mother reverberated throughout the entire office.