Till death do us apart

It was raining heavily. Raj was driving his bike very fast. There was a strange urgency in his gait. One would wonder what he was doing out on such a night when people would want to hole up and sit inside their houses. And the strangest part was that he was just married.

Raj met Simran a year back. Simran was a widow. Infact she was married to Raj’s best friend, but within a month of getting married Simran’s husband died in an accident. Simran was an orphan and she and Ajay had met in one of the Ashram’s functions. It was love at first sight for him. Those days the only thing he could talk about was Simran. It was like a fairy tale romance. Raj had met her once before they got married. He could never forget that day.

It was a Sunday and as usual Ajay was on and on about his girl. Raj got really frustrated and said that I too want to see how beautiful your Simran is. They took their bike and headed for Simran’s place. Ajay asked him to wait outside and said he will be back with her in a moment. When Raj was waiting outside he saw the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his life in one of the balconies. She was drying her hair. He just couldn’t take his eyes of her. Suddenly she went inside and after some 15 minutes he saw Ajay coming with that girl. His whole world came crashing down.

After that day he will always avoid Ajay and whenever Ajay asked a reason he would say that he is quite busy with his office work. He did not even attend their marriage making an excuse that he was sick. Then after a month of the marriage, Raj was surprised to see Ajay’s number flash on his mobile. Ajay was an early sleeper and Raj had tried his whole life to take him out for night trips. Therefore it was a strange sight for him to see Ajay’s number at that hour. He immediately understood that something was wrong. He picked up the phone. No one was answering from the other end. He kept calling “Ajay … Ajay…” and then suddenly he heard the most nerve cracking laugh on the phone followed by a loud shriek.

Raj immediately left for Ajay’s house. There was a lock on their door. He waited till morning but there was no sign of anyone. After 2 days he read in the paper that there has been a fatal accident on the highway and a couple was involved in it. He immediately ran to the hospital and saw that Simran was in a critical condition. After 5 days she became stable and then she told the whole story to Raj. They were traveling to meet Ajay’s parents and they had met with the accident. Ajay had died on the spot and she was brought there by some travelers.

This incident left Simran completely broken and Raj was there to constantly support her. In due time, they got closer and decided to tie the knot. On the night of their marriage, Simran came into the room. She had a weird smile on her face. Suddenly she started laughing like a maniac. Raj was shaking with fear seeing this sudden change in her. Her eyes became blood red and with her hair open she was a devil personified. Raj was wondering where the beautiful Simran had disappeared and what was this standing in front of him.

Suddenly Simran turned away from him and started singing a song and he started wondering where had he heard it before. Then she turned back and started talking in a kid’s voice. “Raj do you remember me.” “Anjali…” After that moment everything was a blur for him.

Ajay, Raj and Anjali were all the time together when they were kids. Everyone used to call them inseparable. They would eat together, play together and their mother’s had a hard time separating them to sleep. It was like a atoot dosti. There was this old house on their way from school to home. Ajay and Raj decided to play a prank on Anjali. They knew she was scared of ghosts. That day they said they will close her eyes and give her a surprise. And then they blindfolded her and left her in that house. After that day they never saw her.

She was found dead in that house a few days later. Her body was severely destroyed. That incident changed everyone’s life. It was found out that some goon had raped her and left her for dead. Anjali’s parents were devastated and they left the town. Even Ajay and Raj couldn’t bear the trauma and left the town. They had just returned after finishing their education and had started working there.

Today seeing Anjali in front of him, Raj got reminded of all this. Now he understood the meaning of that phone call. He got scared and ran out of the room. And that was the reason for his sudden flight.

At that instant his bike stopped running. He could not find any problem with it, so in frustration he left the bike and started walking. To his horror he realized that he was in front of the same house where Anjali’s body was found. When he turned back to run she was standing right behind him. With a menace in her voice she said “Do you remember this house? This is where you had left me to die. But I am not going to do that to you.” Ajay was shocked to hear this. He had thought he would be a dead man. But this was nothing he had expected. Then Anjali started laughing suddenly. She said I will be revenged and your punishment is that you will have me as your wife till death do us apart.

Happily Ever After

Since last few days Sara saw that Apple was not behaving normally. She had these sudden mood swings. Many times Sara caught her crying in her room. Apple was a happy-go-lucky child. She would always spread happiness around her. She was the apple of Sara and George’s eyes. Seeing Apple so depressed was breaking Sara’s heart. For 18 years, she and George had fulfilled all Apple’s wishes but it seemed now something was bothering her and they were not able to help. Sara decided to talk to George about it.

Sara and George had been married for 20 years now. After 2 years of blissful married life they had Apple and their world became complete. The Patterson’s were considered a happy family. George worked in a law firm and Sara taught in a high school. Until now it had been a somewhat smooth ride.

When George came home that night, Sara told him what was bothering her. He took it calmly. In his opinion, Sara was over-reacting and everything was fine with Apple. In fact he called Sara “Spitfire” because she would just flare up on small things. He advised her not to worry and went off to sleep.

On Apple’s birthday, the Patterson’s decided to throw a surprise bash for her. Therefore Sara came home early from her work and started the preparations. Suddenly she heard Apple sobbing in her room. She couldn’t resist this time and she dashed in her room. Being caught by her mother, Apple let go of all the pretences and hugged her and cried her heart out.

Few months back Apple met this guy in her college. They instantly became friends. However after some time Apple wanted to take the relationship forward but he was not interested. He seemed to like her but he was not in love with her. Apple was not able to handle all this and was getting depressed.

After hearing all this Sara was more than relieved. She decided to tell Sara a little secret of hers. When Sara was in college, even she had a huge crush on someone. His name was Andy and he was a dreamer. She used to love to listen to his theories and would spend hours doing nothing but thinking about him. Once gathering all her courage she told him she liked him. But as it turned out, he had other plans.

Sara tried all she could to get his love. She told Apple that she did crazy things just to be with him. However nothing worked and she couldn’t change Andy’s feelings. But she still hoped that someday she would get him. When Sara’s mom was critically ill, Andy just left her because he had to go on a trip with his friends. This made her realize that she did not want to be with a person who could never be there for her when she needed him. And that’s when she decided to end this madness and move on with her life.

2 years later, it’s again Apple’s birthday and she was bring home her fiancé. They met during a trip and took a liking towards each other. Sara and George had heard a lot about him and were going to meet him today for the first time. When the young couple came home, they received a warm welcome from Apple’s parents. Sara was surprised to hear that Apple was planning to marry in a month and Henry’s parents who had already given their blessings were flying down for the ceremony. This called for a double celebration.

That evening when George and Henry had gone out for a walk, Apple came to her mother. She said, Mom, Thanks for your advice. I really got on with my life and now I am quite happy. But I want to ask you something. Did you ever tell dad about Andy? Sara replied Don’t even dream about telling your Dad that you know about Andy. You see George Andrew Patterson doesn’t like being called Andy.

First Date

6^th October. It was Val’s Dad birthday. But she hardly knew that it will be the only best thing about the day. As it was a weekend the day started really slow. Val and her roomie (Jazzy) got up really late, had their breakfast and were just lazing around. They called up Kramps to ask her what her plans were for the day. After the hectic week, Val and Jazzy wanted a well deserved break. However it was not to be. Kramps said she had an important assignment to complete and she won’t be able to join. They were used to hanging out together and prided themselves as the Three Bitchzes. So Val and Jazzy decided to have an outing in the library with Kramps.

Val was never an indoor person and library was always out of bounds for her. She was cursing Kramps professor the whole way. And when they reached the library Kramps informed them that she was supposed to work with a GUY as the assignment was a group assignment. Val couldn’t believe her luck. Even though her shopping plans were dashed, she had hoped that the “Three Bitchzes” will get some quality time together. But now this partner was going to ruin everything. Val and Jazzy decided that they were going to make him run for his life. With all their plans in place they went in the library and started waiting for the GUY.

Kramps started her research and Val started her own research on the side. Val was busy commenting on the latest fashion when suddenly Kramps teammate was there. And Val was shocked to see who he was. Howark was the Geek of their school. He was everything which was out of fashion and Val was crazy about him. She never told her Bitchzes because he was totally not their type. In fact she had hardly uttered a word to him because she would become tongue tied in his presence. To hide her crush she would always make fun of him and tell everyone that she considered him not even worthy of one look. And to make matters worse, Howark decided to sit right next to her.

Kramps and Howark started their work and Val was sitting in between them. But the worst part was Howark behaved as if she did not exist. It would have made no difference to him if that chair would have been empty. And that was making Val madder. She was not used to this kind of indifference. The Bitchzes were considered the most happening girls of the school and every guy would kill to be with them. Howark was just the opposite. Especially with Val he behaved very formally. She had seen him chatting happily with Kramps and Jazzy, but as soon as she would come he will say a polite Hi and disappear.

After some time Jazzy started signaling Val to execute their plan of getting rid of Howark. Now Val was caught in her own net. Not in her wildest dreams she thought she would be sitting next to Howark (even though he behaved she was part of the furniture) and that too for such a long time. She was so immersed in Howark that Jazzy had to literally jump out of her seat to gain Val’s attention. As everyone knew the Bitchzes, Howark guessed what was happening and gave one disgusting look to Val. She was completely crushed. First time in her life she wanted to be with someone so badly and he totally did not care. And at that moment she realized that he actually hated her. After working for half an hour, he left and Val had to behave as if she was so happy to get rid of him. Then the Bitchzes continued their discussion about how rude and out of style he was.

At last Kramps finished her work and they decided to leave. But Val was feeling a bit low and she said she would sit sometime in the university and come. Kramps and Jazzy asked her to come home soon and they left. Val loved this bench which was surrounded by colored flowers. She would often sit there to do her homework. As she was sitting there and thinking about the afternoon events, Howark sat next to her and said “Its so difficult to catch you alone anytime. Would you care for a cup of coffee?”.