Lurking shadows - 8

Read part 7 - here

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Anek adjusted his spectacles that kept sliding down his nose.

The two policemen, one of whom had just pocketed his identity card and the other taller one who looked to be scrutinizing Anek’s face didn’t look like a sour bunch of men but Anek found himself getting unsettled.

He wasn’t used to having the police knock his doors so early in the morning and they had questions. 

What sort of questions would Anek have answers to that might be of any interest to the police?

‘I have seen that cat before’ the taller policeman said pointing to a cat. 

Anek’s gaze followed Pink as he quietly sneaked out the open door. 

‘Ah, Pink’ Anek said with a smile before looking baffled. ‘You’ve seen him before?’

‘yes,’ the policeman smiled.

‘Won’t you please come in?’ Anek spoke dryly, knowing full well that he’d get late to work.

It was the shorter policeman who spoke this time. ‘we don’t want to keep you. Just a couple small questions for now. We will come back later again for la engthier chit chat.’ He pulled a passport-sized photograph from out of a thin folder. ‘Do you know this woman?’ 

Mita stared at the kitchen faucet streaming a thin line of water that ran down the sink in a small whirlpool. 

She was scraping the solidified streaks of burnt instant noodles from the bottom of her pot that had been left to cook for too long. The resulting noise was too tedious and her mother complained. ‘Will you stop it?’ 

Mita stopped and flung the pot back into the sink. 

‘I..I was just trying to wash the dishes mother.’ she looked around the moulding walls, dust carpeted floors, peeling plaster, swollen and rotted wooden window panes ‘I’m thinking of getting this house fixed.’ Mita’s feverish voice trembled with uncertainty. She avoided looking at her mother whose gaze now felt hot to her chest. It was burning through her, undoing whatever little strength she felt she possessed.

A deep sigh emanated from where her mother stood. ‘It’s alright she said. Everything will be okay.’

Mita nodded in reply but found it hard to believe her mother.

She’d always supported Mita, always helped her, held her, told her never to worry and Mita had listened. She had opened her eyes, opened her heart and let her mother seep into her each time she felt she was at the end of the path.

It was bright. The well made clean bed, the never-ending corridors. ‘everything will be okay’. She’d heard a hundred times over and believed it. She’d believed herself as she held Anek’s hand and strolled through the ancient building. 

Mita fixed her focus on her feet. The trickling sound of running faucet mingled with the immortal screams of monsoons that chastised her glass window. Its rotten panes bloated and seeped a thin trail of water down the walls and into the living room.

She stared at her feet again. They were dirty, dirtier than the floor which was smeared with splotches of sticky black stains.

She’d been walking barefoot through slick grime and making a mess.

‘It’s alright’ her mother assured her.

Mita felt a sudden twitch in her finger and saw it bleeding again just as a strong gust of thick stench filled her insides. Her head throbbed with an intense ache and she was on the floor. Something sat on her chest hammering it inside. She was going to turn into a cave. A dank dirty grotto of filth and stench.

Anek’s eyes stared at her. ‘No, please no.’ Mita rasped as the weight pushed harder against her.

‘please stop it.’ a cloying soggy funk hung around her head as Mita beseeched into the eyes staring into her gaping mouth that was trying to scream.

She pulled away from under the weight and found her legs bereft of any strength. hauling her weight on her elbows Mita crawled into the bedroom and locked herself up.

The wave of nauseous stench unrepentant in its vile mucilaginous nature stuck to Mita, following her as she bolted the door, begging Anek to stay away from her.

‘Please, please’ she sobbed. ‘I love you.’ she cried to be heard by the man she never knew she could live without. 

How did she live before him? There was no recollection in her mind. She never had an opportunity to know of a time or life without him.

She lay on the cold floor. Anek’s footsteps were far away but she could hear them. ‘tell me’ she asked through her dying sobs. ‘Why did you have to kill Liyah?’ 

A piercing screamed rumbled through the house, the howl of a living grave screamed into her ears, ruffled her hair, the rains tried hard to crash through the windows and drown her in a flood of ire.

‘tell me’ Mita screamed. ‘Why did you kill Liyah? She is still inside this house..haunting me’ 

Anek did not answer. 

She waited for him to say something. The house was silent. All that Mita could hear was her own breath and the scraping sound her bandaged finger made against her face as she wiped her tears.

The rains had muted, some people in the distance laughed, a couple dogs barked and then there were footsteps. 

A soft voice called Pink’s name.

A voice she didn't remember. There was a distinct smile to the tone. The way it addressed her cat. there was someone outside. Mita curled into a ball on the floor, hoping this moment would go away. The voice, whosoever’s it was, would vanish. 

She wanted the day to end. How many days had it been? 

Anek was silent. Someone was outside the door. Please go away she whispered into her nightshirt. The decomposing smell tried to pry her open. Her body was beginning to fall apart. Something was trying to make its way through her skin, she could feel her bones tighten. 

Mita lay in a fetal position, waiting for everything to disappear. She wanted a white nothingness.

‘Mother.’ she cried.

Silence again. 

Mita breathed hard and waited to exhale. 

Nothing. There was emptiness. 

She let her breath out and watched the dust lift and settle back on the floor.

Someone was laughing outside, in the distance perhaps.

The dogs were still barking and the rains had almost stopped. 

Someone was knocking on her door.

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cont..