CHAPTER FOUR:
THE VICTIMS!
Everything started as usual the next morning as my aunt woke up at 6 am like every other day, and started her daily chores amidst eager glances from everyone. When I woke up around 8 am, even I went to take a peek at her, and she seemed absolutely fine, and as normal as ever. The day passed away rather eventless, much to our disappointment, before night fell and we maintained the same sleeping arrangement when it came back to the post dinner routine. I was almost certain, by then most of us had forgotten last night’s incident and had gone to sleep without much to worry.
That night, I had a dream about my exam results and it was not a very happy dream, which luckily, came to a premature end due to an interrupting noise. I woke up staring at the darkness and the only audible noise was that of my father snoring next to me. But just as I turned to my right, facing away from him, I thought I heard something else.
There was a knock on our door! I waited a few moments just to make sure, and there it was again. As I shook my dad awake, he sprang up from the bed, switched on the lamp using the bed side switch, and glanced at the alarm clock. It was just past 3 am.
My dad quickly went and opened the door, and found my uncle standing outside. Before he could say anything, my dad asked, “again?” and my uncle just nodded in the affirmative. As the two of them rushed out, I could hear my dad reminding him that he was supposed to ‘keep an eye’, and my uncle getting defensive and trying to justify, that he was tired and had dozed off for only a while. They knocked on the door to the house of the landlord, took him along and this time, they were headed straight towards the pond.
After about 10 minutes or so, they were all back, once again carrying my aunt’s senseless body with them. Apparently, she was lying unconscious at the same place as last night, and the rear gate was found to be latched from the inside, yet again.
This time they made less of a fuss about the situation, and decided not to wake everyone in the house. For the rest of the night, both my dad and my uncle stayed on guard and no further incident happened. Once again, the next morning started as normal as any other day and my aunt started doing all her daily household work as if nothing had happened.
Just after lunch, around 2pm, my mom noticed a patch on my aunt’s sari and for some reason, decided not to raise an alarm, but report it in private to my dad. When my dad asked her what she meant by ‘a patch on her sari’, my mother, with a trembling voice, explained that it seemed like a bloodstain, but she could not be entirely sure and thus, didn’t want to create an unnecessary panic. My dad, a little perturbed by what he had just heard, decided not to inform my uncle about this, at least not for the time being. Instead, he decided to keep a close watch on my aunt and observe her movements, and maybe get an opportunity to verify things himself. He made some random excuses and chatted with my aunt, whose response did not show any signs of anything unusual. He also asked her to find something and she managed to do so, after looking for it all around the kitchen for a few minutes. While observing her during all this, my father did get to see the stain that my mother had alerted about, and from the looks of it, it did look like a bloodstain. Once confirmed, he made a swift exit, his logical mind instructing him not to confront my aunt in order to find the origin of the stain. He would later explain to me the reason;
– “I don’t know why, but I had a bad feeling about this.”
At this point, my father took my uncle into confidence and shared the story, as well as his concerns. Together they hatched a plan. Around six in the evening, when my aunt was rinsing a few dishes in the washing area, my dad kept her occupied with some random topic, while my uncle sneaked inside the kitchen and looked for anything unusual. He spotted a smudge of dried blood under the kitchen top and being gravely concerned, decided to investigate further and meticulously checked out every inch of the kitchen. Before long, he detected a steel container which was kept overturned in a corner, not far from where the blood stain was found, but partly hidden behind a few sacks of grains. As he reached out and lifted it, much to his disgust, he found a dead sparrow inside. What was even more disturbing, was the fact that the sparrow had its head missing and at first glance, it seemed like someone had chewed it off!
In the meantime, I had joined my father and my aunt at the washing area, when I saw my uncle hastily walk towards us, his face showing signs of clear agitation.
My father smartly ended the conversation and signalled me to continue the chat with my aunt, as he moved swiftly to intercept my uncle before he reached us, and said something which might cause further trouble. As I kept talking to my aunt, who seemed absolutely indifferent to what was going on, I could see my uncle and my father having a discussion, and despite the distance, I could sense the intensity, as my father pulled my uncle and walked away from us.
Although there was no evidence to link it directly to anyone, it all inevitably pointed back to one person! My dad would later explain to me that he could not “logically explain to himself, what was going wrong”!
That same evening, around 9 pm, just before our dinner, my aunt was suddenly not seen around, and since this time most of us were waiting for dinner, the whole house went on a panic mode one more time.
My uncle was just suggesting to my father, that they should go back and check the spot near the pond, when the neighbour’s daughter, the seven yr old ‘Bulbuli’, came running into our house and with a shrill voice calling ”Kaku! Kaku!”(Uncle! Uncle!) drew all the attention towards herself. She was literally breathless and after a lot of effort, managed to calm down enough and explain to my uncle that she had seen my aunt behind the carpenter’s yard, a few houses away. She was all pale when she explained the rest;
– “Aunty was holding a cat and thrashing it on the floor!”
Everyone just stared at each other, speechless, as moments flew by. Further questions followed, but the poor little girl was so scared, that she was mumbling words beyond our comprehension. Then my dad stood up and pulling my uncle along, stated assertively “Let’s go!”
My uncle was almost in a state of trance and without asking any questions, started to follow my dad. But just then, Bulbuli let out a shriek and pointed towards the main gate. There, in front of everyone’s watchful eyes, was my aunt, calmly walking through the gate towards us. All our eyes were fixed on her, and she even gave us a curt smile, and walked past the crowd, that was too shocked even to breathe. According to my brother, who was convinced that he had seen it himself, she gave a ‘steely’ stare at Bulbuli, as she crossed her. I couldn’t remember seeing it myself. In a few seconds, she was inside the house, as if nothing ever happened. My dad pulled the sleeve of my uncle once again, and whispered in his ears “let’s Go!”
My uncle announced abruptly “I am going to buy some cigarettes, I should be back in a few minutes. What are you guys waiting for? Go, get ready for dinner” and dismissed the crowd of people who were yet to recover completely.
Then, the two of them disappeared through the main gate. They went straight to the carpenter called ‘Mohabbat’, a local chap who was often engaged to make our household furniture items. He had a fairly large space in his backyard, where he and his staff used to carry out their carpentry jobs. They were obviously not working at that time, they seldom did after sundown. My dad asked Mohabbat to switch on whatever light he had in the work area, and he obliged immediately, although the large area was still not so well lit. But sure enough, they found the corpse of a cat lying in a pool of blood in one corner. While Mohabbat and my uncle both gave a cry of disgust, my father squatted down next to the carcass to give it a closer look. He even picked up a small wooden peg lying nearby and with it, turned the cat over to inspect further. The upper part of the body was missing and while it was possible to severely damage a body while thrashing it against something, my father came to the conclusion that “someone had been feeding on it!”
Coming up next: CHAPTER FIVE
