Happily Ever After (#1023-3)

11:30 PM, a cold winter New Delhi night, five days after marriage the couple was engaged in what a couple is most likely to be engaged in five days after the marriage, 11:30 AM or 11:30 PM, no matter what the reading on the thermometer. If sex was a book then they had just turned the page on the second chapter. You'd ask how many chapters in the book? Let me tell you that this is a question even they were searching an answer for. Just as they turned that page there was a loud thud on the door followed by couple of moments of silence followed by another thud, louder than the first one.

They got married on a Sunday. He could not take off from work and joined his work the very next day. The thirty minute drive back home seemed like a thirty hours one. He would play a mellow number at a low volume and let his mind wander playing out wild images hoping that the night would bring success. He was extremely happy that he had found her. It was love. The couple had met for the first time four months ago in a family setting and he was enchanted from the very first day. The silver work on her bright blue saree shined making different patterns when she moved. He could not get his mind of her neck. He had never seen a neck, as beautiful and slender as that. He had always wanted to marry a working girl but one meeting changed it all. Love-at-first-sight is like liquor, it brings about who you really are, underneath that cloak.

The door was getting hammered. It was as if someone was banging it with a battering ram every millisecond with tremendous force. She jumped out of the bed and rushed towards the door. The door and the hinges produced a scary music that they had gotten used to over the last five days. As soon as she approached the shaking door, everything went quiet, as if there was a vacuum around the door. He came from behind and opened the door. Thin air greeted them. She crashed on the floor and began to cry. "I am cursed." she howled. He closed the door and caressed her hair. "The time has come for me to tell you a secret." she said.

The five days had been miserable. Every time they had tried to come close the door began its act. The door had become a solid wall between the two of them. It would start to shake crazy just before they tried to kiss. As soon as they brought their lips close, the door would start crying. It would wail like a wild chained elephant trying to break free. It made the floor beneath them shake. They tried it in every hour of the day and every room in their little house but the door was always awake. They tried but it was impossible to continue with the act and ignore the house-quake.

"It is not the first time that this is happening." she said sobbing. "I had met someone in my college. Once I was with him in his small hostel room. Someone started banging on the door just when we were about to kiss. He opened the door but there was no one to be seen. This continued for three hours. As long as we sat far from each other everything was OK but the whole ground started to shake when we made a move. He was so scared that we never met after that."

"I will take care of whatever this thing is. Come with me." he said. He drove to the Noida

Express highway, found a secluded place and parked the car. He took the seat belt off, held her hand and bent towards her with parted lips. The car gave a jerk. He fell to his right and banged his head on the glass. After one more failed attempt in the car, he drove desperately towards the Radisson hotel and got a room. The door shook hard this time, a display of frightful anger, so hard that the table lamp crashed. The frustration was painted on their faces. She kept crying but he sat down thinking. He was not going to give it up so easily. "I have an idea. Come, let’s go." he said.

"I know it's difficult but this is the only choice we have. Once we have made it, the curse will be broken." he said. They were standing in the middle of a huge farm land. They had driven for one hour towards Agra and had walked for thirty minutes after that. They were sure that there wasn't any human in one square kilometer radius. It was a full moon light. She nodded.

"Are you sure you want to do this and cause agony to hundreds?" a manly voice emerged from somewhere. They looked around shocked. A figure dressed in black overcoat and hat approach them. They held each other’s hand tight. "I don't want to trigger an earthquake and kill innocents."

She screamed with fear when she realized that the figure had no face. The hat was floating in the air above the overcoat and there was thin smoke where a face should have been. "Don't worry love. I won't hurt you." the smoke said. He took a step back. "Don't be scared. I won't harm you either."

"Who are you?" he asked.

"That’s not important. What you need to know is that I love her. I have chased her since the day she was born. Take good care of her. I need her virgin. She’d be mine when the time comes."

"You are a monster, a ghost. I'll never be yours. I'd rather die." she screamed. She got rid of his hand and started to run. "Listen." the smoke said standing its ground. The husband ran after her. She sprinted in a random direction, saw a well and jumped into it.

"What was the hurry? I was ready to wait." the smoke sighed. They lived happily ever after.