Suspense Short Story – The Birthday Surprise!!
Photo credit: schmitee from morguefile.com
Blinding rays like those of the 10:00 am summer sun and the piercing pain at the back of my skull made it difficult to open my eyes. Hands strained to the back of the chair and tied with a rope, feet knotted to the bottom of it. Mouth stuffed with a piece of cloth and strapped with a tape around. I felt nauseated. Every second, it felt like every inch of my body’s muscles being hammered with a ten ton weight. Hands and feet just felt the lack of any sensation, numbness.
As I forced myself to open my eyes, struggling against the pain, I felt dizziness setting in, vision getting blurred. It took me quite a while to get used to the pain, the light and the exhaustion. I tried to look around only to discover that I couldn’t even turn my head enough due to the cramped neck. I had to move my whole body in order to do so. What I saw next was a puzzle to me. It was a junkyard or abandoned goods storage of some kind. Some cartons and sacs full of something lying at the corners. Cigarette stubs, empty bottles of whisky, a paper spread with leftovers of roasted chicken lying on the floor, which were being nibbled at by lousy field rats. Facing me directly, just below the shutter was a vacant plastic chair with a country made two barreled gun inclined to it. I was terrified. Not just because of the gun but because I was in a situation that a normal college kid who never meddled with the affairs of the wrong kind of people, would never land in.
I was in my senses enough to know that this wasn’t any dream I was having; the excruciating pain was proof enough against it. But the most horrifying thing at that moment was that I was clueless as to what might have happened to me to bring me to such a predicament. Just as I was getting used to my helplessness the ache in my skull came back to haunt me with magnified amplitude and for the first time since I came back to my senses I became aware of a second being’s presence around me. She was sobbing; and then I remembered; I was hit. I was hit with a heavy object. In an instant the most mis-adventurous past seven days of my life came back to my memory like a flash.
Suhel was a very good friend of mine, or so I thought. Best college pals, same department, hostel flat-mates, same ideas and same brands. Being together was much fun. We often used to join in on bike trips for vacationing. Of late he had met a girl who would often join us on these trips. Deepti, as pure a beauty as I had never seen; as unadulterated a soul as I had never met. Suhel was head over heels for the girl. From little that I had known her, she felt even more strongly about him. Theirs was a very visible relationship. They would audaciously cuddle and share kisses in front of friends; Talk in cafes or over phone for hours; would suddenly get romantic while in a movie theater. But I was noticing some changes in their affairs recently.
Suhel was getting more and more insecure about the relationship and possessive about the girl. He would dictate what kind of clothes she should wear; he became quick to take offense at some joke she shared with some friend of his, things he mostly enjoyed or didn’t care about up till now.
Just a week ago, things reached a melting pot. We were planning on a surprise Birthday party for Suhel and I had some pics of Suhel and Deepti on my laptop which I was using to create a collage with pictures of the two of them to be printed on a T-Shirt. Suhel was browsing some stuff on my laptop and started prying when he got hold of the folder. Instead of making the slightest effort to gauge my intensions he immediately charged me with a barrage of totally abysmal questions. He even threatened a good thrashing if I ever looked at or talked to his girl.
Disgusted, I made a half-hearted attempt to reason with him saying that he would soon realize what it was for but he was hardly listening. I didn’t want to kill the surprise by spilling the beans but I let it go; more because I felt hurt and I wanted to see him get embarrassed when he would realize his error in judgment. So the surprise was still on. The next day I called up Deepti and asked her to catch up at CCD to finalize on the arrangements and to share some of the tasks. I picked her up from her place and drove to the café. Oh how stupid I was!! Little had I realized that the suspicious A-hole was following me the whole time. My Dear Friend was lurking outside with three of his local friends to put Us into an SUV. The moment I saw them and opened my mouth to shout in disbelief at his skeptic nature, I was silenced by the dull thud of a hockey stick on my skull.
So here we are my friends, so much for a surprise birthday party, huh?! Couldn’t have been a bigger surprise. Hah! My ribs hurt even with a chuckle. But I felt a greater pain for Deepti who was but totally aghast at the strange turn of event and for absolutely no fault of her’s. Was the psycho planning on killing both of us? As I was thinking of what-led-to-this and what-nexts, I heard the shutter open and close. One of Suhel’s associates walked in. He was a man in his thirties with a huge burgundy beard and a pot belly.
As he came in, he cast an eye on me and then leered at Deepti. The perverse grin on his face as he untied the knot of his lungi and sauntered towards her, past me, must have been terrifying for her. I sat there powerless listening to the choicest slangs he heaped on her character. She was yelling and sobbing incessantly against the gag. It must not have been more than a couple of minutes when I heard the crashing of something heavy behind me. Untying her before he could ravage her was probably a stupid move. I was only guessing the circumstances when I felt her cold trembling fingers hurrying to release my knots.
Once I was free, it still took a coercive effort on my part to lift myself up straight. As I looked at the bruised and tear-moistened eyes of Deepti I could not keep from drawing her into my arms to console her. I could even see a brief respite from this agony on the innocent face. But the relief was short lived, I could hear voices and footsteps approaching. I hurriedly lunged towards the rifle. The shutter opened; Suhel stepped in; The moment he saw the vacant chair he raised the pistol in his hand searching for me. My fingers spontaneously approached the trigger. A deafening shot was fired. And everything fell silent. The silence broke with Deepti’s excruciating wail.
For some, life had come a full circle..
–END–
