The Scarlet Melody: Singer Unfolds

Angel slept peacefully between us for the rest of the night, but little did we know that this peace was just the beginning of a storm.

The next few days witnessed nothing unusual and hence I believed that it was the stress getting into my head making me have such unrealistic imaginations. Anshul had a business trip coming up soon and had to leave within a week. Since things were back to normal and no similar incidents took place, Anshul decided not to skip it and boarded the first flight to Toronto the next morning.

The next morning, with Anshul not being there, I didn't have much work to do, so I thought of cleaning the house. After a few hours, around 6 p.m., I had almost covered all the rooms and was only left with the playroom. I was cleaning the shelves when I heard whispers in my ears. The words were not distinct enough to understand, it was more like a constant humming. I became alert and my movements slowed down. I paused and looked around, but nothing suspicious at all. I resumed my work, but my eyes were constantly inspecting for any sign of danger. And then, I heard it, footsteps down the corridor. It was advancing towards me. My movements seized, and I lost the courage to turn around. As soon as the footsteps stopped just behind me, I started trembling with agony. All the lights in the playroom became dim and with every passing incident, the darkness intensified. I felt dizzy, but I knew Angel was in danger and I needed to reach my bedroom where she had been sleeping. My toes felt numb, as if I was getting paralysed, and fear engulfed me. It became difficult to breathe, and I felt captured. I gathered whatever strength was left within me to turn around and walk towards the door. But, before I could even set a foot outside the door, my body collapsed, I lost all my senses, and it was a complete blackout.

 When I got up, I quickly reached out and grabbed my phone to check the time. It was 7 p.m. I tried to stand upright, but I failed. My legs felt weaker than ever, making it even more difficult for me. After quite a number of failed attempts, I was able to walk and went straight into my bedroom. To my greatest fear, Angel was not there. I was perplexed and I couldn't help but blame myself for not being more careful. All my fears which I had been avoiding are standing against me, pointing to the obvious. It was not my stress and anxiety that made me see things. I saw them because they exist in this house. I ran through all the rooms to find Angel, but she was nowhere to be found. I felt vulnerable, and I took a second to think of the possibilities. I broke into tears the moment I started thinking about what could possibly happen to her, and positivity seemed a foreign concept to me at that moment. Happiness seemed farfetched. I sat on my knees grabbing Angel's teddy in my arms, weeping. All my hopes were drenched in pessimism. But I couldn't sit there doing nothing. I had to think of something and amidst my crowded thoughts, I remembered that the only place left to search was the storeroom and even though it seemed impossible, I needed to capitalise on any hope I had. I ran to the storeroom at the end of the corridor and wished to find Angel in there, but my heart disagreed to see Angel in such a dilapidated condition. I entered the storeroom and started unpacking the cartons one after another. My hands were shivering and with each empty carton my heart became heavier. There was a last carton left, which was quite a big one. I took a deep breath and unpacked the carton just to see my little Angel inside it. I had tears running down my face. It felt like I got my life back. The traces of tears on her cheeks implied that she cried before falling asleep.

I picked up Angel and as I hurried to the playroom, she opened her eyes and gazed at me with utter confusion. I was so relieved to see her awake. Placing her in the stroller, I took her with me to the kitchen. While the milk was getting warm, I finally thought of informing Anshul about everything that was happening. I took out my phone and called him. I explained everything that was going on in the house and asked him to come back. He didn’t believe what I said, initially, and thought I was fooling around. But then he realised the seriousness of my tone and was taken aback. He assured me he will take the next flight back to New York and be here soon.

Meanwhile, I went to the Church and spoke to the Father about the happenings. I never believed in any religion, but I had faith in the supreme power that watches over us, and I could only reside in him now. We arranged a prayer meet at our home for peace and prayed for our daughter’s well-being. But the only question playing in my head was, 'whatever or whoever is responsible for our sufferings, what did it want from us? Angel getting hurt repeatedly in our absence and now being hidden in a storeroom implies only one thing and that is, it wants our Angel. But why?'

Anshul arrived two days after the incident took place. The first thing he did was hold Angel in his arms and there was a sigh of relief on his face. Anshul took a leave for few weeks to look after Angel along with me until the situations normalised. Now, we didn't let Angel go out of our sight at any cost.

But this one day, I went out to run some errands as usual and Anshul was at home with her, watching her favourite cartoon shows. After a few hours I headed to my home and from the end of the street I could see an ambulance standing in our lane. As I continued to proceed, I found out it was standing right in front of our house. I did not have a good feeling about it, so my steps became longer and faster. By the time I reached the gate, I saw Anshul carrying Angel in his arms and hurrying to the ambulance. He was short of breath and the cloth wrapping Angel was scarlet red. Just by looking at it, my hands turned icy, and I was down in dumps. I broke into tears and I ran to the ambulance.

"What is all this! What happened while I was gone, Anshul?" I screamed.

"We need to reach the hospital first and I'll tell you everything once we reach there."

"I'm coming too."

We reached the hospital, and Angel was directly taken to the Emergency ward. Anshul and I stood there helplessly joining our hands in prayer.

"Now tell me Anshul what exactly happened? What led our Angel to this hospital? Why is she covered in blood?" I charged Anshul with my questions.

"We were in the living room watching some cartoons and in the meantime, my boss called me. I had to mute the TV in order to speak, but as soon as I did so, Angel started crying aloud. I could not talk to him with so much of noise, so I excused myself and went to the backyard. I frequently turned around to check on her, but then I got caught up in the conversation and failed to turn around for a few minutes. I kept the call and came back to the living room just to find Angel in this condition. She was lying unconscious on the couch with blood spurting out of her wrists. She was losing blood vigorously, so I immediately called 911. I tried to check her pulse, but they were too weak to get noticed by my unprofessional fingers. Without giving it a second thought, I tied each of her wrists with a handkerchief to restrict the blood loss and wrapped her in a towel. I couldn't wait for the ambulance to arrive but I also couldn't drive to the hospital alone with Angel being so critical." His face showed disappointment.

"Wait a second, so you are telling me that whatever happened is my fault?" I shouted in rage. "Don't you try to put this on me, Mr Anshul Singhania. You should have been a bit more responsible while I was out and you were the only one with her. Do you realise how much of an irresponsible father you are? Everything you care about is your work and your promotion. Do Angel and I even affect you anymore?"

"What are you even saying Akshara? Please don't misunderstand what I said, I meant I was helpless at that moment. And..."

Before Anshul could finish, the doctor came out of the ICU and informed us that Angel was now in a stable condition. He continued to say that Angel's wrists were cut with some extremely sharp object like a knife, and if the blood loss had not been restricted on time, the child wouldn't have survived. Anshul and I were stunned to hear that. The doctor further suggested us to report the incident to the police station. This time Angel could have lost her life if it wasn't for Anshul reacting on time. I was at the end of my rope. My heart refused to believe it and I so wished that now I would wake up and realise it was all a nightmare but my mind was contradicting my heart. I was questioning everything. Who could be behind all of this? And why us? I felt my prayers were reflecting back, as if there was no one to listen to them. I was standing in a hospital, a place where everybody is ready to help and yet I felt so helpless. Anshul went to the police station to file a case, and I waited for Angel to wake up in the hospital. After a few hours, Anshul came back. The moment he entered Angel's room, her hands moved and our attention quickly diverted to her. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at Anshul. But the moment she looked at him, she started crying. We both looked at each other, startled. Anshul didn't know how to react.

"She is traumatised, just give it some time." I assured him, holding his hand.

After a few days Angel's condition had improved a lot and it was time to bring her back. But we wanted to start afresh, so we shifted to a new house which we had taken on a lease. Anshul’s company didn’t have any job vacancy in the other branch, so he had to take some hard decisions. He had to resign from his present job and start applying for new jobs. After a month or so, he received his letter confirming his joining from the first week of January 2013, and finally things were taking a pleasant turn, but it was too soon to be happy.

3 January 2013, just a day before our Angel’s first birthday. Anshul had commenced his work in the new office and it was his first day. I was busy decorating the house and preparing Anshul’s favourite dishes the entire day. While I was putting the flowers in the vase, I received a text from Anshul “Listen honey, George and Veronica came outside my new office and literally killed me for not giving them a treat yet. So I brought them to The Diner to have dinner with them. I might be late so don’t wait for me, I have the keys. Take care of yourself and Angel.” I was very disappointed as I had put in a lot of efforts in preparing the food for him, but then I resumed my work. After I had finished decorating, I went to the kitchen to put the food inside the refrigerator. Suddenly, my head started paining unbearably and as the lights flickered, the world around me started spinning. It was getting darker. I could no longer stand straight, so I sat on the floor. I started hearing voices around me, sharp indistinct whisperings. It almost pierced my head, and the darkness grew so intense that I could hardly see anything. I screamed, but I was heard only and only by the darkness. And in no time I was in an abyss.

It was almost twelve. Anshul struggled to find the key in his bag, looking at his wristwatch. “Two minutes to go”, he murmured to himself. He wanted to be the first one to wish Angel. Finally he got the key and as he opened the door, he prepared himself to wish Angel with a smile on his face.

“WHAT DID YOU DO AKSHARA?”

“No... No, I was just humming a scarlet melody to Angel.”  I said with a reassuring smile.

Angel lied in an ocean of blood, as lifeless as a dried leaf. The knife was in my hand and I was the singer of this melody.

 

To be continued…