Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Bedtime Story: The Puzzle





I woke up with my hands smeared in deep red blood. It was puzzling. I couldn't fathom how it had got there and I had no remembrance of my prior actions. I was just groggy, feeling dazed as if I had been drugged. Dizziness, feebleness and lethargy had gripped me. 
I pulled off my quilt and heaved myself up. The bed groaned underneath and I felt a spasm of pain around my midriff. I felt as if the air had gone out of my lungs. So, I inhaled hard willing the cold wind around me to gush into my throat. But I still couldn't breathe. I coughed to clear the air passage. But no sound emanated from within. I lifted the jug from the side-table and drank deeply. I could feel the water streaming down my windpipe, traveling down the ribs and into my belly...and then my stomach appeared to leak, as water drained out of its walls and into my bloodied hand.
I felt my stomach with my palm, and felt a dagger entombed in it. I pulled out the blood-stained dagger and let life drain out of me completely. My soul had been hanging on there, just holding on to the long-dead body. But now it was liberated. I had finally solved the puzzle, of how my hands got smeared with blood. It was my own blood, as you must have realized by now.
I had committed suicide. I had committed suicide in my sleep. I, for many months, had been a sleep-walker.



11 comments:

  1. Wow! Such a gripping read and a great plot! Now i am your Fan O' Fan!

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  2. haha, that is so kind of you....thank you

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  3. it was a good read but i felt the climax was bit upsetting.. perhaps you should have made it a murder. bcos i wonder will they stab themselves to commit suicide? :o uno, that's really hard to even think of... :(

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    1. Ya actually i wanted to make it different...u know last time i killed a girl who was murdered by her split personality...so i thot of keeping it suicide this time...

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  4. This has a science fiction feel to it. You should work on it.

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  5. Ritesh .. the shockers.. so much you love them .. giving right at the end !! Your stories have one thing best .. they thrill!
    Short Crisp and engrossing story as always !!

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    1. hi...thanks..but this story lacked that edge....

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  6. Ritesh my friend a shocker and such a well built story! it was quite something... see here I am on your blog and now I will wade out the stories of past from here and read more :)

    Richa

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  7. Please, feel free....feel at home...my blog is all yours..... :))

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