Chapter 17 Premonition

• From the position he was in, he could see the bridge clearly. The car was heading towards the railings. He knew what lay ahead. He didn't want to go through the ordeal again. But what was he seeing now? A girl was standing still on the railway tracks. A goods train was rushing in from the Howrah side, the steel girders reverberating with the noise. Like an arrogant devil sporting his monstrosity before a helpless human, the train was closing in upon the girl - ready to devour her from behind. The headlights of the engine were like glowing embers which went for the devil's eyes - illuminating the serpent like track before it. The girl was holding something close to her heart. A Doll? It was only a matter of moments before the girl would get crushed under the wheels. Arunava wanted to run towards the tracks though he knew the accident was inevitable. But why was he unable to move his limbs? The girl looked at the raging river either side of her and started running on the tracks. If only she could cross the girder and reach the road, Arunava thought. He tried to shout, wave his hands to turn her attention towards the road, but the train had come nearer .. the sound of engine louder .. the friction of wheels with the rails causing sparks to fly in the air .. the banging of bogies against one another deafening .. the shrill horn breaking the still of the night. Suddenly the headlights of the engine turned to greenish-brown and the body of the train squeezed into thin and frail ropes of a choir. And amongst the horrific turn of events, he became a mute spectator to the cries of a twelve year old girl getting drowned in the sound of clash of metals .. The doll was lying on a sleeper stained in blood, with pounds of mangled flesh bearing testimony to a brutal end of life, much earlier than it should've ended.
• Arunava got up on the bed in a shock! He couldn't believe himeself. Why did he have that terrible dream? He tried to remember where he had seen the girl. Was she someone he knew in his childhood? A play mate at their ancestral home in Bongaon? The watch showed 3:30 AM. He knew he won't be able to sleep again. He tried to remember all the young faces and their names. No. She wasn't any of them. On an impulse he took his mobile and searched the gallery. He had secretly clicked a couple of photographs of Shivangi without her knowledge. The face of the girl in his dream seemed to be of Shivangi in her early teens. He opened the picture Shivangi had submitted in her missing person diary. Arunava reflected. It could also be Suparna. Since they were siblings it was natural that they looked alike. He never believed in premonitions. Moreover he knew he cared for Shivangi more than a client. When he had jumped into the Ganges that night, he didn't care for his life. His determination was more than the pledge he had taken at the academy. And despite rescuing her and knowing that she was going on well with her husband now, he could never stop being worried about her. He had tried to make himself busy in other cases, had tried to look into Suparna's missing objectively; but to no avail. The dream could be a manifestation of his insecurity with Shivangi. But what if it was another girl? Girls of that age looked similar. Hair done in a cute pair of pony tails .. shimmering eyes .. a smile which filled the heart with an innocent happiness. Where had he seen that face before?
• The news reached him the moment he arrived at Saltlec police station. He had expected Raghavendra to try carrying out such an act. But he didn't expect him to know so early. He had laughed away at the stories of his demonic powers earlier. But after meeting him at the prison he couldn't help believing some of them to be true. He had intimated his department people to look after the security of all young girls in Kolkata who bought dolls from Raghu. And their families too. Often Police had to resort to such tactics to extract information from criminals, particularly those stubborn and wicked like Raghu. And he didn't find anything wrong in lying about her daughter's death the day before he went to see him. After all he had killed four people in cold blood. One of them being a young girl just about the age of his own daughter. And he had no remorse. And now six more. He vengeance made him pull out the hearts and intestines of the janitor and five security guards, like one would pluck flowers from a garden. How barbaric! Collateral damage, according to him. He even didn't hesitate to declare that he'd continue killing more girls. His informer had let him know that Raghu's daughter had gone into a state of coma from which she didn't recover. The cancer having grown in the bone marrow, the body couldn't make enough healthy red blood cells count resulting in anemia, leaving the body without enough oxygen in the blood. Her body had thinned like a skeleton and muscles withered when he had gone to meet her posing as her uncle. He was surprised to notice the colour of her skin to have turned into a peculiar brown. As he walked up to her bed, he found her eyes fixed into a gaze. The eyeballs were greenish-brown and her eyelids were fixed, as if made of stone. The sign of life was visible only from the feeble heaving of her breasts. He knew she wouldn't be able to talk. And he knew she didn't have much time left. He was only worried that the news didn't reach her father before Arunava.