Chapter 21 A Foiled Plan

• When Arunava reached the 'Chandannagar Sub-Divisional Hospital' at last it was 5:30 in the morning. Shivangi had gone into a coma, the doctors who attended her told Arunava. After admitting her he called up Upendra Ghosh. He was in Mumbai, attending a meeting. He'd be catching the next available flight to Kolkata, he said. He didn't seemed to be much worried about his wife, though he feigned it. It was everything Arunava could do at the moment. He knew his heart would bleed whenever he'd think of her. Would she survive this time? The doctors said chances were very rare. Arunava was upto his ears in work, otherwise he could've taken few days off and attended her. Though he knew his over-enthusisam would be unexplainable to Upendra and cause problems between the husband-wife again. It wasn't long that they had been reconciled. How could he allow himself to play gooseberry ?
• Arunava himself got fourteen stitches, ten at the back of his head, four on his side temple. CT scan showed all normal but there was a soft tissue swelling on his left frontal region. The doctor said it was haematoma and would heal in time. However care had to be taken so that it didn't get infected by the stitched wound. Facial X-ray showed that the lower jaw had suffered heavy injury, though he was lucky that it didn't break. He insisted that he remained for at least a day at the hospital and at home for a week but Arunava could hardly waste an hour more. His flight to Goa was at 7:30. His boss would call him barely an hour from now and he didn't know what excuse he could give. He couldn't lie about the incident at Shivangi's house, since he would have to file an FIR at Chandannagar P.S. before he could move out of here. And it would blow the old man's fuse again. As a routine he checked the PNR status of the airlines and his joy knew no bounds when he came to know that flight had been delayed for four hours due to bad weather.
• After signing a risk bond for his early discharge, Arunava sped along to the Chandannagar P.S. On the way he contemplated about last night's incident. It was rather a string of incidents. And there were several points to ponder about the masked man. First, he seemed too strong to be any ordinary human being. Maybe he was a wrestler. That too a highly accomplished one. No ordinary man can lift anyone nine feet above the ground with such ease. Second, his voice. It appeared so cold .. gruffy. He wondered whether he had come across anyone having such a voice before. He could still feel the intensity of the punches on his cheek. His sudden appearance was so mysterious. It had scared the shits out of him, he had no grudges in accepting. Then, the smell of rotten flesh. Was it coming from his clothes? Why was he dressed up in that halloween costume? The most strange was his exit from the scene. He simply seemed to pass through the solid door as if he was made of air .. just a shadow .. without flesh and bones. And why was he looking intently at his birth mark? What was there to see in it? Why did it repulse him? If he had written those words on the wall .. which was most likely that he did .. then whom were they addressed to? '... valour of the king .. who is the king here? Shivangi is whose Queen? Upendra?