Brief

Crooked Beginnings 

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On a lazy Sunday afternoon, he got off the bus and walked down a familiar tree-lined lane. Small cottage with faded window curtains and sun-bleached paint. A hand tapped his shoulder "looking for somebody?" A voice asked. He turned around to face just the woman he was looking for and saw recognition flash across her eyes. 
"Hi, what ar—" before he could get the words out she squealed and hugged him tight. 
"10 years and you don't bother calling when you finally come back, how could you?"
Vikas stared at Reha as she stepped away from him and scanned him from head to toe. It wouldn't be hard to trick this one he thought perhaps she was the easiest of them all. It had only taken him a week since she sent him the Facebook request to come up with the plan.
"Hey, are you lost in your mind again?" Reha said, disturbing his trail of thoughts.
"Sorry. yeah. It has been a while. you look so different." He knew that.  The last time they met in person was before he left home for med school. Since then Reha had grown her dark hair till her waist and was only a couple inches smaller. However, in the week he had gathered a lot of information on her and knew her weak spots. "How are your parents?" He asked hitting one of those spots. 
He saw her stance change,  the sorrow in her eyes and the twisted expression on her face.
"They passed away two years ago."
It took a lot for Vikas to try and hide his smile "I'm sorry, I didn't know." 
"It's alright" she shrugged "let's not talk about it"
"What are you doing here? I thought you had moved."
"I am selling my parents old house" he knew that. Everything was perfect. 
"Why don't you come over to my new place for dinner on Sunday? I'm in a bit of a rush now and I really want to catch up. It's at Lower Parel I'll text the address to you"
"Sure why not"
And done. The bait had been set. 

Reha came over that Sunday, a little after seven.  Everything went as he had wanted. He got Chinese food and opened a  couple of bottles of beer. They sat on the sofa while some TV show played like white noise in the background. Neither had bothered about it. They sat talking about everything, their childhood to them losing touch, they had both been lazy enough to remember writing letters. Vikas also had to explain his 'love' for plants when Reha had so many in his apartment. In reality, they just helped him hide the odour.

Vikas liked everything while it lasted. He hadn't done this to someone he knew before. It would be different, sure, and he wanted to know. He wanted to know what it would be like to bruise someone he knew. His favourite part always had been guessing what they were as he watched their life slipping away.  
One beer turned to two, three, four.  And within some time she was a giggling mess with a loopy smile.  He poured another one and this time he added contents from the tiny vial of Rohypnol he had tucked away in his pocket. 
"Let me get us some dessert." He said as he strode towards his kitchen. Vikas didn't bother getting the ice cream,  Reha wouldn't be able to have it in Sometimes anyway.  Instead, he pocketed her cellphone and placed it in a cabinet after turning it off. 
Fifteen minutes later he began seeing the symptoms,  she was dizzy and she partially lost muscle movement, it was the time to begin the process.

"Whoa, looks like someone had a little too many, it's better if you sleepover. You're in no shape to go home." He said making his way to her as she tried and failed to stand up. 
He helped her lay down on the couch and fetched the blanket he had kept beneath it in advance. Half an hour later she was knocked out unconscious. Carefully he turned her on her side, she'd had a lot to drink and he didn't want her choking on her own vomit; there wouldn't be any fun in that.

Vikas didn't bother disturbing her after that, instead, he got her phone and went for a rickshaw ride towards her old cottage from where he took a bus to the nearest bar and cordially dropped her phone at the bus stop after which he took a cab back home. He knew he wasn't indestructible if she were to be reported missing to the police; he wanted her last traceable location to be a dodgy bar. After returning he himself slept and set an alarm that rang six hours later.
 
When Vikas woke up he went to check up on her and saw that she was regaining consciousness. He waited patiently and once her eyes fluttered open and offered her orange juice laced with Rohypnol while explaining that she had passed out after drinking too much. 

And the cycle began again. He liked the half-dead unconscious state. Reha was alive, sustaining life but not living it. 

It had been a week. A week since she came over for dinner. Week since they had a long conversation about the old days when they obsessed over the demon barber Sweeney Todd.  A week later Vikas got her hooked to Rohypnol and the cycle continued. He drugged her according to his work hours so she could come back from the hospital just in time for the dose. The system worked perfectly.  Reha wouldn't leave him now, she couldn't resist. She needed more of that and couldn't live without it. Being an anesthesiologist had its perks. 
On Friday Vikas had delayed the dose on purpose just to watch her suffer through withdrawal. It was eternally amusing to watch her body twitch and get nauseated. Watch Reha crave for more but not know exactly what she craved. This had always been his favourite part, them wanting him, needing him.  The tides of suffering she went through were a marvel to him.
That Sunday Vikas clocked into the hospital as usual, and when the time came to prescribe anaesthesia, he prescribed extra and kept the excess to himself. Said his Hi's, promised to be at the charity event hosted by TATA in Marine Lines to save the girl child and saved the lives of two patients at the operating table with his very capable team of doctors. 
On his way back Vikas fantasised about blood dripping down the body as he carved the flesh and over the days it healed back only to be torn again. It fascinated him. Some day, he wondered, he would have mastered this craft enough to see the heart beating inside the body. It amazed him to watch body twitch under his knife.  
It was eight pm and Vikas had decided that today would be it. He'd begin carving her up and over the fortnight, amuse himself with it.  His first task, however, was to water his plants; recently they had started dwindling. 
Reha lay motionless on the bed,  and he sauntered to the kitchen to prepare the syringe for anaesthesia and get the knives ready. He wouldn't do it in the bedroom, he would get her to the bathroom so that it'd be easier to clean the blood later.  Each step let a little burst of adrenaline coursing through his veins.  Vikas went to open the drawer but it was stuck. He gave it another tug but it did not budge. The next one was jammed too and the one besides that. 
Frustrated, he walked to the room and stopped at the door, his body going taut as things happened all at once. He noticed that the bed she was on was empty and felt a gun at the back of his head while simultaneously hearing a click.
"Boom."  A slight tremor went through his body as she said that. His mind swarmed with questions. It was impossible for her to be walking. How is any of this possible?
"You're such an amateur, I'm surprised the police haven't caught you yet." Her voice had a quirkiness to it he hadn't heard before. "Jammed drawers are annoying, aren't they. I wonder what made that happen" she added. 
Vikas counted to three in his head and stayed calm, assessing ways he could possibly get the loaded gun out of her hand; so he let her continue with her monologue to buy some time.

"Don't worry, you don't have worry about getting this gun from me." She said as if reading his mind. "This is just a precaution. I won't kill you." His body relaxed a bit. "I've kept tabs on you for a while. You're very sloppy, you know. All the drinks you gave me went straight to the plants. I mean you didn't even realise that I hadn't lost any weight or puked over the week. My gosh seriously how have you not been caught yet."

His mind was a jumble again, his focus slipping away. "How did you know I would do it today?" He asked

"Hospital records are not that difficult to hack into, the software that they use is incredibly old, the dose you prescribed was way more than necessary. It wasn't that difficult to guess. And yes I have a phone on me. You took the fake with you the other day.” Reha pressed the gun against his head. "Now let's get to the point shall we I've already wasted a week of my time assessing your abilities. You are a sloppy bastard, the phenyl is the first thing I smelt when I walked in. Seriously, how haven't you been caught?"

" What do you want exactly?" Vikas said as calmly as possible. 

"You might be sloppy but you can certainly be helpful when it comes to getting the drugs. Originally I planned on extorting it from you but my oh my I guessed what you were up to the moment I entered your apartment and was slightly Impressed. Sweeney Todd rubbed off on you I see."
Had he really been this ignorant as he fulfilled his desires? How did she know all this?

 
"You still haven't gotten to the point. Such a blabbermouth. Old habits die hard."  Vikas felt the gun being pressed harder as he said that. 

"I have a proposal. We work together, I have a network in place already."

This started sounding interesting to him. "What do you know about killing?" He said sarcastically.

"I know two years worth of it. That cottage has been up for sale since then. Imagine all that goes on there." She said in a sultry voice. "Much more than what you've learnt in the past three months." 

Two years-Her parents. Wasn't that intriguing.  Vikas slowly turned around and gave a crooked smile that Reha resonated with. Both knew equally well the havoc they were going to wreck.