The Drive

Akhil thought he had it covered. He had planned for this three-day weekend for a month in advance and finally the weekend had come. He was going to party like a freak. He smiled at his own thoughts.

Akhil was a software designer by profession, and unlike many others he had chosen a medium-sized company to work. The firm was founded and run by six investors who realized technology is the safest place to invest in. He had worked there for five years and gained a solid reputation and a fat paycheck. But the biggest problem was of break. For the last three years he had never taken a break from work for more than a day at a stretch. He was a workaholic and would even stay awake all night just to finish someone else's work so that project did not face any hiccups. And after a lot of arguing, his girlfriend Reena had finally managed to drag him to a resort this weekend.

Reena: A rich dad's 'not spoiled' daughter. She was the perfect daughter. Her father never remarried after her mom passed away. She never liked to party much, stay out late nights. She was not into heavy drinking or drugs. She never had boyfriends, until now. She had met Akhil when he had come to give a lecture on the software industry. He had given her his number if she ever needed help. Over the period of next four to five months their relationship blossomed from friends to lovers and on the eve of New Year on a boat ride organized by her father, he had proposed to her. She accepted him right away without any hesitation and their relationship grew stronger by the day. Akhil thought God had made them for each other. They were inseparable. They had been formally engaged two weeks ago. They were madly in love. And this drive was supposedly according to her their 'pre-honeymoon' trip.

Akhil finished all his work and calls and said the customaries goodbyes to his colleagues on Friday night at eight pm. He had to make it back to Reena's home by nine thirty pm so he decided to go via the expressway. The ride was smooth and uninterrupted. He reached her home at nine pm. They were driving to a hill station 200 km from Bangalore. And Akhil loved long drives at night; hence they were leaving at night despite concerns raised by his as well as Reena's family members. They stopped for dinner on the highway around ten thirty pm and were back on the road around eleven fifteen pm. They road was quiet except for an occasional truck and bus and Akhil could not help but stare at Reena. She looked so beautiful in her pink dress. He had bought is for her birthday, and she had finally worn it today. He thanked God for making him meet Reena. He was so happy in his life, a good job, a beautiful fiancée. Everyone should have a life, like his, he thought. How wrong he was, he could have never imagined.

At around 2 am when they were near their destination, Akhil saw a young man standing on the road with his car's hood up. Obviously Akhil had read about many incidents on road and was not going to stop for this guy, when suddenly Reena commented, "Geez, you should have helped him at least ask him what the problem is".
"It's not safe Reena to stop on the highways."
"Come on, that guy is alone. And who would pick on giant panda like you?"
Well that was about the end of the argument, Akhil turned his car back and made his way over to the guy's car.

Lowering his window, he asked the guy, "Dude, anything wrong?"
The guy turned and in his hand was a big jackhammer. Before Akhil had time to react the jackhammer fell on his temple. He could hear Reena's scream and then he blacked out.
When he woke up next he could hear Reena whimpering.
He called out to her and at the same instant he felt pangs of pain in his head and blanked out again.

Next time he woke up, he could hear Reena crying for help and he could barely make out somebody who was beside her. No, he cannot be anything to her, Akhil thought and tried to move.
"Your boyfriend has a lot of life in him eh?" a gruff voice said. He saw something walk towards him and he felt another blow on his head. Only this time, Akhil felt he was going to die.

It was better if he had died, because the sight when he would have made anyone throw up. A woman lay beside her face burned, her throat slit from end to end. There was blood all over the place, on his face and on his tongue. After seeing the necklace and the ring the girl wore only screams escaped his throat. It was the same one he had given Reena on the day of their engagement. He ran out screaming, shouting for help. All around him was a dense jungle. He was in despair. His fiancée had been brutally murdered, he was in the middle of jungle, all parts of his body ached. Still he could not stop. He could feel his body lose blood from his wounds. If he waited in the jungle he knew he could die of blood loss.

It was night before he could find a road, and in the distance he could see a small shack. He barely managed it till there and then he fainted.

He woke up with a severe headache again. Only this time the sight greeting him was of Reena's father and his own parents. His entire family looked relieved watching him open his eyes. He looked around and on his right hand side stood Reena.
"Baby where were you!!! Why did you run off like that?" Reena said hugging him and crying.
"Ma'am please let him rest. He's just come out of unconsciousness and he needs rest. Please give him some time to recover."
Reena looked at him with tearful eyes. "I'll be outside Akhil."

She's alive!! Thank god! , Akhil thought. He was so happy to see her face that he could have given anyone anything. Thank god she was not the one in the cabin. Wait a second, I saw her necklace and ring. He got up on the bed and tried moving his body, his head was throbbing again. He pleaded with the nurse to let Reena in. As soon as she came near him, he reached for her hand. Her ring was right there.
"What happened honey ... I am right here ... don't worry" Reena said cajoling him and holding his hand.

"Reena... do you remember what happened when the guy hit me? How did you escape?" Akhil managed to choke out the words with great difficulty.
"Honey, what are you talking about? When did anyone hit you and where should I have escaped from? Are you alright?"
"Don't you remember that guy who I stopped for, you asked me to stop, remember? And, that guy hitting me with a jackhammer? And then we were in a cabin...." Reena cut him in mid sentence.
"Sweetheart... What are you saying? We reached the hill station safely and then you took off saying you had some issues and that I should go back by car. You did not even give me a chance to argue."
"What???... Reena don't lie to me. That guy took us to cabin and you were screaming I fainted ..." Akhil stopped midway, his head started aching badly. His vision became blurred.
All he remembered next was the doctor coming to look at him and shouting for the nurse.

When he woke up next he could hear a machine ticking away and a faint yellow light lit up in the room.
His head was still aching but it was more of dull thud in his head. He wanted to talk to Reena more than anything else. He wanted to convince that he had not seen a dream, that she was still alive. That was all that mattered to him. He slowly got up from his bed trying to make his way out of the door. He was going to open the door when he heard Reena's voice.
"Ajit, I could not help it... seriously..."
"You were supposed to keep him dead... now if he gets back, he might just remember all the things"

"Ajit sweetheart, I swear I did not know how he managed, I just left for ..."
His head started spinning hearing all these words. Who the hell was Ajit? And why does Reena want me dead? He was sweating now. What the hell was going on?? This is just a bad nightmare he thought. Sleep again and I'll wake up to another beautiful day, he thought. He wanted to walk towards his bed, but he wanted to hear also.

"Ok forget it, don't worry about him beautiful. Good his parents left you in charge of tonight. Tonight will be just his last night and this time no one will suspect anything also."
Last night?? Mine? What the hell is going on!!!! He wanted to rush out the door and find out what was going on, but if all this was real, then the guy would have no qualms about just taking Akhil back into the room and killing him there. And though Akhil could fight off one guy, his state of health at present was not going to help him if he got into one. He had to think this one through else he might just end up dead. He saw Reena's cell phone on the table and dialed a number while walking back to his bed quietly. He had noticed a button marked 'ALARM' on the side of his bed. At least that would bring in help. If not the person he was dialing to should be here.

The number to which he was dialing to connected. "Akhil here, need your help, listen while you come" and he placed the phone near his bed. He laid the phone down on his bed so that the glare would not attract Reena but he fell over the dustbin which made a huge sound. Two figures hurriedly came through the door and grabbed his body and mouth dragging him back. He tried pulling himself free from his captor but his strength failed him. Meanwhile his captor brandished his knife in front of his eyes; Akhil swung his leg in an instinctive reaction. His leg found the sweet spot and his captor went down cursing. The effect was Akhil was freed momentarily. That was enough for Akhil to run to a corner. He saw his captor standing up with a wince of pain and then laughing.

"You think you can stay alive huh? You think Reena was calling you sweetheart for you to wake up? Or should I say Shreya, hahahaha" his captor said while smiling and walking.
Panic ran through his mind. His body was sweating profusely. This could not be his end. And who the hell was Shreya?

"Now Akhil darling could we kill you like that? I mean what would happen to poor me? Who would take care of me? Tsk tsk Akhil, you always were a lame excuse for a guy. But don't worry we'll make your death little less painful, after all you 'drove' me to the hill station. Hahahaha" Reena said coming up behind his captor.
Akhil looked at Reena bewildered. Was this the same shy Reena he had met years before? He looked at her eyes. He looked at her face and something caught his eye. Reena never had dimples. This woman had. She was not his Reena.

"You are not Reena. You cannot be her."
"See honey" Reena told the other guy, "I told you he will recognize. Well I am Shreya and he is Ajit."
That solves one mystery Akhil said to himself. Before Akhil could say anything Shreya continued.
"See, that is why we had to kill you! And, stupid Reena, she had to run away from that place. I told you this couple were jinxed. Morning she ran away in some direction, evening this guy runs away!"

So she might still be alive, Akhil thought. That gave him hope.
And then Ajit spoke, "Unluckily for her she bumped into me while running away, and well Akhil, we won't tell you what she went through, but the body you saw was that of your fiancée. And Shreya here told me she cried in agony when I was ravaging her." The captor was smiling now.
Akhil felt his blood boil on hearing what had happened with his dear fiancée. The poor little thing, what she must have suffered. No this was not fair... why would they do this.
"Why" Akhil muttered. He was partly breathing, partly wheezing.
"Oh look Ajit dear, he wants to know why?"
"Shreya, your turn to explain" Ajit said with a laugh.

"Well it's like this sweetheart. It's not personal but then millions of Indians die below poverty line every year. And we both were born poor. But as we grew up we wanted to make quick money. I learned to sell my body and Ajit learned to blackmail them. But then we got busted once and well though we managed to run away we could not get back into business. In our world failure is not an option, so we started targeting young rich couples whose parent were just below media glare and attention. And then Akhil knew this guy who could change my face. You know it took me a year to imitate your Reena. Well she was a pain, and after that everything was easy. You want to continue darling?"

"Sure" Ajit said as if on cue "Well you remember an article in paper around two years back. Where a husband was brutally murdered by his wife but his wife was also found dead next to him burnt? Well Shreya did a fantastic job there, she killed both of them, did not let me even have my way the girl. Boo" Ajit made a jeering face at Reena.
"Sick. Psychopathic scum", Akhil muttered.

"Bang on honey! Well so we spent their money lavishly and then we saw you both on New Year's Eve. And your proposal was so romantic on the boat, that we could not ignore your invitation. We checked on Reena's background and well her dad will live for another 2 years and then we have money and we don't need to murder anyone. But then she accepted" Shreya almost made a sarcastic sad face.

"But then she played spoil sport" Shreya said. "If I married you, I could never meet Ajit and spend time with him all alone. So we decided to take you out both. Reena was never in your car. That was my Shreya. I had already kidnapped Reena long before. And we actually thought of making me like you, but then turn would have many complications as you have a long chain of family and so well we decided you were better off dead and no one should take your place, but well how you ran away is still a mystery to me. Let's just say we'll be more careful next time."

"There will be no next time" a man's voice boomed next to the door.
Shreya and Ajit had been too excited to lock the door and a man was now standing right in the center holding a gun.
Ajit quickly tried to move to Akhil but as soon as he set a foot towards him, a bullet shot went right through his calf muscle.
"No moving, I can shoot you dead right here and now. I have been chasing you two, since so many years. Now I want you alive. Akhil, Get up bro, get up."
"He is your brother? I am sure you are not related by blood, or maybe Ajit they were fathered by the same man and brought up by different women who liked different men."
The next shot had Shreya screaming. The bullet had lodged itself in her arm.
"The more you talk, the more you both get."

Akhil tried to get up and walk but it was tough. But he was trying. He kept walking towards the door when he suddenly heard a scream and saw Ajit lunging at him.
The next thirty seconds were a blur to Akhil. Two more shots were fired while Shreya screamed and Ajit slumped on the floor. His body took three more shots as he fell down breathless. Shreya was screaming and took out her gun, but before she had a chance, tow bullets penetrated her chest and the blood sprayed on Akhil. The man came over to Akhil and helped him up.

"You did a good job brother, a real good job" said the man.
The man who came had come up was none other than his brother, who was a homicide investigator. Akhil had dialed his number and luckily his brother had made it just in time before Akhil went down as another case in his brother's case file. But Reena had and to Akhil it would take a long time to recover.
Five years later Akhil married Sonali, a colleague who had helped him through Reena's death. And for their honeymoon she chose an perfect place. A small hill station resort she had chosen. Coincidentally it was the same one which Akhil had driven five years before.