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Chapter 15
When they witnessed no movement, no indication, no miracle, Manorama and Vivek gave each other a disheartened look.
‘I guess we’re going nowhere from here.’ Vivek sighed and sunk into the chair next to him.
‘No, wait. There should be another way. I know! Let’s call for Vinod; he will help us,’ said a hopeful Manorama. ‘Vinod … Vinod!’ she called out his name, but in vain.
Vivek burst in tears, his head bowed and his shoulders heaving.
Manorama couldn’t bear to see the boy in such a miserable state, but she couldn’t seem to make herself reach out and console him either. He wasn’t her child, after all. She had just about made peace with Vinod’s request to save Vivek’s soul, but she couldn’t bring herself to care for him as easily as she would for Aarav and Divya.
After a couple of seconds of reconsidering, she hurried into the kitchen and got him a glass of water. None of this made any sense; they were dead, and didn’t need water, but it still felt like the right thing to do. She walked to him and gently placed her hand on his head. He continued sobbing.
‘It’s alright, Vivek, we’ll find a way out. Here, have this,’ she said as she kneeled on the floor next to the chair he sat in.
Vivek looked up with his bloodshot eyes but then turned away. Manorama waited patiently next to him, still holding the glass of water. She offered it to him once again.
Vivek abruptly reached for the glass in her hand, threw it to the side, and pushed Manorama back as he stood up, looming over her. Manorama’s reflexes kicked in immediately. She moved back and managed to stand up before Vivek could come any closer.
‘I knew I couldn’t trust you.’ said Vivek, walking towards her. ‘This is all a plan, isn’t it? You forgive me, then you make me forgive you, and now you get water for me. What next? Feed me and get rid of your sins? You bitch. I should have known. That’s why I killed you in the first place,’ he roared.
Manorama couldn’t believe this teenager’s guts. She felt thrown by the change in him. He had been guilty and hopeful just a while ago, listening to her meekly. And now he was furious and violent.
Before she could open her mouth to respond to his accusation, he suddenly ran towards her, clenched her neck with one hand and pinned her against the wall behind her.
‘I should kill you again. You are trying to trick me, aren’t you?’ Vivek whispered in Manorama’s ears. When he looked her in the eye, she couldn’t see that the young boy was no longer there. Instead, she sensed the presence of evil, far beyond anything a teenager was capable of. She felt a chill run down her spine.
‘Papa was here, and you only told me after he had gone away,’ Vivek said, tightening his grip around her throat. Manorama struggled and gasped for air.
Vivek watched her curiously, seeming to enjoy the sight of her struggling to release herself from his grasp. His face twisted into a smirk, and he gave a sinister laugh as he lifted her off the floor with great force. Manorama couldn’t fathom his strength and the sudden transformation. She moved her legs in the air, trying to wiggle out of his grip.
Vivek looked up at her, and then, in a voice far deeper than his own, said, ‘You know what I want to know? How did he manage to get here in the first place?’
——————————————————————————————————————————-
Bestselling and beloved author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni started our first ever crowd-sourced novel and 15 people joined us in the storytelling. Now, Chitra will write the final chapter before we publish!
Read all the chapters!
Chapter 1 by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Chapter 2 by Sumira Khan
Chapter 3 by Krusha Sahjwani
Chapter 4 by Sandeepa Mukherjee
Chapter 5 by Neha Gupta
Chapter 6 by Mohana Talapatra
Chapter 7 by Snigdha Mallik
Chapter 8 by Kanchana Banerjee
Chapter 9 by Harini Srinivasan
Chapter 10 by Gitanjali Maria
Chapter 11 by Shreya Gupta
Chapter 12 by Shylin Sam
Chapter 13 by Ananya Banerjee
Chapter 14 by Leena Pandey
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1 Comments
Top 1 Comments
Leena Pandey | 01.09.2023
What happened to the plans for publishing this book?
Regards,
Leena
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