He immediately looked at Catherine and to his shock, she was bleeding in her arms but desperately trying to draw. Then only he noted the last two lines in the note..
"
Roses are blue
The lot was cast and when I drew,
"
Roses are blue
Violets are red
When the ghosts conspire
Mind and body transpire
......The lot was cast and when I drew,
Lady luck said it should be you"
*************************
"When we found him, Prakash was unconscious and was drenched in blood. It was as if someone..." the expression on the doctor's face mirrored the goriness she was visualizing from her memory.
"Someone what.." queried Ram
"How do I say that...yuck...its as if some one bathed him in a bucket of blood. The scene was reminiscent of B grade horror flicks. And to make matters worse, ever since he regained consciousness, he had been uncontrollable. Thrashing wildly and kicking at anyone who tries to restrain him and always chanting the same thing again and again and again. Believe me when I say this. I've seen my share of difficult patients in my career. But none like this"
"Why do you say so"
"He always live in his imaginary world. Surprisingly it was so full of characters and real that, anyone who doesn't know him might think that they are actually real. You would often hear him talking to himself, shouting at people and would even have full length conversations."
"Sorry to put you through this unpleasant experience..do you recollect what he was chanting?"
"Here is the best part" she handed him a worn out notepad.
"Is this..."
"Yes. His diary. Strangely when he was quiet, he is the most subdued character in this entire building. No one would believe the violent streak in him. He kept this diary by his bed side and one day when I chanced upon it, he became violent again. We removed it from his possession few days back, before he went missing. You wouldn't believe, the book is like a record of all those demonic thoughts that possessed him. It doesn't follow a linear flow in many places. More like he tried to recapture whatever he could remember from his altered state. And when he is in his "mood", he wouldn't understand the reality outside of the book and his virtual world within it."
"And its followed by the violent streak occurs?" queried Ram
"Precisely"
Looking at the dried blood spatter on the flap of the book Ram was tempted to ask "is this..."
"Oh..that was because of me" looking at the surprised look on his face, the doctor quickly added "too many mosquitoes here you see and its not like we walk around with a swatter all time"
Being a Gemini, he went straight for the last page. There was a 4 liner written in red ink.
"Roses have wilted
All Violets dead
This never ending noise
doesn't stop in my head"
They were written so forcefully that the impression had fallen on several other pages. It was as if Prakash had written over and over the same lines on themselves multiple times.
He stared at the walls of the room where Prakash was held up. There were several streaks of lines scrawled on the wall, as if some unruly kid had tried its hand in painting. There were three red lines etched very deep. Looking at his curiosity the doctor explained that on that day, Prakash went so wild that he scratched those lines with his bare fingers on the wall. The blood from his fingers dried on those lines. It was then they confirmed that anything on red colour set his mood swings in fire. The doctor told, once when she came in a red saree, he was raving mad that, they had to give him shock treatment to subdue him.
Ram started reading the book from the cover and found 10 chapters of an unfinished story.
#1 A haunted Memory
"Thank you doctor. You have been of great help"
"You are welcome. I wish, Prakash finds peace. Its sad to see him in so much pain. Please help to find him before he does any harm to himself or others"
"Will try our best doctor" Ram took her leave and was about to board his car. Seeing the doctor waving him to wait, he went back to the verandah where they had been talking.
"One more thing Inspector. I almost missed telling you. Prakash always used to shout Lissy when in his "altered mental" state. And this was a name that he referred even while being normal. Thought it might help in your investigation if you can start digging for details about this Lissy person"
"Definitely doctor. Thank you so much"
While going back to the station, his mind was furiously processing all those information and he was all the more curious to meet Prakash in person. When the case was assigned to him. he took it half heartedly considering it as another missing person case and was even more dejected to find that the missing person was mentally unstable and had escaped from a lunatic asylum. After having gone through the book and all the background information provided by the doctor, he was more than enthused to find out about Prakash. The 4 liner poem was stuck in his mind like an unforgiving chewing gum.
"Roses are red
Violets are blue
Find you I will
with more than enough clue"
****************
The fury of the dark clouds loomed over the building inducing an eerie gloom. The wind was howling, giving the whole place an unnatural feeling. A tall man with the gaunt of a cop stood intently staring at the painting that was before him. Prakash was so immersed in the painting that he failed to notice the cacophony that the wind was orchestrating. What was strange was that, the painting before him seemed to reflect the weather outside. He turned back startled to hear a pleasant voice say
"Do you like the painting sir?"
Note : This post is a part of the “Tagged” Contest by writer Kaarthika and The Chennai Bloggers Club. Kaarthika’s book is being released on May 29. Do pre-order it on Amazon.
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