After the curtain falls

...cont. from The Final Showdown

What do you do when you accomplish everything that you did not even believe you could? What happens next? Till you find your next ground for battle, what are you even supposed to do with your life?

As he walked out of her room, clueless as to where to go next, this was the only thought that occupied his mind.

The city sky was still ablaze, lit by fireworks and smog where stars were destined to be.

Things do not go as planned, this much he had figured out long before he could even grasp the concept. But that hadn't stopped him from going through hundreds of different versions of consequences in his head in the past one year and yet NONE of them matched the reality that he just lived through!

Whoever said, "Reality is a bitch" wasn't wrong! Or was it 'Karma'? That makes sense too!

11 years, he thought.

11 years I have been planning for this day.

11 years of spiralling between "forgive & forget" and "revenge & forget", here I am; walking in the aftermath. Who am I even supposed to be now?

Oddly enough, this void started to feel familiar to him as minutes ticked on. Everytime the curtains fell after each of his theatrical performance he would feel this void curling up inside his body stripping him off of all the layers of the character that he so eagerly tried to put on over the weeks. See, he has been in the theatre club in his school from a very young age. Back in the day, that was the only thing that made him feel sane. The only place where he could let his mind wander free, be whoever the character needed him to be; unapologetically uninhibited, without shame! Only recently did he realise that his love for acting came from a deep-seated feeling of self-loathing and low self-esteem. Not that it made much difference, he still loves to play different people since that is the only way he can get a taste of being 'normal'. His parents weren't very happy with this hobby of his though. They were worried that their only son, would effeminize through the influence of art and culture. Needless to say, they heaved a sigh of relief when he showed interest in shooting last year; the legacy of the family were in safe hands after all!

But how could I miss this? Surely I should have known that she was crippled now? How DID I not know??

Their families weren't close anymore. Hasn't been for a few years now, so it didn't even strike him when she faded away from his radar. So when he saw her in her pathetic state, lying on her bed, possibly counting her days, hoping for each night to be her last, he felt the last thing that he had ever thought he would feel on seeing The Lady: RELIEF!

Like the weight of the earth lifted off his shoulder. All the masks that he had deluded himself into believing as his skin, peeling off all at once. It was the most bizarre thing that he could ever have anticipated and it amused him far more than it probably should have.

He felt mad with happiness, the kind that he had only ever experienced as a character on stage. Maybe I was wrong all along, he thought. It is happiness that makes people go mad more than sorrow!

He could see the consciousness in The Lady's eyes. She recognised him alright, for how could she not? She knew full well what she had done, she even taunted him a year ago when he confronted her about the incident. That day turned out to be the turning point for both of their lives; he began to learn how to shoot while she began to learn that Karma is real! What could possibly be worse when your body 'dies' before your mind does? Being jailed in your own body ought to be the ultimate form of penalty that one can ever pay and who was he to deny her that?!

In his feat of frenzy, he shot through the gun twice.

*bang bang*

Clearly it was his lucky day for he shot them through the window and the Diwali firecrackers covered the rest. There were two holes on the curtain though but it didn't seem like anyone was paid enough to care about such details! For all that's worth, The Lady got to witness some "Diwali flares" right in her room!

Furthermore, and he may be mistaken but, it seemed to him that she was begging to die anyway.

But curtains weren't falling for her yet!

Perhaps everything does work out, he thought. May be not in the exact form that we expect, but things might just have a way of working out!

But what now? All that is left to do is to feel normal for what feels like the first time in his life.

May be that is the next big thing to look forward to. And he had this tiny feeling in his gut that it's not going to be a piece of cake either!

But for now, he needs to get rid of the gun.

One job at a time then!