The Untold Story : A fan's interpretation

It was the letter than changed everything.

“We are not sure when you would read this but it is important that at least you of all people should know the truth.

Many years ago, the league of assassins started a movement to reform Gotham under the leadership of Ra’s Al Ghul. After initial setbacks meted out to them by the Gotham elite, a very dangerous plan was made to systematically eliminate the threats one by one so that Gotham would finally fall under chaos where the league can move in and assert its domain.

Under the guidance of a time traveller , Rip Hunter we came to know of who all are going to be the targets . Any changes in the schedule would have alerted the league to the fact that we are aware of theirs so a bold decision was taken. Multiple look alike copies were created out of volunteers in our organizations to attend multiple events in our stead, including family occasions. These brave warriors were well aware of the risks, but we still cannot forgive ourselves for what has been done. The league took the bait, and under the guise of random acts of violence, multiple targets were expertly assassinated. Among them were both mine and Martha’s dupes , gunned down by a league assassin disguised as mugger. As our son was not a target, we left him and our entire fortunes under your care , knowing that you would take care of him as your own as you have taken care of me.

Since a public exposure would cause tremendous repercussions, we began to operate in secret with fellow “elites” and formed our own secret society to counter the league operations , CADMUS.  Everything was going as planned but there was an unexpected complication , Martha became pregnant again and we had a son. At the same time, the leader of our small group, Vandal Savage began to exhibit his true colors.  Ours turned from a well wishers organization to something a little more sinister. The funds were redirected to scientific research and genetic mutation. Afraid of our reputations getting tarnished , we went along . During this period of time , all of us were under forced arrest in his base of operations , without any news or contact from the outside world . We would have remained there too till the end of our time , if not for what happened 2 months ago. Our son, an energetic 8 year old even under these trying circumstances , vanished . The search went on for days , but to no avail .

One morning , 2 weeks later , we got a message to collect our son from Savage’s laboratory . Shocked , we rushed there to find a broken husk of a kid , barely recognizable .  There were deep scars on his body, the light was gone from his eyes.  All that was left was the human vessel, our son was gone. He did not even survive the next week, and died peacefully in his sleep , not even recognizing us till his end .

This was an eye opener. Enough was enough .

I will not delve into the details of how that happened , but we managed to escape in the next 3 days. After spending almost all the money we could muster and calling in favors, we finally went underground in Bludhaven. Going back to Gotham was too risky for us and for you and our son.  Meanwhile, we had smuggled out our son’s body to be deposited near one of the abandoned league bases .

Years of collecting intel on the league proved to be fruitful as this base had one of the last surviving lazarus pits . Even though the pit was partially destroyed , we were able to use it to bring our son back . The results were horrific to say the least .

As with all the victims of the pit, our son was brought back to life, afflicted with incurable insanity . That was not even the bad part. We have , till today, no idea of what has been done to our son under Savage’s direction. But the effect of that and the pit left him horribly disfigured.

The next few days were unbearable, almost as much as when we had to leave Bruce without a word under your care. Our son seemed to remember us , and then he would suddenly go out ranting and talking to himself . He refused to look at his disfigured self after the first day , but he kept referring to himself as a freak of nature.

This went on , till one day we found him all dressed up and ready to leave.  By then we were so emotionally drained that we could not even tell him to not go.  All signs of insanity was gone from him in that last moment, I still remember his last words to me “ At least dad, I would always be smiling “ . With a silver glint of tears in his eyes , he left our safehouse never to be seen again .

We are writing this letter primarily to let you know that it is possible that our son might come to visit our mansion, so please take care of him too which we know you would. Savage’s fellows are still searching for us so we would be constantly on the move now, a return address in not required in such a case.

Please forgive us for all the transgressions we have done, and I hope you would one day understand that all we did was to make the world a better place. “

With Love

Thomas Wayne

Alfred was old, he was old 15 minutes ago when he opened the slightly muddy envelope to read a letter.  There was no turning back now, no more delays.

He rushed out from the mansion after his master, before it was too late

It has been years since the plague known as Joker infected him. No matter how many times he was put away, he always came back ,came back for more . The Clown Prince of Crime always found methods to trouble him in the most gruesome way possibly , improving upon it every single time . The list of victims kept on growing every year; Jason , Barbara, Jim, Selina, Dick .  This has gone long enough . Every time , the clown’s motive was to see me break , see me cross the line .  It has gone far enough and the time has come to cross it . This time it hit closer to his heart than before, this time it was Damian. When he rescued Damian from the ruins of Club Penguin, he thought it was too late. But the kid was tough, tougher than Joker thought. He survived the blast , he survived the torture, but the damage has been done. Damian would never walk again, nor would he see. This has hurt him more than anything , just when he was almost considering laying down the cape to be with his son. It was time for one last showdown, one last debt to pay, and then it will be the end. The end of Batman.

Alfred was no master detective, nor was he physically young. But years spent at Bruce’s side has had its advantages. The bat computer was secure, very secure, for outsiders. To Alfred  , getting the details was simple enough. The last files accessed, the last known location of the batmobile, the fastest way there. Ten minutes after he turned on the computer, Alfred was out of the house , rushing as fast has be can , towards where Bruce has gone, the ruins of the old Arkham Asylum.

The Sun was setting over the Gotham Skyline. The nights were peaceful these days, thanks to the Bat Brigade. Traffic was minimal too, but it took Alfred quite some time to reach his destination. The Asylum looked deserted. There were no sounds, no gunshots, no cheers. Just a heavy silence. He went around the building to the back, and there it was. The Batmobile was there, headlights glaring onto the courtyard. Once overgrown with weeds, it was as if a stampede has passed through. The grass were crushed, the rocks thrown around . A violent struggle has taken place there, the dark red stains confirming the same. With a heavy heart , he neared the front end of the car. There they were, both on the ground , both breathing still. With a sigh of relief, Alfred began moving towards them , but then again , he was never going to be on time. With a grunt, Batman got to his knees and took out a knife from his boot. A fine specimen, an assassin’s tool . A gift to the father from the son. It was fitting in a way, to end the story then. There were no last requests , there was no redemption . Judge, Jury and Executioner were all the same , and without a word , Batman plunged the knife down hard onto Joker’s chest. So hard that Alfred thought he heard the tip hit the stones beneath them. No surprise laughter, no jokes. The clown looked up at Batman for one last time. For a second , both Batman and Alfred saw something , something like tears in his eyes, then it was gone. Those mad eyes closed with one parting sentence , not directed at Batman but at Alfred who has silently approached them.

“Take care of him Alfred, Bruce needs you now more than ever” . And then, on this day, the Clown Prince has passed away.

The journey back was heavy with silence. No words were required between the two. Back in the cave, Alfred went back upstairs to get the medicines. On coming back , he saw Bruce starting a fire, a fire into which went his cape, his mask , his body suit. Batman has crossed the line, and that means he has to vanish, to end. He kept the medicines near Bruce and went across to the mini lab, to check if it was over. He pulled out the sheets , and kept them near Bruce along with the letter. After the fire was done, he stitched up the battered Bruce and went on his way upstairs. At the door , he turned back to see him reading the letter . With a sigh, he went back up.

It was nearly 2 hours before there was a knock on Alfred’s door. It was Bruce. His face a stone mask, there was just one question he wanted to ask Alfred.

“Did you check it?”

“yes master Bruce”

“And?”

“It was positive “

“Thank you Alfred”

And then he left .

Joker’s body was found the next day by a bunch of kids. The news spread like wildfire of the death of Joker. Questions arose about Batman , about how he has finally gone against what he stood for.  There were no answers , there was no Batman. The GCPD has declared him a vigilante wanted for murder , a shoot at sight order was issued, but there was no sign of him. Batman has vanished.

2 months later …

Gotham has come crashing down after the death of Joker. The continued absence of Batman has brought out the worst the city has harbored . Over the years , they had remained silent , hiding in the shadows. But no more. The city was in chaos, and the police were reduced to being a joke again. There was no one left to control them.

An old man was sitting staring at his own face in the mirror. Slowly, he began coloring his hair bright green. Then it was the face …made chalk white. The grin was the hardest , but he managed to make it look the same with prosthetics . It took a long time, but it was done. The man suited up, wearing his purple suit with the pretty flower at his breast, pin tie and pointed boots. The similarity was there, almost too similar now that the dresses were also similar. He went inside to say goodbye to his wife, handing over his wedding ring and pocket watch to her.

“You don’t have to do this Thomas”, she was almost crying .

“No Martha, I have to. The city needs Batman”, his voice was steady.

“I know , but why does it have to be you”

“Because there is no one else, no one else left. There has to be a Batman in Gotham , and for that there has to be a Joker . Our son is gone now, time for me to carry on his work . Take care of yourself “

With these parting words he shuffled out of their house , set far back from any path or road. The farther he moved away from the house , his gait changed. Gone was the stoop, gone was the shuffling movement of an old man. The steady steps were taking him to his destination. Slowly he began to laugh, the maniacal laugh of a deranged mind. It went up in volume till the whole woods were reverberating with it . And slowly he walked towards the city, to be there again , as the Clown Prince of Crime , as the Joker.

Disclaimer : All the Characters and locations mentioned in the story above are all registered trademarks of Warner Bros Entertainment and DC Comics. This is a pure work of fiction based on my ideas alone and is in no way reflecting on the current and past story lines published by the owners

Drowning in your love .

The cold was never his friend. And today especially things were not going well. The knee cap has twisted for an unprecedented 3 times last night and the painkillers were not helping at all. The fact that he can only rely on his one remaining hand for support made getting up all the more tedious and almost impossible. After over an hour of struggle, he managed to drag himself up and the day has slowly begun.

Although hampered by the misfortunes plaguing him over the last few weeks, there was no change in the man himself. One cup of strong coffee, 2 cigarettes and he settle down with the second coffee cup to read the news. That was when the phone rang. Grunting at the effort, he managed to answer the call, and that is when his world stopped. It was no tragic news, no calamity has befallen his kin, just a normal greeting , “Hi T, how are you ? “ spoken in the shy and sweet voice , the one he had known years ago , the one he thought he had lost .

It was in that winter time 7 years ago that he first met her. The streets were emptying as the day was coming to an end. Ignoring the cold ,ignoring the rush he just sat there outside the S-bahn station. No, he wasn’t waiting for the train, nor was he waiting for his friends. It was just that he was drunk , each step was a pain which finally made him sit down and try to clear his head before the day descended into night, for at night the party begins again. He might have dozed off because when he came to , it was already dark and he was not alone on the bench anymore. There was someone sleeping next to him, and the wafting smell of alcohol confirmed that this was another one of the victims of the on going Stuttgart fest. With some effort he managed to get back up on his feet. Still groggy , he almost fell back again but steadied himself a mere seconds before he could fall on his companion in the bench. His near fall and the noise had awakened the sleeping one and for a second T forgot everything around himself. Gone were the muddy unclear thoughts rampaging his head, and all he could see was her eyes, the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen, looking up at him , frightened and at the same time fiery. And that is when he lost the battle and passed out

The initial shock has already passed by the time he regained his consciousness . The girl was still there ,which surprised him but at the same time he was happy she did not leave. Her words awoke within him a feeling , a feeling of loss and longing and at the same time , one of peace.  That was  the first time he met Rachel. After the awkward introductions, the next few days were something he would never forget. She was a tourism student from Switzerland spending her last year travelling around Europe. Unlike most people he had met so far, there was something different about her, something free and wild. With her, he could be what he truly is , there was no need of masks or false bravado. With her, he was just T. She matched him drink to drink , jumped around the ice rinks like crazy people , talked to him when he was in his dark zone, stuck with him through his craziness and slowly he was falling madly in love with her.  Every moment of his life was centered around her, her very presence has made his life something he began to cherish.

It was almost a year after they had met that his world came crashing down again. She had come into his world like an angel on a cold winter night , and in another cold winter night she just vanished, as if no one was ever there. Going crazy by the minute, he kept on searching for her, a search spanning days , months but to no avail. His condition deteriorated and it all ended one night when he fell down the mountainside while searching for her. His legs were broken, ligaments torn, the doctors diagnosed that he would never walk again. In the phases between consciousness, pain and the haze of painkillers he thought he saw her again , crying near his bed side , and when he woke up there was no one . But there was a note, one which was written in her own hand , “ I am sorry , please forgive me “

That was the final nail in his coffin. The man called T died that day, and gave birth to something different, something normal.

The story goes on from then, partially recovered he returned home and the journey began again. Working days, wild sleepless nights, the days went on. Before he knew it 7 years have passed and there he stood hold the phone , almost shivering, looking like the boy from 7 years ago, lost in her voice.

The conversation was forced and formal but under the words there was a torrent of emotions that he was not sure he could control. She wanted to see him , and God how long he had waited for those words. Every second seemed like hours to him , the wait now was agonizing. He reached the coffee shop an hour early, and his heart skipped a beat when he saw she was already there , waiting for him . No words were necessary , every thing just melted away. It was just him and her and at that moment it was as if no time has passed. Just the two of them , and the world they made for themselves. Every word, every look , every touch was electrifying. Two people were finally finding themselves again , after getting lost in the bowels of time . The search was finally over. She accompanied him home, he never asked her what happened that day long ago, nothing seemed important now . All he could think of was that she was back in his arms, her smile his own , his life hers to command. Once home , he hurried in to clear a path through the debris but she stopped him, said “I am so sorry T “ and kissed him. He was surprised but he kissed her back , a long passionate kiss , which left them both winded. He gently untangled himself from her arms and went to get her a drink. He was smiling , gone was the weary eyed angry young man that his co-workers feared, gone was the bleary eyed drunkard haunting the bars across the city. He was back to all that time ago, young and in love , his eyes shining with life and hope. He was still smiling when the knife slashed his throat . He was still smiling when she turned him over and started stabbing him, all he could see was her eyes, her lovely green eyes.

The Stutter Times : March 30^th 2015

The quiet neighborhood of  Santa street was shocked at the events that happened last night making this one of their most horrific memories in recent times. The body of Mr.T , one of the city’s upcoming novelists was found crucified to the side of his apartment building. The discovery of the body was made by the window cleaner who was setting up his equipment when he came across this gruesome scene. Police and fire force have come and took down the body. The cause of death at this point is not clear but it is suspected that extreme blood loss  has resulted in his death. His throat was slashed and there were countless stabs on his body any of which would have made him bled out. His face was a mask of pure bliss and joy , something which disturbed even the seasoned veterans of the force. The smile was genuine, the happiness in his long dead eyes were infectious.

The fact that made this even more horrifying is the fact that not a single drop of blood was found anywhere in his apartment or near the building except the dried smudges on his clothes. The authorities refused to comment

Special correspondent.

If only...

                        The rain has been falling non-stop for about a couple of hours now. The fact that it is still raining meant he would be late today, again. Lenient as he is , he was sure his superior would one day run out of patience. Late to work ,early to leave, unplanned time offs in between; anyone in his right mind would have blown his fuse by now. Strangely things have been pretty smooth so far. He knew that one day it will all come to an end, all that is left would be to pray that it is not today.

                        Thoughts of work have been distracting him for a while now but since then a certain aura of calmness seemed to descend on him. There was nothing he could do, the rain will not stop and without any protection he was not going to venture out from under the building. It was a stale mate, the one he believed he is enjoying quite a bit. Having come to the realization that he would be there for a while, he settled down to sit upon an old but still sturdy stool there and started to just look around a bit. In this part of town , being stuck out in the rain is one of the worst possible scenarios you can get into. Everyone goes inside their houses and shuts themselves in, the shops close down, and even the taxis stop running. Now how he ended up in this neighborhood is still a mystery. Until three months ago he was a proud owner of a tiny villa up river and had a handsome sum tucked away in various accounts across different banks. It started as a rain then too, a drop, a few drops and then came the rushing torrent of flood water that leveled his place and almost took him with it. With a grittiness unheard of people like him, he had clawed his way back from the depths and snatched his life away from the whirlpools threatening to silence him forever. The story ran for a week in the local edition papers till they found greener pastures to explore their creativity into. So from a fairly successful member of the society he had become a suffering survivor of one of the nature’s freak ‘accidents’. The celebrity status for the one that was alive, netted him some amount of money which when put together with all he had saved so far left him with a not too shabby amount, one which would not allow him to go back to his life before but would get him the big but lonely mansion at this part of the town. And there he is now. In a place where people even view rains as a stranger to be wary of, he has started the second phase of his life.

           

                        There were no regrets, no broken hearts he left behind when he decided to relocate. The only regret was his own , the only broken heart was his own heart. The day it all came down was just a week away from when he was getting ready to pop the question to Sally. It was not love, no ; it was something more, it was a connection he had felt when he was with her. Love is never blind, deaf and dumb, she knew he was ‘loaded’ and he knew she considered money as one of his attractive qualities. It was more of a comfortable arrangement but deep in his heart, he was deeply madly in love with her. The fact that she did not even come to see him once while he was in the hospital did not disturb him one bit. What finally tore him apart was the fact that she had left a message for him with her friend. There were no goodbyes, no anger, just a business letter.

“Dear Dave,

It seems things have become a bit tedious for us now since you have lost everything. I do not blame you for what happened but at the same time I have to think about my future too. While you were recuperating I have met with a very nice gentleman called Victor who seems to be smitten with me. Since there is nothing more to look forward to after you have been released from the hospital, I am not sticking around. Victor and I are leaving for Canada this weekend. Hope you recover well

Sally. “

            The letter, though worded simply, tore him into pieces. His sudden craving of solitude was the driving factor for finally settling down in this little corner of the world. There were days when he used to dream about her, dreams of a future he never had, but slowly they also faded. The memories were still there but they have started to look like old photographs, becoming less clear with each passing day. Deep down he still missed her, sometimes a smiled flashed on a colleague, and a word or a gesture would painfully remind him of her. Emotions would begin to flood his mind till he was sure he would drown , well almost drown, again. It had caused him a lot of trouble but gradually he managed to bring them down and be normal. The memories, the pain, the agony, all have become a part of him, a part he kept locked up inside; hidden behind a well crafted mask of indifference.

            The rain shows no sign of stopping. The time for work has now passed and there was no point in going all the way like a wet cat to spend a few hours before travelling back all the way to his house again. The walk to his place took hardly 10 minutes; still he was drenched by the time he climbed up the stairs to his front door. The lights blinked on when he got inside, even though the house was a bit old, it still had some of the distinctive features found in most modern apartments. An intercom connected to the gate, automatic light sensors etc. He began climbing up the stairs to his first floor bedroom with a cheerful “Honey, I am home!”  Slowly he reached his bedroom and opened the door.

“You know, I thought a lot about you today Sally, how I almost lost you and then how fate brought us back together. I just had to come see you after that”

He walked up to the female human head mounted on his bed room wall and slowly patted its head.

“Now now, don’t be all angry with me. I promise I will go to work tomorrow “

Hair had begun to fall down from the head. The mild smell of decay made him wrinkle his nose in disgust.

“Oh Sally my dear, I believe you have been a naughty little girl. Now that you started smelling like last time, I might have to replace you.”

He picked up the head, went to the window and threw it out into the dark as far as he could.

Tonight he has to work. Preparations have to be made. The heads are lasting longer now but he still could not preserve them enough to make them stay as long as he wanted. As per the plan he had charted out, tonight would be Sally for when she was young, very young, maybe sixteen. The younger they are, the longer the heads last.

He slowly climbed down and went out again, the rain did not seem to bother him. Tonight he will meet with another Sally again. Double-checking whether he had the bag with his tools and the map of the neighboring university area, he started walking slowly to the campus grounds.

And in another twelve hours news began spreading of the 8^th student to be gone missing from the campus, never to be found again.

            

A Chocolate Heart

                  He looked around. There was no one in sight. The only sounds were the whirring noises of the fans. He fast approached the desk he was aiming for. Making sure that there was no one sneaking upon him he placed the package on the desk and ran away.

                  2 hours later: Veena has just reached office. Today was the same. There was the parcel on her desk today also, a carefully wrapped box of heart shaped chocolates. She was surprised the first time it happened around a year ago but since then has tried to track down who was responsible for this. But all her efforts were in vain and the boxes keep appearing. They were really good chocolates and she had tried to find out the brand or the manufacturer but finally realized that they were homemade. The past few months she had given up trying to find out who her benefactor is and have enjoyed just eating them, those lovely little chocolate hearts.

                  He was watching her from a few cubicles away. He saw her smile when she found the box and his heart skipped a beat. She was lovely; the way her face brightens up when she breaks into a smile would lift his spirits in the darkest of days. He first saw her little over a year ago when he transferred to this location. She was the one in charge of introducing him to his new colleagues and it was love at first sight. He began talking to her, hanging out around her and in time they became very close friends. But he never had the courage to speak his mind to her, never got the proper words to convey his feelings for her. It was not just love, it was something really special. That was when he decided upon the idea of chocolates. Veena was a die-hard chocolate junkie, and there lay his chances. He began making small batches of chocolates; the little heart shaped ones and once he had become good at it, started leaving boxes of them at her desk. He had not hoped to continue doing this for so long, but he kept postponing his plans of telling her. She used to ask him at first whether he had seen anyone leave the boxes. Although it was painful to lie to her, he maintained a straight face and told her he didn’t. He even went as far as to make fun of her for having a secret admirer. Half hoping she would find out the truth, he had kept going for so long but was disappointed when she stopped searching. That is when he decided the time has come to finally tell her the truth. Tomorrow is as good a day as any. It is Valentine ’s Day, the day of love and he had been preparing for some time. This time he made a big chocolate heart, one of his best works and was planning on giving it to her tomorrow. The anticipation, the reaction he might get from her, all of it was having its effect on him. He was so out of it that he deliberately tried to keep out of her way.

                                    He managed to evade her till evening. His attempts were also helped by the fact that she had too much work to do. But as his day was ending, he got a message from her.  “Meet me urgently near the garden benches. It’s about my admirer ;)”. His heart stopped for a bit, then started beating faster. “Oh my God she found out. What will I tell her, how will I tell her?” He began panicking. The location also was un-nerving. The benches were hangouts for the couples in the company and in the evenings once can always find love blooming under the setting sun around those benches. Both of them have seen and laughed at the love struck couple there but now a meeting at the very same spot? He contemplated not going but then again it would not serve any purpose. Why postpone the inevitable? He replied “Ok” and walked ever so slowly to the benches. He saw her even before she saw him. The flowing hair, the graceful figure, the spot of sunshine on a darkening skyline. And then she saw him and her face lit up with a smile. He felt his heart beating faster, and was aware of a mild sheet of sweat on his brow. This is silly, he thought and went ahead to meet her. Even before he reached her, she ran forward and hugged him. He was taken aback. This is not what he expected. His heart felt like it had a life of its own and was beating hard as if to tear out of his chest. His body became tense, he started sweating. But within all this there was a feeling of relief, of a huge burden being lifted. Finally it is over, no more sneaking around office in the morning to drop the boxes off. No more staying up all night making the chocolates. It’s all over now. She took a couple of steps back and started talking. “I finally found the secret admirer.” Her eyes were wide and they looked happy, deep happy eyes. He finally understood what heaven feels like. He was lost in his own thoughts, when she shook him. “You heard what I said?” “What?” he broke out of his reverie with a start. “I said this is Vinod, my secret admirer.”

                  The scream of pain was inside his head. The heart that was beating so fast for her was shattered to a million pieces. I looked behind and saw Vinod approaching. “Hi Raju, Hey darling” “Hey” she crooned. He was speechless. The words seemed to come from far away. Veena was telling about how she found Vinod around her desk during the break and how he was acting a bit suspicious and how she had forced him into a corner and finally he breaking down and accepting that he is in fact the secret admirer and he made those chocolates himself. “You know Vinod , Raju was the first one to suggest that the chocolates would be from a secret admirer” “Is it? Wow man I thought I had gotten away with it too, if she hadn’t caught me today” They were still talking, completing sentences, how the chocolates were so good. He did not listen to any of this. The pain was unbearable. His eyes burned, but tears did not come. He felt empty, like his whole life, his being was sucked out. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak, it was all over. With supreme effort he made an excuse about some call and walked back. Did she call him back? He didn’t care, it was all over. The tears that he kept in check began flowing. And he ran and ran and ran. Tears did not stop; it was still flowing when he finally reached his place. The chocolate heart he made for her was on the table, staring at him like an ugly eye, a bitter reminder of how he lost. With an anguished cry he fell down on the floor.

The Times. February 14, 2013.

                  The body of Veena Sharma who was missing from yesterday night onwards have been found in the Central Park. An employee of xxx company for the last 3 years, she was reported missing by her parents when she failed to comeback from work. She was found by an early morning jogger today. On preliminary examination, it was found that she had been strangled. What made this scene gruesome was the fact that her heart had been cut out and replaced with a big chocolate heart. Upon collecting evidence from the scene of crime, the police have found an employee id belonging to one Mr.Raju Sundaram. They had traced the id to the home of the said individual. Receiving no response, the police broke down the door to find Raju in a catatonic stage sitting on the dining table with the missing heart of Veena and a bloody knife in front of him. Police have taken him into custody for further questioning although the police appointed psychiatrist is of the opinion that it was next to impossible to get anything out from him. This has become another one of those cases where a promising life of a young woman was cut short by a deranged individual. Veena’s parents were not available for comments after Raju’s arrest.

Special correspondent.

“Honey did you know this Veena woman?” asked Meena to her husband. “She works in the same company as you” “No, never seen her before in my life. Who is she? What happened?” asked Vinod. “No nothing, another woman murdered by a failed lover maybe. They should be hanged you know. So are you sure you are not coming?” “No Meena, I got to finish up on the laundry today or else there would not be anything to wear tomorrow.” “Ok then, see you soon” and Meena left for work. Vinod waited till her car was out of sight before taking out the garbage bag from the lowest drawer. “The jeans can be saved with washing, but the shirt is a goner. She fought like a tigress, but then she was never going to win. Should have waited a bit more before cutting out the heart though, it was too bloody this time; and it was my favorite shirt too.“ Vinod sighed. And then the smile came back “Thank you Raju, I just loved your chocolates”. With the smile still on his lips he walked out into the backyard to add the bag to the already burning pile of garbage there.