Love And Lies Are Red

Prologue

As he sets aside the curtains on the window, the fresh morning light falls on his otherwise dull body. The wild whirls of the sea clutching on to the rocky shore catches his eyes. It is as if when there is someone hanging off our emotional refuge, they keep stealing us bit by bit like the sea breaking off little pebbles from its shore and scurrying away.
Everytime without any answer.

He slumps onto the high-back plastic chair, in front of a wide desk. The only two things present in his cosy yet empty plank cottage. The rest is either the chirps of insects at night or the sea waves slamming against the shore loudly. He is probably at an island kind of place - fishermen shouting, strange hawk-like birds stopping by his window, and a small community running a tourist rest house business among the scant population living here - and nothing can become a stimulus any more important than her thoughts. He only owns a phone with a deactivated SIM card, and any electrical source of communication around him is missing. He usually has these coconut and grilled fish recipies at a small eating provision by the road, that connects this sea side to a humming town. He has his own timing of conversing with the sea in the language of his heart, when the moonlight makes the bobbing waves gleam. They so very represent his own heart rhythms, which he wishes could stop the moment she had asked him to never see her again. Several months having passed in this isolation, he realises that he has pondered enough over his life to take upon this grave decision. The truth is urgently needed.

A deep inhalation later, he tries to concentrate his mind on everything that has happened till then. Their first meeting at the café.....her revelation.....and the murders following it. As soon as her face comes in their parting moment, he chokes. An eye around and he realises that the files and documents with his name on them are all still burning in a small bin. Is it that hard for him to get rid of himself? How will it change anything in his life if the turning point was already past? He knows he has remained within her and can never erase himself from there, no matter how hard he tries to run away from the world's view of him. Each day has become a yearning for him but this morning, it is going to be his mourning. When he had fallen in love with her, he knew what it would bring in consequence - destruction. With that, the thoughts in his mind as well as those papers in the bin are all in ashes. The concept of love, however, is different as its smoke never dispels even if everything is burnt out to ashes. It's like the fire turns the whole body to a granular consistency except the origin of life one is born with, on a body's cremation. The last word raises his ears and his mind screeches back to the starting of all the mess - Tasha Aithwal's death. And her unsaid cremation. He sets the camera angle on a pod on the desk, such that his face is perfectly in contrast with the blank wooden background. Only his upper body is visible in the frame, and a noose hanging behind him.

Amidst the glitch and the white noise at the corners of the screen, he is sitting poised to start his speech - a message to those people who have held her captive. She was already emotionally tied that now she has to surrender to the physical retribution. Holding back that excruciating voice in his throat, he starts,
"Hi there! I am....", He pauses before introducing himself. His name does not need any introduction. From what no one had any idea about an ordinary name, the whole country is now curious about him. And no one knows he is hiding here, a place by the seashore where she had asked him to stay, till she returned to him. He had started hating his own name because it had always been associated with her name. Suddenly, the camera falls from the pod on the floor, that broke his trance. And the film roll needed to be changed now. He wants to kick it away as frustration starts building up in him. Why it had to happen to him only? Why she had to suffer because of him? It is a big day for him. Here he is shivering about ending his life once his testimony is given to the world, and there she is spiritlessly brave just going along, soon to be presented in the Supreme Court of India this day. To be given a death sentence.

"Hi there! So, you all know me very well, I guess. It is a big day for us.....for me. Let us forget where I am, or who I am, and focus on what I am going to do. There are about two hours to go for the Supreme Court session to begin, after which I will be losing everything. Including my life. People have known our storyline, the starting and the ending, but have they known the story? A story is never in a straight line, and never in mere names of the characters. So, if you want to know our whole story, please listen to my words from now on. I don't have time, I know. But I believe in certain powers like that of love, and unity in righteousness. Everyone of you will be playing a big role in this story, if you also feel along with me. Now, throughout this, I will be hiding only one thing from you. You may guess that, but I don't feel anything about it. It was just something I wanted to tell her, and I wish you had listened to me Arsh...... nevermind. It all started long before that one single murder that changed the course of our destiny. So, sit back and lend me your ears. For after this, you will never see me for real".

In that pause of a few seconds, he feels the noose behind him coming close to him. He has confidence that this time he will let those tears swipe down his cheeks like her fingers used to run on his body, and not give in to the realisation that his failure of reaching her in time might actually snatch away his soul from his body. It is going to be their story, where they will make their way through the cragged path of their journey.

His lips part and a smirk spreads across his face before he is actually commencing. He knows that as soon as the recording will be stopped, the media will go insane, the public will be distraught, and the security will be greatly disturbed in this country. Thus, their story starts.

Infact, it continues.