Hauntingly

Dance of Death

“Mir Lakhani is very surprised,” said Naurez.

Throwing his head back, Naurez took a large swig of beer from his bottle. The liquid sloshed loudly.

Murtasim raised an eyebrow at his brother-in-law. “And why is he surprised?”

Small flickers of sliver light from the disco balls hanging on the ceiling fell around the otherwise dimly lit room, looking like scattered confetti. Loud music consisting of fast beat drums accompanied by heavily auto-tuned voices which blared throughout the room, repeatedly crooning the lyrics to ‘mithho angoor ahai munjho jaani, husn mai zor ahai munjho jaani’. It was a party room, located in one of Naurez’s more clandestine properties. Many of their acquaintances, lords from all around the province, were also in attendance.

Three women dressed in skimpy blouses and matching garish coloured, knee length skirts danced in the middle of the room. The feudal lords tossed crisp notes onto their bodies as they proactively swayed their hips and waved their hands, making their anklets chime and their bangles clang.

“You’ve never shown interest in purchasing from the feudal auction before. Then suddenly, one day, you decide you will. That too, in such a dramatic fashion,” replied Naurez with an amused cackle. “And you wonder why Lakhani is surprised? We all are.”

Murtasim made an annoyed ‘tsk’ sound. “I’ll do what I feel like, when I feel like it. Why does Lakhani or anyone else have a problem?”

“Oh believe me Murtasim, we have no problem at all. And Lakhani in particular is over the moon.” Naurez paused to burp uncouthly. Then he brushed the traces of liquid still gathered around his mouth with the back of his hand. “Lakhani was incredibly on edge about your refusal to join in on the practice. Your insistence that everyone stick to the good old fashioned prostitute for a quick fuck was making him paranoid. He kept saying you were going to rat him out to the authorities. He is the ring leader of the lords’ underground criminal activities after all. He has good reason to be paranoid.”

“Well...it is a bit of a pretentious nuisance to hold an auction. It’s a completely useless frivolity and just a way for lords to gloat their wealth amongst each other if you ask me. What was wrong with the normal way of doing things?” asked Murtasim, shaking his head, annoyed. “Then maybe Lakhani would’ve saved himself a whole heap of paranoia.”

Naurez was confused. He looked at Murtasim with a questioning expression on his face.

“But you just took in that golden girl didn’t you?” reminded Naurez. “So why are you still insisting on your old line of thought?”

“Hm,” was all Murtasim had to say.

He lifted his cigarette to his mouth instead of elaborating on the subject. As the smoke Murtasim exhaled billowed out in front of him, Meerab’s old accusing words came floating to the forefront of his mind.

Just because you haven’t purchased from the feudal auction before, doesn’t change the fact that you knew about it’s existence.

Murtasim hated to admit it, but the chit of a girl had definitely hit him in a nerve that he never knew existed before now.

One of the dancing women waltzed over to the secluded corner in the very back of the room where Murtasim was lounging with Naurez. She curled the tip of a strand of hair around her finger and smiled flirtatiously at both men.

Naurez became excited upon her arrival. “Heeeyyyy Shabnam!” exclaimed Naurez in a drawn out excited drawl. “Long time no see huh?” he said as he ran his gaze down the body of the dancer named Shabnam.