The Printed Horror

 It was going to end here. On this abandoned terrace of a 20 storey building. It started in 2015 and it was damn well, ending today. She was sick of it. Sick of being the only one seeing it differently and being called wrong every single time! And she knew Abhilash was the one who had started it all, all those years ago. And so, he must go. However it happens.

She looked at him mercilessly. Gagged with an old and stinky sock, a tape covering most of his filthy mouth - the mouth that had taunted and tormented her endlessly, for only telling whatever she had seen. He looked exhausted from the dehydration. His eyes were puzzled, begging her to let him go. His focus shifted onto the bottle of cool water that lay on the table. He swallowed his parched throat as he watched longingly at those little drops of water rolling down the sides of the  bottle leaving an uneven wet ring around it. 

Under the sweltering heat, Abhilash seemed to doze off and just as his breath became deep and rhythmic, she smacked him hard on the face, waking him up in a jolt. He began sobbing, grunting muffled requests into the sock as he gagged. She wondered if he was throwing up. And the thought pleased her. He shouldn’t be spared - the little voice in her head kept telling over and over - for all those times. 

She pulled out the decrepit printout from her beige silk clutch. She took her time ironing it out on the table, trying to straighten out the creases that had impinged upon the precious photo. Her coolers were not doing a great job protecting her from the oppressive sun. She knew she would get a migraine if she stayed out any longer. But she wanted to ask him one last time what he saw on the paper. 

She ripped away the tape securing his mouth and watched him spit out the stinky sock from his mouth. No vomit - she noted with disappointment. “Sridevi, please untie me. I won't run. I just want to drink some water”, he croaked. “Oh, you don’t need to be untied for a drink” she smirked. She reached for the bottle and threw the water on his face. He shuddered in shock. But she knew how good the cool water felt against his sunburned face. She resisted her urge to swing the bottle against his head and instead poured some water into his thirsty cracked lips. “Oh, thank you, thank you” he sputtered breathlessly as he drunk up greedily.

She held up the paper in front of his face and growled “Tell me, what do you see. What do you actually see?”. 

“Argh! Not this again! I see Blue! Blue, blue, blue! I know you want me to tell White. But I don’t care if you kill me. But all I see is Blue!”. 

“What? No! You said it was White! I am the one who saw Blue!” She turned the paper in her hand and looked at the dress again. It was Blue and Black!

“You never listen, do you? I always said Blue and you said it was White!”

Sridevi tilted her head a tad to the left and looked at the paper again. It looked slightly white and gold alright. So what had she really told everyone? She couldn’t remember.

All she remembered was being the only one who saw Blue. Or White? She really couldn’t recall. 

“Lies, lies and more lies”, she screamed as she drew out the huge carving knife. She was putting an end to this and NOW! 

 

He breathed a sigh as he realised he had cut through the entire rope around his wrist with the shard of sheet metal he had located lying right next to him. Swift as a lightning, he pulled himself up and put his entire weight jamming his shoulder into her chest and sending her flying down the twenty storeys. She landed with a dull thud and he watched grimly as the crimson pool around her head seemed to seep out endlessly. 

She woke in horror, trembling uncontrollably. It took her a minute to compose herself as she looked around to find Abhilash sleeping peacefully next to her. Sridevi couldn’t believe that despite the absurdity of it all, she hadn’t realised that she had only been dreaming. She looked down at her hands and saw that she was still clutching her half read copy of “Misery”. She threw the printed horror under the cot and swore to herself to never fall asleep reading another Stephen King.