“But dr,” Professor Zeeshan asked, “what about the possibility that the recovery is temporary and not permanent?”

“Well, we’ll find that within a month or two. But if their recovery exceeds more than that then we can assume that they are perfectly sane.”

“Oh…So now we’ll do the same with other two? Kill their imaginary lovers in front of them?”

“Definitely!”

An hour later, the two students who had just understood the entire case, were sitting on the stairs. One of them asked the other:

“So tell me what lesson does this case give us? According to you.”

“Lesson? You mean life lesson?”

“Yeah!”

Before she could answer, they heard Professor Zeeshan’s voice from behind:

“I’ll tell you…”

They both turned to see and stood up.

“This case of four insane women tells us,” he continued, “that one should never fall in love or get obsessed with someone they can’t achieve. Like a movie star or any celebrity. These women were so mad about Sarim Waqar that their misery about Sarim’s murder turned them insane.”

“So what else should they have done?”

“They should never have fallen in love in the first place.”

“Well, love is beyond someone’s control.”

“No…The first stage of love is something controllable. These women should have realised that they were falling for him and should have controlled their feelings of obsession at the right time. And none of this would have happened.”

Both the students agreed and nodded.

Three Months Later

Eruj and her son were at the same grocery store where they used to come before. Eruj seemed normal and happy while shopping for her son. She went to the spot where she used to meet her imaginary friend. And everything was normal there too. No hallucination of any sort appeared before her. And she smiled while roaming around there.

Farheen was at her home with her brother. Her brother who was handing over some money to her asked her:

“Sister, do you feel alone here?”

“I do,” she replied like a sane person.

“Don’t worry, I’ll do something about it.”

“Like what?”

“I will find someone for you. You get married.”

She smiled back and seemed happy about it.

“You need a family,” her brother suggested.

“Yes, I do.”

Shehla was at her home with her kids. She was telling them stories while reading from the book. The kids were enjoying and laughing with their mother. She seemed really happy to be with her family, and since the day she was discharged she never saw me around.

And lastly, Omama was at some restaurant with her fiancée. They were meeting for the first time, and their parents were also at the same restaurant.

After a while, Omama’s father came by and asked her in low voice:

“Are you happy with this?”

“I’d be happy with any marriage,” she answered honestly. “As long as I would have a true lover.”

Her father was happy to hear this.

The four innocent women had finally recovered and had moved on with their lives. None of them saw me again as a hallucination since they all believed that their lover had passed away and would never show up again. Thanks to the two expert psychologists: Mr Waraich and Mr Akbar.

I would have probably strangled him to death since I could see the redness on his neck.

Oh dear God I uttered, I’ve murdered again.

I moved around in the house not knowing what to do. I looked up at the walls and felt as if the walls were watching me and were about to eat me. I felt terrible for what I just did.

The next thing I did was that I opened the balcony’s two doors and left the space. I then walked towards the piano and dragged it as hard as I could. I put all my strength and it was quite heavy. I finally dragged the instrument towards the balcony. As it was blocked by the railing, I made my mind that today by all means I would destroy this instrument by throwing it outside the building.

I should have known that this was an emotional decision that I would badly regret in future.

I lifted and pushed the piano. It slowly got vertical. I kept on pushing applying maximum force until half of the piano’s body was in the air outside the railing. I just took a little breath as I was tired already. But then I pushed the whole instrument and finally it was out. I peeked outside and saw while it was falling down on some vehicle.

A loud noise was created. It sounded as if the whole building had collapsed. The sound was worse than any bomb explosion’s noise. I kept my hands on the railing and looked down at the destroyed instrument. I then moved backwards and realised that I must escape.

Within few minutes I picked up my cell phone and my wallet. I wasn’t really sure about taking the mattress along with myself. I however went to the bath room and washed my face with cold water. I calmed myself down and then slowly left the apartment locking it from outside and keeping the keys with myself.

Minutes later I was in some bus. I was sitting next to the window side and was watching the city.

What has this city made me? I asked myself.

*****************

Several minutes later, I was standing outside some cheap two-star hotel. I needed a place to stay or should I say a place to hide myself. I took God’s name deep in my heart and began my journey from outside the building to the reception. I asked the guy standing at the reception:

“How much for one night?”

“Two thousand rupees.”

“And what about food?”

“What about it?” he got confused.

“I mean is there food facility?”

“Yes definitely sir, definitely. We have different menus of breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

“I see. Well anyways, I’ll be staying here for at least one week or probably more. Please just arrange a clean room for me.”

“Sure sir!”

“And one more thing,” I spoke giving a serious look. “I need you to make sure that the room that you’re giving me does not have a red colour.”

“Does not have red colour?” he rephrased. “Sorry, maybe I didn’t catch you clearly?”

“You heard me correct. I don’t want anything that is red in my room.”

“Seriously? Can I ask why?”

“No you cannot! I’m sorry, pardon me please.”

He looked at me giving a weird look.

“Really?” he asked anyway concerning the red colour issue.

“You know what, forget it. Just forget it. Give me whatever kind of room you can, and then I’ll remove whatever I’ll have to.”

“Okay sir.”

He then looked at the keys holder and after thoroughly seeing it, he picked up a key with key chain. The key chain was coincidentally of red colour. As he handed it over to me, he realised that he was doing the wrong thing. So before I could say anything, he apologised and immediately removed the key chain from the room’s key.

Next hour, I was outside the room. I was unlocking the door through the key. I entered inside and switched on the lights and fan. The room was as big as the rooms of the apartment I was staying previously. I liked the place somewhat but I was conscious about the specific colour which was why I was still looking for it everywhere. Apparently, I couldn’t find it anywhere but I was still looking for it with a conscious eye.

My next step was to have as much sleep as I could as I needed to give my mind an abundant amount of rest. My mind was constantly demanding freedom. Freedom from guilt, freedom from desire and freedom from pressures of life.

As far as my luggage was concerned, I was totally clueless. Because today I received two calls from the airport and I missed both of them. My luggage had really important stuff but I didn’t really care anymore because right now I wanted nothing more than peace of mind. The more I was seeking it, the difficult it was getting for me to become peaceful.

If only money could cure my state of mind I would have invested all of it. But I was trying to keep myself away from all kinds of drugs because the only thing that badly scared me was addiction. And it is the worst of all curses that can happen to a man. I had destroyed the root of my addiction but I was going to regret it afterwards.

After a while, I locked my room and went outside the hotel’s building. I had my wallet with me. I actually came for lunch but I accidentally saw a clothes shop nearby. I really wanted to change my clothes since I’d been wearing the ones I was wearing for quite a long time. As I stopped outside the shop, I saw a fifty percent discount sale. I got excited and went inside to shop.

I immediately picked up some clothes that seemed comfortable by touching them and fit for my size. I walked towards the counter after selecting my clothes and paid the amount.

Then I just jumped out of the store and walked straight back to the hotel tolerating my hunger for food. I walked and kept on walking until I reached my room. I took out my keys and unlocked the door.

Oh, this better be good. I spoke fearing that I might see the red colour again.

As I had seen plenty of red colour at the shop downstairs.

However, I opened the door and everything was fine. I felt relieved but my heart was beating really fast. I don’t know why I was getting this feeling that something bad was about to happen. And to some extent this feeling turned out to be true.

I kept my new clothes on the bed and looked at the mirror that was hanging on the wall. I looked at my face for a while and then as I turned towards the opposite direction and began to walk looking aside, I felt as if I bumped into someone standing. I fell backwards out of fear. As I looked up, I saw the doctor standing whom I had killed just a few days back. His fore head had a hole and it was bleeding.

I screamed getting terrified. But he was there for just few seconds and then disappeared. I looked around the room while he was not there anymore. I sat up on the bed and whispered:

Oh my God! What was that? A ghost?

I then realised that it was nothing real and I was just seeing things since I was too alone. Should I stand up? I hope I won’t see stuff again. I stood up anyways and slowly began to move. I was quite afraid but I had to go to the toilet. I made my way and as I stepped inside I shut the door immediately as I was quite frightened.

Next moment, I was looking at my face in the mirror and I was prepared that I would see another hallucination in a few minutes. I had convinced myself that it would before me only for a minute and then disappear, so there’s no need to be afraid. I exhaled and turned behind to see. There was no one. I smiled and then as I looked at the mirror I saw the doctor’s face again, with the same blood and hole on his forehead. I got startled and yelled out moving backwards.

As I blinked, he wasn’t there anymore. Well, of course, he was just in my mind and wasn’t going to leave me so easily. I touched my chest and felt my heart beating really fast. I let go of it thinking I might I have gotten a heart attack if I weren’t mentally prepared.

Speaking of heart attack, it reminds me of Wajeeh’s father. I am a murderer of his father as well. Nobody really knows it but I have killed that man too. The heart attack was caused because of no other reason but my own immorality. I deserve this life of pain and suffering. I am not a good person. You can’t reason with a guy like me.

People don’t speak of me at all. I think they hardly know me. I murdered people to grab their attention. One can consider that but that is absolutely not true. I killed because I was forced to. The part of me that became the murderer was not in my control. Honestly speaking, I am a kind of guy who has always been afraid of just seeing murders. And whatever part of me has actually become a murderer is certainly not me.

That night while I was sleeping, I woke up feeling my body shaking. As I opened my eyes and looked around, my body was feeling extremely uncomfortable. Especially my ears.

What is going on? I spoke hardly. What is happening with me?

My ears or my need to hear something was disturbing me really badly. Why was it happening? How can I get to know what I want?

to be continued...