Xerox!

 

“Anna, need some printouts to be taken”, said a female voice.

I stood up to see the girl at the door. She was fit, tall, and fair looking. The lights in my shop hit her spectacles, so I couldn’t see her eyes, but I guessed she got to have big, round eyes. She came in, after removing her slippers and handed me a Toshiba Pendrive. I looked at that ancient piece of technology and looked back at her.

“Does this work?”, I asked her, seriously. She was stunned.

“Anna, it does work. Please hurry up, I’m running late”, she told.

I booted that Pendrive into my desktop, laughing, and went through the files. It had three folders, Media, Work, and Personal, respectively. She told me to open the Work folder, and print the book named ‘Whatever It Takes'. I opened that file and hit Ctrl+P and selected the right printer. It was around 250 pages. I looked at her but I didn’t call her. I waited for her to look up from her phone. When she did, I told her it would take around 10 minutes.

“Okay! I’ll go have a call and come!”, she said before she went out of the shop. I tried to find a position sitting on my chair and looking at her. But the wooden computer cabin stood before her. I gave up and leaned back on my chair. I looked at the screen and minimized the printing process window. I went back to her Pendrive. It was so tempting. For one more time, I half-stood to look at her. She was busy on the call. I sat down and hit the Media folder.

It had three more folders, namely Audios, Photos, and Videos. I became suspicious. I opened the Audio folder and put on the over-ear headphones I had nearby. It had 'n' number of audio files, and everything spanned between 1-2 minutes. I pressed the headphones on my ears, not believing what I heard. I heard slashes, something cut into chunks and splatters. I opened other files to find they were various disturbing files like this.

My face would’ve become pale in horror after I opened the second folder, photos. The second I opened Photos to see decapitated bodies and executions, I knew I was not going to open the third folder. I looked at her again. She looked dead serious, talking on the phone. The printer was getting loud as time passed. I sneaked to the end of the cabin and took out my phone. I opened the dial pad and typed in 100, and turned to her. I looked back at the screen and stopped. If Media had this horror, what does she possess in Personal?

I kept the phone nearby, within reach, and sat down to look at the other folders. I opened the printing software and canceled the printing, and initiate the process again so that I can have some more time. I opened the Work folder and hit Ctrl+P again. The printer started whirring loudly, this time louder than before. Before I came out of that folder, I froze seeing that file. My hands started trembling, while a shiver run back through my spine. I clicked on that word file, addressed to me, ‘Dear Dhanush’.

It was a letter, and I couldn’t gather the courage to read it. The first line was itself terrifying.

Dear Dhanush,

If you’re reading this, then be thankful to me, for sparing your life.

For all that you did, I shouldn’t have let you live. You deserve something worse than death, you bitch. So, I thought about it. Why can’t I make it worse for you? By cutting off your hands, legs, or your toy hanging over there? I have taken notes. For all the women you’ve creeped by stalking, I’m punishing you. Or wait, if I cut something off, you’ll still be able to talk right. No, then. I’m killing you. Don’t be happy, just that you’re reading this, I let you live and changed my mind. I could’ve chosen to kill you once this letter ends. Once you finish reading it. I just have one thing to say, before I ‘finish’.

You know, the bruises still hurt. It burns whenever I take a bath. I can’t pee without bleeding. Over all this, I keep hearing your name. That affects me mentally, and that’s the most painful thing. You escaped and you’re still living out there. Thinking about your face, everything is dark now. But I can never forget your name. I know I’m a bit not right in mind now, and maybe that’s why I’m fucking things up. But you fucked my life big time. There’s nothing more that could go wrong. So, Whatever It takes.

Burn in Hell, we’ll meet if we can.

With Heartfelt Hate,

KR.

The printer had become so loud. Its heat dissipated throughout the room, and I was sweating hard. I knew I didn’t do anything that bad, as in the letter. I stalk some girls who come to take printouts, but not anything else. I stood up and tried walking towards her. I felt giddy and fell right before her. The printer gave up and started to flame out. Before blacking out, I remember being pulled out of the shop by the girl.

“I didn’t do it. I swear, I’m Dhanush. Not that bad Dhanush”, I blacked out after telling that.

******

“We’re searching that lady. She has killed around four people who’re named after you. The novel ‘When It Ends’ was banned for its violence when it was released. There are two possibilities, she should’ve managed to get the copy of the book somewhere and used the murder techniques. Or worse, we’re hunting for the author of the book”, the girl told me. She was apparently a detective, working on this case.

I was at the hospital, and she was adjacent to me. I looked at her.

“I’m sorry for going through your files. I generally go through the pen drives of people who come to my shop. It’s usually their photos or videos I look at. I haven’t done anything wrong.”, I said. She didn’t seem to like my explanation, however.

“People like you. Sometimes in this investigation, I feel that lady is right. Stalkers are indeed a threat. Some are harmless, while some create monsters out of normal people like her”, she told. I hung my face low, in shame. It was hard to look into her eyes. But when I did, I was right. She did have big, round eyes.

A lady in her late twenties, opened our room door, disrupting my thoughts. She was struggling to walk.

“Room 404?”, the lady asked us. I nodded, while the girl detective questioned who she was.

In fractions of a second, the lady shot the detective with the gun in her hand. I stood up on my bed, while my head still hurt. I pressed my hand against my forehead to control the giddiness and looked at the lady, while she pointed the gun at me. She had this smirk on her face.

“As I told you, Whatever It Takes, Dhanush”, she told, before firing.