His Face

‘Knock’ ‘Knock’

I heard the television playing an old song, "Like a flower bending in the breeze", faintly from other side of the door. It had rained all day and it continued. It was mid night when I reached home, tired. Drenched completely in the rain, the cold wind howling in my ears made me shiver. Rain didn’t seem to settle down.

The door clicked open and she emerged. Indistinct song then became clear.

She sunk in shock looking at me all soaked. Holding my hand, she ushered me into the living room. She took off the laptop bag that was slid around my shoulder and made me sit on our couch. Closing the door behind us, she jogged into our room with my wet bag and came back with a towel.

She bent forward and dried my head with the towel while her bangles dangled.

"Dear God! I didn’t offer you water" she said momentarily and turned. I held her hand from behind and stopped her. Looking at me, she asked, "What?"

I looked into her eyes which awaited me all day and told, "Come to me".

I pulled and hugged her tight and buried my face in her chest. She loves surprises. When she wrapped her arms around me, her warmth solaced my wearied body. Her natural fragrance hit my brain like a drug. Heaven. All I could hear was the calm breeze, continuous tapping of the rain drops on the glass windows and of course… her heartbeats.

Her red salwar traced out my wet face when I moved away from her. Same old song continued to play on the Television. She sighed with relief, "I have made your favorite dish for dinner. First, go and freshen up”.

I nodded, “No”.

With a puzzled look, she asked, "Then? What do you want to have?"

"You know what I want", I winked.

Smiling, she said, "First dinner and then…" she stopped mid-way and blushed.

"I can’t wait that long ", I drew her close to me.

She giggled and pushed me away. With an innocent smile, caressing her fingers over my cheek, she said, "Please dry your hair, honey. Then dinner and… okay?"

Mimicking her, I said, "Okay Ma’am". Her laughter replaced the silence in the living room.

Chortling, she said, "Idiot... now go freshen up".

When she turned to march towards the kitchen, I hugged her from behind resting my chin on her shoulder. With her blissful aroma filling up my lungs, I asked, "Do you love me?"

Clutching to my forearms and nuzzling my cheek, she said, "You don’t know that?"

We smiled, completely lost in ourselves.

Warm shower blew off my exhaustion and thin streams of water dripped down my body when I stepped out of the bathroom. Wrapped in my towel, I checked my mobile for the status update on an issue at work which made my day a hectic one. My mobile lit up when I unlocked it and I had received a notification. As expected, it was from my work place stating that the issue was resolved.

I couldn’t find my mobile charger.

A wife is a husband’s Google.

"Dear! Where is my charger?"

From the kitchen, she answered, "It’s in the wardrobe, honeyyyyyyy"

I opened the wardrobe with my phone in one hand.

My blood froze in horror.

Grotesque reality before me butchered my mind. A blast of fear and confusion spiked through my spine. Tension gripped my neck and tears were at the verge of rolling down from my eyes. I palpitated in fear and stood there motionless upon seeing what was there right in front of my eyes.

I saw my wife inside the wardrobe with folded legs; head slid to the side and blood gushing out of her slashed throat dripping all over her red salwar which had my wet face marks. Her dead eyes pointed at the roof and her lower jaw displaced to the left. Next to her, I saw my wet laptop bag covered with blood stains all over it.

A bolt of confusion clouded me. "Then who is in the kitchen?"

"Honeyyyyyyy!" I jolted when I heard the voice that called me while entering our bedroom. In reflex, I closed the wardrobe and turned to her. She stared at me and asked, "What happened? You don’t look good".

I stuttered, "Nah... Nothing...Nothing..." and wiped away the sweat beads covering my forehead.

"Hmmm okay!" and she walked into the restroom.

“My wife remains lifeless inside the wardrobe in the most inhuman way possible, however, the next moment, she walks into the restroom” I screamed inside me with my hands on the head trying to deny the reality.

As I experienced the horrific moment, I heard someone knock on the entrance door. Momentarily, the voice, from the restroom, shouted, "Honey! Please get the door".

I thought, "Who is it? That too now"

Flabbergasted, I took small steps to the bedroom door. I slid open the door partly and peeked out. The television continued to play the same old song, "Like a flower bending in the breeze". It was bizarre, because it had been almost an hour since I came home and the song was still playing. While I stand confused at the partly opened bedroom door, the real horror walked past me. My wife from the kitchen, with the same red salwar, marched to the living room door.

“WHAT IN THE NAME OF GOD IS HAPPENING?” I screamed inside me.

In the living room, she slid open the door latch to address the person who knocked at this ungodly hour. When the door swung open, a silhouette emerged. It was completely drenched in rain and had a bag hung around its shoulder. She held its hand and ushered it into our living room. When it came under the light, I saw…

His face