Blindfolded

Swati closed her eyes occasionally and tried to relax. But every time she tried to think anything else she found herself tormented by the memories of last night’s ordeal. Along with it came a helpless realization, an awareness of the fact that she would have to visit the police station anyway and take the cops into her confidence. All her reputation at office would go in a jiff. She wondered whether she would still retain her job. But what troubled her more than anything else was the plight she would subject her parents to. Tears rolled her eyes as she imagined her father’s face. A man, who had always stood by his daughter’s every decision in life, objected to her attending the late-night party that day. She had argued and fought with him the first time in her life and which she regretted now.

Swarnendu, twenty-five, handsome and a conversationalist was the attention grabber in office. A high performer, successful in maintaining good rapport with clients and distributors, helping attain sales targets of the company, made him the management’s favourite. A six figure salary with huge perks and a bright future ahead, made it the reason for every maiden employee to try getting closer to him. He too lost no chances of getting feminine attention and every other day a different girl would be spotted riding pillion on his motorbike on his way to office.

Given his philandering nature, it was very unnatural for a man like him to fall for a shy, comparably unattractive woman of twenty-three, who resisted his advances to the extent of even insulting him before the junior staff, one day. Swarnendu started avoiding her after the incident and Swati later regretted for her behavior towards him. Things became normal as before but there was something in Swarnendu’s countenance and his changed demeanour which made her feel attracted to those dark, deep eyes; an attraction she had not felt before, an attraction she failed to resist. Soon Swarnendu’s tryst with other girls stopped and he became a loner. She had seen it in his eyes, but wanted him to say those words.

The party was hosted by the company to celebrate the award of a large order which owed a great deal to Swarnendu’s efforts, making him the cynosure of all eyes. The magical night, unleashing all her desires beckoned everyone in the company, from peons to the top bosses, to get immersed in her vivacity. Swarnendu kept chatting with his colleagues and entertaining the other guests in his usual fashion, occasionally stealing glances with Swati and making her heart skip a beat. Swati had worn her best party ware, a black designer silk tunic matching with a silk scarf to impress Swarnendu. Finding an opportunity he took her to a corner and offered her a glass. Swati was not used to drinking, but she could not refuse him either. As he kept talking, she kept looking at those dark eyes with butterflies in her stomach. Then suddenly everything blacked-out before her eyes.

She woke-up to giddiness in her head and pitch-black darkness all around her. And then as her eyes got accustomed to the dark, she found herself lying on a cot with her hands and feet tied. ‘What the hell?’, she thought and it made her head pain. Memories of last evening flashed before her mind and the last thing she remembered was the clinking of glasses in the air and Swarnendu raising a toast to her health. She wondered whether the whisky tasted bitterer than at other times. But, where is Swarnendu? And why was she lying tied in a bed? Suddenly a flash of light pierced through the blackness and dazzled her. As she closed her eyes, she heard that very familiar voice she had longed to hear. ‘So Ma’m have woken up finally. I was worried lest the drink was too strong for you, then my movie would not be shot.’ She wondered whether Swarnendu was out of his mind or it was some sort of prank he was playing on her. Then she saw what he held in his hand, a large-sized zoom camera and realized it to be the source of the light which had hit her.

‘The party has long been over darling and it is only you and me now’, rejoiced Swarnendu. She wondered in which room of the office they were when suddenly two powerful spot lights were turned-on and she found herself inside what appeared to be the document storage room. There were huge racks all around containing innumerable files and folders. There were separate racks for DVDs and CDs along with few computers. The bed in which she was lying was a makeshift one made by laying a file cabinet, placing wooden plies on it and covering with a bed sheet. The lack of windows was made up by the running of air-conditioner which made the room comfortable. She looked for Swarnendu and found him pouring a glass. She tried to free her wrists but they were tightly tied to the end rails of the rack. ‘Easy, girl easy’, Swarnendu tried to console her before releasing her hands and legs, and asked ‘Like to have a drink before we start?’ ‘Start what?’ Swati shouted. ’The movie, I mean, little girl’, whispered Swarnendu.

Swati found those dark eyes so different from the ones she had adored so much. They were now filled with lust, devoid of any love and the alluring smile had given way to a wicked grin. ‘I’m not the type of girl who likes to do such things before marriage, you know. Anyway, I’m going home. I hope we don’t meet after today’. And with that Swati strode towards the door of the room, but was immediately stopped by Swarnendu. ‘I’ve something to show you Ma’m. I’d request you to see it before you leave.’

‘What is left for me to see, now that I’ve come to know you, you perverted, dirty man,’ lashed out Swati. For a moment his eyes glowed with fury and then surprising her he broke down into peals of laughter. ‘Right you are Ma’m’. But the truth is we all are perverts. From top to the lower sections of our society, everybody is a pervert, having two faces, living two lives at the same time. See our politicians, for example. They preach about the rights and respect of women, but have many mid-wives and affairs galore. At home men are dutiful husbands, but once they step outside they commit adultery. Women left alone at home, too, lure men into sleeping with them, impersonating the ‘patibrata type’ before their husbands. Then there are these couples who shoot their sex videos at home and share them at free porn sites, just for fun. There’s only one life and there’s nothing wrong in enjoying it to the brim. So…’

Swati interrupted him. ‘The only difference is people with healthy minds have the option to choose their ways of life’. ‘Not always’, retorted Swarnendu and pointed to the computer screen which he had turned-on by then. What Swati saw on the screen made her cry with shock. A video had started playing showing her to be resting like she was a few minutes back, a pair of male hands caressing her cheeks, her neck, her breasts… she closed her eyes. ‘This is only the trailer Ma’m, picture abhi shoot karna baki hai. I’ve also thought about the title. ‘Black office beauty’s nightshift’ whispered Swarnendu.

Those rogue eyes, that cunning smile and the tape before her... She could take it no more. She walked up to the man and slapped him. ‘What did you mix in my drink, you bas**rd?’, she hissed at him.‘ You b**ch. You had insulted me before everyone, you remember? Now I’ll show you what perversion is’, clamoured Swarnendu. ‘This video has been uploaded in my cloud drive and will be posted to fifteen porn sites by tomorrow, if I don’t cancel the posts by that time. And I’ll do it only if you allow me to…’ The world seemed to blacken out once again before Swati as she slowly sank into the floor, humiliated by the man she had loved.

As she cried in desperation, Swarnendu laughed. ‘Don’t worry sweetie you’re not the only one. Many of your friends have shot movies with me’. She knew very well that whether she complied with his demands or not, such videos will never be deleted and would be used again and again in coercing her to sleep with him, like the other girls. ‘The camera is on baby and time is running out’ blared out the psychopath and started humming a tune from a bollywood blockbuster. Swati began to think. Submitting to the pervert’s desires would amount to committing suicide. She can’t do that. She couldn’t abandon her parents who loved her so much. She could not die.

Looking amidst the room furniture all around her, suddenly her eyes fell on a computer battery with its wire unplugged. Swarnendu was busy adjusting his camera with his back towards her. She lifted the battery on her head, walked stealthily behind him and brought it down on the head of the unsuspecting man. Blood oozed out from his head as the man cried out in pain, showering a volley of invectives at the girl. But the next moment he sprang to his feet and before she could reach halfway across the room she was pulled back, thrust on the ground and thrashed repeatedly. She felt her dress torn violently and her undergarments pulled out from her body. It was at this moment that she gathered all her strength and shoved her opponent. Taken aback, the man fell to the ground and Swati lost no time in pushing a file cabinet over him and ran towards the door.

The room led into a big hall which appeared to be the presentation room. Its doors opened into the corridor following the staircase. The entire building was covered in darkness making visibility a torture to the eyes. She ran almost blindly, tripping every now and then, getting up and running again, with the sound of footsteps fast closing upon her. Reaching the floor immediately below, she found several rooms to be locked. Finding a door open she went inside and bolted it. It was the pantry room. Soon, there was a tap at the door and Swarnendu yelled. ‘Open the door pussy cat and I promise I won’t hurt if you allowed me to f**k you’.

The gentle tap on the door turned into wild knockings within seconds and gave way to banging so loud that she had to cover up her ears. Her abductor at the other side would soon break-in, Swati understood and searched frantically for any means to protect herself. She searched the drawers and found a number of kitchen knives and other cutting utensils. She took the largest knife, threw away the rest out of the window and crawled into the cupboard under one of the service stations. She closed the shutters and waited with bated breath, clenching the knife in her hand.

Minutes seemed like hours as she strained her ears for any sound. But everything was silent once again except the beating of her heart. Driven by an urge to straighten her limbs she wriggled her body a little ahead, opened the shutter ajar and peeped out. She could not see anyone. She wriggled back, opened the shutter at the other side, came out and sat on the floor. She straightened her legs, casting a frightened glance around her; but it seemed Swarnendu had not walked into the room. She sat bewildered for some time, then hearing a sound crawled back into her hiding place. She heard the sound again but could not judge the direction from where it was coming. She could only make it out to be the sound of something brushing against a solid surface.

After sometime she needed to give relief to her limbs once again. Opening the shutter gave her the fright of her life. Staring at her was the cruel and wicked face of her abductor! He had been wriggling his way towards her hiding place, she found, and that explained why his footsteps were not heard or why she failed to see him when she looked upwards.’ Caught, caught, caught’, clapped the kook. ‘I win, you lose, see?’, he continued and pulled her out by her hands. She writhed in pain causing the knife to slip out of her hand. Seeing the knife Swarnendu got more infuriated. ‘So you’ll fight me, you b***h, come on then, fight, fight.’ She threw her on the floor, slapped and beat her mercilessly, banging her head at the walls till she started to bleed profusely.

She had noticed where the knife slipped and slowly guided her hand towards it. After she got hold of it she closed her eyes and cried. Thinking her to be giving-in to the fight finally, her opponent stopped, giving her scope to strike the knife into one of his eyes, with all the energy remaining in her. He cried out with excruciating pain, releasing his hold on her. She pulled out the knife from his eye and brought it down on his forehead, neck and chest repeatedly till the man stopped moving or making noise. Blood spurted out as she kicked him repeatedly in his groin, ribs and head to make sure he was dead. She then wrapped the blood-stained knife with her scarf, slid it inside her bag and limped towards the door.

By the time she had taken a shower and dressed her wounds with the first-aid supplies she found in the washroom, it was already morning. She found her handbag in the document storage room, changed into her office dress, dodged the security guard at the gate and stood on the pavement. The day being a Sunday, there were little traffic on the road and few shops were leisurely rolling-up their shutters for the day. What she needed now was some place to collect herself. She found an eatery beside her office open and went inside.

She had not visited the place before and so had the advantage of not getting recognized there. She took a table by the window and placed an order for hot coffee. While sipping her drink, she looked back at the baleful night that had just passed. No, she would not give up so easily. One night had changed her completely and she was now prepared to see it till the end no matter whatever came her way. She finished her coffee, hailed a cab and headed for the nearest police station.  

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