The Revenge

I was under the false radar that I was living in a paradise. A paradise of love and passion knitted together. A paradise where two hearts were pinned together by cupid’s arrow. A paradise where anything he said to me sounded like a beautiful verse taken right from a Shakespearean sonnet.

But one evening, my paradise vanished as quickly as water vanishes from cupped hands. Our six month relationship ended by just an SMS that he sent to my phone: I’m sorry Shai; it’s not working for me. I just need to be on my own right now. I hope you understand and wish you all the best for the future.

I got dumped through a SMS! My pride was hurt to an irreparable extent. Tears rightfully rolled down my cheeks as memories of him and I, together at happier times engulfed my mind like a poisonous snake. No sooner these memories started to overwhelm me, than I felt a stronger emotion than sadness. Anger. It was an intense emotion that surged through my heart and reached every part of my body. I was torn between crying my eyes out and at the same time, controlling the same tears. I felt confused, lost, defeated and betrayed.

I thought back to what I knew about Rahul. I wasn’t even sure if that was his real name now. I was so engrossed with him, his words and his charms that I had blindly trusted him. All I knew was that he lived in some flat which was on the opposite side of the city from where I lived. With a flash, a piece of memory whipped my conscience as I remembered the night I had agreed to spend with him. He had proposed that night and offered to marry me and that was enough for me as I dived into his arms like a fool. How could I’ve been so stupid?

The riot of deeply burnt emotions that were battling inside me was inexplicable. He was a cheat and his entire existence was just promoting falsification. People like him didn’t deserve to dwell happily on this planet. I had to do something to stop him cause the same catastrophe to other women.

I controlled myself from calling him or even replying him back with an SMS. I so badly wanted to curse him and shout at him. But that would just make me more vulnerable and it would show him that he had got to me and burned me. I wasn’t the type of girl who would get dumped and accept defeat on the same day.

I wiped my tears and read his message one last time before deleting it for good.

“Last night I had a revelation, somehow I have to make you pay

It’s all about manipulation, and what it takes to get my way

I don’t believe in soft solutions, no one makes a fool of me

Without receiving retribution, no one hurts me and goes free…”

                                                                                      ~ Red Delicious

***

3 weeks later...

Rahul lazily walked into the usual pub that he frequented time and again to find new game. He saw women like opportunity and once he caught hold of one opportunity and used it to the fullest extent; he always looked out for new opportunities. But today, he was in no mood to moon some random woman. He had had enough of swirling around random women until they consented to sleep with him and later ditching them the fastest way possible. Some would call people like Rahul as man-whore but he called himself an opportunist and according to him, there was nothing wrong in making use of his man-hood to the fullest extent.

It’s these women who have to wake-up to the modern day. Who wants to live in a confiscated relationship with a nagging wife when one gets more than that in an open relationship, he thought as he sipped his beer. But women need to learn to get over themselves once they get stood up. Every time I dump them, they’ll be behind my back like leeches either begging me to come back or cursing me death. Till now, the only woman who didn’t call me back to retaliate was Shai.  Man, that was a good night and she had me going to think that she was a decent girl. She put up so much protest that I had to pretend to ask her hand to marry me just to get her to bed. I wonder why she had to put up all that fuss if she took the one-night stand so coolly, without even a word back at me. Well, she should be the role model to these other women who are on my case. They should learn a thing or two about being cool when they get ditched, he thought savagely.

He was drunk to the brim and was about to pay the bill when the bartender pushed another drink under his nose. “Complimentary drink from that lady over there, sir”, he told Rahul by pointing to his left. Rahul turned and saw a beautiful red-head in a very revealing tube-top and saw her smile at him lustily.

“The night just got better. A new game awaits”, he slurred to himself as he doggedly approached the red-headed woman.

“It’s usually men who offer free drinks to stunning women, you know”, he winked at her as he took his seat.

“You look like you could use another drink”, said the lady.

“Yeah, that I do”, he laughed as he mindlessly drank the whiskey in one shot.

“You have a name, beautiful?” he asked her.

“Yes, but you can call me red-head”, she said playfully.

“What’s a pretty red-head like you doing alone in this pub?” he inquired.

“Your questions will soon be answered if we could go somewhere...more private”, her sensuous tone was enough to get Rahul up on his feet the next instant.

An hour later, Rahul led the pretty red-head to his hotel room that he used on special occasions like this.

“You know, I would love to take you to my place, but it’s under renovation right now. So staying here for a while”, he told her as she entered the room with him.

“All the more better”, she said tersely.

Once inside the room, Rahul dropped his pretty playboy act as he approached her wildly. He held her close to him, tightening his grip on her shoulders as his eyes took in her pretty face. Her red-luscious hair complimented her red-lips. But her big dark brown eyes somehow seemed very familiar to him. But his vision was clouding fast and he could hardly see her or the room behind her.

The last thing he remembered was seeing the red-head escape from his grip and moving aside as he fell, face-down on the bed.

                                                                                  ***

3 hours later...

I saw him stir as he slowly opened his eyes. I made sure once again that his hands and feet were tied at either side of the bed tightly. “wha...what happened?” he asked groggily.

“Well, let’s see... I tipped the bartender to slip a small dose of sleeping pill in your drink and it took its effect on you. Oh by the way, while I was at it, I decided to tie you up nicely to the bed too”, I said in a bored tone as I looked at his state with satisfaction.

Rahul tried to move but he couldn’t. He raised his head and saw that he was lying on the bed with no clothes on, save for his underwear. “What did you do with my clothes, you bitch?” he screamed at me.

“Your clothes look too decent to be worn by you. So I’ll make sure to give it to a homeless on my way out of here”, I said in disgust.

“Wait a minute... who are you?” he said, as his eyes widened with fear and rage.

“It’s not at all important. What concerns me is how you are going to play your “get the girl” game once your reputation is ruined. I was thinking of taking a few pictures of you in this state and mailing it to the press. But then I got an even better idea. While you were snoring like a gorilla, I took a few snaps of you from your shiny new smart phone and I saw that you love sharing your thoughts and pictures on Facebook for your friends to see. So guess what? I shared a few pictures of you in your underwear on your wall. It’s been over 2 hours since I shared this and they are being circulated at tremendous speed. A hundred thousand shares already. You really should consider locking your personal pictures from being viewed by the public Rahul”, I told him mockingly as I showed him his photo.

When he saw the photo, he realised that he was not only tied naked to the bed, but was also bearing a few shameful words, written across his chest and stomach in black marker that said: I AM A CHEATING DOG.

“Oh come on, whoever you are, I’m sorry. Now can you be an adult and untie me. This is really not necessary you know...”

I looked at him with even more disgust. “You are not in a state to bargain. If you had been a responsible adult all your life, you wouldn’t be here in this state today. I have half a mind to lock the room and leave you like this until the hotel staff found you. But I won’t do that. I guess you have not confined about this secret hotel “business” of yours to anyone or else someone would have been here to pick you up by now. Your cell has been getting a lot of calls. Even your mother has called a few times. Tch..tch..tch.. Poor you, but don’t worry, I’ve just forwarded the hotel address and room number to her and to some of your other contacts too!!”

Saying so, I placed his smart phone on his dumb torso and I picked up my stuff and his clothes in a bag and walked towards the door.

“Aren’t you going to tell me who you are?” a low, threatening voice came from the bed.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and said “Have fun solving that puzzle for the rest of your life. You probably must have cheated about a 100 women. Why don’t you call them all one by one and find out?”

With my heart pounding loudly, I walked out on him. On my way out from the hotel, I gave the bag containing his clothes to a homeless person and dumped the red-wig in a trash can.

Two days later...

I and my best friend Mia sat sipping chai on the veranda. Mia had her laptop perched on her lap. “You know Shai, you never told me what happened between you and that guy you said you went out on a date with a few months back...”

“I dumped him Mia.”

“Oh? Good for you I guess?” Mia enquired tentatively.

I laughed loudly before saying, “Yeah, best decision ever!”

Mia suddenly turned her laptop towards me, “Hey look at the photo of this guy. It’s apparently become one of the top viral things going around about the internet. Do you think that guy deserved being called a cheating dog from his ex-girlfriend in this fashion?”

I observed the picture with mild interest before saying, “I don’t know about that, but Revenge is Sweet, isn’t it?”

***

Disclaimer: “The Revenge” is a work of pure fiction. Any resemblance to the story, place or characters is purely coincidental.

This post is part of the contest Ten words to a Story(or Poem).. on WriteUpCafe.com