THE TAINTED FLOOR

18th JAN, 2017 3.25 A.M.

Time for once moved slower than usual. The police station was louder than it ever would have been. Everyone was doing something or the other as the case finally was solved. Shiv was working like the earth around the sun; he would not stop! With everything in place, everything was going smoothly. Shiv and Vijay sat in their office and were working on the report.

While the entire police station was running on their hands, someone was having a nap. Dhruv was sleeping calmly in the interrogation room. He had his right hand on the table with his head resting on it. For those few hours, there was a sense of peace, a sense of completion. He felt weightless. His burdens were finally taken away from him. And they were someone else's to bear now. For the last two nights, Dhruv had not slept properly. Every time he tried to sleep, someone always was ready to wake him up. And for the first time after Shiv left the room a few hours ago, he thought, 'I guess I can sleep now!' And he did! Probably the sweetest nap he might have had in months. But the time was closing in!

Dhruv promised to give Shiv hard evidence after everything was over. Evidence that was enough to prove him guilty of all the crimes he did. Everything that happened up until this time was for this moment. Finally, Shiv had to win, and Dhruv had to lose! The game went on for too long, so long that with time a life was lost. The investigation that had been going for the longest time, an investigation that caused nothing but pain and despair to the ones that were part of it; an investigation that took away Shiv's son from him! THIS, WAS THE END! This was a cause to be celebrated but who could have dared to do it? Even though the work in the police station never stopped, how could have they overlooked the horrifying sight of blood that was spilled mere hours ago? Who could have just forgotten the body of the girl that was drenched in the pool of blood by choking herself to death? Out of all, how could Shiv forget it? He believed it was he who was to be blamed, and no one really could have said otherwise. After all, he decided to let Dhruv met Pooja. And it was for no surprise, he was going to carry the guilt with him for his lifetime. There still was a lot of time to contemplate his mistakes but there were things that needed to be taken care of.

As things in the station seemed to be working smoothly, Shiv thought it was time to talk to Dhruv. Though everyone was not ok with everything that was happening. They had a serial killer in their custody who somehow managed to find one more victim and even succeeded in killing that person and all they managed to do was stand spectator to everything. And what were they do doing about it now? NOTHING! They continue with their work as if nothing happened. Who in their right mind could have been able to work with something like that? Definitely not a police officer! And well, we had a horde of them! All of them were burning in anger, a chance and any one of them could have killed Dhruv within a minute's notice. They just couldn't understand why he was still treated the way he was. Why was Shiv going so easy with him? They just wanted to get their hands on Dhruv and finish him. But they couldn't go against their senior. And they knew that whatever Shiv was doing must have a solid reason because they knew him well enough to know that he wanted to kill Dhruv more than they could ever want. But the question still was the same for them, WHY?

Shiv stood in front of the door of the interrogation room knowing that this was about to end. He for that moment imagined, how things would have been different if he had helped Vikram with his addiction when he should have then maybe all of this could have been avoided, or maybe if he had never divorced his wife then maybe Vikram would have never been the addict in the first place, or maybe he hadn't fought with his wife every night then maybe they wouldn't have divorced, or maybe if he had given his family the same attention he gave to his job then there wouldn't have had any issues between him and his wife. And there it was! All the What if's and the Maybe's that Shiv could have gone through, just to blame himself for the things that couldn't have been predicted or avoided him.

Shiv took few steps towards the door and as he lifted his hand to open the door, he could see his fingers twitching and hands shaking like never before. Was he scared? Was it stress? He couldn't understand the difference anymore. He started sweating, he couldn't feel his legs anymore. He collapsed and couldn't breathe anymore. He could hear his heartbeat, which no more felt like beating but more like bursting. He was trying his best to get up but he just couldn't do it. So he tried breathing instead. He knew he was having a panic attack and he needed to calm down. He was trying to breathe and doing his best at it. And that's when something distracted him. He could hear a lot of shouting coming from the other part of the station. It took all his strength to get up and he somehow started to walk towards the sound with the taking from the wall. As he started walking towards all the noise he was somehow managed to calm himself. And now he could breathe properly, he was walking on both his legs. But the labored breathing still went on.

As he comes to discover the origin of all the sound, he saw a man being held by a number of his officers. He looked like he was trying to attack someone and the others were trying to stop him. His face was swollen up from all the tears that rolled down from his eyes. He looked as if he was suffering. As if he had lost everything. And as he caught sight of Shiv who seem to be still struggling to breathe, he shouted, "YOU MURDERER!" Shiv was confused and was taken aback by what he was called by this strange man. He was still trying to figure out what was happening when Vijay rushed towards him and said,

Patil: Sir, you shouldn't be here! Please go to your office!

Rathod: What the... hell is happening here?

Patil: Don't worry, Sir! I'll take care of this!

Rathod: That's not the answer to my question… Patil! Who is this man? And why is he calling me a murderer?

Patil: Sir… That man… He is Pooja Mahajan's father!