5
They both stood in the drizzle for a long time, unvoiced.
Nature was becoming calm. There was silence. Then Mridula’s question came, piercing through that silence.
“Where are you going?”
Joyce looked at her replica. Why should I tell you? But she was unable to resist her authoritative eyes.
“I am just going somewhere I don’t even know.”
“What is your name?”
“Joyce.”
Mridula walked closer to her and scanned her. She was a bit shorter and the semblance was not more than seventy percentages. The features matched perfectly and no one would argue if anyone says they were sisters, Mridula being the eldest. Her breasts were smaller and skin pale and Mridula knew that she was untouched. Joyce would be in her early twenties, a college student most probably. But that doesn’t bother her. I’d have been thirty if I was alive.
Joyce was also thinking the same. Is she my sister? But there wasn’t any possibility as far as she knows. This woman must be seven or eight years older to me. Joyce was born when her mother was twenty.
“Don’t worry.” Mridula smiled. “We are not related. We are just coincidences.”
Her eyes sparkled wildly in the night.
"What do you mean by coincidences? Who are you? Why are you following me?" She was confused and she needs answers to clear them.
"We are not blood related yet we are similar in our looks. It was destiny, mostly my destiny that made me meet you. How lucky I am? I was just looking someone to take my place and I found you, the perfect one to be me."
Joyce didn't understand a word she said. She was mystified more. "I am confused.”
"That's better." Mridula whispered.
Joyce raised her brows. Her mind warned her. This is not going to end well. Get away from her.
"Who are you and what do you want from me?" She wanted quick answers so that she could be going away from her. Her destiny is calling her.
"I am Mridula." With a malevolent grin she continued. "I want you."
"What?" Joyce frowned.
It was getting more complicated. You need to be going. Her mind warned her.
"I know you are going to die. You want to jump into that gorge." Her grin grew wider. I can’t let you die girl.
"How do you know all these?" The puzzle was getting intense and Joyce knew the answers won't be coming as fast as she expected.
"Because I need you for a better purpose." An evil growl came out of her mouth. "Tell me your story. Why do you want to die?"
"It's my life. I will decide what to do with it."
"I can help you." Mridula’s voice softened.
"I don't need anyone's help. I know what is better for me." Joyce shrugged. Death is all I need.
"I won't let you die."
"Just leave me alone. You cannot stop me." She made quick strides back.
"You can't run away from me." She advanced further.
Both of them looked into each other's eyes.
"I found you and I can't let you go. My purpose is far more important than your pitiful life and your unpurposeful intentions." Mridula voice sounded like a threat.
"I don't care about your purpose. I need to go." She turned back and started walking. She took a few strides and looked back to see whether she is following her. She saw the path vacant. She's gone.
Joyce sighed and twirled herself to march ahead and she saw Mridula standing in front of her.
How? Her eyes grew wider with fear. She is not a normal woman. She came up with a conclusion.
The whole nature was silent. No wind, no rain and the road were deserted.
"Just let me go." Joyce pleaded in a trembling tone.
"Tell me your story. I want to know why you want to die."
"What relevance it has to do with all these?" You are not an ordinary person. You must already know everything about me.
"I will help you get revenge." I can read your mind. Yes, I know everything about you. I want to make sure that you get rid of the very bondage of your past life before you take my place. I want to finish your story.
"Revenge? I don't know whether I want revenge." She knows. Why she wants to hear it from me?
"Let me judge it by your tone. You can start now." She encouraged her.
Joyce had no other choice but to narrate her life. They walked together towards the gorge while Joyce told about her.
"His name is Naresh. It started as a casual friendship. As it grew older we realized our friendship is deeper than what we could fathom. One day he proposed and I couldn't say no." Joyce stopped for a while and sighed as if she was reminiscing the old days.
"Three years of deep passion and I introduced him to my family but then I found him trying to get away from me. I didn't know why but then I saw him with another girl. I thought she might a friend. With one of my friend’s help I tried to find out who she is and the revelations he made was shocking. Naresh was engaged to that girl. Her father was a billionaire. He ditched me for a wealthier girl."
Tears fell from her eyes and Mridula understood the pain she was going through.
"I really wished to kill them both and end my life but ... I am ... I don't know how." She stopped crying and she uttered again. This time her voice was bold. "I want revenge."
You are my body and I am your soul. I am going to live through you. Mridula had a sinister smile tugged between her lips.
"Why are you helping me?" Joyce wasn’t done yet. She was shivering with fear but she wanted to know.
"I am just doing a favour." She said. To myself.
"What do you want in return?" Joyce looked deep into her eyes but she couldn’t understand what they said.
"You." Mridula was calm, her voice sweet but penetrating.
"What do you mean?" Is she going to kill me? She wanted to die but now fear arose inside her.
"Nothing, you won't understand." A soft smile and a slight jerk of head replied her.
"Try again."
"Let us concentrate on your revenge first." Mridula wasn’t ready to reveal anything to her. She shouldn’t know anything. She is only a tool, a medium.
"Tomorrow is their marriage. I don't want that to happen." Joyce said.
"It never will." Mridula assured her.
"What are you going to do?"
"Wait and watch."
"You are not a normal woman, are you?"
Mridula smiled. "You are right. I am a wandering soul. I don't know what happened to me."
"So that is why you contacted me. You want me to find out what happened to you. Or, how you died." She was getting a clear picture. “I will help you find out what happened to you. And then I will leave this earth peacefully.
Mridula shook her head. I need you for more. You are going to live as long as my Rajeev lives. I want to love him through you.
She thought about what she and Rajeev talked about earlier that night.
"Why did you leave me without saying a word?" He badly wanted to know it.
She didn’t reply.
"Mridula, tell me."
"I didn’t leave you. I was always here."
"People are calling you a ghost."
"I... Ghost... No... I am your Mridula."
"You are just a spirit.”
"What happened to me Rajeev?"
"I don't know. I thought you left me. And now I can only feel your ghost."
"I waited here, for you. I tried to ask to the people but they ran away from me." Her voice was trembling.
She kissed him but she was thirsty for more. It wasn’t possible. She didn’t have a body. They lay on the bed not knowing what to do.
I have to find what happened to me. She decided.
She looked at Rajeev to see him in deep slumber and she decided to slip out of the bed, to go out of the village to seek answers.
And then she saw Joyce, her lookalike. Barring minor differences, she was perfect to replace her.
*-*
Far away from them, Rajeev woke up from his sleep. He walked out of the house into the blinding darkness.
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