Things would start taking turn for the worse. The sooner I leave from here, the better. In the middle of the night, in death silence, after committing a gruesome act, I had to plan my escape. Initially, I thought of going through the main door of the hotel. It was so easy. But now only had I seen the repercussions of that idea. Jumping from the balcony of the second floor room would be suicidal. Taking the stairs at this hour to the exit would certainly raise eyebrows of the receptionist and other hotel employees. The problem was I was alone as well; Karthik was no more with me.
Every problem always contained a solution, I knew. The point is staying back here was a foolish thing. My mind was getting delirious. Firstly, I had affected a murder as suicide and now, I had no ways to escape. It is impossible. Every problem has a solution and I realized the solution to this problem lied in that room, with Karthik.
After untying the rope from Karthik’s neck, wearing the tricolour gloves on my hand that I had purchased from the stadium, I ensured to tie it securely on the rim of the balcony. The rope was long enough to reach three-fourths of the total distance between the rim of the balcony and the ground. I slid down the rope and reached the tip of the rope. From there, I had jumped down. Barely had I been harmed. Little did I realize then the ramifications of the rope still tied to the second floor balcony.
I climbed up and jumped out of the compound wall, which was less tall but fancier. The back side of the hotel was totally unguarded perhaps because nobody could enter into any of the rooms from this side. I had precisely used this way to escape. Advantages of choosing a star hotel....
However, on landing on the footpath, sandwiched between the main road and the compound wall, I realized it. There must be closed circuit television cameras on the backside of the hotel and I would have been seen as escaping. Time was the essence. The sooner I escaped, the better.
As I raced on foot to the bus terminus, I looked back once to see if anyone had followed me. The relief when I saw no one behind me was immense. Now, the job was to catch the earliest bus that left for the Chattrapati Sivaji Railway Terminus.
The buses for night service were scarce and most of the time empty. That day was no different. The conductor looked questioningly at me as I panted and puffed onto the bus. I was not to panic, I reminded myself. The odd look the conductor gave me was most uninspiring. I was flabbergasted. I could feel my blood stop flowing. The colour on my face drained. I fought with myself to look normal, as though nothing had happened.
The bus conductor, a short bearded man with betel-leaves stained tongue, asked the reason for this state of mine.
I simply stared at him. Seconds passed. My mind raced to find a suitable answer. He, not in the mood to wait for an answer, murmured to himself in Hindi, aloud enough for me to hear. Dumb people, every day I come across someone or other. I was relieved.
Asking me where I wanted to go, he waited to understand the sign language I used. I thought hard and did the action of a train in motion- both palms millimetres apart and circling in the clockwise direction.
“Railway Station?” he demanded.
Fortunately, the conductor had understood and gave me the ticket. The bus set in motion.
Fortune favours the brave. And this was a brave and a daring escape I had plotted. No sooner had I finished thinking, I had my heart in my mouth.
I could hear police van siren bellowing behind the bus.