Violet Blood

Ravi awoke with a start. His cell phone was blaring away. He put on his glasses hastily and picked it up.

“Hello?” He squinted at the bedside clock. 12.01 am

“Happy birthday…'Frightener' ”

Huh?

"Who’s this?”

In reply came a deep-throated laugh. Familiar.

“Violet Blood,” said the voice after a beat. A low harsh whisper.

Then the line went dead.

Ravi looked at his display screen, and then at the darkness. Violet Blood. Hmm...

But...it was the name of one of his spooky characters. He’d never really used it, though. He’d changed it. Nobody but him knew about it. Funny. And the caller even knew his pen name.

And the voice was exactly as he’d described in the story – deep throated.

Ravi pursed his lips. Could it be…

He threw the phone away and sat there in the darkness. Blank.

****

Suicide...?

He pointed the gun to his temple and closed his eyes. Sweat rolled down his face.

Then suddenly, involuntarily, his hand pointed itself at his neighbor, outside. He was an ass-hole, but what the hell ….the trigger got pulled.

He watched helplessly as the bullet whizzed past the open window, and knocked his neighbor down.

***

Comic timing...

Sumit was in tears, laughing. Benefits of watching a movie a month late. The hall had no more than 10 viewers. He sat in the last but one row, which was, strangely – his favorite.

The movie was hilarious but the guy behind him kept laughing louder than him; way after the joke had ended. Initially Sumit ignored him. He didn’t want to get distracted, but it slowly crept into his nerves like an unwanted twitch.

The next time, Sumit turned. “Hey, shut up, you...”

But there was nobody behind him. He scanned the empty row, feeling like a jack-ass.

A bit shaken, he barely turned back to the screen, when something pulled his neck back roughly, almost bending it over his seat; and a  voice whispered in his ear, “Nobody tells me what to do in this movie hall, get it?”

***

Cops stood around the medical examiner, who shook his head sympathetically at Sumit.

“Probably died due to extreme laughter. See how wide his mouth has opened. Cardiac arrest.”

“What a way to die,” a constable commented from behind.

****

Face it

Veena hummed a tune in front of the mirror, before bedtime. It was a new mirror they’d bought only that day.

She reached for her comb, but knocked down the cream. Drat.

As she bent, she looked up.  Her mirror image was staring down at her, craning its neck.

“All well?”

***