Episode 21
In the 2 minutes Archana got, she prayed to the God for saving her. Since the Joker hadn't talked about taking her life, Archana was slightly relaxed. The Joker had told that if she failed, she would be beaten by a whip. Archana didn't want that either.
"I have to pass this test. I have to beat the pain." Archana uttered these sentences 20 times silently. Her jaw stiffened in determination. She knew she had to remain fit in order to escape from this place and save her husband from the clutches of these monsters.
For the last time she folded both her hands in the mould of "namaskaram", and she placed her left foot on the singeing coal. Immediately, she wanted to withdraw her left leg and pull back, as she felt extremely hot under her foot. But, she knew about the consequences, and she moved forward ignoring the pain as fast as possible.
"I can do it. I can do it. Jai Shiva, Jai Shiva! Please give me enough power to withstand the pain." She was uttering these words, this time in a soft voice. As soon as she crossed 7 feet, almost half the distance she was assigned to cross, the sensation of burning started to increase exponentially.
She could clearly understand that her skin under her both feet had started to singe. The pain became unbearable. Her bravado vanished very quickly in thin air, and she started to scream at full throttle. But, she didn't stop, and moved forward as fast as she could. The Joker had told her not to run, lest she should have to appear at the test afresh.
When she reached around 10 feet, the skin under her feet started to burn. She could smell the burning of flesh. The pain had crossed the threshold of her limit. She remembered the consequences. But, she could not take the pain any more. So, she spot jumped the remaining distance with her full might.
Archana had never practiced long jump in her entire life. But, she herself was astonished to note that she could jump out of the platform at a single go. Her screams might not have stopped, the tears form her eyes might not have stopped running down her cheeks like a stream, but at last, she felt something good. The frigging burning sensation had lessened.
The rude sound of boos quickly drained away her momentary sense of relief. She craned her neck to see who were laughing and making catcalls. Her jaw dropped to see everyone was laughing but the lady, who was around 5' 6" tall, having a taut body, was jumping up and down like a naughty imp.
"She failed! She failed!" She screamed in shrill voice.
Like a prowling tiger, she jumped from her position to come in front of Archana. Archana's jaw dropped one more time to note that the lady had jumped almost 12 feet at a go. The 8 Ft black leather bull whip in her hand sent shivers down her spine.
"You know what? This is Joker's house. He is a man of words. You should have taken his words seriously. This was not at all a difficult task. You should have done it easily. Anyway, I am very happy, as I will have the pleasure of beating you, and most importantly you will have to do it again with your burnt feet." She chortled.
This lady was also masked. She was wearing the mask of Ursula. But, for a change, Archana was herself surprised to note that her trepidation had vanished. She looked straight into the eyes of the lady in black."Tell me how I failed?" Archana shot back with such a voice that clearly showed that she was not lacking in confidence.
"You silly girl! You jumped. You had to cross the distance only by walking." The lady in black shouted.
"No! I was not allowed to run, and I didn't run. The Joker never told me that I could not jump."
The pindrop silence gave Archana enough encouragement to drive home her point further. She looked at the Joker, and said,
"Sir, you are a man of words, as you claimed several times earlier. I also know that you record every thing. Please show me the recordings of the conditions that you uttered a few minutes ago."
There was clearly an environment of disbelief and discontent among the 5 other people. They began to chatter, which the Joker tolerated for 90 seconds, and he imposed his authority by raising his right hand. That move silenced everyone, and everyone turned their attention on him. It appeared to Archana that she was in a court and the Joker was the judge. Archana knew that she had made a solid case. But, this being an unholy place, Archana could not have been sure of the outcome. There was every possibility that the Joker could be biased. Archana's feet were burnt, the pain was unbearable. She did not cry loudly, but there was continuous flow of tears running down her cheeks. If she had to do it again, Archana was not sure, whether she would make it or not.
"My bad! Sorry folks! Archana is right! Indeed, there is no restriction in jumping in the condition. I will incorporate this henceforth. But, well, congratulations Archana! You have passesd the third test, the last one of the easy tests. You can enjoy the rest of the night at your room. But, you will have to appear at two more tests to get freedom from here in the next few days, and those two will be not like these 3. Now, you will be taken to our medical centre. Don't worry about your wounds. We have got the world's bestest medical care unit with the bestest doctors in the universe. I promise you your feet will be healed very quickly.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The success made Rajan extremely happy. He would have liked to punch the air in joy, but the presence of the nefarious guy prevented him from doing so. But still, there was a hint of satisfaction in his voice when he said,
"So at last, I passed the test Sir!" There was clearly a tone of confidence in his voice, and it appeared that Rajan wanted to hear some kind of congratulatory messages from the evil Bengali.
"You think so? Really? I am sorry, the condition was that you have to run without stopping. But, you failed miserably man. You are very fortunate that the first 3 tests are very easy, and this second test is the easiest. You will get 2 more chances to pass this test in the next two days."
"What? Oh no! You can't do this injustice to me Sir."
To be continued
No comments:
Post a Comment