The Rain: Chapter 3: Gun

He rocked the heavy gates back, making them screech terribly in that infernal downpour. His decision to rob Jagdish had been made in the day, when his accountant had casually mentioned sympathizing with him that he had recently withdrawn almost 3 lakh in cash an evening before. Vijay hoped Jagdish still had the cash in his home.

The deadline to save Aarti was also up, and if money wasn’t arranged in the next 12 hours, Aarti would die. Vijay had spent 10 of them in his car, outside Jagdish’s mansion, waiting for darkness. With darkness, came rain, Vijay almost felt relieved to see it. Ever since the ordeal had begun, Vijay hadn’t shed a tear, when the rain came down it felt as if the sky cried for him.

The mansion was empty, except for Jagdish and his servant, who lived in the servant quarters a little way from the main house. Vijay had been here often, for buisness, for pleasure, for friendship. He would have almost laughed at that now if he had not forgotten to laugh. He opened the main door, knowing from experience that Jagdish rarely locked his door.

As soon as he closed the door behind him, he felt as if he had swapped worlds. The chaos of the rain ceased abruptly, and his wet shoes felt a soft Cashmere carpet. The only sound was that of the dripping from his clothes, almost hindering the silence of that well lit, but empty hall. The extravagance of Jagdish had always impressed Vijay, and so it did today too. But today, instead of being over-awed, he felt over-powered. He preferred the loud rain outside, which seemed to drown out his own thoughts. He walked across the hall to the stairs dripping all over the floor; “Jagdish won’t like this”, he thought. He came upto his bedroom, and strangely knocked on the door politely. There was a sleepy groan from inside, he was alone, or at least it seemed. Vijay wiped off his forehead, gripped that old colt a little tighter and entered the room.

Jagdish was frozen, so was Vijay. The room was in pause, Jagdish half out of his bed in his satin pyjamas, Vijay in an almost cop like position pointing the gun at him. Only the suppressed rush of the rain, and Vijay’s dripping clothes made any sound. Finally Vijay asked for the money, Jagdish knew what he was talking about, and he wasn’t going to argue with a desperate man holding a gun. Still at gun point, Jagdish opened his personal safe, money almost poured out, like sand would out a sand-clock. Vijay asked him to count, and he counted with him, when they reached 2 lakhs, he asked him to stop. There was still more in the locker, but that would just waste his time. He asked Jagdish to put the bonds into one of the pillow covers. Once done he asked Jagdish to move away, dropping the cover onto the floor.

Vijay bent down to pick it up. Allowing himself a fleeting glance at the huge amount of money. That was all that Jagdish needed, he stormed with tackle onto his back. He would have floored him, had Vijay not turned around in time. The 2 of them struggled, Jagdish with all the strength of well built, well oiled young man, and Vijay with the desperation of a defeated brother. Their little brawl, knocked over a table, and they rolled over the bed. The fall broke the two apart, and the two of them got up, Jagdish went for his gun hand. Vijay was savy to it however and caught him with a under-hook  Jagdish still caught him however, and soon the struggle became a wrist strength competition for the gun.

Source: http://www.tylershields.com

That’s when Vijay heard it. It sounded like thunder , only much more nearer. His hand felt a knock back, and then felt warm. Jagdish staggered back, slowly covering his lower abdomen with his hand. Vijay was dumbfounded, this was his old man’s gun almost 80 years old, he didn’t even know it had a bullet; hell he didn’t even know how to shoot. He stretched out his hand as if to hold Jagdish. Jagdish went back a few steps more, lost his balance, and almost in slow motion, went out the window behind him.

Vijay ran to the window, and stared down.It was pitch black, but in between the thunder flash, he could see Jagdish on the grass below lying a what seemed an increasing pool of tar. Vijay from a few days back would have been scared to death, but this Vijay moved away from the window, picked up the pillow cover and started heading down. Aarti was the only thing that mattered now.

On his way out, he noticed the light at the servant’s room go up. No matter how loud a rain is, a gun shot is very tough to hide. He threw the gun into the grass, as he wasked out the smain door, he had no need for it now. They would catch him sooner or later, but not before he could reach the hospital. He ran across the soaked grass, and the flooded road, entered the car, ignited the engine, and drove off into the rain.

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The Rain is a 4 part short story that I had written while I was in school, if you liked it, please suggest a name for this chapter, and be sure to check out the next chapter soon.You can find the other parts here:
Chapter 1: Tragedy
Chapter 2: Cold
Chapter 4: Time