RIP

RIP – A HORROR STORY

by

VIKRAM KARVE



Read this slowly and carefully. Take your time. Savor every word. Try to enjoy it. It’s going to be the last thing you ever read, because you’re not going to read much after this. That’s because by the time you finish this I’m going to finish you. Yes. You read right. I’m going to finish you once and for all. Murder you in cold blood. Till you are dead. RIP. Requiescat in pace. Or is it requiescant in pace? It really doesn’t matter. But you for sure are going to rest in peace. That’s right. Rest in Peace. RIP. Forever.

You think this is a big joke? It isn’t. I’m going to terminate you. I’ve been watching you for days. You’re so nice and healthy. That’s why I have no compunctions, as I firmly believe that my victim ought to be in good health, since it is barbarous to kill anybody who is weak or of a sickly disposition.

After you finish reading this, just sit back and relax. I know you can find excuses to hang around your house, or your office, or wherever you are reading this; but sooner or later you’re going to have to get up and go out. That’s where I’ll be waiting for you. Or maybe I am closer to you than that. Maybe I am in this very room where you are sitting.

You think of murder as something far distant, don’t you? It’s not! It’s very near, very close to you. Maybe just behind you. Believe me. I’m dead serious. Don’t look behind you.

Come on, dear Reader. Tell me. Where are you reading this? In your room late at night on your PC, or in your office, or on your laptop, in bed, or outdoors, or while traveling, or on a lazy Sunday afternoon? Or have you taken a printout and are reading this propped up on your pillow in bed late at night? It just doesn’t matter. Because I’m going to come and get you the moment you finish reading this. You can take my word for it.

If you are home while reading this, maybe I’m in your house with you right now, maybe in this very room, stealthily creeping right behind you, waiting for you to finish the story. Don’t look behind you.

Maybe I’m watching surreptitiously though your office window, or maybe I am standing menacingly right behind you as you sit at your work desk staring at the monitor, waiting to pierce you with the deadly needle of the venom filled hypodermic syringe the moment you finish reading this. Just sit still and keep reading. Don’t look behind you.

Or maybe I’m sitting covertly right next to you in the Internet café where you are reading this. Don’t look! Just keep reading. Maybe I’m waiting outside for you. But don’t look around. You’ll be happier if you don’t know – if you don’t see the needle coming. So don’t look behind you.

But wherever you are reading this, I’m near you, watching and waiting for you to finish. And then I’ll silently slither right behind you. And from the right pocket of my trousers I’ll carefully take out the lethal syringe.

Don’t be scared. You won’t feel a thing. Maybe just a wee little scratch, a teeny weeny prick of a tiny microscopic needle. And you will die instantly.

It’s much better killing this way – instantaneous, effortless, clean, clinical. I like it this way. When I kill people this way they don’t even come to know. Unless they look. So don’t look behind you!

You don’t believe in the macabre, do you? You think my imagination is running wild and this is just my amateurish attempt at writing a short story, don’t you? Go on; smile to yourself, thinking this is just a joke, a fib, a yarn. Don’t look behind you. Don’t believe this – until you feel the gentle prick of the hypodermic needle in your spine.



VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright 2006 Vikram Karve

vikramkarve@sify.com

http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com