Haunted Dreams

An introduction on Tamilselvan and his personal issues

CHAPTER 1 �" HAUNTED DREAMS

 

                    It was very dark and even the full Moon sky did not help to provide enough light into the flat. It was a 3-BHK apartment, with a wider hall covered with two guest bedrooms at the corners. The Master bedroom is located on the other side where we need to cross the kitchen and the common bathroom. All the glass windows were tightly sealed and covered with thick film of cooling Sun shades, preventing the full Moon rays inside.

                    I could not see anything, but I felt that I was standing near the entrance door. The pupil in my eyes dilated and shrank often, adjusting to view something. But the darkness remained still without leaving a path for my eyes. I stepped forward and got hit by a big wooden piece on the right side of that wider hall. I observed by touching various parts of that wooden piece and was able to recognize that was a wooden table made up of Teak and it had three draws; Two smaller at the top and one big at the bottom.

                    I was lucky that I pulled the first draw without much adventure and found an old model silver color hand torch. I tried to switch it on and I was lucky again to have this as fully charged. I examined that the place and wondered about the beautiful interiors with some sort of antique materials. There is a saying ‘A house with beautiful interiors is more haunted than a dusty castle’. I started to believe that saying and it was really haunting and spooky.

                    My instinct forced me to walk into the Master bedroom, by crossing both the guest bedrooms and the common bathroom. The door of the Master bedroom was closed and my instinct again suggested me that it was not locked from inside. I turned the door knob and the ‘click’ sound echoed all over the flat.

                    I spread the cone shaped torch light beam across the room and the instinct raised my heart beat continuously. The light beam reflected over the dressing table mirror and disturbed my eyes. In spite of this, my eyes widened and my heart skipped a beat after seeing on the floor, the other side of the King size bed.

                    There was a young girl, aged 23 years lying on the ground flooded with blood around her. There was no weapon used. She was beaten to death. Her entire face looked bulged and there was no sign of her beautiful eyes, nose and lips. I slowly stepped forward and reached close to her. I had never faced such kind of great shock in my life.

                    I dropped the torch light from my hand, where it rolled down on the floor, in such a way that the light beam fell on the girl’s face in a pendulum motion. I somehow regained my consciousness, moved close to her and turned her face to recognize her completely. ‘POOVAI !!’  My voice struggled to come out.

                    I jumped from my bed, breathing heavily. I was completely sweating though I was in 17 degree air conditioned room. I searched for my spectacles in the nearby table, which is nerdy kind and looked at my mobile. It was 3:47 AM in the midnight. I drank the complete bottle of water until my heart beat became normal and the sweat was slowly reduced.

                    My name is  Tamilselvan, Assistant Commissioner in Police Department. I was selected as one of the youngest ACP’s in TamilNadu. Though my experience was in quite lower side in terms of years. But I have witnessed hundreds of crime scenes, murders, rapes etc in my short span, since I wore this uniform. My family doctor told that my brain has crossed too many crime scenes and blood stories than a normal human brain can handle. He also suggested me a Psychiatrist to consult, but my overloaded work did not allow me to go for it. As a result of that, I am being haunted everyday by spooky dreams and I always see my girl, my Love, Poovai in the place of victim.

                    I searched her number in the contacts and dialed around midnight 4 AM. The tiny thumbnail intimate image of myself and Poovai filled the complete mobile screen.

                    “Hello…… Tamil ????”, after a small pause she continued.

                    “It’s 4 AM. What happened?”, she stopped. I could not respond. She continued again.

                    “Oh…God!!! Is it that dream again???”, she was shocked.

I could only murmur a “hmmm” as a response.

                    “Come on Tamil !!! This is why I always tell to consult my Psychiatrist uncle. You will never listen to me. Okay, leave it. Now do as I say. Drink some water, take ten deep breaths and sleep peacefully.”

                    “Hmmm”

The phone was disconnected. I followed the procedure what Poovai insisted and slept within seven minutes.

                    It was completely dark again, but this time was the oldest school building. Fortunately this time I had a modern hand torch with me that spread white light n good intenstity.

                    As usual I followed my instincts and entered into a higher secondary class room. As soon as I entered that class room, I found a girl with school uniform lied under the first bench in pool of blood. She was dead strangled by a thick iron rod on her chest. I stepped forward to take a closer look and yet it was my Poovai again.

                    I woke up from the bed and this time not because of this shock. A phone call disturbed my sleep, but I felt good. I wore my spectacles and looked at the mobile screen, it was Constable Mani.

                    “Hello Sir. Sorry to disturb you at this time. This is constable Manimaran.”

                    “Yes Mani. Tell me. What’s the matter?”, I feel that was serious as he was speaking too fast.

                    “There is a scene near Perungaluthur Palani Gardens”

                    “Share me the location in Whatsapp.”

                    “Sure Sir.”

After a heavy rainfall over the night, the clouds moved little and provided the way for the Sun. When I reached there, it looked like a usual crime spot with group of local police team. Few were controlling the small crowd gathered there to peep into the crime scene.

                    Palani Gardens is one of the largest coconut farm located in 300 meters from the National Highway. The thousands of coconut trees tried to prevent the land from washing out of rain water. Though the heavy rain spoiled few regions in the farm.

                    Constable Mani disturbed my initial analysis of crime spot.

                    “Sir, there seems to be a buried dead body. The regular workers here found some strange things on the ground, as the last night rain washed out few of the regions. We are waiting for your arrival to start.”

I just stared at him.

As he said, the recent excavated region was washed out and lead to a foot finger visible on the ground. Local police called out some local guys and started digging that place very carefully.

My instinct was correct. We found a middle aged man killed not more than 12 hours. They lifted the body from the burying hole and kept on the white cloth just beside the hole. The local police were enquiring with the crowd to know about this details.

                    “Sir…. “ Mani looked at me and I slowly stepped forward to look at the victim. He was badly injured at this head with the help of iron rod and stabbed at his chest with the same iron rod. There were no other physical tortures and bruises. It was clear that the objective was to only kill.

                    I instructed the police team to start the forensic analysis and find out his details.

                    “I need the post-mortem report by this evening at any cost”, I strictly warned the team.

                    When I walked towards my car, my phone rang and it was my Poovai. Before attending the call, my instinct forced me to look at the body once. A one side opened skull and a angled body because of drained blood through his chest.                                 

It was my n^th Crime scene and I have seen worse cases than this. But my instinct had got a strange feeling this time unlike as before. This case or this moment was going to change my life. I wished my instincts should be wrong. I attended the call

                    “Hello Poovai…….”

 

      ---To be continued