Right earphone goes in the right ear. Then the left one goes in the left ear. I look down at my ipod, only one song, purposely so. I press play and attach the emblem of Steve Jobs’ legacy to my sleeve. The music begins. As soon as it does, something, rather someone, is awakened inside me. My eyes close and they open only when he starts to sing,
‘This is the end. Beautiful friend.
This is the end, my only friend. The end.
Of our elaborate plans. The end.
Of everything that stands. The end.’
What was woken up is now in charge. Flexing my neck muscles, I examine the people around me. All kinds of them. Clerks, housewives, businessmen, new-earners, old-hoggers, gold-watch and gold-chain wearing uncles, middle-aged aunties camouflaged in business attire, the poor, the rich, all kinds, and some children too. But I knew what bind them all together. That deceiving demon inside all of them, eating out their souls. That one obsession of this entire race. I was in my bank. Money.
‘… And all the children, are insane. All the children, are insane…
Waiting for the, summer rain…’
I slowly glance at all the puppets of that devil, relishing the moment coz like every grand event, this was supposed to be relished from the very start. They didn’t know how significant it was going to be, but I did. But they will too, shortly. I was having a good last look at all of their mundane expressions before they would turn into something which even they would have never seen on their faces. I could see their obsession slowly sapping out their lives until it would be too late for them to turn back. And today, I was going to put an end to it.
‘The blue bus is calling us.
The blue bus is calling us. Driver, where you taken’ us?’
As if on cue, I get up from my seat with a huge lock and a chain in my hand and head towards the door. Curious eyes are on me. I walk on unaffected. I lock the door shut from the inside and curious eyes are now getting closer to me. Confused and nervous eyes are seated at their spots. A pair of curious eyes is now too close to me and is making its transformation into angry eyes. A shirt is lifted and something is lifted from under it and brought up next to them. Curiosity and anger in now overcome with shock because the pair of eyes has now seen something which it had only seen in films. Shocked, the eyes move away from me in a jerk. Other curious eyes are now eyes of fear, horror and disbelief on seeing the black heavy object in my hand. Confused and nervous eyes follow suit. So that now I know that the incident is set into motion and would not be undone. Good, it shouldn’t be undone. I lift the 9mm and raise it towards the ceiling, firing an inaugural shot.
Screams! Running! Hiding! Hands raised in the air! Cash is hidden in some under wears! Some knees greet the ground! And some crying too!
The manager has sneakily, that’s what he thinks, pushed the alarm button and shut the door to the safe. But I was not there for the money. Unlike them I didn’t lust for it. Neither was I worried about getting caught, I knew I wasn’t going to. I was there for them, but they never got to know this. Even if they had, they would never have understood. Everyone had now settled down, more or less. I knew it was time for me to begin. The metronomous aura of the song was ticking. This was it. Bringing down the gun I aim at a pair of eyes gleaming of innocence and cluelessness. And then I began.
‘… take a chance with us….take a chance with us…
Meet me at the back of the blue bus. Blues bus, common... Blue bus, you know... Blue bus…’
Yes, there were gunshots. Yes, I killed. Yes, something inside me hesitated but it wasn’t overpowering enough, fortunately so. One by one I ended all the lives around me and yes, I did not bias on basis of age, gender, sex. Yes, I was shot, once, in the hip, by the security guard who was trapped inside too. Yes, I forgot to take him out at the start. I had expected a fair chance of failure but I succeeded with flying colours, rather a pre-dominant flying colour! Because of which after a while it had got easy to aim as the colour red was covering the most part of the room. No, I didn’t explain myself or justify. No, I didn’t give a fine speech on my hatred for their obsession or why it was all necessary. No, it didn’t matter. And no, nobody survived!
As the song reached its peak, so did my massacre. As the song paused with its melodious solo, so did I. As he started singing again, I started my killings with it. Some would say ‘The Doors’ wasn’t the perfect choice for the occasion. But I wouldn’t have gone through it without their ‘The End’. I wouldn’t have done it any other way. And now, the song was reaching its conclusion, so now I would too,
‘This is the end. Beautiful friend.
This is the end, my only friend. The end.
It hurts to set you free. But you’ll never follow me.’
So that now, I too sought out to conclude the episode I had brought about. Walking through all the expressionless eyes, many of them were shut now, I soaked in my eyes the spectacle of blood and silence. A macabre of silence outside of me, whose presence I could feel gnawing upon me, even though my ears were captivated by the music all along. I found a place in the centre of it all and loaded up the smoking barrel with one last round of ammunition. I didn’t have much time, it was clear.
‘The end of laughter and soft lies. The end of nights we tried to die…’
It was time. The final act. And it had to be synchronous.
‘This… Is….’
Placing the barrel of death under my chin, I started saying, I’m sure I must have screamed, my last words – “To quote a character from a Tarantino film, ‘I think this just might be my masterpiece!’”
‘THE EEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNDDD…’ BANG!
