Workshop

‘Thud!’ the noise rings loud, echoing in the dark, empty street. Tanmay picks himself up and dusts his pants, looking up at the wired fence he’d fallen off from.  He giggles to himself, clearly drunk, as he calls through the fence asking the girl standing opposite to hurry up. She snaps at him, asking him to lower his voice, as she starts climbing. She’s soon on his side and they start walking towards a dilapidated, dark building. ‘Are you sure this is the right place?’ Rita asks. Tanmay nods, walking faster now. ‘Yes, they asked me to meet them at Workshop no. 3’. ‘But everything looks the same here! How do you know which one is No. 3?’ Rita argues as she stumbles, trying to keep up with Tanmay’s pace.

‘We look for tracks. Workshop 3 is where the train carriages are repaired.’ Tanmay replies. They both stumble in the dark, trying to walk straight in their drunken state. They go around the big building where they find a broken window. Tanmay shines a torch through the window and sees that the place looks deserted. He slides the window open and pulls himself through easily. Rita clambers in behind him. As their eyes adjust to the darkness, they see a row of train carriages lying in the workshop. Metal frames and other repairing tools are strewn all over the place. The place is dusty and looks like it hasn’t been used since a couple of months.

‘He’s asked me to wait inside the furthest carriage from the main door.’ Tanmay says as he starts walking. Rita follows, taking a swig from the flask she’s carrying in her pocket. ‘You know Tanmay, I think you’re being taken for a fool. It’s quite stupid to be meet in a place like this to handover a gm of coke! It’s not even a big quantity.’ Rita says, looking annoyed. Tanmay retorts by asking her to leave, if she doesn’t want to be here. Rita shuts up and follows him quietly, drinking from her flask. They stick to walking near the wall on the left side of the workshop, and pass many doors which are bolted with huge brass locks. Just when they think they’ve reached the last carriage in the workshop, they hear a loud crash. It seems to be coming from behind the wooden door they are standing at.

‘What was that?’ whispers Rita, her face looking pale in the moonlight creeping in from the windows. ‘Shush, be quiet!’ Tanmay tells Rita, putting up his hand up to stop her. He puts his ear to the door, but everything seems quiet now on the other side. ‘I’m going to try to find an opening to peep through.’ Tanmay whispers, as he runs his hand down the door, looking for a crack. He walks a little away from the door, and finds a small dusty window bolted with wooden shutters next to it. He pulls the wood, trying to get an opening for them to see through. Rita helps, both being as quiet as they can. They manage to clear a small space, which they think is enough for one of them to see on to the other side. Taking a deep breath, Tanmay looks at Rita, who nods softly, and presses his face into the opening. In an instant, he gasps.

He sees a shadowy figure with an axe hitting the ground incessantly. He has a partial view so he cannot tell what exactly the figure is axing away. 'Tanmay, let's go, I am getting creeped out by this place. Screw the coke, and lets just get out of here, please', Rita pleads. Tanmay is fixated and cant stop staring at the shadowy figure. ' Come here and I'lll show you your true self', he hears these words in his ear. Rita pulls him away and it feels like he has been taken out of a trance. He asks her what or who did she think the figure was. "What figure? I did not see anything. You definitely do not need more intoxicants. Fuck the dealer, lets get the fuck out of this slasher movie setting", she laughs. 

Tanmay is hardly paying any attention to what Rita is saying. He is more drawn to the locked doors. The brass locks call out to him to open them. He gets an unquenchable urge to know what is inside. 'Seek me, find your true maker', the same voice from earlier whispers in his ear. He stands in front of the door and tries to break open the lock by kicking it. 'What in god's name are you doing? Can we please just leave?'. Tanmay pays no heed to what she is saying and continues kicking. He spots something shiny in the door gap. He pulls it out and it turns out to be a key. 'You've got to be kidding me! Are you seriously thinking of going in? What has gotten into you? Why are you being such an asshole. SAY SOMETHING!', she bellows. Tanmay turns with a look in his eye she had never seen. He had anger issue but this was something else. "No one forced you to come here. You don't like it, then fuck off. I am anyway sick of you cramping my vibe all the time. So why don't you do us both a favour and FUCK OFF!', he yells. With tears in her eyes, Rita leaves.

Tanmay turns the key and opens the door. It is pitch dark. A hint of light comes in through one glass window. He can see silhouettes of big machinery dumped callously. He walks around to see if he can find a light source. He finds the switch to the bulb and straight at the wall he sees a dusty station master's uniform. 'You need to ride that midnight train to purge the world of its filth', the same voice he hears. This time he can feel someone's presence as if they are breathing down on him. He feels the proximity lessen and turns around to see and freezes.

It is Rita. Sure as sweet heaven, it is her. In the same dishevelled look as few minutes ago. The same green dress with those huge grocery bag pockets. God knows what she carries in them apart from the flask that she keeps sipping from. But Rita looks different. Yes, it's the same clothes, shoes, flask, even the same arms and legs and face, body yet its not her. For starters, its not her voice. Rita has a regular south Mumbai diva voice, screechy and accented. 

This lookalike of Rita's has a much more soothing, intoxicating and chilling voice. You cannot but obey the voice. Tanmay is confused. He asks the apparition "Rita, is that you?". The shadowy Rita simply turns and floats out. Tanmay cries "IS THAT YOU?" and then adds softly "Sorry". He is undecided whether to follow shadowy Rita or the real one who he just yelled at. 

Tanmay is still contemplating his next course of action when he hears some clanging sound coming from the next room. He is suddenly very scared. Gone is his bravado and his inquisitiveness about the workshops and the closed doors. He digs in his pockets and fishes out the little pouch with the 3gm of coke in it. He doesn't care for the buyer anymore. The shadowy Rita has flipped something in him. He breaks a window and wipes it clean on his sleeve. Using the glass as a board, he cuts 3 neat lines. He arranges them so that they resemble a smiley face - one line each for the eyes and the smiling mouth. He then starts growling in a sort of strange animal mating ritual. 

The clanging sounds stop. He calls out "Rita?". He gets no response. He adds "Shadowy Rita?". Still no response. "True Maker Rita?". "Rid-the-world-of-filth-Rita?". No response. No clanging. No Rita. No shadowy Rita. 

Suddenly weary of this hide and seek game, Tanmay snorts one line. The mouth. The biggest line. Before he could even breathe out, he hears a gruff voice saying something softly. He turns around. Its the buyer. He is looking pointedly at the glass. Before Tanmay could react, Rita bursts out from behind the shadows. She tackles the buyer and they both fall down spreadeagled and entangled amongst themselves. Tanmay starts howling. He cannot take it anymore. Everything is muddled up. He throws himself on top of that tangled heap of arms and legs. As his body makes contact, his VR plug falls off his ear. 

Tanmay wakes up in his chair. For a second he is disoriented and then he remembers the simulation game that he was testing. There is obviously a loophole. He ends the game and disables the other player's console. Rita wakes up with a jerk but quickly acclimates to reality. She smiles at Tanmay and says "Guess, you didn't factor in the hidden Ghost mode". 

Tanmay just nods his head and walks off.