Lethal Confessions

In the middle of nowhere, lived an old couple. They were married for 30 years now, together, in that house, they had raised 2 children, a beautiful daughter, now married to a well off businessman in a for off land, and a son who was close to them before, but now since past 10 years, he never bothered to know how his parents were holding it all up.

For these 30 years, their relationship had gone through a lot of ups and downs. For the first 20 years, it seemed that if they were into an unhealthy marriage, but with time especially since their son left, they became close to each other like never before. They never left each other's company. They had seen each other developing grays, frowning over wrinkles. She now had arthritis, and could barely move much without pain, and, he well, was still her hero.

In these years, if there was one thing that hadn't changed, was their 10-year-old ritual, where the husband prepared the dinner and the wife had breakfast ( mostly because she woke up early being terribly peckish). Never once, come what may, was this ritual of their breach. Never.

Tonight too, as the husband, entered the bedroom with the tray of dinner (they used to have their food in the bed), he was met with a weird sight, his wife, suffering from acute arthritis, was leaning down from the bed, with her ears pressed hard on the floor, as if she was trying to listen to something, real hard!

'Are you out of your mind!' He rushes to her, "What do you think you are doing?"

Placing a finger on her lips, she indicates to him to shut up, "Listen close. Can you hear it? There is a voice coming from the underneath."

"What voice? You are just imagining things. Now sit back straight, and have the supper."

"Can you not hear it, it is loud and clear, it says, 'confess, confess, confess'"

He could hear nothing and as adamant he was, he refused to call any priest for inspection. So the wife sought the help of her neighbors, Mrs. Garret, and her unusually shy husband Mr. Garret. The Garret couple could hear nothing either but succumbed under their neighbor's persuasion to call the priest as she now believed the house was haunted. The atheist husband decided to stay out of priests' business, but what he failed to understand was how all of a sudden in 30 years this was happening.

Anyway, the priest came with holy water and his holy book, and holy charm, and inspected every nook of the room, and frowned. He called Mr. Garret aside and said, "Sir, I do not feel any supernatural presence here. At the risk of being rude, I would suggest you take good care of the lady, I have a feeling that age is catching up with her, faster than it should."

After the priest and neighbors left, the husband closed the doors behind them. The wife emerged from the room looking suspiciously at the door. " You know what, as soon as the priest entered the house, the voice stopped! And as he left, it is back again, this voice, 'Confess, confess, confess' is driving me nuts! Can you make it stop! Please!"

The husband looked at her pitifully, held her hand, and made her sit on her favorite chair- the brown cushioned armchair, she had inherited from her mother, the one she refused to part with at any cost.

Over the next few days, the wife used to spend as little time as she could in the bedroom, as every time she entered, this voice - "confess, confess, confess" would begin creeping under her skin now. One night, as the husband was reading a magazine, he saw his wife enter the room with dinner, and tears in her eyes.

He stood there in shock, their ritual of 10 years had been breached, he now knew, it was serious. He held her hand, looked her in the eye, and asked her, "look dear, I cannot hear anything, but I know it is troubling you, and I cannot bear to take that. What confession is the voice talking about, there is nothing you can possibly hide from me", that is when he saw her expressions shift, which naturally made him uncomfortable, "is there something you are hiding from me?"

The wife broke down, amidst her sobs and sniffles, she held his hand and took him to that chair, the one she refused to part with, pointing at it, she said, " I have stitched half a million dollars, in the folds and the choirs of the cushions here. My father had abandoned my mother when I was young, and that is when she had warned me, that you cannot trust men, and should save something for yourself if they ever leave. So there, here is my confession, please make the voices stop, it is killing me now"

The voices stopped indeed, but in front of her stood a very livid and stunned husband, who could not believe that the answer to all his problems lay just there, and his wife kept it from him. All those hard work to pay the loans, finance their kids' education, everything! Besides, his wife, who he loved unconditionally, didn't trust him enough!

It broke him, he went back to the room, Without a word. But, this pain of his was not shared by his wife, who was rejoicing the fact that the voice had finally stopped. Over the next few days, they drifted apart, he remained aloof and angry, and his wife tried her best to make it up to him.

He did love her, and you forgive people you love, so he did too. He made peace with the fact that they now at least have the money. Things were almost back to being normal.

Note the word, 'Almost.'

One midnight, as the husband was returning from his trip to the washroom, he saw his wife, sitting up straight and crying to herself. As he got to her, she looked up with bloodshot eyes and said - it is back!

"Confess, confess, confess"

He somehow comforted her, but was now anxious and was evidently not liking it! What could be in store! What was this happening in their lives!

He wanted to tell her, it is her imagination, and she should try to relax, a bit!

But Just then, they heard the telephone bell ring. He took her in and picked up the phone. It was their daughter, the apple of his eyes, the one he loved more than his own life. He momentarily forgot about the situation at hand and began speaking to her, after about a couple of minutes, the old man froze where he was, he let the receiver slip down his hands.

He rushed to his wife, who had by now, hurt herself pretty bad, and she looked like the devil herself, as she ran around the living room yelling, "Make it stop, stop, oh god, this is torturous"

He went to her, held her arm, and said, "I don't know what is happening to us, is there something else you're hiding from me?"

Without a second thought, she looked at him and hissed, " That daughter of yours, well is not yours! I had cheated on you. I am sorry"

She then turned to look at the walls and began pleading, "Please stop now, I cannot bear it, I have said all I had to, I have no more secrets, please stop"

Oblivious to this, our old man staggered towards the door, it hit him harder than a bullet, he knew pain, but this pain, inflicted by his wife's confession, tore him apart.

Without glancing back, he left the house, hoping the cool breeze outside would cool him off.

Hours passed but the old man didn't return home, but instead, the phone started ringing again. The lady received it, and for a moment she was overwhelmed to hear her son on the other side. It had been 10 long years since they spoke.

'Mom, you okay? Is the priest or someone visiting our house or what?'

'No, nobody is here.'

"Oh! It must be the tv then, actually I can hear this voice saying -'confess, confess, confess' so I thought ...."

The old lady was petrified to hear her son. She said, "You hear those voices. I thought I was turning crazy. Your father claims that there are no such voices here.'

The son's voice lowered with a dull disappointing tone he answered, 'Mom, I thought you've changed. But I guess I was wrong. I never expected you to be such a heartless woman. You joke about your own dead husband.'

'What the hell are you talking about?'

'Mom, you can hide it from the world, even from my sister but we both know that dad is dead. Although accidentally, you did kill him 10 years ago after he got enraged discovering that Kaya wasn't his daughter.' The son hung up the phone that very instant.

The old lady was thunderstruck, that very instant she lost the last remaining sanity in her, and started screaming. Alarmed by the noise, Mr. and Mrs. Garret went to their neighbor's house.

They came to an open door and entered calling the old woman's name out loud, but were met with no response.

They rushed in, to see a fallen, stool, and a hanging corpse from the fan!

They were terrified but not surprised to see their lunatic neighbor dead. There were supposed to call the police now and notify them about the suicide.

But before they called, there was one little thing to take care of!

'You finally had revenge against your first wife. Was it satisfying?', asked Mrs. Garret.

'Indeed it was.', Mr. Garret answered as he removed all the tape recorders he had hidden under the planks of wood on the floor, and the Attic, and the walls, which had the recorded voice on a loop which said - "confess, confess, confess"