Chapter 6: The Kingdom of Obsession – The Downfall

By
Sydney Billford Monteiro
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Chapter 6: The Kingdom of Obsession – The Downfall

Vivek looked at the book, almost 50 % was done but he was nowhere close to finding any memorabilia yet. The storyline was also getting boring. “Where is the obsession that was promised? There’s only success and success. And the story is getting predictable. What do I do? Well, all success to Jishnu but I am in no luck” he thought.

It was 2 pm and Vivek’s stomach was growling with hunger. But the disappointment of not finding anything remarkably close to a memorabilia made him throw off any thoughts for food. Generally, he would find memorabilia halfway through the book in most cases. But in 25% of the times, he found it in the last 10 pages and once inside the binding. So there was still hope of finding something here too. He was the King of this kingdom and he would find what he was looking for; he assured himself.

His eyes were getting tired and he needed to rest them. But the thought of going to sleep reminded him of the nightmares and that scared him. Sleep will not be the right thing to do, nor food to keep him away from the nightmares. He knew that alcohol will soothe his
senses. He got himself a new bottle of rum from the room service. Keeping the book aside opening the balcony door he sat on the chair and admired the bright afternoon sun and the shining waters of the sea. Then opening the rum he made himself a drink. “Ah, what a life? What a normal life?" he thought. He knew his life was fucked up; far from normal. All this obsession of finding memorabilia is madness, pure madness; he knew that. But he had come to a long-distance; he could not turn back, there was no full stop to this. There was only one way out of it. A leap from the balcony to his death as the calm shining sea was calling at him. The thought brought back the memories of last year when he had almost considered jumping off the balcony. He had almost come close to end his obsession. This was the kingdom he didn’t want to be the King of. He needed an escape or did he? He just could not make up his mind. “OK let’s not think like this. Let me relax a little and enjoy my drink. I”ll be fine and at the end of the day I”ll find what I am looking for. I will pouch it label it and I am off with my life” he thought. Pushing back the easy chair he sipped the drink and calmed himself. His senses relaxed and he stopped thinking about the book. The only thought he was thinking was of the sea and the breathtaking view.

The clink of the glass woke him up. Vivek pushed himself off the chair feeling groggy. The glass was on the floor spilling the leftover rum. The wall clock said it was 4 pm. “Oh God I slept through the afternoon,” he thought. He had not realized when he had drifted to sleep.
The sleep was thankfully dreamless and deep. He thanked God for that. His stomach was still growling and he had to satisfy it. Picking up the phone he dialed the room service.

Lunch at 4 pm was satisfying. With the sleep and the alcohol to smooth his senses and food to satisfy his stomach, he was at peace. He didn’t want to think about the book yet or rather about not finding anything in it. “Just let me enjoy my lunch first”.

It was 5:30 pm, too early for alcohol. So he went to the balcony and lit a cigarette and started smoking. He wished he had more time to read the book later, but he had to finish reading it as he had only one more day left. The setting sun had thrown a beautiful picture on the evening sky. The sky was violently changing its colors. Something about the sun struck him; it was being pulled down mercilessly by the horizon and it was fighting back by throwing up fires at the sky. Something told him that the sun was asking for his help. It was asking him to hold its dying hands and to pull up against the horizon. Clearly it was suicide considering the horizon’s strength. The ground beneath him started tugging at him and he instantly transformed into the sun being pulled down by the ground. “Come to me” the earth was beaconing. He quickly recoiled and got inside the room shutting the balcony door. His obsession with his madness was raging to the new level. The thought of not finding memorabilia was making him crazier every minute. It had now started giving him nightmares when he was awake. Alcohol could help him again, but no it’s too early for alcohol and he would drift back to sleep. He had to finish reading the book and if he could still not find anything he would go back and check once again carefully. The book was not bound so he didn’t have the option of checking the bind like last time. He was tempted to skip reading and turn the pages, flutter through the pages and find something, but damn his rules he could not break them. He washed his face with warm water and tried to calm himself.

Turning the chair towards the evening natural light he sat and resume the book. The time was 6 pm and he decided he would read the book for 2 hours without break; memorabilia or not it didn’t matter.

The app was running successfully in the market. Soon the internet giants sent offers to buy the app. But Jishnu and Divya would not give up their brainchild so easily. They had made a name in the market, now they had to sustain themselves. But Jishnu had other plans; he
wanted to expand. Expansion into other sectors of the internet world was too early for their new company. Divya suggested they should first sustain in the market for some time. They had to bury their roots firmly in the ground and then they could take a shape they intended. But Jishnu was adamant. This leads to fights between them. Moreover, his obsession with his schedules made matters worse.

They were moving apart from each other without their realization. The team could sense it. Most of them stayed loyal but few could not continue any longer. They could not stand Jishnu’s nagging about his rigid schedules. They saw this as a threat to their careers and
decided to leave. But still, this did not affect the regular business.

There were ups and down in Jishnu’s and Divya’s relationships. The bonding they had built during the vacation at the Maldives was hanging on weak threads now. Divya was on the verge of breaking up as she could not live with his schedules any longer. She had had enough of it.

Jishnu on the other hand was nowhere near this relationship. He was obsessed with his planning about ideas of running the business about expanding into other sectors. The only things that ran in his mind were planning, schedules, time tables, business, more planning, more schedules… He was getting obsessed with himself. Divya never wanted to be the princess of his Kingdom of Obsession. But she loved him and she could not let go of him so easily. She still wanted to give a last try to this relationship.

“Baby, what is so interesting about those papers”? She asked him.

Jishnu was immersed in the heap of paper on his desk. He had a huge chart paper spread in front of him on which he was drawing lines and shapes; his usual planning stuff.

“Nothing,” he said without taking his eyes off the desk. He knew there was no point in explaining as she would not understand.

“Come one tell me na" she pleaded. Although she very well knew that when he was busy with something which involves chart papers it’s best to leave him alone. But then he was always involved in such stuff. He never spent any quality time with her. Besides what
she wanted him to do to her required more than the quality time. He body was craving for his touch, for his nakedness. She wanted to feel his lustful hardness through all her senses. She wanted him inside her, caressing her insides with his manhood. Her hard nipples with
passion-filled nectar were longing to be sucked. Her breast ready to be gently squeezed. She did not care about the consequences.  “Nothing that you don’t know. Just the planning stuff which you are not interested in” he answered her halfheartedly, still without moving his gaze from what he was doing.

“Well you should look up from those sheets once in a while and look at what’s in front of you. Don’t you like what you see baby” she said almost trying to control the fiery feeling forming in between her legs.

She gently ran her fingers all over her curves. A seductive smile was forming on her face.

“Wow you look beautiful!” Jishnu said as his mouth gapped open. She was wearing sexy black strapless satin lingerie and no bra inside. Her hard nipples were pressing against her dress threatening to tear it and pop out at any moment. She was at her best.

“Oh… Just beautiful? Come one you can do better”. she said and sat on his lap holding his hands and cupping her breasts and rubbing her nipples.

“Ah” Jishnu was suddenly taken aback. He did not expect that at all.

“Come on baby look into my eyes. Am I not sexy? Don’t you want to kiss these juicy lips”? she turned to face him and kissed his cheeks.

He was still dumbstruck and could not respond.

“Oh baby I know you want this" she ran her finger on her body again. “Come on Jish just do it na”.

“No” Jishnu himself could not believe he said that nor did Divya.

“What? What do you mean?” She recoiled and suddenly stood in front of him. She was shocked and could not believe what she heard.

“I am busy Divya. I am free after 7. We will do this later” he turned towards his desk.

“What do you mean by that? What do you mean we will do it at 7? Jish what do you think this is? What do you think our relationship is Jish?? she was furious. For some reason, she covers herself suddenly feeling ashamed of her nakedness.

“Why are you overreacting? Its sex that you want I know and I am not saying no to it. I am just saying that I’ll do it a little later. I have free time in my schedule at 7 pm and we can have sex at that time. The stuff I am doing now is very important to me. We will have a lot of time to think about our relationship. Now let me go back to what I was doing. You come back at 7 in the same sexy dress and I’ll do as you please”. He picked up his pencil and started drawing lines on the paper.

“Oh my God! I can’t believe you said that Jish” her mouth gapped open with shock. She could not believe her ears. “You need a time table for sex! I mean that’s crazy of the next level. So do you have a time slot for everything you do? Do you have a separate time for
spending time with me? And what you mean by coming back at 7 in the same dress? Am I your slave to obey your orders? And what about my time? What about my mood? What if I am not in the mood at 7 when you have allotted time for me? What then Jish? Tell me”? She was shouting at the top of her voice.

Jishnu did not respond to that. He resumed his work.

“Come on tell me Jish. Talk to me. You never talk to me. What do you think this relationship is going to? Are you really serious about it? I mean I can’t take it any more Jishnu, I can’t. I can’t live by your schedules. I need time with you. I need your decision now. I need closure. Do you want me or not Jish tell me” she shouted spitting fire at him.

Jishnu turned to her threw his hands up in the air and without saying a word turned back and resumed his work. His obsession had reached all heights and he could no longer come out it even if it was for sex.

Divya turned and just walked off.

The next day she officially broke up with him and also with the company. She took almost half of the team with her. They joined her and started a new company soon to be a bitter competitor. Then came to the downfall of Jishnu’s empire but his Kingdom of Obsession was still intact. He soon diversified and acquired other small enterprises that did not perform well and soon he started incurring losses. Still, he continued to plan, continued to make schedules and time tables. He was still optimistic that one day he’ll be successful and he needed planning and more of planning for the same. His trusted team members had already abandoned him. He had forgotten Divya and her love completely. She was only a competitor for him.

Divya on the other hand still loved him but she had also turned into a bitter rival. She threw up some of the worst challenges at him. It became evident that it was because of her business ideas the app actually thrived in the market. She became the top businesswoman of the time.

Jishnu was running bankrupt and with his every move, every decision he was losing friends and money like tumbling dominos. In no time he was on the verge of being nothing. He was rock bottom. He had reached the end of the curve. For any optimistic person, this meant that there was only one way go; upwards. Jishnu was optimistic but his optimism was filled with his arrogant ego and arrogance came out victorious in this fight.

Having lost his house to the Bank Jishnu moved to his old shabby house. The house required a little bit of cleaning, but he did not bother. Soon this house became his den of obsession. By then he had lost his mind but somewhere in that very brain of his he knew that he had done a mistake by letting Divya go. And from then began his futile attempts to get her back. Just as he had made the short term and long term goals for bringing up his company he started devising plans to get Divya back in his life. A plan was drawn, schedules were made; it seemed the 24 hours were not enough for this activity. Jishnu planned to get Divya back in his life by applying mathematics but he forgot that he was working with an abstract idea he was working with emotions and at this moment he was missing exactly that.

The books on his desk were not enough to jot down a plan and so he used the charts. When even that was not enough he used the walls. The walls were filled with diagrams, geometric structures, tables, and pictures of his and Divya’s taken during the happy times. But it was all missing one thing; the solution to his one major problem; how to get Divya back in his life?

Jishnu had worked out all possible options and there was only one option left now. He had to make a schedule for that too.


Sydney Billford Monteiro

Sydney Billford Monteiro was born and brought up in Mangalore, Karnataka. An HR by profession, he has a Masters in Social Work and is working for the Hospitality Industry in Bangalore. He is an avid reader of Crime Thrillers, Mystery novels, and Science books. Creative writing and poetry is his passion.

He loves exploring the world of stories. His favourite pastime is experimenting with real-life events, creating characters, and turning them into engaging storylines. 

Apart from reading and writing the author loves football; his favourite game and watching movies that depict unusual concepts and real-life events. 

He also loves to have a healthy debate over a scientific idea.

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