The Last Ride

When Rakesh finally got the chance to relax a bit, he heard his cellphone give a little ping.

Rakesh Dutta sighed. It was 11.45 p.m. in the night. Who the hell would now want a cab drive home? Upon checking the location, he saw that it came from Park Street. Great, he muttered to himself. Now I have to deal with drunks, it seemed. Giving another disappointed sigh, Rakesh started his Maruti, and moved towards the spot where the passenger waited. These days, Park Street was the one hot spot where you would find drunkards and all sorts of outlaws in after normal night hours...

Luckily for him, it was only a matter of 5 minutes from where he originally was trying to relax. He pulled up his car beside the Oxford Book Store - or so was the location according to the GPS. It had begun raining a couple of minutes ago. It seemed to increase every moment. 

Rakesh had to wait for only - maybe - for 2 minutes, before he saw a man coming towards the car. He immediately opened the doors for the man to come in, who was already soaking wet. He did not see him clearly, perhaps the darkness...

'Where to go, Sir?' Rakesh asked once his passenger got inside. (His suspicion was not wrong. Strong drafts of vodka drifted from his shirt...)

'32....Beniatola Street...32....'

Then the man - what it seemed to look like - slumped down on the backseat.

Rakesh laughed to himself. He was a good drunkard - well, at least he gave his drop-off location. Then, setting the GPS to the desired location, Rakesh sped away towards Beniatola. He would normally have declined this route especially during the night hours, but since it was a drunkard over here that he was dealing with, and it was raining too (and also because today's job hadn't yielded much), he accepted it. Finally, a 500-rupee note at the end of the day!

As he drove on, he noticed that the man was in the same position as he had been after giving him the location. He had been in the driving business for like 5 or 6 years, but never had he seen a man in a position like this. He looked asleep...he looked so...

Dead.

Rakesh shivered at the thought. Dhur, he said to himself, why the hell I'm thinking all of this? Get a grip. Seriously! Maybe it was because of the spooky ambience created by the rain and the winds outside. It had been overcast and rainy all day. Also, Rakesh remembered, he had been reading some horror stories during the intermissions he got between driving.

But the feeling of 'something isn't right' continued to grow inside him. The man lay over there in the backseat, slumped and looking as if asleep. Rakesh drove on through the rainy night. The man must have taken a huge booze, and was now slumbering peacefully. Rakesh had heard enough complaints from his co-workers about the antics of these persons. No more, he said to himself, no more shall he pick up anyone so late in the night. Whether the passenger was a man, a woman, or even a drunkard, he would not even dare to receive...

To release the uneasiness a bit, he said: 

'Whoa, it's really storming down here in Calcutta, right?'

No answer came from the backseat. 

Rakesh then said:

'So, like what do you do? I'm hitting a bit personal over here. Um, why did ya..'

He didn't complete his sentence, for suddenly he heard a ring from his phone. Jumping up a little, he nearly collided into a truck coming from the other side!

Rakesh - after wiping his forehead - checked what the 'attempt-to-accident' ring was for. It was basically his GPS telling him that he was one minute away from his destination. Not from the destination, Rakesh thought, but nearly from going to heaven! Then, giving a quick glance to his strange passenger (who still looked to be asleep) and checking the time (12.10 a.m.), he now turned towards the direction where the drop-off was located.

When Rakesh reached 32, Beniatola Street, it was 12.13 a.m.

'Um, Sir? We have reached your destination.' Rakesh called out.

There was no still no answer.

Rakesh now felt a bit disgusted. At least now he should have woken up!

Without any further delay, he switched on the car light, only to nearly scream out.

The man lay there on the backseat, with a knife stabbed right into his stomach, and blood was spilled over all his clothes! The man had a piece of paper attached to it. Shocked and with trembling hand, Rakesh picked up the paper. It contained only two words:

'YOU'RE NEXT'

Rakesh turned towards the window, and saw two eyes glowing - through the open window - in the darkness, and something glittering...was it...

***

'ANOTHER DOUBLET'

Calcutta, 24 Oct, 2019: An Uber cab driver and his passenger were found dead at Beniatola Street, in the early hours of the morning of the 23rd. The murders have been estimated to have occured between 12.15 to 12.45 a.m. The victims were found with a piece of paper, with the words, 'You're next.', indicating that they had been murdered by the notorious serial killer, 'The Doublet Killer', who is now recently at large in the streets of Calcutta. How he know where to go, no one still knows....the police are trying their best, but they too are feeling baffled by the latest murders...'

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