A (F)rightening (F)ace

A (F)rightening (F)ace

For some reason Varun was allowed to speak to Anandi only for a very little time initially. By noon the next day, Varun could see that two more doctors were attending to Anandi. Dr Peter Ribeiro spoke to Varun at 5 PM in the evening. He called Varun to his room and told him to sit down. His face was grim.

‘Well, Mr Varun, I might as well tell you straight away that things look slightly worrisome. We are working as a team now. It looks like your wife’s facial nerve endings have been affected. I have roped in Dr Vikraman and Dr Ahuja for her treatment. The former is a Dermatologist, and the latter is a Neurologist. We have done several scans of her face and skull. I don’t want to get too technical as it may sound daunting to someone who is not a doctor. There is only one thing that I want to know. Can you tell me how much time would have elapsed between the Monkey attack and your wife being admitted to this hospital?’

‘At the most half an hour.’ Varun said in a worried voice.

‘Okay. We have not yet come up with an exact diagnosis. The nurse who rebandaged your wife’s face today afternoon saw that some pustules have formed near her eyes and reported it to us immediately. We have kept your wife on and off in sedation. Vikraman, Ahuja and I are going to examine her again at six. We will be taking the bandage off her face again and we want you to be present when we do that. By tomorrow we will have to let her know how things stand. Does she have parents or any siblings? Because if she does you had better call them here.’

‘Her parents died four years back. She has an elder sister with whom she is not on speaking terms.’

‘Call her here anyway so that someone can be present by your side at least by tomorrow.’

At 6 PM Varun was in Anandi’s room. Her face was still bandaged. The nurse on duty put on her surgical gloves to remove the bandage so that the doctors could examine Anandi’s face. Varun found himself holding his breath. The nurse gently removed the bandage from Anandi’s face.

When Varun saw Anandi’s face, he almost choked with revulsion. There were tiny bubble-like, yellow-coloured pustules all over her face. Her face looked like a bubble wrap cover used for sending medicines. There was almost no smooth skin anywhere. The face made the people in the room shudder with horror. Even the doctors seemed taken aback by what they saw.

Dr Peter was the first one to gather his wits. He quickly instructed the nurse, ‘Can you draw out some of the liquid inside the pustules? She is sedated. She will not wake up. I have never seen anything like this. I want to study the liquid inside those pustules. Do it very gently and carefully.’

The nurse moved towards Anandi’s bed and was just about to draw out the liquid from one of the pustules with a disposable syringe when Anandi’s eyes opened suddenly. They shone like pearls. Varun could see the red hue emanating from her eyes as usual. Without any warning, Anandi threw away the bedclothes and jumped out of bed. She rushed into the bathroom before anyone could react to the situation.

Varun rushed in after her and tried to hold her. But by then, Anandi had seen her face in the mirror and screamed in a high-pitched terrified voice. The agony in her voice made Varun flinch. After screaming for two full minutes, she fainted in Varun’s arms…

                                                                                             To Be Continued...

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