There was a screeching noise, like grown nails against the rust of the
mangled bus. It broke his sopor.
Boy! That was some
heck of a power nap, he slurped the saliva dangling off his mouth’s edge. He
looked at his digital watch, five minutes to twelve it read. He seemed to have
slept in the bus on the way home. His heart skipped a beat when he found
himself alone in the bus. The silence was eerie—unknown and dark places
reminded him of the graveyard. It brought back memories, once while by his
uncle’s grave, he saw him weeping besides his coffin. It disturbed him a
lot. A memory locked away in a corner, this place seemed to make him dig that.
Why did not the
conductor wake me up? Where the heck am I? And why is this bus in such a bad
shape and—filled with webs around? , he seemed to be bamboozled by the
conditions around.
He let a sigh and got down from the bus, stretched his arms with a yawn.
“Need to smoke, where did I keep that friggin cigarette?” he searched his bag
like a desperate soul. “Haha—got you lovely” he kissed the cigarette with some
passion. That cigarette was the only thing which could suppress the weird
feeling inside him.Counting those rolls, he was disappointed to
find only two remaining.
He lit the one in his hand and took a puff.
Ah! Bliss, he
took in a deep long stroke to fill his lungs with the smoke. The nerves were
twitching and the surroundings seemed much sinister as he realized after
finishing his cigarette. The road was unknown, the bus—well garbage, street
lamp flickering. No human in the vicinity, he screamed “Anybody here?”
No answer, his voice resounded in that empty neighborhood. Though the
cigarette calmed his nerves, there were some baleful thoughts which came to
him. Alone on this deserted—no, bedraggled place as it seemed to him now;
How did I come here
in the first place? Questions riddled him as he paced towards the
main road. He saw a dog digging a hole in the ground that was not which caught
his attention. A cloth roll, seemed flesh inside that cloth to him from a
distance. With virtual darkness around, he decided to investigate further. As
the dog saw him approaching, he growled at him. “Chill dude, okay fine I won’t
disturb you.” He reacted to dog’s growl. But then what he saw was pretty weird.
It was a limb tore off somebody’s body; it did not have the stench as dead part
would carry. His stomach was rumbling, a thought crossed his mind—that flesh
looks juicy should I just try and roast it! He slapped himself hard, but the
hunger pang grew to very much. He felt as if he did not have food for
years.
The surroundings looked pretty familiar, yet some things he could notice
were weird in moonless dark.
How come no vehicle or a man on this Goddamn
street, he cursed the Gods. He now reached the crossing; the board sign
said M.G Road.
Oh!
Some place to start. Hope so would reach my place in 5 minutes. Familiar structures passed by him while walking, the City Corporation Building...all dark,
This city sleeps early and things look pretty much like this. He walked
for about ten minutes or so, but could not find way to his apartment--it was just two blocks away. He finally saw a board at a distance, M.G Road.The sign was not visible in the flickering streetlight at first, but it seemed to have squashed his hopes.
Scratching his head he stood there and saw his pot belly. He was tired and hungry. “You are one nasty
creature, no food you affect my brain” he slapped his tummy. He sat beside the
road, on the pavement. He took a deep breath and said, “Fuck this shit, this is
a dream! I am probably dreaming — where’s the ciggy!” he again reached in his
bag to get out the carton. “You are my real love, you rolled up piece of
tobacco!” he looked at it with love. As he placed the butt in his fingers and
kissed the smoke end, he thought of the darkness, his hand shivered while taking
a puff. He always feared the dark, the thought of that grave, steel cold eyes
of his uncle's and tears flowing of them flashed. His upper lip had drops of
sweat accumulating like dew.
Alone on the wide road, he meandered on the day’s events distinctly
remembering sleeping on the bus—that was it, he could remember nothing. Even
the nicotine did not help much. He let a cough, but again took a stroke. He
wiped the sweat off the cuff of his shirt.
“Can I have some smoke buddy?” a deep, croaky voice asked. He turned around
to see a man, humongous—eyes shining like a cat, in the flicker of the street
lamp he could get the impression this man was a bit strange.
A man in sight
atlast—a man? Yes, probably I would go with that.
“Umm—Yes—sure.” he reluctantly agreed to part with his precious. The man lit
the cigarette and let in a big puff. Both were now two people on a street
alone,
what a
night, D’oh!
“You seemed to be lost my friend” he enquired with a surprising concern in
his voice, “Any help?”
“This place looks familiar, but is strangely not the place I lived in.” he
shot a reply to the cat eyed man. “What’s your name?”
“They call me Xahaka” the cat eyed replied. “I’m Varun, never seen you here
and what’s with the name? Xa—ka—haa, sorry but that’s some difficult
name”
Xahaka took in another strong pull and finished the cigarette. “Oh, it’s
just my nickname in another world.”
“Another world? You mean, some online
game—World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons kind of?” Varun laughed hysterically.
“Do you know who you are?” Xahaka asked with sincerity. “I told you my name,
Isn’t that enough—now could you show me my way? You owe me a cigarette, a debt
to be paid, think like that.” Varun got irritated. Xahaka got the address from
Varun, he nodded, seemed to know how to go about. They both then left that
spot, Xahaka leading him on the route which would lead to Varun’s apartment--it was just two blocks away. The road was one disaster,
So much digging these days, Varun frowned.
He was not expecting what was in store from him at the end of the corner, the apartment looked more like a
ghost house than some dwelling and probably other apartment were also the same.
There were vehicles, abandoned. Whole place seemed like barren--like Chernobyl,
like all those haunted places he'd seen in shows.
He then heard the same screech, the same noise which woke up from his slumber.
“Where have you led me in?” Varun was red with anger. He could not see
Xahaka, he vanished like he'd come around. He did not have an answer, why he
was here.
I
sacrificed my cigarette for this guy! Now Varun was pretty pissed off with
all things going on with him.
Why do the strange
things happen with me all the time?This is a nightmare. The night
seemed to get stranger, his stomach still raging with hunger—
that flesh could have
done some good, he felt sick. Feeling a strong urge to smoke again, he
unzipped his bag and stirred up the compartment—just empty carton. He slumped
into a dark corner besides the gate--or what remained of it.
The surrounding now did not fazed him,
It's only a dream--I would wake up, there was some hope that somebody would wake him. Varun searched his pockets and his bag again,
There should be
something—a butt or some thing! But only found a ticket.
A bus ticket, dated 1st
April, 2012, he smiled dryly at the date,
I chose this day of
all! While he was in his thoughts he heard an alarm, it was from his
watch.
He killed the alarm pressing the button carelessly. That glance at the watch
felt uneasy, he checked his watch again. It read
1am, April 2031. Sweat broke off his brow, he was feeling gutted—more
sick than he was that entire night. “You don’t know who you are!” a devilish
laugh followed after. Numbness gripped his entire body—
Is it just a nightmare.
Xahaka appeared before him. “Who are you?” a shaken Varun asked him. “Going
to take you home baby” Xahaka lampooned him, with a mocking laugh. “Who are you—what
am I—No—it must not be—no, no,” Varun voice cracked like an adolescent teen, a
tear down his right cheek. His uncle’s face flashed before him—weeping on his
tombstone, his soul taken away. A sudden realization gripped him.
Xahaka beckoned him, his cat-like eyes glowing red--flares of Hell fire. The ground rumbled and a crater appeared there, gushing with molten lava.
“It's long that you had slipped past my radar, sleeping in that rusted iron case." Xahaka had that devil's grin. A silence followed the conversation until the devil spoke again.
"Let’s go home buddy, another world here they call me Xahaka—you have some
debt to be paid.”
