Title :Is It Just a Dream, Or a Stark Reality?
Author: Deepak Maini
I looked around and found that I was surrounded by taxi-drivers requesting me to mount their vehicles. The whole world was looking gray; I was loosing sight. I could not find the reason why I was transported to this place in such a bizarre fashion. What was happening? I could smell the sweat; I could listen to the beating of my heart. My body was pleading to crumble. I hadn’t had such a situation ever in my life that forced me over the edge of insanity. Was I paying the price of being alive?
“No, I don’t want to go anywhere,” I uttered with my lips transmitting the fear.
“Where do you want to go?”
“How much do you want to pay?”
“Please leave me,” I spoke while struggling to unfetter myself from the swarm of taxi-drivers.
How sweet the day was, I could remember vividly. I and Kapil were sitting in the office, when it struck to Kapil that he wanted to see someone in the nearby village.
I and Kapil knew that the village was famous for the mysterious disappearance of people. We were investigating the case, and were very excited about the strangest things that were happening in the village. It so happened that Kapil knew someone in the village and with him he arranged our accommodation.
“But why am I here?” pantingly I made an effort to ask myself.
“Why is everyone so strange?” someone within me asked it.
“Does anyone know where the hell I am?” I hollered at the highest pitch possible.
I decided that I would see the place from where the whole business of people disappearing in the thin air started.
“Kapil, why don’t you relax for the time being, and I will go and see the place where everything started,” I suggested.
“Yeah, go ahead, but make sure that you take your phone with you,” replied Kapil.
I set about to complete the first task. The place, as I knew, was a deserted building. The building that started 5 years back, but because of some mysterious happenings the construction was stopped in between. The whole village was so scared of the building that no one dared to come close to it. The place surrounding the building looked like a cemetery. There was not even a single animal around leave the human beings.
I could remember that I had come to the place before.
“What was the reason that I had come to this place before?” I interrogated myself.
“Didn’t I come here to see someone?” I further questioned myself.
“Yeah, right, I had come to see someone and he had something about the elevator that he wanted to tell me,” someone answered within me.
“No, I hadn’t come to this place ever in my life,” I struggled to stop the words to leave my lips.
“Yeah, I actually do not remember whether I had come to this place or not?” I managed to speak instead of speaking the previous live.
I couldn’t decide it for myself that had I actually come to visit this place, or not. So I disallowed myself a retreat into the past. And set about the work at hands. I just decided that even if I had come to this place before, how it mattered now.
I was a little to curious to see the elevator. It was a little crooked, and the buttons were somehow broken; so it was a little difficult to press the buttons. I wanted to see the fourth-floor, but the number four refused to lighten. I thought- if I cannot press number four, why don’t I try number 5, but something happened to me and I pressed number six.
The elevator started to run loose. The gears engaged, the rope pulled up, and I started to rise with the damned elevator.
“Why do you have to do this?” I heard someone asking me from within.
“What?” was all that I could manage for an answer.
“Why do you have to kill him?” someone pleaded for an answer again.
I couldn’t understand what was happening to me. Was I going mad? Or was it someone playing with me by uttering those words from somewhere I couldn’t see. The elevator was rising up, but very slowly.
“What was that?” fear took hold of me, and I shrieked without words ever leaving my mouth.
Didn’t I see two dead bodies sitting in front of each other? Wasn’t one wearing something that Kapil usually wears? Was it, or was it not?
“What the hell is going on?” I didn’t care what I was saying.
“Was it the floor number 4?” I questioned myself.
“Yeah, it was. And I couldn’t see the face of the person sitting in front of the guy who was wearing clothes like what Kapil wears.” I managed to speak something to alleviate the pain rising in my head.
“Why is everyone smiling at me?” I tried to solve the mystery by putting some energy to my words.
“Can you please tell me where the hell I am?” I asked a group of strange looking people, who were mysteriously not batting their eyelids, and were smiling at me like I were an alien.
“What kind of place is this? Will someone ever tell me how can I go back?” I again screamed at the loudest level possible.
The elevator stopped at the floor number six, I looked around and again tried to press number four, but it didn’t budge.
I decided to press number three, but I didn’t know why I pressed number one. The elevator, again, started to whirr. But this time things were not looking normal; the elevator sky rocketed and amazingly turned into a train hurtling at several tens of miles per hour.
What the heck was happening; I couldn’t find the reason to satisfy my hungry mind. I saw a couple of alligators advancing toward the crazy train, but the train was so fast that it gave no chance to the hungry alligators. I was scared to death, and thought of jumping off the train, but its insane speed stopped me from committing suicide.
The train kept on rattling for another half and hour. After that, it became a little slow to take a sharp right turn; so I decided to risk my limbs, and I jumped off the train to land into a mystery place.
“Was I being kidnapped?” reality started to dawn on me.
I looked around and found that I was surrounded by taxi-drivers requesting me to mount their vehicles. The whole world was looking gray; I was loosing sight. I could not find the reason why I was transported to this place in such a bizarre fashion. What was happening? I could smell the sweat; I could listen to the beating of my heart. My body was pleading to crumble. I hadn’t had such a situation ever in my life that forced me over the edge of insanity. Was I paying the price of being alive?
I was unable to pry any response from the people looking at me and smiling, so I decided to call Kapil.
“Hey, Kapil, I don’t know what’s going on with me. I think someone tried to kidnap me, but I risked my life to obviate their plan. For now, I am at some place, which I have no idea ever existed in your neighborhood. The people here are behaving strangely, and have ignored all my petitions to know the way to go back”, I spoke without giving Kapil a chance to reply back to me.
“So, you are also lost. That’s why I told you not to kill me,” replied Kapil to blow my mind off.
“But, anyway, welcome to the new world; just revolve around and you would find your best friend/ worst enemy standing right in front of you.”
I revolved around, and saw Kapil standing with the guys I had been trying to ask the way to go back, laughing his life out at me.
Author: Deepak Maini
I looked around and found that I was surrounded by taxi-drivers requesting me to mount their vehicles. The whole world was looking gray; I was loosing sight. I could not find the reason why I was transported to this place in such a bizarre fashion. What was happening? I could smell the sweat; I could listen to the beating of my heart. My body was pleading to crumble. I hadn’t had such a situation ever in my life that forced me over the edge of insanity. Was I paying the price of being alive?
“No, I don’t want to go anywhere,” I uttered with my lips transmitting the fear.
“Where do you want to go?”
“How much do you want to pay?”
“Please leave me,” I spoke while struggling to unfetter myself from the swarm of taxi-drivers.
How sweet the day was, I could remember vividly. I and Kapil were sitting in the office, when it struck to Kapil that he wanted to see someone in the nearby village.
I and Kapil knew that the village was famous for the mysterious disappearance of people. We were investigating the case, and were very excited about the strangest things that were happening in the village. It so happened that Kapil knew someone in the village and with him he arranged our accommodation.
“But why am I here?” pantingly I made an effort to ask myself.
“Why is everyone so strange?” someone within me asked it.
“Does anyone know where the hell I am?” I hollered at the highest pitch possible.
I decided that I would see the place from where the whole business of people disappearing in the thin air started.
“Kapil, why don’t you relax for the time being, and I will go and see the place where everything started,” I suggested.
“Yeah, go ahead, but make sure that you take your phone with you,” replied Kapil.
I set about to complete the first task. The place, as I knew, was a deserted building. The building that started 5 years back, but because of some mysterious happenings the construction was stopped in between. The whole village was so scared of the building that no one dared to come close to it. The place surrounding the building looked like a cemetery. There was not even a single animal around leave the human beings.
I could remember that I had come to the place before.
“What was the reason that I had come to this place before?” I interrogated myself.
“Didn’t I come here to see someone?” I further questioned myself.
“Yeah, right, I had come to see someone and he had something about the elevator that he wanted to tell me,” someone answered within me.
“No, I hadn’t come to this place ever in my life,” I struggled to stop the words to leave my lips.
“Yeah, I actually do not remember whether I had come to this place or not?” I managed to speak instead of speaking the previous live.
I couldn’t decide it for myself that had I actually come to visit this place, or not. So I disallowed myself a retreat into the past. And set about the work at hands. I just decided that even if I had come to this place before, how it mattered now.
I was a little to curious to see the elevator. It was a little crooked, and the buttons were somehow broken; so it was a little difficult to press the buttons. I wanted to see the fourth-floor, but the number four refused to lighten. I thought- if I cannot press number four, why don’t I try number 5, but something happened to me and I pressed number six.
The elevator started to run loose. The gears engaged, the rope pulled up, and I started to rise with the damned elevator.
“Why do you have to do this?” I heard someone asking me from within.
“What?” was all that I could manage for an answer.
“Why do you have to kill him?” someone pleaded for an answer again.
I couldn’t understand what was happening to me. Was I going mad? Or was it someone playing with me by uttering those words from somewhere I couldn’t see. The elevator was rising up, but very slowly.
“What was that?” fear took hold of me, and I shrieked without words ever leaving my mouth.
Didn’t I see two dead bodies sitting in front of each other? Wasn’t one wearing something that Kapil usually wears? Was it, or was it not?
“What the hell is going on?” I didn’t care what I was saying.
“Was it the floor number 4?” I questioned myself.
“Yeah, it was. And I couldn’t see the face of the person sitting in front of the guy who was wearing clothes like what Kapil wears.” I managed to speak something to alleviate the pain rising in my head.
“Why is everyone smiling at me?” I tried to solve the mystery by putting some energy to my words.
“Can you please tell me where the hell I am?” I asked a group of strange looking people, who were mysteriously not batting their eyelids, and were smiling at me like I were an alien.
“What kind of place is this? Will someone ever tell me how can I go back?” I again screamed at the loudest level possible.
The elevator stopped at the floor number six, I looked around and again tried to press number four, but it didn’t budge.
I decided to press number three, but I didn’t know why I pressed number one. The elevator, again, started to whirr. But this time things were not looking normal; the elevator sky rocketed and amazingly turned into a train hurtling at several tens of miles per hour.
What the heck was happening; I couldn’t find the reason to satisfy my hungry mind. I saw a couple of alligators advancing toward the crazy train, but the train was so fast that it gave no chance to the hungry alligators. I was scared to death, and thought of jumping off the train, but its insane speed stopped me from committing suicide.
The train kept on rattling for another half and hour. After that, it became a little slow to take a sharp right turn; so I decided to risk my limbs, and I jumped off the train to land into a mystery place.
“Was I being kidnapped?” reality started to dawn on me.
I looked around and found that I was surrounded by taxi-drivers requesting me to mount their vehicles. The whole world was looking gray; I was loosing sight. I could not find the reason why I was transported to this place in such a bizarre fashion. What was happening? I could smell the sweat; I could listen to the beating of my heart. My body was pleading to crumble. I hadn’t had such a situation ever in my life that forced me over the edge of insanity. Was I paying the price of being alive?
I was unable to pry any response from the people looking at me and smiling, so I decided to call Kapil.
“Hey, Kapil, I don’t know what’s going on with me. I think someone tried to kidnap me, but I risked my life to obviate their plan. For now, I am at some place, which I have no idea ever existed in your neighborhood. The people here are behaving strangely, and have ignored all my petitions to know the way to go back”, I spoke without giving Kapil a chance to reply back to me.
“So, you are also lost. That’s why I told you not to kill me,” replied Kapil to blow my mind off.
“But, anyway, welcome to the new world; just revolve around and you would find your best friend/ worst enemy standing right in front of you.”
I revolved around, and saw Kapil standing with the guys I had been trying to ask the way to go back, laughing his life out at me.
