Deceptive dreams

Everywhere she looked, she saw destruction. It was an ugly sight; but something else bothered her even more – how exactly had she come here?

The last thing that she remembered was falling asleep in class, she felt like she was falling into a dark, black well, and she kept falling until she hit the bottom. Then she woke up to find herself surrounded with mass destruction. Dead bodies lay unceremoniously like ragged dolls. Massive holes in the building seemed like deadpan eyes boring into hers. The ceiling looked like it would fall down any second.

She looked down at herself. Her salwaar was torn in many places, and so was her kurta. Her lower lip bled and her abdomen felt like it had just been hit by a truck. What happened, she wondered once again, trying to collect her scattered thoughts. She took a step ahead, and excruciating pain pulsed through her leg. She pulled her lips in tightly to stop the scream that was threatening to burst out from her mouth.

Trying her best to think logically and rationally, she decided to fix her leg before taking another step. She slowly pulled her bloody, torn salwaar up. There was a deep, long cut along her lower leg. It was bleeding profusely and it wouldn’t be long before she bled to death if it were to be left unattended. Shit, she quickly tore a part of her kurta and tried to tie it around her leg. The bleeding didn’t stop.

She realized she was standing amongst at least 30 dead, fully clothed corpses, which included her class teacher. Tears stung her eyes at the thought of what she was going to do, but her survival instincts had kicked in and she knew she’d have to do whatever it took to get out of here. She slowly walked towards where her teacher lay, careful not to step on anyone. Upon reaching her teacher’s corpse, she breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of her partly torn duppatta still draped across her chest.

She pulled it up and tied it tightly around her leg to maintain the pressure on the wound. After taking one last glance at her class, or the class that was, she turned around and walked out of the class.

But the sight that greeted her outside was a 5 times magnification of what she had witnessed inside. It looked like a heinous genocide. Bodies were everywhere. Not just murdered, but brutally murdered. Some had been impaled multiple times, some had their heads chopped off and some had been castrated. She instantly put a hand on her mouth in an attempt to stop herself from throwing up right there. Trying to avoid the ghastly sight before her, she quickly made her way towards the closest exit, this time not caring about stepping on the bodies.

As she made her way towards the exit gate, she felt a presence behind her. She stopped and turned around, ‘Whose there?’ After lingering on for a while, she thought she must have imagined it. Just as she turned back around, she was welcomed by a familiar face situated inches away from her.

‘Jeez’, she spat out and staggered. It was her best friend and class mate. And she was grinning.

‘Why are you grinning?’, she asked.

‘We need to get out of here’, the friend replied, calmly as though they were standing on a beach.

‘But-’

Before she could complete her sentence, the friend took hold of her hand and started pulling her through all the destruction, but not towards the exit gate, but somewhere else.

‘Where are you-’

Her question was left suspended in the air as the friend cut her off, ‘Sshh. Be quiet. Just come’

Even though she was her best friend, her gut told her that something wasn’t right. That she must break free and run away right now. But then the friend turned around and smiled at her, and said, ‘Trust me’. She decided to give her friend benefit of doubt.

They finally came to a stop infront of a large gate. The friend slowly pushed it and it swung outwards. She took a step ahead to look what lay inside.

The sight made her stagger and gasp in horror. The gate was an opening to a massive, deep well. Hundreds of sharp, extremely long nails were embedded in it’s surface. She looked at her friend, and saw that she had an evil smirk on her face and her eyes twinkled with sadistic satisfaction.

She shook her head and tears brimmed in her eyes once again. But before she could act on her impulses, her friend pushed her into the well. A loud scream of terror was stifled in her throat.


‘No!’, she snapped her eyes open and jerked her body up. She was breathing heavily, and her face was smeared with tears and sweat. Looking around, she realized she was sitting in her class and everything else was normal, except that people were staring at her because of her loud scream. She looked down at herself, and saw that she wasn’t hurt anywhere. Had it all been a dream?


Her best friend sat right next to her, but was one of the few who wasn’t staring at her. The friend seemed engrossed in her homework. She continued to stare at her best friend for a while. The friend sensed someone looking at her. Looking up, she smiled.

She saw the same sparkle and sensed the same dark vibe. But it had all been a dream, or had it?

Part 5

"Are bhaiyya, tez chalao na! ye koi bailgaadi hai kya ?", I holler at the autowala. I am on my way to the market to buy some stuff for the house. And as always, I am running on a pretty tight schedule. This goddamned autowala is moving at a snail's pace. The traffic isn't as thick as it generally is at this time, and yet he's taking his sweet time to hit that blasted accelerator.

"Madam ji, tez hi to chala rahe hain, aur kitna tez chalaoon ?", he replied in a nonchalant way in a tone that implied I-don't-give-a-shit.

I frown and say, "Haan tum toh humein uda kar le jaa rahe ho na ? Ab tez chalao, mujhe late ho raha hai"

He mumbles something to himself and doesn't reply. I cross my arms and look outside. Should have taken the car, but then remembered that there was no petrol in it. And considering how we're counting every penny these days, I didn't have 300 bucks for petrol at this moment. Sighing, I shake my head and continue to look outside.

When we finally reach the market, I quickly hop out and pay the autowala. Running inside the market, I fish out the 'To-do list' from my jhola and quickly read through it. Time to get into action..

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My mom is really a fun person to be with provided that she's in a good mood. She's watching some old english film on TV and I'm sitting with her, hoping that she'd change the channel soon. It's sunday, so she doesn't have to work. I'm not demanding because today is the only day she gets time to relax. During the weekdays, she's just too tired to turn the television on and watch some saas-bahu saga. Plus, she's not the one to watch that crap. (Something that I'm immensely proud of. We tried watching Balika Vadhu once, but ended up in splits)

"Mom, what's this film about ? We've been sitting here since the past 1 hour but nothing's really gone into my head", I remark.

"It's classic! How can you not like it ? To hell and back is one of the finest films made on World War II", she replies in an excited voice.

I roll my eyes and sigh. Generation gap. Jeez.

"School's not been treating me well. Got stuck with Ms. Grumpy for not completing physics assignment", I say, casually.

She nods, "I'm proud of you"

I can't help but smile at her 'Let-school-go-to-hell' attitude. I can't express in words how relieving it is to know that atleast my mom doesn't pressurize me.

"Yeah, but I'm screwed"

"You're getting there, sweetheart"

I grin and shake my head. Mustering up my will power, I turn my head towards the TV screen again.

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"What the...??", before I can help myself, these words come out of my mouth. We're having a class teacher's period today, which means we will have to put up with our new partners for another 1 hour. Although I don't mind Ayush, I'm kind of missing having Nandita by my side.

I scowl a little and flop down into my seat. And yet again, we exchange 'Hi's' and 'Hellos'. He goes back to his math homework, which reminds me, I need to get that done too. I take out my register and take a quick glance at what Ayush is copying from.

"Do you mind if I share that..um, Varun's register ?", I ask. He shrugs in approval and continues doing his work. Varun is the geek of our class, and since the release of 3 Idiots, he's been labelled as 'Silencer'. I feel that's an insult to Chatur's character, or perhaps I'm being biased because I loved that guy.

I silently get to work. There are about 10 sums that need to be done. I haven't even done one. I hate this. I don't see the point in doing homework. If you can't 'educate' us enough in 6 hours, then I don't see how another hour at home will make things any better.

When 15 minutes were left for the bell to ring, I let out a breath and close the register. Glancing sideways, I see that Ayush is still writing. Wow I like his speed, I think to myself. But it doesn't take long for him to close his own register.

"What's the first class ?", he asked.

"Physics"

"Darn. I hate that woman. She makes physics so hard to understand", he replies. And the floodgates open. In no time, we're dissing Ms. Grumpy in whichever way possible. Right from cheap jokes to hindi gaalis, we're indulging in hardcore bitching. It seriously feels good, because I love bitching about that woman. Any time. Any day.

The bell rings and we reluctantly stop laughing like maniacs. Trying my level best to wipe the grin off my face, I purse my lips together and stand up as she walked into the class.

Solace

Part 1

No matter how hard I try, my fantasies never seem to have a happy ending.

I lean back in my driver's seat and let out a sigh. I close my eyes, trying to shut out the depression that was slowly infusing into my brain. Loneliness was something I never quite understood how to deal with. It always over-powered my will power and completely took control of me.

I'm not legally allowed to drive. But hey, India is not meant for legal stuff. Everyone does something illegal here, so who cares ? Atleast driving puts me to peace. Plus, just 2 years to go. Not a problem at all.

It's 10:30 am at night and the traffic is beginning to thin down. There's a dhaba right next to where I'm parked. Not exactly a dhaba, more like a chai-stall. I wave to a waiter-cum-chai maker kid roaming around the place, trying to attract more customers. He walks to me and I ask him to bring me one cup of tea. Although I'm not really fond of tea, I just need something hot to go down my throat.

Within a few minutes, I'm holding a fresh cup, no, kuddad of tea and the heat makes me feel better, atleast to a small extent. Why am I so sad ? Frankly, I'm not really sure. It's alot of things all mixed up together. You know, like the times when you can't help but say, "Shit happens"

Let's try to make a list:

School
Financial problems
Emotional problems
Dealing with the past
Everyday crisis
Home-related crisis

Etc.

Coming back to where I started this thought process from. None of my fantasies seem to have a happy ending. I wonder whether it's some kind of an odd future prediction or just my fucked up brain screwing my thoughts up.

I was about to delve deeper into this thought when my cell phone rang. It's mom. She wants me back. I sigh once again and with great effort, sit up in my seat. I straighten up my seat, pull it forward and insert the key into the ignition. I don't believe in seat belts. They don't really help. Getting the car into gear, I hit the accelerator and head home.

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Please do not copy my work and claim it as yours. That's a pretty nasty thing to do. If this is posted elsewhere, do credit me.

Thanks. Please wait for the next chapter, it will be up soon.

P.S - It's first person narration. That character isn't 'me'.