Believe

“Betty Thompson was a normal lady, probably in her mid-forties. She lived a usual life naturally boring. She was a friendly creature, and her life showed no signs of change, until she was run over by a drunken truck driver while she was walking down the lane to her home. She did not die immediately, she was veiling for help, badly injured. She cried out loud until the air in her lungs went out and her heart stopped. No one responded to her voice because they thought it to be their false imagination. She drew her last breath and cursed aloud,’ whoever may walk a road at night alone, shall suffer the rain.’
Later in the day when she was found out, people reported about over hearing her faint voice. According to the stories, she did not take any revenge by killing the truck driver or haunting the people due to their ignorant behavior.
She was only remembered a few years later when a boy was found hanging from a tree, his bones were crushed like he had been hit but the absence of a single mark on his body confirmed that he did not have any such accident or encounter with a vehicle.
Couple of years ago, a girl was found dead on the streets, the doctors confirmed a heart attack, but the fright on her face and the white color of her body triggered the gossips. People said that she must have seen a strange animal, but believers say that she could have seen a ghost. And the most important or rather I must say the interesting thing about these myths is that they both happened on a day when it was raining.”
As I finished speaking I could see the astonishment in the eyes of my companion. If only it had not been raining tonight he would have been more comfortable. The sound of the raindrops falling on our umbrella was sounding like a thousand drums going off. The opera of nature was only fluctuated as my companion tilted his head and asked with fearful eyes, eyes which told me that he had already guessed my probable answer but was still hoping me to confirm it. “Is it true? All of this story which you have been babbling aloud.” Now the fear of the possible negative unacceptable answer was all over his face. Perhaps, he was regretting why he had asked me anyway about this. He could have just suppressed his unnecessary evil fantasies by just crushing them with the “SUCH THINGS DON’T EXIST!!” stone. But now it all depended upon me. And to his surprise I laughed out loud. He seemed so relieved thinking that I had been joking. “It actually depends...” I answered still smiling. “Depends? What are the preconceptions for the truth to be called true?” He asked now more eagerly like a boy goes in a shadowy place knowing danger could be lurking there, but the hunger of knowing out keeps the boy driving him towards his hopeful end…
“Well it depends upon whether you believe it or not. I mean you have to believe in truth if you hope to feel good after telling it or else you just lie in the face of a person.” I explained him in the most inexplicable way. “Well you know about death even if you try not believing in it”, he opposed. “Well everyone believes in death but you don’t recall many people agreeing in supernatural events”, I simply stated. “Well I don’t believe”, he said aloud just to comfort himself or to tell any soul wandering near him. “It’s not what you say, it’s all mugged up in here, it depends what’s inside”, I said tapping my head. “But what if we just for a bit believe in it?” he asked, finally showing signs of mental nervousness. After a long silence I answered, “Even if you come to know that you have started believing just don’t fear.” He sensed reassurance and smiled happily for the first time.
“I want to scare someone right now, it will be such great fun at this time of night”, he said mockingly. “Well you can’t think of tricking me”, I said confidently. “Not you! Someone else”, he said lowly.
Sometime later, we nearly ran into a man, he had hideous eyes. I never saw him while we were coming. Perhaps that was because of his black raincoat, he had curly hair and his face looked ancient. “Aha! You know what?” my less intelligent friend sprang up. “What?” the man said questioningly. “I don’t believe neither should you, or else you’ll suffer the rain”, he said in a mocking way. “Huh!?” the man said confused to what he just heard. “Never mind, you are just a lonely soul about to die in this rain of the forgotten myths” my acquaintance quavered. I looked down ashamed, staring at the flickering images of both of us in the rain water. “Sorry but I think you should go now…” the man said abhorrently.
“See it was so much fun!” he spoke after some steps. “No, it was not”, I said flatly. “But we nearly scared that man like hell, I liked it so much”, he said playfully. “Some great person said that ‘These violent fantasies have violent ends’ you know”, I said sternly. “Oh! Never heard any such thing. Anyways, who said it?” he asked in a delusional way. “William Shakespeare”, I barked back. “Anyways here is my home. Goodbye”, I said and started walking away. “Tada, I hope you don’t believe”, he shouted back.
He lived just two blocks away, as he was walking he saw a woman. He walked up to her and said, “Have you heard the story of Betty Thompson?” “Well, have you heard it?” the woman fired back at him. “Yup I have, but haven’t you?” he asked again to come back at her. “If you have, then you must suffer”, she said. “But I don’t believe in all this”, he said nearly shouting. After a brief pause, a whisper flowed through the trees, “It’s not whether you believe it or not, it’s just that you know the fear to know that it could happen to you.”
Later in the morning, I was awakened by the sound of people in a rush. I also started walking with them. On reaching a place, I overheard that someone was killed here last night and then cut into pieces. I was moved with fear when the possibility of my friend being killed shadowed over me. I moved a step forward, but to my utter confusion, the body over there was not of a man but of a woman. I was dumbstruck for a moment wondering, ‘How close I could have been to death, just escaped my fate from another nightmare of the memories that could have been formed last night. Just an inch away from becoming another confused legend. Thanks to my friend…’ The word ‘friend’ hit me like a brick, my eyes widened with horror and fear of possibility. What if that friend of mine was the ghost! Why didn’t he kill me?
I was interrupted in my thoughts by the sound of people screaming. I saw another body was being lifted down from the ambulance, this time it was a male, face badly crushed. I quickly looked down at the ground with disgust and awe, thinking how wrong I was, that poor fellow was killed himself, how could he be the murderer. I felt sorry for him; I was the cause for his death. If only I wouldn’t have told him all that ‘Betty stuff’. I was no less than a murderer than myself. Poor man, what was to happen of his family? And it slowly dawned over me that my shadow was not there beneath my feet. I grew cold with fear only to realize that the body lying in front of me was my own…
The world appeared to be revolving all around me. Everything appeared to be fuzzy. I wanted to howl at the top of my voice but it would be of no use to me. The only comforting thing was that my friend was not hurt or was he lying somewhere just like my body.
Two legs appeared before my eyes and a manly voice said, “Another one of those stupid stories people will connect these two. Another pair of chapters to that myth…””Do you believe in this officer?” a man asked from behind. I turned back to smile at my friend from last night. His eyes were staring at me, not through me unlike those of the policeman, but still I was comforted that he couldn’t see me. I lowered my head with ease. “No, I don’t believe in all this shit”, the officer answered. My friend fired back in his usual sense, “Actually it’s not that if you believe it or not, nor it’s your fearlessness that could save you.” I looked up, now we were staring into each other’s eyes, he continued, “You know the thing which kills you and haunts you, it’s just that you know the fear to know it could happen to you…”

Do you believe or fear?

Written By: Atul Shrotriya
Edited and ideologies offered by: Jugal Shrivastava
Pre-comprehended By: Rishabh Soni & Vinayak Tiwari

Running through the Streets

Running Through the Streets
"What can you do for me?" she asked in a low shaky voice. The voice which filled me with lively spirits every time I heard it.
"What do you want me to do?" I asked in a husky voice, filled with a hint of mockery...
"Till what extent, would you go for me?" she again pounded me with an unequivocal emotional question.
"Till where do you want me to go?" I replied again with a question
"Can you run through the streets for me...naked?" she threw at me without a flaunt.
"Well can you kiss me right now?" I asked her pathetically looking at the people around us
The next moment I tasted a strawberry flavour in my mouth. I loved the taste, but I never understood, what was going on until she slowly withdrew her lips from my face. I was stunned when my senses hit me!
"Alright, now can you die for me?" she asked in an exasperated tone, giving indications that this was her last question.
A bunch of people were looking at us now, some teenager kids probably jealous of us, were making a mockery of us, a few elderly couples eyeing us suspiciously. Probably, the kiss had a too much of effect on them, on me too, my head was swirling like heavens had come forth to shelter me. Without, realising the risk of the next sentence, my adrenaline just made my lips move and my vocal chords acted in such a manner, that the next sentece hitting my ears implied,
"anything I do for you just fills me up with more life, each time I think of you, I come across a reason to live... but if there's anything I can do to ease you, then I will even go against my morals to die for you"
Her blue eyes were again staring in my eyes, looking for words which her vocabulary couldn't express. She was not speaking at all but at the same time, I was hearing just everything in the world she meant to say right now. Finally, the words came out of her mouth.
"was the last words you spoke was just to impress me or due to other internal intimacies?" her eyes clearly signified that she had never wanted to ask that question, but that goddamn white matter in her brain had made her to do so... I was infuriated but, my answer had to come out. I wondered, if my voice could pass through my clenched teeth to reach her ears in this dense mental atmosphere. I held her in my arms and felt the vibrations of the sound passing out of my mouth...
"I was never attracted towards you, but it was my need... you have become an essential component of my life, without which it is impossible and useless to survive..."
It just seemed that my legs sprang to life after growing their brain of own leading me away from her... I knew that she was crying as I was walking away... It seemed that my heart could feel the moist air around her eyes and the wetness of her eyelashes...
I turned the key and my sport bike came to life. I didn't knew why I did it, but as my bike passed through my tainted blur red house, the brakes didn't come to the tire slowing it for even a fraction of second but when they did, I realised that I was in front of a disco.
Two hours later, I was walking through my lawn to get hold of my doorknob, my senses were a bit dimmed, due to the 2 cigarettes which had filled my lungs. My mom was in the kitchen as usual, preparing the dinner, as I walked in, her alerting voice rang in my ears.
"Ronnie, who's this Andy? she called a dozen oftimes in the last two hours, demanding for you" She asked in her normal tone of authority...
"Just a friend mom, she's just a bit sticky" I replied straightly recalling that I had left her in an amusement park just 2 hours ago...
I went up to my room, and put on my headphones playing my favorite song... I was about to drift away to sleep, when my mother burst open my door "Does the Andy you were talking about lives in the 32nd street?" she asked bewildered, I remembered a familiar sign stating 32 and an arrow on a yellow board, from where I used to pick her up usually.
"Yes,... what about her?" I asked in an eager tone
"check out the news" my mother said quickly walking out of the door
All over the horrid news was about a girl who recently cut her wrist. She didn't tell anybody the absurd reason, that why she did so, but still, I knew it perfectly! I picked up my black jacket but the next second I realised that I didn't need it now, I just opened the door and walked out silently.
"Hey son, where are you going at this time of night? and wear something warm, you'll get cold in that thin jacket!!" Said my father with concern
"Dad, I am just going away... far away, and anyways, whatever I wear, I will be too cold soon to wear these..." I just replied without thinking about what I was saying and walked away
As I reached the main streets, the signboard reading N-Streets caught my attention, it was usually supposed to mean north streets, but the voice inside my inner mind told me that it could mean naked streets... something Andy had said me to do, probably her last wish I just heard the thud of my every cloth slowly as I unrapped my body, then silently, I began my run, my final run...
I had ran a mile or so, through the crowded streets, and now people were starting to realize my presence, I could feel every inch of my body glittering in the yellow street lamps as I ran through them. I didn't feel a thing until my eyes saw the ground tilting away. Then, every thing appeared to be in slow motion, a large number of people were looking at the place, where I just stood, now there was a car at my place... I thought my real body was beneath that car and my spiritual soul floating away to heavens until, I felt the touch of icy water on my skin then everything turned to a blurr... a slow blurr.
After about, 2 minutes, I realized the feeling of drowning then, everything just vanished, the waves, the lights, the hand, the voice, the water... All before me was just whiteness, then with a sudden horror, I realized that a hand was also there, I tried to seperate my eyelashes and my world turned blue and white, or rather half blue and half white... both the colours gave me a hand each, I moved towards the white heavens, when I suddenly saw the face of Andie in the blue side... I quickly sprang to life grabbing the bluish hand...
When I opened my eyes again, it was again white, just like the half heaven I had betrayed on the brink of death as I came back to myself, I saw a blurred image of a person's head, over me sheilding me from heavens eternal light... Soon I realised that it was Andie looking at me, as I looked to my sides, I realised that I was in the emergency wing of the hospital...
"Ack...I... I thought that... that I could fulfill your last wish" I said choking with nearly each word
"But I never did die though you were almost dead there..." she smiled as she spoke these words. Her smile seemed so magnificient, that I felt I would die again... from heart attack this time!!
"You also di... did die there for..."I was interrupted in between my sentence by her warm cozy lips, I could taste her lipstick flavor now... It was Chocolate today, and I loved it more than ever...

The face in the Mirror...

Thursday, November 12, 2009

I was pacing up and down on the stairs in my basement, the natural calmness in my attitude had vanished a few moments ago, when I had seen the words "This Is Your Last Night" sprawled on my bedroom wall with dark red colour. The darkness had haunted me since childhood, but this was not a haunting, just a simple revenge. The revenge that I had forgotten for so many years, in the smoke of my prideful Cigar. But now, as I waited for someone to come, the one who was coming nearer was my killer with a grimace.
Actually a murder is something else, this was his abhorrence for me that it was coming for me now, the moment I wanted to live the most was turning out to be the moment I had to die! As the stairs beneath my 50year old feet creaked, my body told me to stop it now. My mind wanted to feel a gentle touch, my ears craved to hear an assurance that I was safe. My eyes longed to se a bunch of friends... and I wanted to stop all this.
The fantasies of my mind told me that I was about to die... a tap dripped and I realised that my bathroom tap was leaking. For the first time in life, I went to my bathroom in horror without realising the danger that could be lurking in there. As I touched the handle, it felt like I was touching the death. With a single push, I defeated the air inside the bathroom guarding the interior from me. As I stepped in, my own lavish bathroom, I felt a triumph seeing that no one was in. As I looked at the washbasin tap, I noticed the cellphone in my hand from which I had dialed the 911 sometime ago. I took a step towards the washbasin, only to realise that the lizard behind me was moving.
As I stood looking at the washbasin, I tried to tighten the tap. That was the time I felt a load of happiness in my heart, as I heard the Police Sirens. I calculated that it will take them only 2-3 minutes to reach me now... but they never reached me. Not until I was alive.
As I stared down at my own body, in shroud... the police doctor stated that I had an heart attack due to some mental shock. The police commissoiner laughed saying that drugs and old age can't stay together. I wanted to get up and slap him saying that 'I did not take a single drug in my whole life!'. But I realised that it was too late for me to tell him that when I looked up in the washbasin mirror last night, my wife was staring at me through the mirror with a question in her eyes... the same question that she had in her eyes, before I killed her that night 25 years ago...