Avik's Story

  I thought I heard something. Something odd, something metallic, enough to fling open eyes and for a second, try to remember where you were and what time it was. I heard a faint dog bark and then like the low grumbling, the much familiar Taniya’s snore. Her nose was better today, producing a deep bass, ironically soothing enough for a sound sleep. The blue dim light at the corner filled the whole room with such sudden brightness that I could clearly see the hanging scarfs from the wardrobe, and even make out their fresh colours. I searched for my phone, checked the time. 3.10 in the morning. Maybe I heard wrong. Maybe it was my dream, like one of those elaborate dreams where I fight with monstrous aliens while barricading us in our village home. The last man standing. And weirdly, it is Vedantika, who always fights alongside me. The dream needs an upgrade, as there is Oishikaa now. But you hardly have any control over your dreams.  It was too early to wake up. Our general tim...

The last year was hard on me, as I watched death closely and her whiff reminded me of my childhood, which was mostly stuck at darkest corners of our dusty roof, and my friends, most of whom were imaginary and lived in mirror and walls, returned with demands of love. I know, they meant no harm, as I took countless adventures with them in a lonely floor or in a past-odoured closet and I saved their lives and they mine, but my heart pumped and breaths weighed just by mere sights of them and I knew I was in trouble. I am not a child anymore, at least not by looks or the decisions I have to make for survival. I don’t have liberty to replace the visions in my nightmares or strength to shut them down, rather I try to live with them and make in peace, and until I am married and fathered and have beautiful souls surrounding me, death was so enigmatic that I almost fell to her mystic ways. The magic to vanish a person forever seemed to be the best way of life one could get. And so when I...