Deserted

They both lay below the starry dome, above a fire whose ardent flames licked the air with heat rolling off of every curve. The seemingly funny warmth and the sense of being secure tickled them both. With the toasty fire beneath them and the cool breeze blowing across the moment seemed childish and too much like that out of a movie. 

The embers shielded them from the extreme cold of the dry sands of the desert while the dusty fragrance dominated everything else. They both lay side by side a foot apart with the inferno at their feet as they were lost in looking at the extravagant arrangement and assortment of the balls of fire that loomed far away above them. 

They had nothing else to do but waste time. They had already tried making SOS signals and making sure they wouldn’t go hungry but all that didn’t matter right now. They were free but also yearning to be back home. Their minds sped around at lightspeed touching some memories and going right through some others while slowing down before some to graciously look at them and recall every single moment. 

Their eyes wandered and scanned the night sky while the funny twinkling of the stars caught their eyes every time and the different colors of them struck the diversity of objects in the universe. The sand beneath them was cold, grainy, and fine yet they could feel every fragment of it on their backs.

They were so out of touch from the urban life that they had gone over the cliff of being insane and had boiled down to their current state. The sand filled their hair, settled in each and every single gap they could think of but they didn’t mind. All they could do was look above and think about nothing but each other.

The silence, except for the casual cracking of the wood and the red, hot tinders rising through the air, was awkward but comforting at the same time being slightly more than comfortable but ignorant. The desert confused their body, being warm till the waist due to the heat from the fire and the rest being cold from the shivering wind that blew across the desolate landscape. 

The tingling sensation in their stomachs tickled them, showing their excitement but they were masters of hiding emotions. They both hoped that the other would say a word but nothing came out. The ineluctable feelings inside of them added to their woes of being hushed and anticipating that the other would make the move. Both of them had their hands at their sides and neither of them moved. They were lying like dead bodies in a sea of ochre, ready to be consumed by the fire. But nevertheless, everything at that time was unconventional. 

The boy slowly crept his hand and pushed the fine dust behind, inch by inch, searching for her hand. All he could feel were the chilled bits of years of hardened and heated sand but no sign of her. He wandered randomly, hoping to reach her while being clueless about where she was but he still continued his search. It had been about ten minutes that he had been aimlessly moving his hand but he nevertheless persisted in the search for her hand while being extremely nervous about the outcome. 

The mutual feelings they had for each other had never been said aloud and so left behind were only assumptions and endless possibilities for the near future. They both had known each other for about five years now but never once did they get the chance to fall over the edge that they wanted to. They knew each other and had talked for countless hours but till did remain the hesitation and twitchiness. 

Time seemed to be all they had right then and they both tried to push away the thoughts of one another but their minds couldn’t refrain from slagging back to each other. Both of them were scared to delve into the unknown, both of them had likings that opposed each other, both of them were filled with anxiety. But all of that had faded away in a second when his hand touched hers.

 Electricity shot through them both, activating receptors they thought they never had. The boy stopped in sheer fear, trying to predict what would happen next. His heart skipped a few beats in the time she took to decide. She held her tongue between her teeth and took the leap of faith.

 

She pressed her hand into his and squeezed it. Both of them smiled. The uneasiness that had flashed across his face drained and all that remained was a warm and shy delight which both of them cherished. He let out a laugh. A giddy laugh at that, which broke the uncomfortable silence. 

The fire now flourished to its full potential, blazing tall and crackling with great vigor. The crimson flames reached out in every direction and heated every molecule of air. A small log of wood shifted and fell and out bouncing came millions of tiny red sparks that quickly fizzled out and became floating ash. They both felt the intensity rising but they were fine. They had gotten used to the oppressive heat of the city so, what harm would this one little fire do? After all it was freezing all around.  

She moved on closer to him as he did nothing but accept her. Slowly sliding across the sand and reaching for him. She eventually from what started as a shoulder touch now climbed on top of him and blocked his vision to the starry night. But that didn’t matter to him because he had all of that in front of him. She pierced into his dreamy and darting eyes with her calming aura. She glanced around once and leaned in. 

He felt confused but elated at the same time as he felt her soft and warm lips on his. All he could do was accept. He was clueless about what to do with his hands as their mouths worked their way. Both had their eyes closed and both were frozen in time. He wrapped his arms around her, pressing her against him. He was glacial but she didn’t mind that because she knew that the heat inside of him would eventually come out. The strange feeling of absolute giddiness overwhelmed them both as they stopped moving, her lips still on his. After that, all that was left to see were the smiles on their faces. At that moment only one thing reigned supreme. Love.

Snowflake

 She was against the ground, lying on the cold and wet snow. Her white fur jacket was spotted with patches of red blood, clumping it together. Entangling strands that were so carefully and painstakingly put in their place. Her hands were half-covered with loosely hanging mittens, exposing her warm, lively skin to the cold and desolate air outside. Her warm pajamas were frost-ridden and in a frenzy, torn at places, and her feet were bare with ghoulish looking wounds as if teeth had carved into her feet. Leaving behind small valleys of frozen blood and flesh, ready to be taken by the freezing gale and kept preserved. 

Her neck was torn open, showing the world her bones and flesh and glands that had dried up. Her head was surrounded by scarlet, still slightly wet with the slow-flowing and thick red concoction. Her eyes, bloodshot, were staring into the grey sky above, and her lips, although cut had a certain grace to them were dry and blue and had chipped to such an extent that someone would have mistaken them for leftover coconut shavings. 

Her petite little nose was clogged with clots that that long hardened and surrounded her nostrils like spikes kept top ward off wild and minacious animals. Her cheeks were no longer red but had a blue-ish tint to them, covered in open pores and freckles till up her nose, on display. Her eyelashes had long fallen off because of the brittle cold and her hair which was before tied in a knot was now spread all over the red carpet for her head like a blonde contrast. Her whole body seemed so fragile that one would be petrified to even touch her, fearing she would break into a thousand shards of glass. 

So daring had that night become that it had started to take over the living. So, daring and yet maniacal that it seemed to have fun. It had planned well to stage the murder as suicide, seeming that the girl was depressed and had gone crazy. Crazy enough to drive her nails into her feet and tear them open, crazy enough to shred her pajamas, crazy enough to pry open her neck with them. And that was it. The end. She died in the night and no one noticed. But I care to debate that no one heard.

Everyone was sleeping soundly in their beds while night. Oh, so sweet but malicious night worked its magic, away from the eyes of crowds and even animals. Leaving no one but the moon to witness the devastating horror that followed. You know, sometimes I think that the moon knows all our secrets but now I believe that it does. 

I sometimes doubt the innocence of the moon too. Everyone calls it beautiful and lays upon it showers of appreciative verses but most forget that it too has a dark side that it chooses to hide away from lust-filled eyes. It also seems to have a pact with night, always accompanying it wherever it goes and attracts all the attention while night does its wicked work in the dark. 

It all seems too perfect, isn’t it? The perfect trail, the perfect location, and the perfect cadaver. I really wish it was. But like all good things come to an end similarly after all the perfections come the mistakes. 

The mistake was such that the night, our dear night, wandering the dark, navigating the streets with nothing but bloodlust written all over its face, roamed the white landscape till it saw lights. Warm and flickering lights. It was behaviourally attracted to it, only to place its hand on it and bring the primordial darkness. If the night had its way it would extinguish all the lights on earth and spread cold and pure dread among the small and squeaky inhabitants.

Even the light had given up and started to retreat to its own shadows when it saw night approaching slowly and by a masterful whisk as if it had done it a million times before smote the light with its black hands to its sparks. The night caused such unrest inside light that it flickered wildly in the presence of night and often itself died but the few courageous lights were roughly put out by the monster of a creature. 

The night had gotten away with one kill. So, he thought why not another, and then another and another until he became consumed by the thought to such an extent he got addicted to it. An addiction that could not by any means be corrected. I’ll tell you in a sentence and you’ll imagine it all. ‘The town delved into utter silence!’

Happy Birthday

It was March 31st and I was lying down on the wet grass in a park with my friends and staring away at the dark sky above me. The trees swayed in the cold breeze that blew lightly and whistled in my ears. We all lied all around each other forming circles whilst all of us silently darted our eyes around the night sky. Someone’s birthday is today! Said my mind in an echo. It reverberated through my skull but I ignored it.

My phone vibrated in my pocket sleeve but I didn’t bother to check. I was too lost in finding my way around the orion constellation. The three stars lined up as the best of him and his long arms covering the vast sky. My mind was roaming around in the vast space provided to it and it found nothing but nothing. It continued to find something to think about but it's efforts were futile. I twitched my fingers to get rid of some insect that crawled upon me. I lifted my head to see what it was but it was nothing. I suddenly felt the urge to check my watch and it showed that it was 12:20 am. April fools day!

The fragrance of green grass floated into my nose and with all the olfactory information my mind had acquired through evolution, I recognised it. But somehow with all the evolution that mankind had been through he always seemed to forget. And that day I forgot a birthday. A birthday of a person who was and still is dear to me.

As the mind seemed to recall the occasion my body almost by itself got up. My friends on the other hand didn’t give a hang of what I did and I simply waltzed away, aimlessly wandering until I reached the entrance of a basement. Or so I thought it was.

I looked long and hard at the entrance, as it vanished into the pitch black basement. My surroundings were as if pushing me to go into it and so, as me being an unmindful person, I went with the flow. I descended down the flight of stairs and embraced the darkness. 

From what seemed like an eternity of going down stairs I finally reached the bottom, almost tripping myself into nothingness. I couldn’t see a thing in front of me and the entrance was nowhere to be seen. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead and I began to think of this as a mistake. My hands started to tremble with the sudden fear that quickly arose and I started to think of this as a mistake.

Suddenly with the sound of a flick of a switch, lights flooded the basement. My fear quickly subsided as flood waters receded rapidly. The whole thing was lit up brightly and strangely was divided by a glass wall into two. The glass was quite peculiar and I walked along it with my hand feeling it’s cold nature. 

The glass was very smooth and the basement was very much like that of a hospital where the cadavers were being kept. The smell too was like that of a world war field hospital. Like dead bodies. Nonetheless I didn't recognise the resemblance and kept tracing the glass. Ignorance is bliss. Until I found bullet holes in the glass. They looked fresh and still had smoke coming out of them. But the strange thing about the smoke was that it moved backwards, as if I was watching it work its way through back time.

My mind couldn’t comprehend what was happening when out of the blue a rumbling and grinding noise surprised me. I naturally looked towards the noise in the hope of finding what created it and at the end of the basement opened a turnstile. Out of it emerged a man wearing a black ops suit and a gas mask. On the other side of the glass another man wearing the same thing ran towards the exit.

The man ran at me and out of nowhere in his hand came a gun. The gun simply floated speedily into his hands and the magazine which had lay in one corner of the room spanned the distance and fitted itself into the bottom of the gun. I watched in horror as he advanced towards me, in a panther like fashion and pinned me to the glass, held the gun to my head and let go of the trigger. 

I barely missed the bullet, but as he banged my head against the glass I glanced at the spot he shot me and it was completely normal. Like no bullet had been through, no cracks. My mind snapped and I realised that the bullet hadn’t come out of the gun but instead went back into it. He held me once again and let go of the trigger. My ears rang wildly as the bullet nicked my ear and drew blood. I kicked him with all my strength and screamed. The man let go of me and ran backwards out through the entrance. 

I sat on the cold ground with my back towards the wall, exasperated and astonished at the same time. The man did everything in reverse but it felt real. After calming my breath I slid on my feet and slowly walked to the turnstile. 

It’s cool metal curved all the way inside and made a capsule sort of structure with wheels set in grooves at the hinges. It seemed to open and close and the same structure was on the other side. The capsules seemed to make their way into each other mid-way and give a small window for someone inside to move to the other capsule and assumingly to the other side.

I suddenly saw myself on the other side and watched as I entered the strange capsule. I had no other choice but to do the same and so I went into it. The capsule closed and I moved through the window that was there. The other capsule opened and I walked right out. It was still the same but something felt different. I walked towards the now closed entrance and opened the door.

Instantly I felt the air being kicked out of my lungs as I gasped for breath. I clutched my throat and reached to close the door. I pulled on the handle and shut it with a satisfying boom. I felt the air push itself back forcefully into my lungs. What a relief it was. 

I went back into the basement and searched for anything. All my eyes found were a set of breathing instruments. An oxygen cylinder of sorts and a breathing mask. I ran towards it and wore it on, then advanced to the entrance. I opened it and what I saw would have been something no one else in the history of the world would’ve ever seen.

At first nothing seemed different and everything normal but as time progressed everything came into place. I had travelled into an inverted world where everything that happened in the real world happened in reverse but the only thing that was inverted in this world was me. I saw everything inverted but the people living in that world didn’t. I had entered into a world that I thought was moving into the past. 

Incidentally the encounter with the man replayed in my brain. I started to shiver out of fear. The feeling of helplessness again rose up my throat and formed a lump. I was defenceless against the rash handling. I quickly zapped back to my senses.

I stepped into a puddle and I saw the reverse movement of water as I splashed into it. I smiled as I saw people walk backwards, talk backwards and did everything in reverse. It was kind of creepy at first but I got used to it pretty quick. While the beads of sweat on my forehead moved normally I saw a water balloon remake itself and speed up into a balcony high above me. 

I checked my watch again and saw that time was moving backwards. It was 10 pm, 31st March as the dial continued to reverse. I walked to my house and opened the door. Went to my room and took my phone. I remembered that everything in this world was reversed and whatever I do here has repercussions in my real world. 

So, I messaged my dearest friend a happy birthday but not in the normal way. I first put a full stop in place and then wrote the message backwards and sent it. Ah, the satisfaction. I quickly went back to the basement, avoiding myself and went through the capsule. I came back to the real world.

My watch showed that the time was 9:45. And All I had to do was wait. But then that encounter with the man who tried to kill me replayed in mind. This time I couldn’t shy away from the memory and ran through the whole scene and carefully tried to remember the man’s face through the mask. I remembered the outline and he seemed familiar. 

Suddenly it hit me. It was me. I had tried to kill myself. But why? And I looked quite older as well. Had my travelling back in time done something I regretted in the future? I had absolutely no way of knowing what had happened. And till this date I try and think of the peculiar incident but I never seem to go back to the same basement. It was as the whole thing had just vanished. I had tried to find it again but I had no luck. I had forgotten the place. 

But today I don’t regret what I did. I got the chance to undo my mistake and I did it.

Happy Birthday!