He lay there and stared…into the vast expanse of vacuum and darkness above. Muffled voiced clouded his ears…where on earth was he? It did not matter…he lay there and laughed, the intensity increasing by leaps and bounds. A pair of glowing eyes looked at him that muted his laughter. Alas! The demon was glaring at him from the sky above, having suddenly materialized out of the grayish clouds. The floor felt ice-cold under him, threatening to freeze him to death. He crawled up to the sheets. Better, much better…
The blood in his head pounded violently against the walls in a desperate effort to rip it apart. He held it with both hands and closed his eyes. Peace yet again. The smoke filled his mind and body. Frantically searching for water, he was gasping for breath. ‘Am I dying??’, he asked himself. Not so soon. The battle was not over yet. Warriors assembled on either side of the field to fight for the crown. He could see the clash of their swords and the flashes of light above that confused his vision. A star shot across the sky to complete the triangle. Perfect. But…did it really?
He tried to turn his head over but the weight of the universe triumphed over his mortal strength. He gave up. Oh God! They were mocking him from above, yet some faces were sympathetic. It gave him hope. He lay there. Void, a complete void. He was afraid to stare further. The perpetually changing canvas of the sky horrified him…but wait…was it slowly engulfing him too? I do not have much time, he thought. Yet treading the narrow space between real and surreal made him ecstatic. He hanged in there, for some more time.
‘Keep off the grass’, he told himself…and then the phone rang…
Deepayan Bhadra
NIT Trichy
