'What's with this fog. Hasn't it gotten a bit too dense. I can barely see my own hands now.' I thought as I looked at my hand which was barely visible at this point.
The Black fog had become denser and denser in the last few hours.
I opened the smartphone and checked the time.
11:49 pm.
'Big bro said that something 'very' bad will happen at midnight. I wonder what he meant by that.' I thought to myself.
After that initial interrogation, I asked him to give me more information about the 'very' bad thing.
Initially, he ignored my questions but I after I pestered him again and again, he finally said 'You would only understand when you experience it yourself.' After that he completely ignored my questions.
'What the hell. Does he think this is some kind of horror movie of something. Keeping me in suspense for so long. What a shitty elder brother.' I complained in my heart.
'And why is it getting so cold. Is it also because of the black fog or it usually so cold out in the farmland at night. This is summer goddammit.
Shit! I should have taken those clothes when Big bro offered me. Now I'm too embarrassed to ask for them.' I thought and held the thin blanket even tighter.
I looked at the darkness creeping around me and was a bit afraid to put down the smartphone.
I had a thought that the black fog would eat me if I closed the smart phone so I had kept it on for the past half an hour.
'Even though it doesn't provide a lot of light. It's something.' I felt the black fog 'moving' in my surrounding and felt that someone or something was watching me from within the fog. It was a really creepy feeling.
"Oi Big bro. You alive there." I asked in a causal tone as I tried to hide the fear and panic in my voice.
"Yeah. Why? Are your scared."
"Of course not. I was just making sure that you were not scared that's all." I said with voice full of confidence.
"Is that so." He said with a chuckle. Then his voice became warm as he continued. "You know it's not a sign of cowardice to accept that you're afraid. We all feel fear sometimes in our lives. It's better to accept that you're afraid then hide it from everyone else."
"You feel fear too brother?"
"Of course I do. Who do you think I am." He laughed in a self deprecating manner.
"Then do you fear this darkness."
"Not really. Do you?"
"Yeah. Just a little bit though." I said in a casual manner. 'I hope he doesn't realize how scared I'm right now.'
'Sigh. I hope little Neha was here right now. At least I could have talked to her. Big bro is no fun as he's the silent type. Haah! what a waste.' I opened a game in my smartphone and started playing it in order to distract myself.
"Ashok."
"Hmm."
"What you know what the most important thing in life?"
"Umm… Money?" I guessed.
"Why so?"
"You can buy everything with money."
"Hah…" he chuckled. "There are a lot of things you can't buy with money."
"Then what do you think is the most important thing in life?" I asked back.
"Family." He replied in a firm manner without even needing any time to think.
"Hmm. Now that I think about it Family does seem more important than Money but you can't raise a family without money either you know."
He remained silent and refused to make any further comments.
"Brother earlier you…" before I could say anything, I noticed intense movements in the black fog around me.
It felt as if, the black fog was, going up?
I felt strange since all my senses were suggesting that something bad would happen because of the black fog. But in the end, it just went up in sky.
'That was it?'
I watched intensely as the black fog slowly went up in the sky and after going up for about fifty metres, it dispersed.
A bright half moon could be seen in the horizon and twinkling stars filled the whole sky.
'Wait! Isn't the sky a bit too clear? And this air. Why does it seem so pure. It feels as if all the air pollution in the world went away along with the black fog.'
I looked at the bright sky up above and was mesmerised by it's beauty. I wondered if I was wrong and if the black fog was actually a good thing instead.
But then I remembered the words said by Big bro earlier. Something 'very' bad is going to happen.
Well, nothing bad had happened to anyone so far. But if he said something bad will happen then something bad will definitely happen.
I looked at Rahul and realized that he was looking back at me.
"What's the time." He asked.
I looked at my smartphone and replied "11:55 pm".
"Call little Neha." He said with a sigh. Looking at his expression, I could feel that he was not really happy about whatever had just happened.
"Alright." I said and realized that the 'No Signal' sign went away along with the black fog.
After four rings Neha picked up the phone and shouted excitedly. "Hey brother did you look at the sky. It's so bright and beautiful. If you've not seen it then you need to see it right now." He voice was filled with excitement.
'It seems like the black fog lifted up from our home town as well.'
"Neha, Big bro wants to talk with you." I said and passed the phone to Rahul.
"Neha where are you?" Rahul said in a voice filled with warmth and love.
"Yeah I saw it. Neha now listen to me."
"Go back to your room and do what I told you to do earlier."
"Yeah. Go inside and close the door and windows tightly."
"Done. Good. Now listen to what I'm about to tell you now. I won't repeat myself." At this point his tone became grave.
"At 12:00am, at midnight, you'll feel an immense amount of pain."
"Don't interrupt me. And listen carefully."
"At midnight, you'll feel an immense amount of pain throughout your whole body. It'll be so bad that you'll feel like just giving up. But you cannot give up no matter what."
"It might seem like that pain will go on for eternity but in truth, the pain will only last for ten seconds."
"Think about Ashok and me when the pain hits. You have to live for us even if don't feel like living for yourself."
"Remember, the pain will only last for 10 seconds and not one second more. You must hold on until then."
"After the pain subsides, I'll call you once again and give you further instructions on what to do."
"Yeah. Close the door properly. If possible use a heavy table or Almira to block it off as well."
"Now go on and lay down on the bed."
"Good girl. Remember, I'll call you after the pain subsides. It'll only last for 10 seconds. And you must survive."
'The fact that he was repeating the thing over and over again despite saying that he won't repeat it twice meant that it must be something very serious.' I thought to myself.
'I wonder what pain he's talking about. And what happens to people who give up.'
"The people who give up, die." Rahul told Neha in the phone but he was also looking in my direction as if telling me the answer to my questions.
"Remember Neha. You must live on. Alright."
"Now put phone in vibration and when you talk to me again, do so in a very low voice. Understand."
"Good. I believe in you."
"Yeah. Brother loves you as well." Rahul finally kept the phone down but I could see that his face was filled with worry.
"Is what you said just now the truth big brother." I asked at looked at the time. It showed 11:59 pm.
"Yes. Every word of what I said just now was the truth." He said in a grave tone.
I didn't believe him. Maybe I just didn't wanted to believe in such a ridiculous thing.
'How can anyone feel so much pain that they'd die from it.' I was really sceptical this time.
But before I could say anything, he shook his head.
"You might not trust me but that alright." He brought his hand forward and held my hand closely.
"You just need to remember that the pain will only last a short while. And if you feel like giving up, then remember me and Neha. Remember our family. Alright."
"Alright." I said as I clasped his hand tightly and we both laid down side by side.
We laid down for a few second and waited but nothing really happened.
'I hope he won't just stand up all of a sudden and laugh at me saying that all of this was just a joke. That would be to embarrassing.'
I looked at the the sky to distract myself from unnecessary thoughts. Suddenly I saw a bright light growing slightly bigger with each second.
"Hey brother, don't you think that star is…" Before I could finish, the light suddenly enlarged in size and went through my body. My words stopped at my throat and for a second, I felt as if the whole world had stopped moving.
Then the pain arrived.
"AAaaaraghhhh." I screamed in agony as I felt my whole body being burned from inside out.
Every single muscle in my body went through an excruciating amount of pain.
If I had felt so much pain during normal times, my heart would have went into a seizure and stopped beating. Or at the very least, I would have instantly passed out.
But this time, I felt everything going in my body clearer than ever before. Clearer in the sense that I felt every single part of my body go through that excruciating amount of pain.
I gasped for air and scratched at my throat as my body bent at an extremely unnatural angle because of the pain.
But the amount of pain I felt only kept on increasing.
At that point, I felt a deep voice from inside my mind calling to me as a mother would call her child.
I realized that if I listened to the voice and went where it was calling me, all the pain I'm feeling would go away.
But… isn't what giving up meant.
Just then another round of pain hit me and I lost the ability to think.
Instead of thinking, now I was merely analysing at the instinctual level.
The pain increased second by second and my instinct started to tell me to give up. It was not such a bad thing after all. Why should I go through so much pain when I can just give up and find bliss instead.
"Nooooo… Arghh" I shouted in pain and remembered the faces of the two people dearest to me.
'I can't give up. I won't give up.' I gritted my teeth and clenched my fist.
'Just this little bit amount of power is not enough to take me away from my family.'
The pain hit me once again like a tide and my ability to think was lost once again. This time, the pain was far worse than the two times before but I remained steadfast in my beliefs and kept the image of those two people in my mind.
The pain escalated more and more and more until it finally reached it's peak.
And then, as if a wave going back from the shore, it's finally subsided.
"Waaaaaah!" I finally took a deep breath and loosened my hands as the ten painful seconds passed and life returned back to me.
Time seemed to have started moving once again and I greedily took in the fresh air breath after breath.
I wiped the beads of perspiration off my forehead and realized that my whole body was drenched with sweat.
I realized in terror that the painful ten seconds had finally passed away.
If possible, I would never want to feel such pain ever again in my life.
Because I was not sure if I'll be able to hold on for a second time.
Plus, it was painful as hell.
It left a deep dark shadow in my heart as I realized that I would probably never forget about the pain, ever again.
I looked sideways and realized that Big bro was staring back to me with a warm smile.
His face looked pale and his forehead was filled with sweat but it seemed like he had survived as well.
But all of a sudden his warm smile broke into a worried look.
'What happened?' I wondered why he got so worried all of a sudden before a name rang out in my ears.
'Neha.'
The mere thought of her send my mind in chaos as I worried about her safety.
I quickly took out my smartphone from the pocket and tried to dial her number but the damn screen was covered in sweat and was not working at all.
I frantically tried to wipe it off from my clothes but my clothes were drenched in sweat as well and didn't provide any help at all.
'Shit! Who created this shitty mobile.' I thought in panic as realized that the touchscreen was not working when I most wanted it to.
I suddenly had the strong urge to break this piece of metal crap, before a voice rang in my ears.
"Calm down." I heard Rahul's calm voice and turned to look at his direction.
'How can he be so calm during such a critical time. Isn't he worried about Neha as well.' For the first time, in a long amount of time, I felt genuine anger toward this brother of mine.
"Give me the phone" he noticed my change in expression but didn't seemed to mind as he calmly asked for the phone.
"Here." I said and threw the phone at him. It would be for the best if it could hit him and break a few of his teeth. Or so I thought.
But his hands moved agilely and caught the phone without much trouble.
After catching the phone he bent down and used the corner of the thin blanket to wipe the sweat off of it's screen as I froze in shock.
'Why the hell didn't I think of such thing?' I suddenly had the strong urge to break a few bricks on my head and die.
Why didn't I think of doing such a thing?
I knew why.
I had panicked while Rahul had stayed calm.
I couldn't believe that in my anger I even had the urge to break the phone. I even felt angry at him while he was doing to best to calm down and make the best use of time and resources.
I suddenly felt very shameful and angry at my own behaviour.
'Why couldn't I have stayed calm at such an important moment.' I thought and made a resolution to myself.
'No matter what happens next time. No matter how bad the situation gets, I must remain calm and not panic.' Because now I knew that panicking during critical circumstances only makes the situation worse.
I looked at Rahul who calmly cleaned the screen with the blanket and gave it back to me.
He didn't knew my password.
My hands were wet with sweat as well so before using the phone I made sure to wipe it off with my thin blanket.
After that, I dialed Neha's number.
Ring-Ring Ring-Ring Ring-Ring…
The phone rang for twelve times before it was cut off by the operator telling me what I already knew.
'She was not picking up the phone damn it.'
A sense of dread rose in my heart as I thought about the worse case situation. But just as the thought entered to my mind, I banished it off.
'She's alive.'
'She's probably just a bit tired after suffering from so much pain.'
"Call her again." I heard Rahul's voice which was filled with worry. It seems that I was not the only one afraid in here.
"Yeah." I nodded and dialed her number once again.
Ring-Ring Ring-Ring Ring-Ring…
Every time her phone rang, I felt as if someone was hammering a nail at my heart.
After the eight ring though, the phone was finally picked up.
"Brother." Her voice was weaker than usual as she talked. But at that moment, I felt that it was the sweetest thing I could have ever heard in my entire life.
All the tension and fear help up in my body was released at once as tears started rolling down my eyes.
I sniffed a bit and finally managed to say. "Little Neha" before the phone was snatched up from my hands.
"Little Neha are you alright." Rahul asked her in a voice filled with elation. At that moment, looking at his expression might mistake you to think that he had found god or something.
But the more I looked at that face the worse I felt.
Imagine a child getting a toy that he always dreamed about during his birthday. He opens the pack and is elated to find that toy. He feels as if he needs nothing else in his life and is about to play with it when suddenly his elder brother comes into his room and snatches the toy away from him and starts playing with it himself while letting out an evil laugh.
Yeah. That's how it felt.
"Yeah we're both alright. Now listen to me." He said with a laugh as his eyes became wet as well. He looked at my direction with a smile but when noticed my dark expression, his face froze.
'Too late.'
"Give me the damn phone." I shouted and jumped at him and tried to snatch the phone back.
"I wanna talk to her as well." I punched and kicked him a few times before snatching back the phone from him. After that I kicked him a few more time for revenge.
"Little Neha." I said gently after beating him up.
"Did you snatch the phone from big brother." She said softly.
"Of course." I said proudly. 'How dare he snatch the phone when I'm talking with my little angel.'
"Then give it back to him. We're talking about serious stuff now." He grave voice rang in my ears like thunder as I felt my whole world fall apart.
I gave the phone back to that bastard, went in a corner and started drawing circles on the ground.
'Sob sob :'( No one love me.'
"Yeah. Listen. Follow what I said earlier. No matter what happens. Don't come out of the room no matter what you hear from outside. And don't make any noise either understand." Rahul continued talking to her in a calm voice.
"Yes. Don't open the door no matter what happens. We're coming for you. It might take us two or three days to come back home but I promise that we'll get back to you."
"Now promise me to do as I said."
"Alright then. I'll talk to you later."
"Yeah. Love you as well little sister." He hanged and phone and turned to look at me.
"Why did you tell her to lock herself into the room?" I asked in puzzlement. Although I wanted to beat him up a bit more I reined in my anger so that I can get answers to my questions.
'It won't be too late for a gentleman to take his revenge something something.'
He sighed as he heard that question.
'Oi. Aren't you sighing a bit too much today. What are you, an old man.'
"I told you earlier that anyone who gives up because of the pain will die, right?" He said with a serious face so I got serious as well.
"Yeah. You did." At the same time I wondered how many people survived the pain.
'If I was not told about it earlier then I probably would not have survived either.' The thought gave me chills as I realized how close I had come to dying.
'I wonder how many people felt the pain. It should be only around this area right.'
The thought of such a thing happening all over the world didn't even cross my mind. Because if it did, then wouldn't that mean that humanity is… screwed?
"I told you that people who give up will die." He said. "But I didn't tell you what will happen to them after their deaths."
"Aaarrhhghhh" At that moment I heard a loud scream coming out from the farmer's hut. The scream was painful to the ears and filled with despair.
'Under what conditions would a human make such a noise?' I thought in horror. I have never heard the dying scream of a human before but my guess is that even that would not be as bone chilling that that scream.
I looked at Rahul and realized that he had already taken out his axe from the tracking bag.
"Come. It has started." He said and moved toward the scream.