It was burning....
Everything was burning....
Flames all around him. He did not know where he was, because he could not see, he was blinded by the flames around him. Raging flames, taller than he had ever seen, not even at the Dussehra, and they were burning him.
Then suddenly, the flames in front of him started parting. Beyond them, he could only see darkness, endless darkness. Out of the very darkness, there seemed to be appearing a moving entity. He was scared at first. But as the entity got closer into the light of the flames, he could see it was a woman. A woman in saffron and red robes, matted coils of hair hanging from her head like the roots of a banyan.
The sight frightened him even more.
"It's closer than ever now, " she said in a weird raspy voice, like it hasn't been used in any ages.
He was puzzled. What does she mean? What was close?
"It's time, " she rasped again.
"Time for what?" he managed to squeak.
"Find out," she said and with that, she waved her left arm and disappeared into the flames.
The flames shot up and engulfed him, the burning was excruciating now, a blood curling scream left his throat.
And he woke up screaming in the bed.
"Lohit?" his mother, who obviously heard the scream, came running to his bedside, "Are you alright? What happened? Do you need anything beta?"
Lohit's mother was a handsome specimen of a woman, quite popular back in her school days for her beauty. Large pools of brown eyes and a smile so brilliant that deserved to be on magazine covers. As her years went on, a slight shimmer of grey was beginning to appear in her hair, but the smile still held the brilliance. Even with the worry lines etched on her face at that moment, her eyes still had the power to captivate you in a daze had you looked into them. Lohit was very close to her, because no matter what, she always had the power to pull him out of greatest troubles in his life and managed to push him on the right track. For a moment, like every year, he contemplated telling her what actually was the matter, but brushed it off, not wanting to bother her with childish dreams.
"Mamma I'm fine. Just a bad dream, " he said, putting on a smile for her.
"Are you sure? You screamed pretty loud, scared me to the bones." Her voice was shaking.
"I am sure. Now, will you let me get ready? I know it's my birthday but the evil school won't be giving me a day off, " he said with a chuckle.
She seemed to relax a bit, though she still had a frown. But she put up a smile and said, " Of course. Get ready, I've prepared the breakfast already. Be quick and yes, " she was completely relaxed by now and beaming happily, "Happy Birthday my baby boy!"
"I'm not a baby anymore, " said Lohit, feigning anger.
"You are for me," she said messing up his hair.
"Mamma!"
"Okay I will leave you to get ready." She said kissing his forehead and left.
Lohit sighed.
He turns 11 today. An adolescent. To him, nightmares were not a good sign for a big boy like him. But it wasn't like he could control them. From the time he could remember, he had been having the same dream his every birthday, only difference being what the woman said.
This time, she said it was really close. What, he did not know. It was beginning to annoy him.
This is absurd, he thought, why would a lady in saffron robes would have to do anything with me?
Saffron is a religious colour. He considered himself an atheist, non-believer. He did believe of some higher power, some law that put the universe in this beautiful shape, but a guy (or lots of guys if you are talking about his family religion) up there, writing shitty rules for everyone to follow, full load of BS.
But he could not stop thinking about the lady and her urgent tone even as he went about with his routine.
As he stood in front of the mirror, he gazed looked over himself. He had the same deep brown eyes as his mother. His hair was raven black, which he usually let fall over his forehead. That was one thing about his hair, he could never get them up. Or if he tried with a lot of hair spray or gel, which he had done only once in his life leading him to face mama bear in full warrior form, he could make his hairline visible. Obviously, he gave up. His round face was slowly losing the baby fat to reveal an angular jawline and a pointy nose. Sometimes he thought he was just lacking a pair of glasses to look like a complete nerd. These thoughts that usually occupied his mind were absent today, replaced by the thoughts of the mystery he never seemed to understand.
By the time he was downstairs for breakfast, he was so lost in thought that he didn't even notice when his father was saying.
"Are you even listening?" Raman said a bit louder.
"Sorry what?" said Lohit, breaking free from his trance.
"I asked you what would you like to have for your birthday present?", Raman repeated.
"Oh! Uhm...", he frowned and thought for a bit, "I don't know, surprise me." He said with smile.
Raman frowned. He wasn't the man for surprises. He liked to be told exactly what to do and then execute it. He wasn't really creative at such moments. But his wife and his son had forced him to try, and boy did he fail!
Last time at their anniversary, he had very thoughtfully (according to the guy who presented the menu to him) chosen vanilla pudding to be the dessert for their planned dinner, completely forgetting the fact that Latika was allergic to vanilla. The courses went fine and she did seem surprised by her husband's choices, but the real surprise came in a bowl of crystal. She never asked what it was, because she knew, but she was really mad as the hospital's emergency ward wasn't exactly the ideal place to be spending that special night.
Now it seems the young man has also joined the wagon.
He shook his head. He will need lady luck again. With that, adding a mental note to ask Latika for help, he kissed Lohit on the forehead and left for work.
"Are you done yet?" Latika asked, "you won't want to miss your bus today."
He stuffed his toast, had his milk and swiftly ran out to wait for the bus, that was just round the corner.
He entered the bus and looked around. Third seat from the end to the left by the window seat he found who he was looking for - his best friend Anuj Desai. The Nerd. Picture a typical Indian-American spell bee winner, just a tad scrawnier, that's Anuj Desai for you. Despite his timid appearance, he had a sarcasm that could shut anyone up. A weird thing about him was that he always wore his glasses, despite the fact that he owned two pairs of contacts. He said it made him look mysterious, and this always managed to earn an eyeroll,
From anyone he told.
They have been friends pretty much their whole school lives. Always been to the same school and being in the same class. It was as if they were meant to be. He walked up to him and sat down.
"Happy Birthday Lolo!", said Anuj with a huge smile and amused eyes.
"That's it. You call me that one more time, and we are done."
"No!", said Anuj in mock horror, "Please don't break up with me honey, you are the love of my life." He wiped some fake tears and acted all hurt and heartbroken.
"Will you shut it already! God! You're such a drama queen."
"You were the one who started whining over cute nicknames." he shrugged, "I am just following your lead."
"Oh, shut it! Only you can think this is cute."
"I also think it's cute", chimed in Kritika, his other best friend as she joined them on their seat.
"Oh no, not you too", groaned Lohit. Why did his parents give him such a mortifying name? "You know what, I am going to ignore both of you for the rest of the day," he said, pouting.
"Oh, get over yourself!" chided Kritika. "You're eleven now, start thinking and behaving like an adolescent."
"You guys are the one giving me childish names," now he was grumpy.
"Drop it Kritika," said Anuj. "He's in one of his moods. Like he is on all his birthdays." He added an eye roll just to enunciate.
"What do you mean?" Lohit was actually confused.
"This!" Anuj was getting impatient now. "Every year on your birthday you start acting all whiney. We don't ask because we think you're just throwing a tantrum for not getting your desired present, but then we discovered you don't really care about presents and it all got confusing. So if there is something on your mind that bothers you only once a year and that too on a day you are supposed to be happy, and you really are willing to consider you have two friends that might actually hear you, come to us. Till then, I think we are going to ignore you." With that, both Anuj and Kritika fixated on their feet, totally ignoring there was actually a boy sitting right between them.
"You guys are not serious, are you?" Only after he said that did he realise they actually were serious.
"Okay fine!" He huffed and then sighed deep, "I will tell you, but not a word to my parents or anyone else, and don't you dare laugh!"
Both of them quit staring at their feet and jumped in their seats to face him.
And he told them everything he saw in his dream. Each and every one of them, because as weird as it may sound, he actually remembered all eleven of them vividly, even those from his toddler days. He could not explain it, they still seemed foreign to him.
Both of them listened to him intently, their brows creasing into frowns, which only got deeper as he progressed. For the first time since he had known them, they did not cut him off even once during the conversation.
It was beginning to worry him.
"So?" He asked after finishing the final one, the one he had this very morning. "What do you think?" He looked at both of them one by one. Both had the same brooding expression and deep frowns.
"Sounds like a daily soap plot to me," Kritika spoke first, making the other two roll their eyes dramatically.
"Kritika," Anuj started in a warning tone, "if you mention your daily soaps one more time, it would be the last anyone saw your face on the planet Earth. I swear to everything holy you will die the most gruesome daily soap death ever."
Kritika looked like murder at that moment, more or less the same as Anuj looked, but she knew better than to say anything.
Lohit rolled his eyes. "I seriously don't know why I even hangout with you guys. There are much cooler people in the school."
"Maybe there are honey but did you give it a thought that if you were cool enough to hang out with them, you would already be hanging out with them, rather than being stuck with us? It's not like you live under a rock or anything," Anuj said with his irritating cooing voice and a sarcastic, annoying smile.
Just then the bus arrived at the school gate.
"This conversation is not over," Lohit told them before they could leave their seats. " We will talk again at lunch."
They both shrugged and left. Anuj made a point to stand on his seat and jump over Lohit, just because it seemed funny to him. It did not to Lohit. He sighed and followed them out of the bus. They were already inside as he got out.
Just as he was about to step inside the gate, he felt something. He could feel someone's eyes on his back. A pit dropped in his stomach and his whole body started to shake. He could not explain what was happening. He only felt someone watching him. Not just watching, but projecting intense hate towards him through their eyes, boring a hole in his back. His mind had frozen and his body was trembling.
Then there was an intense cold breeze close to his left ear, which made him jump and turn, falling on his back. He realised that the piercing scream he heard was actually coming from him.
He was suddenly surrounded by students, Kritika and Anuj being the first at his side, and a few arriving teachers, who were trying to dissipate the crowd and asking him if he was fine. He somehow managed to nod at them and stand from his position.
He could not hear what everyone was saying as he walked away from them and rushed towards the boy's washroom. He entered a stall, shut the door and fell to the floor breathing hard.
He tried to remember what exactly had scared him out of his wits.
Then he did. The breeze.
Because it was not a breeze. It was a whisper.
You have been seen.
It was a rasp, a cold rasp. It sounded like a shovel digging.
And for the first time in Lohit's easy life, he experienced fear. A raw fear that made his blood run cold.