ALMOST 200 YEARS BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE;
In a certain village which needs no name anymore because it ceased to exist after that day. A certain village just 35 kilometres from Kolkata, it was a happy mass of young ones, there were old boomers too but only a few were alive back then. The fresh mornings with no pollution to worry about and windy nights, it was a great time… but all great things come with a price don't they? British almost took over the whole India by then. Forcing Peasants to grow plants for economic enlargement, and it made the fields unable to grow any other plants… famine was a common thing in Kolkata or Calcutta as they called it then.. and the village, it was one of the few places in Kolkata where the British couldn't reach… there was a reason for this, a very dark reason… a girl, yeah the girl Akash loved was the reason! He's always around trouble isn't he? Well moving on..
Akash and Ankur transformed their bodies into their 12 year old representatives, Why? Because something was wrong with the school there….. Kids were dying unusually… of course, Ankur and Akash weren't investigating officers for humans but they were for God, they had to keep the world safe and for some reason the thing which was inside the school was looking threatening for the mankind. They both kept a low profile in the school, but that girl just wouldn't let anyone feel lonely, she always tried her best to involve them in activities. They had to do it in the end whatever she asked them to do.
One night Akash saw her crying while looking at the school. Akash didn't care so much about others, or didn't want to… he knew he will live on but they won't but since he was with humans he had to act human. He sat down beside her without saying anything he just sat there. Because what could he tell a kid?
He just sat there staring at the same direction the kid was staring at and crying. It seemed like the kid didn't notice his presence. Well, Akash knew how to be there in people's blind spots. Then she looked at him suddenly, the situation would have been normal in a normal world. But no world is normal is it? The clouds chose to burst at the exact same moment, giving that cliché romantic movie vibe, but it wasn't a romantic movie by any means and the girl sitting in front of him wasn't a cute little girl but a turned monster… the face… the face of the kid was shredded by someone's honed brad nail, at least it looked like that.
The face was changing in every few milliseconds, giving him traces of every human being he came across with or fallen in love with, or hated. He was stunned, he couldn't move… he wanted to squeeze the heart out of the monster which was sitting in front of him… but he couldn't, he knew it was a small kid who was being controlled by that beast. Then the girl returned to her normal self.
"Sorry to make you go through that" she said.
"You were possessed don't apologize "
"Ohh? No no I wasn't possessed, I really am a monster looking after that dog you see… "
A small dog trotted towards them, with a jump it landed on that girl's lap. She patted the dog and offered the puppy a piece of meat… human flesh!
"So why are you here?" Akash asked standing up.
"The same reason you are here… " The girl replied.
Akash didn't like word games, he did what he did best… attack..
She dodged the attack pretty well.
"You attack pretty fast huh? Good try" she laughed off his attack. The small pup was growling, she calmed it down.
"You know if I ask it to kill you, it will?" she said in gentle voice.
Akash sighed and sat down again.
"I won't die you know? I am an immortal "
"Sure you are.. " she chuckled while saying it. She didn't seem to be bad girl. Well the definition of bad and good was an unfair one, no one's bad or good in the end, it's just perspective!
She took a deep breath and continued;
"My name.. Is Shalini… " she wanted to add something to it but stopped in between. She stood up and asked.
"Will you follow me? I will tell you what I am.. "
Akash didn't have anything more interesting to do at that moment and accompanied her in a long walk from that village to a small well 10 kilometres away. The well when looked from above looked shallow but that wasn't the case… when he looked down the well, she pushed him down and he tumbled down…he was ready for a few broken bones but to his disbelief the end of the well never came within his reach…
"You see… the well never ends… " She was falling beside him talking with her, for some reason time seemed to be passing very slowly. After some time there was no light anymore, everything was dark. There were screams coming from everywhere.
"Beautiful isn't it? The exhilarating darkness… the loud cries… the pain you feel like you are crunched to death… well you won't feel anything because you aren't a human are you?"
Akash ignored her useless blabbering and was focusing on the cries. They seemed to coming from humans. They were all coming from girls. He knew the difference between the cries of the dead and the living. It wasn't that if they dead. They were alive? Did this monster cage them here? That's what came crushing mind.
"You must be thinking what are these sounds? Dont'cha? They are cries from girls, women, kids… while they are being killed, burned and raped… at this very moment.. around the world "
She laughed an evil laugh after saying that, then a cloud formed over their heads, a red cloud.. More like soaked with blood and then it started raining, rain of blood. She was laughing and enjoying the blood downpour. She started dancing around laughing and then she pulled on to Akash and asked him to join her. He shoved her hands away, but she didn't care she was enjoying herself. But then she stopped; with a dark expression she raised her soaked hands above and just pointed at the sky and said;
"There, they pushed me down this well after raping me, they tore me inside out… humans you say? They are even dangerous than the monsters… Bullying, rape, killing, trafficking, you can see all these things in the deep web, the government keeps these dark corners hidden from everyone in most countries… you're the son of that guy Ruxacious right? He sent humans here to make this hell?"
Akash had no words or expression for her. He had seen things much worse than she was mentioning. He doubted, she would even survive if she told him about those. Amidst all this the red cloud cleared and they were outside the well again. She couldn't control herself anymore she started bawling her eyes out. Her eyes were so red that it seemed like it will burst out blood any moment. Akash went close to her with an expressionless face as usual.
"You want to kill me don't you? The disturbance to your so called beautiful little world? Go on kill me and don't worry another me will come out of some other well… " She looked at him with an intent to fight until death. He knew if he just stroke her cheeks with his lowest of stronas she will die. He said something which even he didn't expect.
"I am not going to kill you, but promise me you won't try to end the world.."
"What good is there in this world?"
Akash had a smile on his face. It turned into laugh of despair soon though, he knew she was asking the most important question, but…
"You see there's nothing good about this world, everything is shit… so shittt it can't be fixed, not until we recreate it… but you know what? It will become the same again… dad knew it won't work out as he planned and it didn't, I asked him to call out the plan and destroy the world once myself but that moron old man just couldn't let go… " Akash took a deep breath and continued. "There is light because darkness is there… There's good because there's evil… I am not saying evil is necessary… however we try, everything equals out in the end… there's evil in this planet but there are loads of good genuinely good humans all around you… you know that right? The kids you are looking out for…. The people struggling against the British rule… maybe not all but many… you don't want them to see the light next day? Wake up another day in the hope that everything is going to be all right? Or those who are living peacefully with their families to live a few more years?... I won't stop you from doing whatever you're doing with those criminals but don't destroy the world… " He was talking with such passion that he lost his breath.
She smiled on that and offered a hand for him to get up..
"What was that dream again?" I got up breathing hard. It was all dark beside me. Kreya was sleeping beside me. She should have woken up with that shock of me getting up, but she didn't. Maybe she's tired! When I looked close I found a sticky liquid on my shirt. It was blood. Then I switched on the light it was river of blood. Kreya was sliced in half her upper half resting in my arms and the lower half sticking on the ceiling, not only her everyone was smothered around. I didn't know how to react. I didn't know what to do. Just a small drop of water formed inside my right eye. And then it started flowing uncontrollably.
"You sure have feelings in you immortal!" It was a familiar voice. It was devil. But I just saw his body. Why is he alive?
"I know you have many questions but we need to get out of here now…" and with that we jumped out of the second floor if the unknown building we were inside, and landed on a…