His head.
The sweet voice of Em was coming from inside his head.
All the conversation between her and him had happened inside his head. This could either be a dream or … or…
He was going insane after killing a person.
Maybe he got caught by the cops after all and it had made such a huge impact on his mind that he broke down.
He should've realized it.
So many things were going down in his life recently. With him getting kicked out of his college for a crime he hadn't committed.
Leaking examination papers and making a hell lot of money out of it.
The students whom he had taken money and supposedly given them the examination papers had demanded their money.
Ram had no way to prove that he had been innocent. He had to give them the money. It had taken his entire savings that were meant to be for next semester's tuition.
On the top of that, he was suspended from attending the next semester. Various part-time jobs that he had taken previously ordered him not to come for work anymore.
He was even kicked out of the college dormitory, which made him move out to the cheapest room that he could afford. On the roof top of a building that looked like it was going to collapse at any time since the past decade.
It stood there like the stubborn building that it had been and he choose it over others.
To relieve the frustration of being framed by others andgotten his money stolen out in the broad daylight in front of everyone, he went to D-Mart, brought some cheap kitchen weapons.
He even brought cheap drinks, drank them imagining them to be the costliest liquor and out of whim, he took his knife and started swinging it in the air, imagining the people who had swindled money out of me and framed me for leaking examination papers.
Who would've thought that at that exact moment, the old man would appear out of nowhere, got stabbed by the wild swing of his knife and die.
And that lead to him seeing Em, who had the same exact voice as that of his favorite celebrity, Emily Roxane.
Ram needed to do one more test to prove that he was going insane.
To make Em appear in front of him.
If she had the same appearance as that of Emily Roxane, then he was definitely going insane.
He was either going to be jailed, where at least he could get free meals and a room either for himself or share it with others, or along with all of the above, he even get to enjoy eating electric shocks from time to time in a mental hospital.
"Em, could you please appear in front of me. I want to know how you look like?" Ram asked.
"Drum roll please," Em said, then there was actually a drum roll, followed by an entrance song of Emily Roxane from one of her movies, and Em appeared in front of him.
"Electric shocks it is," Ram said and promptly collapsed.
***
When he woke up, he was back at the place where he had killed the old man. But this time, there was no body of the old man, or blood surrounding it.
In fact, there had been no signs of the old man at all.
All of it had been a dream?
But it felt so real, even including his meeting with Em.
Ram shook his head and got up, dusting off his pants and picked up the knife, which was not stained with blood. It was as clear as it had been when he had purchased it an hour ago.
He picked up other groceries and put the knife as far away from his sight as he could and started walking when he heard Em talking again.
"Are we going to your house?" she asked.
Ram got so scared that he screamed at the top of his lungs, just like the dumb female would moments before she would get killed by the evil villain in horror movies.
Right at this moment, Sandhya, (whom he liked to call Sandy inside his head), took a walk.
Alone.
Ram had a crush on her, that showed symptoms that was borderline obsessive, which mainly involving stalking all of her online profiles.
And she had seen him screaming like a girl.
She frowned, looked at him as if he were crazy, shook her head and walked faster.
After all, even Ram felt he was going crazy.
"Forget about her. She is out of your reach even if you were to become the legit Elder of Time," Em said.
Ram screamed once again. "No, no, no. I am not insane. I am just hearing the voice of my favorite celebrity inside my head from time to time, which was perfectly alright. I had often daydreamed about her being my friend," Ram mumbled.
Em sighed. "You are freaking out just because of that. Do you want me to keep quite until we reach your house?" she asked.
"It would be fine if you keep quite forever," Ram said.
"Don't even think about that. I will give you until you reach your house for you to calm down," she said and then her presence faded from his vision as well as from his mind.
Ram stood where he was, closed his eyes and listened for any sounds of Em.
He didn't hear her voice again.
Ram let out a huge sigh and continued walking towards his home.
***
As soon as Ram reached his home, he felt relieved. Even though the wall was filled with patches of paint that was falling off, even some bricks and marginal cement visible here and there, Ram calmed down.
This room felt much closer to him, now more than ever, after seeing the endless white room.
He put away the groceries and sat on the worn down couch and relaxed.
It was only for a moment though.
He heard Em's voice inside his head once again.
"I think it would be better if we do our meetings outside of your head for the time being, till you get used to it," Em said.
No sooner than she said that, she appeared out of nowhere. She sat on a modern looking couch in front of him, the couch which he couldn't ever afford, which hadn't been there before, and she smiled at him. "Do you want me to project something modern for you as well?" she asked.
Ram froze.
Em nodded and she snapped her fingers and when Ram looked down towards his couch, it was replaced by the couch similar to the one Em had been sitting on.
"Before you freak out more, I am real. I am really your assistant, one part of your powers. I have the ability to project things inside or outside your head. I prefer doing it inside so that your enemies couldn't find out about you, your power or me," Em said.
Ram was finding it difficult to believe what she said.
"You are like Jarvis for Ironman?" Ram asked.
Em thought for a second, then she nodded. "Kind of," she said.
She snapped her fingers once again and Ram gasped. His room disappeared from his vision.
He was inside Ironman suit, with his screen lit with what he had seen from Ironman movies.
Amidst all those things, he could also see clouds, which were moving. It felt like he was Ironman and flying in the sky.
"I feel like I am Ironman," I said.
"Do you like it?" Em asked.
Ram gulped, but nodded.
"Do you want me to stop?" she asked.
Ram shook his head.
"It's much more real than any virtual reality game that I had ever played. Let me enjoy it for a moment," Ram said.
Em sighed, but nodded and Ram played the Ironman game, flying in the sky, shoot fire from his hands, destroyed the villains and saved the day.
When he finished, Em snapped her fingers and they are back in his room.
Though Em, her couch and his remained.
"Now that you have played to your heart's content, do you believe that I am real?" Em asked.
This felt too good to be true, like a dream. But for some reason, he believed it. It was much better than getting thrown into a jail or eating electric shocks from time to time.
"Yes, I believe you. What should we do now?" he asked.
Em grinned. "You got used to this weirdness quicker than your predecessor. I have high hopes for you," she said.
Ram frowned. "I really killed him?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Then why didn't I see his body or blood on my knife," Ram asked pointing to the knife at the counter, which he had used to accidentally kill the old man.
"It's one of your powers. The old man's existence was erased form this world. So you don't have to worry about police putting you in jail," she said.
Ram sighed.
Em's face darkened. "But now that the old Elder of Time had died and you are chosen as the new Elder of Time, you need to hide me as well as about your powers from the people of The Institute. Otherwise, you would be killed by others, who wanted your power for themselves."