"WoW, I'm not a food and fun kind of guy but what won't I give to live here, forever." Ray's voice echoed as if speaking from inside of a deep, empty well as he stood there, gaping at nothing in particular.
"Ray this isn't real. Ray." Shivani tried to warn as Ray reached out to touch something in front, Shivani still couldn't catch the sight of what Ray was seeing but she knew something was really really wrong.
"Shivani you got to see this, come here." He further extended his arm to reach.
"No Ray, don't touch anything." With a sudden jerk of electricity from what Ray was reaching to, he pulled his hand away.
"Ray are you okay? Are you hurt?" Shivani further asked, panicking as she approached closer.
Ray lifts the hand that he stretched out to touch that unknown object in air as red thick, slime like blood starts spreading over it, covering his hand from the tips of his fingers to palm and then wrist.
She started running towards him, yelling his name again and again. Ray turned towards her slowly, his bleeding hand still in air, his eyes fixated on it.
"Ray I'm here. I'm coming, you'll be fine." Shivani yelled as she kept jogging towards him but the distance seem to have tricked them as it stayed same. However fast she tried to run, she came as close to Ray as she was a moment ago.
Ray's eyes left the view of his hand and glanced straight at Shivani, despite the blood covering almost half of his body, his face was calm and composed and usual.
"Don't worry about me Shivani, I'll survive. You worry about yourself and your friends who are here to save you." His voice suddenly turned cold and raspy at second sentence with hint of mischief and inner laugh.
That's when Shivani noticed his bright red eyes, smiling at her, mocking her.
"Martha?" With the word being said, Shivani felt an abrupt twirl of land beneath, throwing her off balance as her eyes snapped open. Laying on her back, she could see nothing but battered wooden roof at top.
Breathing heavily, she was frozen and glued to ground. Unable to process what she just saw, Shivani stayed there trying to calm her heart that was thudding out of her chest.
After a few minutes of calming breaths, getting back to her normal self, she opened her eyes again. Whatever she saw in that dream was now clear like a day. She remembered everything about it, every minute detail of that dream was clicked in her mind like a series of photographs.
This time she sat up and looked around for Ray. He was fast asleep in the other corner of the room, near the window.
Shivani stood up slowly and approached the window which now had a faint light of early morning coming through it.
Time seemed to be no later than four or five in the morning and chilly weather was making no attempt to hide itself as cold morning breeze swept across her face and bare hands, freezing floor could be easily felt underneath her slipperless feet.
Ray was cocooned like a snail on the floor, wrapped in his own toned hands.
Bending down, she sat beside him, slightly visible beneath his head, she noticed a faint cut on the palm, covered with dried blood.
"Ray wake up, get up Ray." Shivani shook him, Ray opened his groggy eyes and focused on Shivani, confusion evident on his face.
"What?" Ray said, clearly annoyed at the disturbance created by Shivani.
"You got to wake up. This is important."
Giving in to Shivani's nagging attempts, he sat down pulling his knees closer, "Speak."
"I had a dream."
"Again?" Ray breathed out in frustration.
"No listen—"
"Shivani why can't you treat a dream like a dream. If you are—"
"It was not a dream." Shivani said clutching Ray's face in both her hand, stopping him to go any further.
With his face sandwiched between her palm, Ray stared at Shivani as if she just lost her mind.
"It wasn't a dream. Now you don't have to trust me or go with me or help me. I just thought you should know."
And with this Shivani narrated her entire dream with Banshee, execution, dust tornado, and bleeding hand to Ray.
"I know you think of this as some random dream but these dreams aren't random, they are connected to this reality and the only way we can get out of here is using these dreams as hints."
"Okay, even if I believe this story, then, you said that me possessed by Martha said your friends are here. But where are they?" Ray said examining his palm wound.
"I don't know, maybe they haven't found us yet."
"This is really hard to believe Shivani I hope you understand that, but this wound is weird, don't remember where I got this."
"This is slight physical impact of the dream."
Ray shook his head at this.
"Can I sleep now and think about it a few hours later, when it's more of a morning?"
"Sure." Shivani left the side while Ray layed back down on the ground, but now having a spare blanket to cover himself from freezing early morning cold.
Whatever she saw in the dream was not an easy memory to put aside and rest, so, instead of getting back to sleep, she opened the cabin door and stepped out, in hope to find some clues, some answers.
____
There Zoya, Dadi, Diya, Imam and Mikesh were having hard time keeping up with Sol, Ariem and Fonjuar. Been walking for almost four hours now, they were already drained off their energy and capacity to walk. The uneven path of the mountain was turning out to be a big headache as they made their way through the dense forest, among giant trees and bushes.
"How much more is it?" Zoya asked bending over to take a breather as everyone stopped and looked at her, Diya, Dadi, Imam and Mikesh in gratification and Sol, Ariem and Fonjuar in confusion.
"Are you all tired already?" Ariem asked, that almost seemed like mockery.
"We are, yes. Can we rest? At this age, this is the most I can do." Dadi, without waiting for the answer, walked to the side and sat beneath a low, wide tree and others followed the queue.
Staring at them for a few seconds, Sol, Ariem and Fonjuar too perched on the random dusty rocks.
"Who are we going to meet by the way?" Mikesh asked gulping water from the bottle.
"A dear friend of ours, more of a business friend." Sol answered.
"A business friend?"
"Yea..uh.. He is remembered when we are desperate for help and we haven't visited him in 3 years."
"Wow, so you are desperate to help us? Thanks for the importance."
"You are desperate for help and we are desperate to find some answers of ours." Fonjuar interrupted the conversation.
"I don't get your point."
"You are too tired to get the point. We all are going to spend much awaited fun time together." Ariem said with one of her smug smiles, confusing the guests further but none of them bothered to ask any more questions as they have understood by now that things will unfold as they do and minor questions will bring out nothing from these weird creatures.