"I want him back, no matter what it costs!" A man in a black tuxedo ordered as he observed the CCTV footage that played on the screen in front of him. It showed a girl dragging an unconscious boy.
"Bring him back alive, even if you have to kill that girl."
"YES SIR" A bunch of men replied in unison and marched out of the room, holding lethal weapons.
...
"I came to see you." The boy in front of me said with a genuine smile.
He came to meet me? Do I know this guy? To be honest, this doesn't even bother me anymore. I've now grown used to it.
Why not? There'll always be some person who probably knows everything about me while I'll be scratching the hair off my head trying to figure out who the person is. This is quite normal now.
I noticed Mayur standing silently, but something was off. I never saw that expression on his face. Just one look at him and anyone could have guessed that he didn't like this guy's presence.
"Who are you?" I asked.
For a second, the guy was taken aback, but he was quick to restore to his previous self.
"I know you're mad at me, but I've come to right my wrong. Drop the act now. We've so much to talk about." He said as he walked past me and made a gesture for me to follow him.
"I don't know you. This is no act." I said as firmly as I could.
There was a long silence after that. The guy kept staring back at me with questions in his eyes. He didn't seem like he believed me.
He walked closer, but before he could say anything, Grandma called us, "Come here all of you. Help this old lady out."
"We're coming." I replied.
All three of us reached the living room and stood before Grandma.
"WHAT? You want us to take the kids to playground?" This was seriously the last thing I wanted to do. These kids are nothing, but a bunch of animals. I can't risk myself being torn to pieces.
I'm sure that the idiot who said that children are pure souls, never actually spent time with thirty-three packages of demonic energy, all trying to rip you apart.
"But you can ask Sharron to take them." I protested. "And I have some important work to do."
"What important work? Roaming around here and there outside people's houses like some stray cat?" She shouted and my eyes widened in disagreement.
"What? You thought I wouldn't know? You better come to your senses." Grandma was the best when it came to insulting people.
"We'll go Grandma." The guy said, surprising me.
"Look at him and learn some manners you bone head brat." Grandma talked like he knew this guy well. How?
We finally agreed and as everyone got ready to leave, I went and sat beside Grandma.
"Grandma, you know who that guy is?" I asked and she looked at me wide-eyed.
"What are you talking about? He is your childhood friend. You grew up together." she said and I couldn't have been any less shocked.
How is this happening? Until yesterday, I had no such friend and suddenly he pops out of nowhere and no one is even suspecting him! What the hell is all this? I was seriously going nuts.
I came out of my thoughts and saw Grandma looking at me with confusion and concern.
"Oh. it's nothing. It's just that we fought and so I'm avoiding him." I made a lame excuse, but she believed me.
I left the room and all of us left for the playground. As we walked, I went closer to Mayur and whispered , "What happened here? How did this guy came in?"
His face showed no expression, but his eyes never left the sight of that boy.
"I'm not sure. I was reading my book and I heard some noise outside. When I went to see, he was standing there. Everyone seemed to recognise him and...he knew me." Mayur said, nonchalantly, but I could hear a change in his voice. He definitely was being wary of this boy. It was the first time he formed an opinion-his opinion-about someone. It was some progress. He was starting to become more human.
"He said his name is Lucian. Do you really not know who he is?" He asked.
"I don't." I admitted.
"Then, how come everyone knows him and you don't? They think you both are friends when you don't even know who he is. How is this possible? But most importantly..." He stopped and turned to look at me, his brows knotted with concern. "...Why are you not surprised by any of it?"
Those words took time to sunk into my brain. Was I not surprised? I was. Was I not confused? I was, beyond any words. Things that shouldn't have been possible were happening around me like it was perfectly normal. In the past two months, I didn't get used to it, I just accepted my reality-that the world around me can be fabricated at any moment. I started observing weird things and there's just one explanation to it- there's more to this world than meets the eye.
I decided to find out about it, but in vain. All my trials in the past two months have failed terribly...until the day I met Mayur. I was searching answers, but what I found was even more questions. I saw Becky turn into a monster and then the weird stone that emerged out of my neck- all this, though didn't answer any of my questions, they sure made me believe that there's a truth to my condition too.
I knew I would have to tell Mayur about myself one day. But this is just too early and the situation is not what I wanted it to be. This is a complete mess.
We reached the playground and I told Mayur to sit and talk about it. We sat on a bench. I looked at Lucian and he was busy playing with the kids, though I could tell his mind was drifting somewhere far off.
"I woke up in the school cafeteria two months ago..." I started and told him everything, except for the fact that I found him inside a laboratory. That's all I can do right now. I don't know why, but I believe that Mayur can lead me to my answers. I have no other choice, but to believe so, after all, everything weird started to happen only when he appeared. Maybe he's connected to all this somehow. I don't know for sure yet, but it won't be the case for long.