Vikaya almost flew the car the home. Baffled and breathless she finally made it home and sat down to freeze into a state of overthinking
"That was not real" she started the night with that sentence digging up unknown and unnecessary thoughts from her mind seasoned with fear and anxiety and she finally ended the night with
"What if that was all real?" which sent chills down her spine
Next morning, seeing how normal everything seemed, the rustling of the leaves on the trees, the birds having a crazy rap battle, the ongoing traffic she decided it was best to forget it, even casually ignoring the basket of fruits in her house.
"Congratulations on finally taking some time off Ms. Dutiful" said Aisha walking up to her desk
"What?" said Vik taken aback
"Oh come on, all of us already know. Captain told us" said Dae-jun
"Told you what?" asked Vik
"That you are taking 2 weeks off" said Aisha
Before anyone could utter another word Vikaya zoomed out of her chair like flash of lightening and straight in front of Captain's office door
"Come in" he said "Geez Vikaya, I thought you would break down the door if I had been a second late"
"Sorry Captain, but I heard you gave me 2 weeks off?" she asked, her eyes wide and nostrils flared
"Yes, it is almost done" he said
"What? Why?" she asked
"Why? Because you asked for it" said Captain getting annoyed
"When did I ask for it?" asked Vik now even more dazed than ever
The Captain was tired of this charade. He couldn't bear with Vikaya's antics anymore. He turned the screen towards her. Vikaya's mouth opened like a goldfish staring at the screen
"When did you receive that email?" she asked
"You sent it last night at 8pm" said the Captain "I have a lot of work Pekassador, you may go now" he said gruffly
Vikaya dragged her feet back to her desk, mentally going through the trench of overthinking and analysis. She immediately opened her email and checked
"The email was sent! But I didn't do it!" she screamed inside
'Wait' her thoughts clicked together 'I was at that lunatic's house at 8!'
She quickly changed the password but to her shock there hasn't been any breach into her account
'I should probably cancel that leave' she said and immediately drafted an email and sent it to the Captain
In half an hour she got a reply
"The leave has already been approved Pekassador. I don't have time for your games or the paperwork. You should take the leave to fulfil your entertainment needs elsewhere"
The email read. Vik groaned and kicked the table, well the air under the table.
Vikaya has been known to play pranks or to sophisticatedly annoy her colleagues for fun and the Captain thought this was one of those moments
Vikaya wasn't going to budge. She thought coming to work next day is the most direct solution to this strange muck up
"Hey everyone!" she said walking in the next morning
But no one even lifted their head to look at her, not even a slight nod or a smile.
"Hey Luna! What should we have for Lunch today?" she went over to her desk and tapped on it lightly
But Luna was staring at her screen and clicking away mindlessly. Vikaya waves her palm in front of her, still nothing
"Oh come on guys! I see through the prank now. Stop it" said Vik
The station went on without a single reaction.
"Hey" said a voice from behind her and Vikaya immediately turned with delight. A man holding a coffee is walking towards her
"Hey" "Hello" replied the rest of her team
The man then stops at Vikaya's desk and puts down his bag. Eyes wide and hands turned into tight, little fists she stomps to the desk
"Oh hello? How dare you sit on my desk?" she demanded. But the man ignores her and gets down to work
"Guys are you not seeing this?" she asks her team
"Everyone, this is Harry from Rosemald, he would be filling in for Vik for 2 weeks" said Dae-jun
"But I am right here guys! So Harry from Rosemald can stuff shrimp guts up his-" Vikaya was about to go on the rage stage
"Officer Healey, come see me in my office" called the Captain
Harry headed straight towards the office but before him Vikaya stomped like an army of a thousand warriors and entered the office like a tornado. She clearly expressed her anger and slapped her palms on the desk but to her shock the Captain didn't even spare her a single look! He continued instructing Harry on his duties
"What the" began Vikaya. An empty vase beside the captain's desk caught her attention. With full force she reached to grab it only to have her eyes and heart pop out in shock.
"This must be a dream" she said as she witnesses with horror her palms swinging through the vase without even touching it. She went on a spree and tried to grab different objects but every time it turned out to be the same. She ran out of the office in horror trying to avoid bumping into people afraid of seeing the same terrifying phenomenon
"Am I dead?" she stuttered the words out her heart sinking even at the thought of it. She runs out of the station and kept running till she reached her home
"Why am I such a weather fanatic? Why did I not take a car?" she grumbled to herself
Bursting into her bedroom, panting with full force she tried to search for her body which wasn't actually there
"Bathroom?" she wondered and went to check the shower, thinking she might have slipped in the morning.
But no the whole house was empty.
'But wait' she played back the events
'I opened the door right now using the keys' she said and went on to grab different objects in her house and to her surprise and delight, she was normal again!
'This must be a dream' she said "Wake up Vik!" she yelled and unfortunately for the birds it was a terrifying ordeal and they scrammed hurriedly
Vikaya took a deep breath in and grabbed her car keys to head back to the headquarters. She flung open the door and saw her old neighbor walking by
"Hello Mrs. Johnson" she said to her but the woman didn't respond
"Is she already that old?" Vikaya wondered and walked over to her.
"Mrs. Johnson?" she lifted her hand to lightly tap on her shoulder only to experience her fear coming to life
Her fingers swam through Mrs. Johnson's shoulder like a puff of smoke. As Mrs. Johnson walked ahead without a care in the world, Vikaya stood there shaking from head to toe staring at her hand
She slowly walked back to her house, unable to breathe and sat down numbly. Burying her head in her hands she begged herself to wake up but nothing happened. Vik experienced such head-scratching situations too literally sometimes. When frustration rises and no solution in sight her head begins to itch and her short hair get puffed and bulldozed mercilessly by her tiny fingers
'This won't do!' she exclaimed and got up. She grabbed her keys and marched out of her house
With one turn of the steering she swiftly drove her car out of the parking and sped on the highway
"This must be because of that lunatic!" she said enraged
In just a few minutes she rashly entered his driveway and screeched the brakes right in front of the door. The mansion stood without even a tiniest of scratch or change. Without even giving a single thought about ringing the bell she turned the knob and went it.
Even with plenty windows and too much daylight the inside of the mansion was similar to the inside of a grave in a cemetery.
"Where are you?" she yelled and her voice echoed hauntingly. The echoes stopped and an eerie silence took over again
"Come out you lunatic!" she yelled again
A creak of a door is suddenly heard and the dark, looming figure appeared again
"I knew you will come. To help me of course" he said walking towards her with the ugliest, sly smile on his face
Vikaya was now real tired of these mysterious situations. She took a deep breath in and stroked her hair back. In one swift step forward
"Listen Do" she said with a crushing weight over his neck as she held him by the collar in a suffocating grip
"Listen you Doctor Strange rip off. I don't care who you are. Just reverse whatever you have done to me" she threatened him
He stared into her eyes, unfazed. A sickening yellow glow emitting from his ever-plotting eyes.
"It cannot be undone Vikaya Pekassador" he snickered at her "For 2 weeks you are invisible to the world"
"What about objects, why can't I hold all objects?" she demanded, still pressing down on his neck
"What is not in my favor cannot happen. You were preparing to come to me, so anything needed to get you here was in your reach" he said
"Are you now willing to listen to my requests?" he asked and lifted him arms and uncuffed himself from her grip. Vikaya stepped back and glanced at her hands, which had disappearing hand prints from his hold
"What do you want?" she asked
"I hate those people who stand mindlessly in a group and talk. Come here and sit" he said, the last words weren't a request but a command
Vikaya followed him and sat down on the vintage, over-the-top sofa.
"I have a very specific request Ms. Vikaya. I want you to retrieve a corpse" he said, sitting back and crossing over his legs
It was time for Vikaya to snicker at him. She sat back comfortably
"You really are a gone case" she said "Do you have a family to take care of you? Which institution did you run away from?"
"I see you have a lot of jokes but it is the truth" he said calmly
"Don't worry, it is not a corpse of murder or any crime. it is a corpse that died a very long time ago of someone who was very dear to me and I want it to have a proper parting ritual" he continued
"Why can't you go?" she asked
"It is in a place where I am not welcomed" he said in a dismissal tone
"Were you a threat to the person or their family when they were alive? Or did you kill that person yourself?" she asked her eyes closely observing his movements
Alekon cleared his throat and sat up
"Will you bring the corpse or not?" he asked
"Listen Alekon Do, or whoever the schmuck you are. I am not afraid of you or your gimmicks. I don't know how you did what you did but I am not afraid of it. So, you cannot force me to be a part of your scheme" she said about to get up
"Would you like to be invisible for the rest of your life?" he said and lifted his head to stare at her, like a psycho coming out of its shell of psyche
"That's impossible" said Vikaya, a hint of fear in her voice
He chuckled and sat back again "I give you 10 seconds to decide"
A debate went on in Vikaya's head weighing all her options. What if this is all fake? But what if it's real? What if I end up helping a psycho criminal? What if no one can ever see me again? What if they think I am dead, mom will be heartbroken
"Time's up" he said
"Alright!" yelled Vikaya "I will do it"
"Great choice madam. Bravo!" he said clapping
"Where is it?" she asked
"In the forest of Niqwara"
"That's the other side of the country!" she said
Alekon ignored her and went straight towards the mantlepiece
"Here" he said handing over a piece of paper "This is the location of that place. The place where you will leave your car"
"So, that's it?" she asked
The man broke into a laughter
"Oh no! I said that's where you will park your car. Beyond that point, there is no map, no exact location. None of these things will work"
"Have you walked out of the medieval times? Don't you know how advanced this country is?" she quipped
"See for yourself" he said "But there are some important things you must know"
"The place of the corpse comes after you pass 122 Ttuan trees. When.." he continued but was immediately interrupted
"122?! Nope!" she said
"After you reach the last 2 trees, they will be joined at the roots and branches. The corpse lies under" he finished
"What kind of trees are Ttuan trees, I have never heard of them" she asked
"They are not ordinary, you will know when you see them" he said
"This journey will not be an ordinary one. You must go prepared and you cannot tell anyone about it" he warned gravely
"Oh believe me, I want to but I can't" she sneered at him
"You can start your journey early in the morning tomorrow. Now go" he said rudely
"I am warning you Do, if I find out that you are a criminal, I will put your behind bars but before that I will stab you" she said and left
What will the next morning bring? What unusual happenings will occur during this journey? What is the relation between this man and that forgotten corpse
-------- A danger foreseen is half-avoided but a danger down-played is stomping on thin ice ------