6th June 2023
Ali opened his eyes slowly in a new surroundings. He was lying in some large hall in a big house. He couldn't remember where he was or what happened for a while, as he just lay there on the floor, with open eyes staring at the unfamiliar ceiling.
His brain took a while as it processed all the pieces of memories it could remember, until he finally caught up to the scene of Kevin disappearing in thin air. "So he survived," He said, his voice tired and disappointed.
He raised his hands to cover his eyes, but stopped when he saw the bite marks were starting to infect him even more. Red veins were forming near the bite marks, and it looked scary just to look at it.
'How long can I hold on?' He thought in his heart as he looked at his whole arm. "Can I even find him again before I turn?" Ali said to himself, as he thought he might not have enough time left before completely losing his mind.
"No, this is nothing. It won't stop me, I'll hold on until I kill him." He was thinking like that, when suddenly he felt his whole body was on fire, it felt like nails were running off with his blood, and his skin was going to be ripped apart. He wanted to scream yet he couldn't make a single noise. His body started sweating from head to toe, and then it all turned chilly the next second. It felt like someone dropped him at the bottom of the ocean. His body started shivering and squirming in the cold. With every breath of air he took, it felt like his body was gonna freeze all over, he wished he could just stop breathing so it would all be over.
"Why're you shivering so much, did you have a nightmare?"
Ali was high on his painful ride, when the sound of a little girl broke him out and brought him back to reality. He jolted from the floor and looked at his hands and feet, his clothes were still the same colored with blood, but due to sweating too much just now, they were all sticking to his skin. He touched his face, still doubtful about everything he felt.
"Or did you get sick? Mama said only bad people get sick. Did you do something bad, uncle?"
The girl's voice came to his ears again, and he turned to look at the side, and saw Shashi was sitting on a sofa holding a basketball in her hands, her feet waving in the air. She was wearing different clothes from last time - a red frock and green shocks with some cartoon printed on it. The price tag was still hanging near her neck, showing they were all new.
Ali kept staring at her, not sure what was happening anymore. First off, Kevin disappeared into thin air like magic, then he wakes up somewhere new instead of dying in that chaos he caused at their base. Then the unbearable pain which turns out, is just in his head and not real, and now this - this little doll of a girl, whom he looked for everywhere these two days but couldn't find, is just sitting there, fancily dressed up and playing ball, like no care in the world. If he didn't see outside the window and saw that cracked moon hanging high in the sky, he really doubted if he traveled back in time or woke up in a new world.
"What, is there something on my face?" Shashi said, as she threw the ball away and wiped her face with her backhand.
"Where am I?" Ali asked, as he still couldn't figure anything out.
"Ohh that, I don't know. You were sleeping here when I came here." Shashi said, as she jumped down from the sofa and came near him, holding a glass of water in her hands. "Mama said drinking water after waking up makes you strong."
Ali looked at her face and saw her smile and flex her hands as she talked about being strong, he took the glass of water from her hands and asked. "Where were you? I looked for you everywhere?"
Hearing her words, as if she remembered something, Shashi started crying, her eyes turned misty and her little hands turned into fists as she started rubbing her eyes. Not sure if she wanted to wipe her tears, or make sure they drop fast.
"Anh eh(sobs) after you left me there, bad uncle and aunties came to the door. They were so smelly and scary. So I ran away." Shashi said while sobbing and in the end, even her face looked scared and some tears really did streamed down her cheeks. "They even followed me, scary uncle."(sobs)
"Okay, okay, don't cry." Ali wiped her eyes and patted her head gently as he said. "You're fine right. It's alright now."
Hearing his reassuring words, Shashi just threw her in his arms and hugged his neck while sobbing "I thought you left me like Mama too. And those bad uncles were gonna beat me."
Seeing her still crying, and hearing her words, Ali felt guilty. He really shouldn't have left her alone when zombies are basically everywhere. He was really dumb to think she'll be fine, if he just told her not to make any big noise. And remembering that he was about to leave her with Aarvi and go away, he didn't know what to say. In a way he was abandoning her, right. So he could just hug her back and hope she'll calm down. "You're fine now, so stop crying. Don't you know crying makes you weak."
"But I even saw Mama cry many times, and she's super strong. You were crying that day too. Liar uncle." Shashi said as she pulled herself back and wiped her eyes again. "You're a bad uncle."
Ali, who heard her answer after he tried to calm her down, had a black line over his forehead. Your Mama was probably crying cause she was a single parent right? But did you have to say that he was crying too.
"Okay, it doesn't make you weak, it _ it makes you look bad. See your face is all dirty now." Ali, who thought up another answer, said to her as he took some water from the glass and wiped her face.
Hearing him say that Shashi finally stopped crying, and started smiling "hehehe uncle, you should look at yourself. You look like a big ghost, real scary, like those bad uncles from before."
Shashi was saying something and then looked at her hands, which were soaked with some blood too when she hugged him, "Ugh you even got my hands dirty. I'm gonna wash it." She said and ran off to the bathroom. "You should take a bath too, ghost uncle."
Ali just kept sitting there on the floor hearing her comment, and looking at her running back, while thinking, he's not that bad right. Ghost uncle.
He turned to the side and saw his face in the mirror. Scratch that comment. It's a wonder how she even recognized him and didn't run away in fear after she saw him.
'She reminds me of Eva, when she was little.' Ali thought as he remembered his little sister back at home.
He forced his body to stand up and walked towards the washbasin at the side. Opening the tap, he washed his face and mouth. The taste of blood and iron was still lingering in his mouth, but he ignored them for now. Taking a towel from the side, he wiped his face. He didn't wash his hair, as he knew with the injury he got there, water would only make it painful. He looked at himself in the mirror, and just gave himself a tired smile. The habit of complimenting himself or acting narcissistic every time he looked into the mirror was gone now. His face still had several little cuts, a light swelling near his forehead, and a vertical slash mark was on his throat, going straight along with his neck. He looked below at his stomach where Kevin stabbed him during their fight. While pulling the bloodied shirt to the side, which was stuck with his open skin now, he winced in pain. The cut was still there but it wasn't bleeding and the blood had clogged a little over there covering it.
He traced his fingers over the cut and kept thinking about Kevin, when Shashi's voice brought him back to senses.
"Uncle, did you have those toffees from last time with you?"
Hearing the sudden noise Ali lost his focus and his fingers pressed a little harder on the cut, opening his wound a little again. "Ah fuck" Ali cursed as the pain hit him again.
"Eeee" He saw Shashi squeal in surprise when he turned towards her.
"Uncle, you _ you're hurt. Th_that's not make-up." Shashi said as she ran towards him in a hurry and saw his injury. All this time she just thought it was just makeup like her Mama always has. But seeing the long cut, she didn't know what to do. "I'll go_ get that thing." She ran back looking for some first aid kit, like she had at her home, but she didn't know where to look, so she could just run around in the hall.
Ali wanted to step forward after seeing her worried look, to tell her that it's all right and he's fine or at least he will be fine. But he winced in pain again as he took a step forward. Looking down he saw, the cut was fully open again, and blood was dripping from his wound again.
But when he looked up, he saw nothing.
Yes, nothing.
Shashi, who was trotting all over the place with that worried expression, was nowhere to be seen. He blinked his eyes several times, thinking if his head was still right, looked around and even searched the whole house in a rush, but found nothing. There was no sign of anyone nearby.
"Shashi - Shashi" He called for her several times, but got nothing. It was as if she wasn't even there in the first place, and he was just imagining it.
'Where is she? Did I finally lose it? No, she was here, I saw her, talked to her, then where did she go?' Thoughts raced across his mind as he couldn't understand if it was the zombie virus messing up with his mind like before, or did that little girl really disappear in just the few moments he looked away.
'Damn it' He cursed and walked out, since he couldn't find anyone here, he started looking around the house.
'Is she a ghost?' Ali thought as he couldn't find her anywhere even in the nearby vicinity.
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A/N - What the hell guys? What do you think? Is she really a ghost and is her mom really wearing blood makeup so much that this little gal thinks it's normal.
Next chapter he's gonna handle Noah and then Kiara's doom too - let's pick up the pace and move forward fast till we reach the final battle of Ali vs Kevin again.
Also drop a review and send ur support, love u lots.