Dawn breaks. As a crimson flag, birds streak the morning sky. Signaling the onset of another day in the ever monotonous timeline – just another day.
Wiping the sweat off his brow, he toils in the sun, waiting for neither anyone nor the autumn breeze. On his mind, the fear of mind numbing hunger. Even more the cries of his beloved child.
The land unfavourable he still strikes the ground. The plough blades give away but his persistence prevails.
Amidst all this misery he finds hope. He counts on the one that feeds the birds of the sky and the seemingly insignificant Hellbound beings. He counts on the flux of nature. The dew that runs down blades of grass, the wind that brings them to a trance. A tranquil dance!
The cry of a newborn. The young in the arms of his mother. The child’s sustenance owing to his mothers heart beat. The assurance, the promise eternal that gets embedded in the child’s emotional fabric.
Such promises force him to hope. It gives him the much needed resilience to move forward. As he went on to plough, as he broke the earth – a gash, a scar. It started escalating, the scar, into depths unfathomable. Alas! He falls into voids unknown, unreal. As he does, he sees. Life, passed and to come. Fates of the many intertwined. The misery, the glee, the ever humorous spree.
Rock bottom, he seeks but fate seems to turn her back on the poor soul. Unexpected as it seems he seems to have stopped…falling? Suspended, defying gravity. He looks around. Every imaginable direction, oblivion. Bewildered, he stares into the abyss, a horizon nonexistent.
Burdened by loneliness, by absolute nothingness, devoid of all known life, he closes his eyes. His choice, to forget and to dream. He decides to conjure a world of dreams, realms without boundaries.
He sees…water? From a stalactite falls beautiful drops of pristine water. Crystal. He can smell fresh grass greener than a tree frog’s mesmerizing eyes. The smell of mud, of mother nature’s care, almost palpable! As though his beloved caresses his cheek, with hands soft, he feels a breeze blow against his face, calming him, freeing him from agony and pain, the vanity of human existence if you will.
Cherishing this transient yet boundless love he stands still, forgetting everything. He hears something. A roar? Unlikely. It is anything but frightening. He feels the earth beneath him being torn by a force. Eroded? Yes the force at hand is making way for itself. An uncanny looming wall, an impending fall. It’s the raging tides! Tearing a valley, a canyon. It consumes him and he goes along with the marching waters. Never has he felt a force this overwhelming. He loses himself once more when he thought he had already, once.
He finds himself in seemingly second oblivion. He opens his eyes. Breathing out he sees….bubbles? He’s breathing under water! With new found strength he ploughs deep and hard, hand, feet and all. Beauty surreal. The sun’s rays cut through water as ethereal rays. Beings unreal, beautiful creatures of the deep. He swims with these creatures, blue and yellow, the spectrum in its entirety. The clowns the whales, the swords and killers, the puffers and poison! In a jungle, really.
As he dives deep into their territory, corals, pink, hues of blood and roses. An endless bed of bloody hues, the throbbing heart of the oceans deep. Something dawns on him. Suffocation! His allotted time in these sacred heavens are up! Surface he must. Looking right at the refracted sun, the very embodiment of life, he reaches out. Longing for a hand to pull him up, he goes on. Gasping for air. The immense overwhelming almost squeezing life out of him. Terrified he strives for his very life.
Just a few strokes away, yes just a little more.
His head…nose… out of the waters he leaps, a sense of joy incomprehensible! He gasps for air, filling his lungs with the breath of Gods. Fatigued and exhausted, he smiles. A sense of relief. He sees a bright light, a tinge of blue. He feels relieved and saved. His time is up. Free from human bondage. His eyes shut… He smiles.
Never has he felt a force this overwhelming. He loses himself once more when he thought he had already, once.
The wind. Ah! Pinch of the Ice Queen. The searing chill wakes him up from what he thought was a one way trip to heaven. Albeit the disappointment at his detour, he tries to regain his senses. Regained his senses maybe? Oh sweet Lord he exclaims. He finds himself on a fish. While he was coming to terms with the mammoth fish he sees others leaping around too. The revelation about where he was belittled the aquatic spectacle. He was on fish, gliding through the rapids with their huge fins. Well no. These mind boggling beings were soaring through the skies. Without a care about the world these beings flew, almost as if they were competing with one another for everlasting glory you might wonder. It might just be the priceless adrenaline rush. Passion, love, lust a joy almost sinful ensues. The one that drives the most meagre to achieve the inconceivable.
Incredulously he took a glimpse at the imminent fall if he let’s go. Hanging on for his dear sweet life, he clung onto the unworldly beast. The scales soften. The skies collapse into darkness. The fish shrinking. “Dear God!” he cried. He finds himself, with a girl in his arms. Her soft skin, and locks the smell of the prairies. Caressing her as though he has known her for long he lay. He ruffled her hair with his nose and kissed her forehead. Holding her close….moving her disheveled hair off, he looked straight into her eyes. Whirlpools. Bewildered by what her eyes were trying to tell him he stared. It was as though she was a portal to endless wonderment. Of pure emotion. He could feel his heart throbbing. It wasn’t lust, nor was it remotely sinful. It was pure. He felt utter oneness. He might have just found himself. He rested himself beside her. He let go of himself to be one with her. He let go.
A pang, a jolt! Pain unreal. He finds arms sinking into his ribcage. He can’t breathe. Gasping for air and a sensation of blood gushing out… Mind numbing. He finds himself in searing pain. The grueling pain too severe to be a dream. He feels his soul being ripped apart from his mortal being. Ripped, torn, sawed. A lion Tearing apart the limbs of a live conscious lamb crying for liberation from its transient fetters. He moans in agony. The arms break open his rib cage. A feeble cry. His heart exposed to the treachery, the tyranny of…love?!
He grabs hold of the unforgiving, relentless hands. The pain makes his every cell quiver. Pangs of regret more painful than the raw, bleeding flesh. Everything that has ever been given birth to dies. An unfamiliar, improbable love morphed into a monstrous symbiotic force. He couldn’t let go easily. It gave him purpose too. Transience is inevitable. Holding onto his soul, begging for mercy from the omnipotent, he rips himself off the sinister vice grip. His ribs broken and flesh torn he screams in pain, his cries the least of the worlds concerns.
The hands, subdued by brute force, driven by the thirst to live, leave. Feeling empty and an emotion rather similar to severe bereavement, he moaned. He tries to get up. He fell on his face. He gets up on all fours. Trips and falls time and again. Again. Again! He gains momentum. He picks up pace. Off into the horizon. He runs. He runs. Into the eye. The warp.
His body gives itself away to fatigue. Broken and torn apart. His path ending at infinite infinities. He finds himself alone. In a white plain devoid of a horizon. Blinding light from an overwhelming source. The shadow cast extending endlessly. Brought down to his knees he confides his story to his sole companion. He tells it his pains, agony and regrets. Albeit all the misery, he took pride when he told it about his adventures unreal. The shadow, dark and lifeless seemingly changes form. It took form in front of him. It looks at him into his eyes. He smiles and closes his eyes. The shadow engulfs him. The shadow ceases to exist after it consumes Him. The plain, the plain of infinities remain. Devoid of ripples, calm, serene as though the world never twitched. White, beautiful nothingness.
About the Author
Arun is an engineering student from the Vellore Institute of Technology, and aspires of becoming a content creator and a designer. He has scripted a number of plays for both inter and intra events and have also done design work and write-ups for MUN’s.
