tongue.’
‘No lies. Just stories. Rumors,’ Raman replied. ‘Of a prophecy. The stone wil
choose its possessor.’
‘Real y? Wel it has chosen me. Or….the other way around. Who am i to judge?’
‘You’re so in dark,’ Raman busted, ‘didn't your companion tel you of the
fel owship?’
Qadri was unaffected by anything that Raman said or implied. Ignoring Raman’s
taunts, he closed his fist around the stone and his hand stretched to wrap the
stone.
‘If I am in the dark, let us lit ourselves up a bit.’
Raman’s nervousness was inevitable. The thought of stone making a choice other
than him scared him from top to bottom, as if he was suffering from an anxiety
attack. Qadri pushed his hand forward, and a beam of blue light headed to
Raman. Before he could realize, the blue plasma had hit him in the chest, and he
was thrown across the godown, swept away by the intense force and bounced on
the cemented floor. He could not see the smoke erupting out of his chest and his
burnt skin. The pain broke his tolerance, his chest raging as if he had swal owed
molten, burning lava.
An unpleasant ride that was.
‘Unpleasant? We almost died…’
But we didn’t. And that is a message in itself. That our mission stil remians,
unaccomplished.
The next beam rushed at him, which he barely survived by diving to his right.
Qadri pul ed himself up, and with almost no effort, he was in air, his yel ow
fingers wrapped around the #cube like parasites around a tree’s stems and
branches. His one push was enough to radiate beams that could dig holes in a
metal, and they were after Raman. He jumped across the tables and heaps of
sacks, dived into corners to survive the beam, flew up and down, and al around as
the stone’s power chased him.
‘What do I do?’
Nothing. There’s nothing you can do now. The stone has chosen.
Raman’s tinted heart shattered to a mil ion pieces. It was no less than a post
break-up trauma, and as always, he found it hard to breathe as the loss echoed in
his mind. The chase didn’t stop, and the chase got worse. A beam touched his arm
and cheered through his flesh. He lost his balance in air, and fel behind the heap
of sacks. Though Qadri couldn’t see him now, his moans could be heard.
‘Stretto. .where are you?’
He won’t listen. Gone- he is.
‘Gone? He had my daughter….damn it,’ Raman banged a fist on the floor.
Orrs are loyal as long as they need you.
‘This is foolishness. Absurdity,’ Raman hit the ground again, trembling in pain.
The burn scar on his chest had swel ed up, and the bleed from his arm flowed
across the floor. ‘Wait wait…’ he rose his head, murmuring, ‘you said he needed
me.’
Orrs live to die in the warmth of The Spark. Once they bathe in the divine light, t hey’re set
free.
‘What a lame sense they must have i guess,’
Just like the mortals, I am sure.
‘Mortals are more than what you think they are.’
Useless it is- whatever i may think of them. What they believe in, matters.
What do you believe in?
‘I believe in conviction.’ Raman said and closed his eyes. I am.
Al of a sudden, the wound on his chest began to heal itself. The cut on his arm
glued itself as if there was never a scar. The pain vanished, and a sensation ran
through his veins. The boost of adrenaline made him jump out of blooded floor
and stand firm, like a teenage girl upon seeing her crush.
Now, you are.
Raman took a deep breath, and prepared himself for the battle, watching Qadri
pul his hand, that seemed like a hammer, ready to push it forward and end the
game.
‘You were right. You were always right.’ said Raman, in a tone of declaration.
‘You know what? Fuck you,’ Qadri howled and pushed his hand. The cube
trembled, and the deadly blue ray rocketed out of the surface facing its target.
‘Your time is up, circus freak.’
Raman smirked, and held out his hand, his palm against the wave that was
approaching him. The beam stopped a foot in front of his palm and it diverted
around him in a circle. The spherical invisible shield had diverted the flow of light
around its surface. A dome of light had formed in front of him.
//add raman’s bad condition and the col ection of energy in the roof. And also
develop a theme for the effects.
As the intense beam passed around him, he raised himself up to avoid contact
with his feet. Raman was in a bubble with a blue storm at its surface. The beam
was heating up the bubble’s surface, and his hands were trembling as he forced
them to deflect the beam of death.
When the beam stopped and Qadri took his time to catch some breaths, Raman
found the chance he had been waiting for since he realized he is more than he
think he is. A lot more, in fact.
‘My time now, smoldering pig.’ His eyes lit up, and he pul ed himself inside.
Hands and legs folded, and head immersed in his chest. And he held himself that
day, eye curtains dropped, his skin began to rupture. Red lines appeared al over
his body, creating patches of skin like a field divided by mazes.
‘Do you know, I once saw a cat playing a chopstick with a chopstick,’ Raman said
as he jerked his hands and the bubble exploded, leaving behind a dense cluster of
energy that rose above and added to the clouds already formed above.
‘I once saw a man dying twice,’ Qadri replied as he pul ed his hand back again, this
time stretching it a bit further. He took his aim, but a voice from behind
interrupted him.
‘The stone… You can do a lot more than that.’ It was Raman. Front and behind.
‘You are playing tricks on me?’ Qadri said as he prepared himself to fire the shot.
‘Not the trick,’ said another voice from behind. ‘A game, the possessor of reality
stone.’
Qadri turned his head at once to his right. It was Raman. Three Ramans now. He
fired his shot at one of them, and the target Raman fel on ground as he was hit.
‘Is this better now?’
‘More than ever.’
Two more Raman appeared in the place of the dead.
‘You are missing the point,’ said one of the newly formed Raman, and the other
one took over, ‘The fel owship of a stone can never be taken, given, inherited,
borrowed or tricked, not by any means of pursuance, elixir, barter or threat.’
Qadri shot him with his fume, and two took over him. ‘They are the most powerful
entities in the universe, capable of immense power of creation or destruction.’
‘Be a man and show yourself up. The. Real. One.’ Qadri howled, and fired at many
Ramans, one after the other, and fel on his knees, breathing heavily.
‘We are al real. As real as you are.’ Said Raman in front of him, seperated by a
hand distance.
‘Why can't I kil you?’ Qadri yel ed as he made unsuccesful attempts to reach him
by his hands.
‘Because I am not destined to die today,’ he said and disappeared. And after him,
al the other clones vanished too.
Qadri’s heart was pounding in fear. ‘W-where a-a
re you?’ His eyes were half
closed, and his grip on the gem was weakened. The yel ow glow had diminished.
‘I am right in front of you,’ said Raman from behind him. Qadri turned his head.
Nobody was there.
‘Look Here,’ his voice echoed around the confined wal s of the godown, and a
touch at his back charged his hair. A shadow went through him, entering his body
from behind and when it came out, it took with itself the gem that had been glued
to his palm. It was Raman.
The shadow became dense and as the image became clear, the view strangled
Qadri’s consciousness and his eyes stretched wide, ready to burst out. Raman was
holding the cube without making any contact with it. The stone was floating
betwen his palms, right in front of his chest.
‘How about a performance?’Asked Raman with a cunning smile.
He rose up in the air, and the cube fol owed him, maintaining its level with his
chest. ‘Magic, my dear friend, is just the science beyond science.’ He said, his voice
loud and clear, as if attending a theatre overflooded with people. ‘And tonight, I
present to you mind shaking, sense freezing, reality bending phenomenon that’l
make you hate your physics professor.’
He heard his audience laughing with a pressed voice. ‘And i forgot to mention our
volunteer today.’ The audience attended to him again and fel silent, ‘Please bless
my new temporary assistant, Qadri the Hog.’
The spotlight fel over a man with a hog like nose, popped out like a stick with two
holes in front. The audience spread into giggle again, mostly kids. Qadri could not
understand what was happening to him. He touched his pink, erect nose. It was
real. And so was the light. He tried to speak, but his lips seemed stitched.
‘Mr Hog, lets make your life an anti-paradise.’ Raman said, and bolted toward the
pig, and took him along in air and flew out of the godown. It was dark already,
and the sky was clear. Clouds had vanished, and the moonlight had spread over
half the world like a blanket of white.
Raman and Qadri rocketed out of the godown and crashed on a sowed field not
far from the godown. The cube was stil latched to Raman's chest, maintaining its
distance with his body.
‘It is time you pay for your sins,’ Raman said, as he rotated himself like a turbine
to swipe off the dust on his. The red lines lines on his body had swel ed up, and
fil ed with some kind of liquid. The unessentials were flowing through those
newly appeared veins. The moonlight was burning him too. The red scars burnt,
and the desire to itch them quavered Raman,
‘What is happening to me?’
The moon, no light he has. Borrows from the Sun, poor moon.
‘Why am i not burning then, like under Sun?’
The cube it is.
Qadri didn’t say a word. He didn’t even hear him saying anthing at al . His eyes
were fixed on the cube that Raman held, and remained immersed in the mud. As
he made an attempt to raise his waist, a screetching pain made him scream and
fal back in the mud.
‘Am i dying,’ he said, lamenting. Raman heard him, but didn’t respond. Qadri
tried to fil his lungs with air, but a cough broke his wil .
‘A dying man must be heard’. Qadri’s voice was staggering, and he coughed after
almost every word he spoke.
‘My wife was dying too. Did you hear her screams?’
‘Yes, I did,’ Qadri bowed his head, tears rol ing down his eyes. ‘But the power. . it
had turned me cruel.’
‘And now it has turned you into a cripple.’
‘I just ask for some water.’
Raman knew what to do. The next moment, a fountain of water apperaed from
the Earth, and a stream of water fel near Qadri’s face, just a turn away. But his
sudden backpain didn’t let him do it. ‘Help me, good soul.’
‘Don’t flatter me, dickhead.’ Raman bent down and pushed him to right, but the
old man wasn’t wil ing to move. The pain made him explode his vocals at his
slightest touch, and Raman stepped back. ‘My sins are so grave I’l have to die
thirsty.’
His words were wobbling, and they shook Raman. He leaned forward, and swiped
his hand so that the stream of water moved a bit and fel right over Qadri’s face.
Qadri positioned his mouth to let water in, but choked as it fil ed his nose and
windpipe. Raman swiped off the water stream from his face, and he struggled to
catch some air.
Qadri’s little drama had worked unexpectedly. The cube was just a hand away
from him, waiting or its rightful owner to snatch it away at perfect time, and
swal ow it.
He did. He sweeped his hand and the cube was with him, in front of his mouth.
Having wasted no time, pig stretched his mouth as wide as he could, but it was
not enough to let the stone in.
‘Let me help you swal ow it,’ said raman, his eyes red in anger. Qadri’s attempts
had not turned him violent, but deadly.
Raman grabbed both his jaws with his hands, while Qadri tightened his clutch on
the cube.
‘NO- NO,’ Qadri smudged, terror running from his eyes to his butts.
‘Let’s make your dreams come true.’ Raman grinded his teeth, and jerked his
hands apart. Qadri’s cheeks tore apart from mid, and he uprooted the upper jaw,
that included his head and a ear.
Qadri’s neck had become a fountain of blood. His alien composite hand turned to
ash and blew away in the breeze. He fel back, and dipepd himself in his own
blood. That was the last time anyone saw him alive.
*
‘You made your own choices.’
Everyone does. But it was not the muse. The voice was mild, and divine. It was the
kind of voice that no one would ever want to stop hearing. The voice wasn’t
singular. A man and a woman spoke in such an utmost synchronicity that it
appeared to have flowered out of a single source. The cube was behaving.
‘Who are you?’
Before you know that, do you know who are you?
‘I am.’
‘I see no dif erence between you and him. Neither of you deserve the gem.’
‘But my intentions, they are pure. I deserve the authority of the cube.’
You don't. I see desperation in you.
‘My wife, I want to revive her. And i can do that with the help of. ’
That is why you’l never have it.
‘But she deserves to live.’
The fate decides who lives and who doesn't. Not you. I see the same longing in you as in him.
‘But he is a murderer, a criminal and a threat to humanity.’
And very soon, you wil be.
The cube dashed away from him, and a ring of white light appeared just below the
cube. The ring, a doorway to another world had the power to uproot trees and
swal ow them inside. The stone hung up above the mouth of ring, gleaming like a
star.
*
The red scars on
The red, thin lines swel ed up and reddened before they cracked open, leaving the
scraps of skin ready to be detached off his flesh and shed itself, like the dead
leaves of a tree. The scraps floated inside the bubble floated around him, and
burnt to ashes if they touched the surface of their container.
Everything matter had disappeared, leaving behind a never ending plane of white.
Boundless. Endless. Raman’s forehead got wet in his inability to comprehend the
disappearance of everything as far as his eyes could see. Nothing but white. Just
him, and white. The goons found themselves captured in a huge glass bottle, with
a cork that seemed to touch the sky. They screeched again, and hit the glass wal s
that were so elastic that they kicked back.
Tile after tile, and with a supersonic pace, they formed a tunnel by locking Raman
‘You’re the only one, i presume.’
‘Who am I?’
And Vyana had no answer for this simple question. Who he is? He is my container,
the one who has given meaning to my life. Yet, he means nothing to many people
in the world. He has responsibility, yet he’d leave this world one day and
everything he once loved. He is not temporary, and he is not forever. He is the
change. That's what it is. And only evolution can meaning to his life.
‘Knock knock,’ he said, and the muse’s dream wave was broken.
‘Discover yourself, you must.’
Raman pondered over her answer for a moment. He has been on many self
expedition projects before, and every time he dug himself, he found one fossil:
Science. It was inevitable to find science as deep as he could go inside him. I know
that shit already.
‘But realization, that's what makes al the difference.’
Faith was a boon he had not yet received. The miracles he saw last night had
shaken his beliefs about science as God, but he was stil unable to analyse the
stone with his scientific skil s. It was not a trick but science. Pure science.
But it did not matter. Not now. Many thoughts were appearing one after the
other, like waves striking a rafting boat and about faced it everytime a wave hit it.
And he found himself seated in the raft, holding tight the ropes. And it jammed
his senses and turned cold his feet.
Namrata and Ipsa’s smiling faces flashed in front of him, which he knew was not a
genuine smile. They had forgotten to laugh from the heart in years. My world must
be saved.
‘I must save-’ he said, with anxiety gripping the best of his nerves. But Vyana
When I Tell You A Story: Book 1 (Black River Trilogy) Page 6
