Five Days: an adventure (A Fantasy Adventure)

by Krishna Pareek

She cried all day and went to bed only when Mr Frank insisted.

  Derek went to her room afterwards, but didn’t step in, he just watched her in peace. He knew she would not rest when she’d realise her son had no more than five days to live and disturbing her so-left peaceful hours was nothing but a sin.

  When the weight on his heart was more than, what he felt, a Buffalo; he decided to walk out and bathe in the orange showers of evening sunlight.

  ‘Just want some fresh air,’ he said, rigidly.

  ‘Look son—’

  ‘Daddy,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry about me … I think you need some rest, too – I’ll be back before dark.’

  ‘Are you okay?’ his father asked unexpectedly.

  Derek chose silence, he knew lying wasn’t a choice and he was glad that voice of a wood pigeon came from the door and filled the air with sweetness, so supressing the absence of his answer.

  ‘Don’t worry, there’re many doctors … I’ll talk to them.’

  ‘You’ve already talked to them all.’

  It was his father’s turn to be silent. Birds were still singing.

  ‘Please … you can’t hide it from me.’

  Then what suddenly came to him was a question and he passed it to his father after a second. ‘Is dying bad?’

  His father stared at him for a minute and then said in a small voice. ‘I don’t know.’

  But before he could say anything else, he found himself in his father’s powerful hug. ‘We’ll make every day special for you, son.’

  That almost surprised him and he didn’t know how he should reply his father’s gesture … so, he forced a tiny smile.

  Derek was walking in the front drive, blood red sun was going down behind a set of houses. Last round of bird calls was making their way into his ears and – he didn’t know why – it was strangely soothing.

  He took a deep breath and stared at his feet … how astonishing this was – his every organ followed his instructions even if he’d not said anything.

  His feet moved if he wanted to, his hands clenched if he wanted to – how had he never noticed that?

  He remembered well when his birthday present – a robot – was doing that, he’d be astonished and thrilled. Then why hadn’t he observed this robot, which was so close to him – his body had been so close to him …

  The silence dissolved into the noise of racing footsteps –

  ‘Derek …’ Anna appeared on his left. It looked as though she had been running in an Olympic race. ‘Where – were – you?’

  ‘At home.’

  ‘I am so stupid, y – you’d be home, I forgot … going to the park?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘To the amusement park?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘To the pool?’

  He shot a vicious look at her.

  ‘I am sorry – it’s just – you should cheer yourself up!’ she said smiling and taking his arm into her. It was a friendly gesture rather than groping. ‘And your birthday is in August, too … it’s – er – sixth of Augu—’ her voice fell down when she realised Derek was having same death and birth dates.

  ‘Hmm,’ he kicked a stone in his way – his own way of conveying how disturbed he was.

  She was advising him like she always did, and he knew she was caring for him – but it was annoying. Why couldn’t she leave him alone? Why couldn’t she just walk away?

  But he didn’t want to get mad at her, she was one of his closest friend … looking away was a sensible option.

  ‘… life is beyond that …’

  Swoosh!

  Something like a black figure crossed him at such a speed that his hair fringes jumped in air without any warning. He took a second to react and then spun around to see what it was, but there was only a drive with bungalows on both the sides. Nothing had disturbed it. Then, how, what …

  ‘I’ll see you in the park, Derek,’ said Anna, at an intersection road; she, for sure, hadn’t noticed it.

  ‘Yeah,’ he said, bewildered. He had really seen something, he could swear.

  Birds chirrups, orange sun, the soil of playground, his own place at swings, children playing, sometimes arguing around him – were all looking new, as if he had never seen them before.

  He didn’t know how it’d feel, dying; would that be painful or easy? Would he be able to see, hear or touch? Because everything would be left behind; his eyes, ears, his whole body.

  He shook his head and tried to wave all thoughts away, but it wasn’t easy at all. He remembered his childhood days well – this was the very garden where he met his three very special friends. Mrs Frank was with him and Dan and Rick had their mothers respectively to help them to climb on monkey bars, hoot on swings. But there was one little girl, wearing a cute frock and sat where he was now, watching everything with strange curiosity.

  He didn’t know it was Dan or Rick but someone pushed him and he scrambled toward little Anna’s direction.

  ‘Er – want to joll-join us?’ he said adjusting his disturbed t-shirt.

  ‘Sure,’ she said innocently.

  He turned sharply to look at a group of children who had been watching him shaking his head and doing insane things. They all froze and kept staring at him, abandoning whatever they were doing.

  Derek didn’t like that, he looked away from them and stared at the ground – at least ants wouldn’t mind him.

  ‘C’mon children, time to go,’ called the children’s parents when the clock in the park showed 6:00 PM.

  And in a minute, they were gone, too, leaving Derek alone with the violet sky, glowing street lamps and winds.

  If he ignored rustling leaves and swooshing winds, everything was silent like a dark spooky forest.

  For the first couple of minutes, he felt great but after that … it was making him sick … it wasn’t just silence … it was something more … it was as though a snake was moving along his spine …

  He stood up, sitting on swings wasn’t looking sensible at all … winds were going furious … unusually furious … as though a tornado was advancing on him but yet, there was no siren warnings from the police department. No one was panicking.

  Dust was swashing high in the air and he could see a smoky wall before him … it was as though a small tornado was coming into existence …

  He threw up his arms to shield his eyes against the dust, which was looking eager to get into his naked eyes.

  His skin was telling him the storm wasn’t over yet and after, what looked like half an hour, winds slowed down and he lowered his hands.

  But instead of feeling cooling relief he felt something burning in his chest, a jolt of panic which made his entire body tremble.

  A strange man – much like a high-security prisoner – was looking right through his blazing grey eyes. He had a French beard and ridiculously muscular physique, which was no relief to a panic-stricken Derek.

  He didn’t hear any breakouts in the news, but had he seen anything in the news at all. He must have missed it … but his psychology teacher always said that fear resides in every human … he should not do anything, he didn’t know that prisoner but his expression were yelling that he had already committed countless murders.

  He was so occupied with his horrible look he didn’t observe that the man was raising an unusually long sword at him and before the thought “RUN!” had popped in his head, he saw a purple flash racing towards him.

  He felt himself being flung away by a mammoth force and hit the ground on his back.

  ‘Argh!’

  Whatever the man did to him – he didn’t know – was not good at all. It looked as though someone had poured hot oil into his mouth, his inside was burning like a forest fire and there was nothing he could do. What the hell had suddenly happened? He never saw that man …

  ‘Argh! No!’

  But it wasn’t bothering him if he knew him or not, he was struggling for everything and … his vision was going dark when … a voice echoed in his head.
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br />   ‘Derek!’

  It was Anna.

  ‘What happened to you?’

  But he was too weak to say anything to her.

  ‘Please…’ he whimpered.

  He felt like Anna had checked his knee and her face turned ghost white.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I got you.’

  She offered him her hand and he automatically grabbed it with whatever strength he had. Then, her body’s outlines glowed white and winds were furious again … he felt as though another tornado was taking its shape around them.

  And just after that, the gloom of evening stretched and dissolved into bright lights of something like a wooden cabinet.

  He didn’t know what was going on but his burns were dissolving his inside … eating his inside …

  ‘Please …’ he whimpered again.

  ‘Got you … doc … it’s Aurisca … he slashed …’

  Was it his dooming senses or Anna was out of her mind? He thought he was hearing strange words and Anna appeared to have known the bustard in the park.

  But before he could even have opened his mouth to say anything … darkness took him.

  * * *

  Derek opened his eyes, he felt his body heavier than ever and to make things worse was his headache. It was as though his head was baseless, he was in space …

  But he couldn’t be stupid … blowing all his strength he got up and sat against a pillow. The first thing he noticed was a usual room, with a bookshelf, a door in his front, a bed on which he was laying until now and a chair, occupied by an asleep Anna.

  This must be her room, he told himself.

  He had never been in there, Anna wasn’t so sharing when it came to her personal life, but that never bothered Derek because he could understand that.

  He wouldn’t talk about his ex-girlfriend, even if it was his father’s question to him.

  He looked around to see something more and observed a glass door, behind the bed and saw a dark sky with no light at all. She must be living at the outskirts of the city.

  He pushed the blankets away and crawled to set his feet on the ground.

  ‘Aw!’

  A shot of pain in his right knee made him jerk up, he looked over it with shaking hands to see something purple shining there – everything swam back into his head.

  A man with grey eyes … tornadoes … and most painful of all, his death in five days …

  All his thoughts broke like glass and the pain didn’t bother him anymore. He got out of bed and not disturbing Anna, went to the door. He swung it open and closed it as quietly as he could.

  The corridor was dark and perhaps that was why it took him ten minutes to find the kitchen. He went in and drank water from the tap, the events had really made him thirsty.

  When the soothing coolness drained inside him, he felt relieved. He took a deep breath and walked to go back when his feet stopped dead - something like a fur bag brushed his knees. For once, he thought it was his illusion, but even now, his skin still felt touched … it was real, he was sure.

  He scanned the dark kitchen, someone was clearly there … he could sense it. Not now!

  Crack!

  He looked around in the direction of noise so fast he heard his neck crack. He was sure he had seen something … but honestly …

  Was that a pair of yellow wolfish eyes?

  He wanted to see through the darkness – what creature was staring at him, he was feeling his wheezy breaths and then out of a corner … a wolf howled.

  Derek ran as though a string of crackers had been tied to his pyjamas. He slammed into the kitchen door … skidded in the corridor but kept his pace as fast as he could … he had to increase the distance between him and the wolf, who was probably chasing him. The corridor of Anna’s house seemed to have been turned to an Olympic race track, her door wasn’t coming.

  ‘What the – yes!’

  He scrambled into Anna’s room when he found it and slammed the door close behind him.

  Anna woke up with a start, ‘Oh! You’re awake. You should have told me …’

  ‘Shush!’ hissed Derek, breathlessly. ‘There is a wolf in your house!’

  ‘No—’

  ‘I AM NOT LYING!’

  The wolf howled again.

  ‘SEE!’

  ‘Let him come.’

  ‘Exactly – what, what did you say? I didn’t know you were suffering from suicidal tendency …’

  ‘He is a nice guy.’

  Had she called a wolf nice? She wasn’t confusing the word “wolf” with “sheep”?

  ‘It’s a wolf with canines, tik-tik, Are you mad?!’ he said as though he forgot to mention something very important.

  ‘I am not,’ – she stepped forth and swung the door open (Derek ran into a corner to save his skin). A black wolf was roaring under his breath, staring murderously at him. ‘Don’t do that, Bear. You’re scaring my friend.’

  ‘I can imagine why you named him Bear,’ he moaned from the corner, automatically.

  While the wolf, to his surprise, obeyed and sat quietly in the corridor, his eyes fixed upon him as if trying to say, ‘I am watching you.’

  ‘You have a pet wolf,’ he said after breaking eye-contact from the beast and staring at Anna like she was an alien. ‘That’s illegal! – oh hell with the legality – how can you – I mean – what the hell were you … if anyone knows …’

  ‘It’s illegal in humans, not in here,’ she said, beaming at him.

  ‘Come again.’

  ‘Humans could never have healed your wound,’ she said pointing at the purple wound. ‘This is somewhere different, something different. And it’s common to keep a wolf here.’

  Derek stared at her for a minute and then said. ‘My doctor is free between twelve and three, you can take an appointment.’

  Anna burst out laughing. ‘I’m not joking!’

  ‘Now you’re joking.’

  ‘Oh, Master Frank, I know this sounds maddening but really, this is a place that is not normal or boring … it’s far better than human world. You remember me taking long leaves from college, wouldn’t appear on streets for month …’

  ‘You said you went to your grandma’s …’

  ‘I lied, you know, I can’t give away information about Sana – it’s what we call it – or they’ll throw me out.’

  ‘Er – Anna please, I beg you …’

  ‘You want to see a proof?’ she said, earnestly.

  He didn’t know how to react because he wasn’t believing a bit of what she was telling him but her confident face made him think again.

  ‘If you can …’

  ‘Well, this is called Transportation.’

  She grabbed his wrist and before he could say anything out of his horrified face, everything was stretching up, exactly as when he was cursed. Then, a thud told him he had landed somewhere.

  That was probably a road, he was lying at … no, it was a residential area – there were houses with lights lit as normal. But where was he?

  ‘Er – Anna—’

  He noticed Anna, unlike him, was on her feet and she was looking at a point on his left, he turned towards it; he found his own house and two figures inside it – his parents.

  He looked at Anna, wanting to say “Slap me and wake me up!” but he knew she was powerful and thought better to concentrate on what just happened than getting his face red.

  He watched his father pacing in front of his mother, he knew he did this when he was tensed. Shouldn’t he go and calm them?

  ‘Oh, they’ll be worried … I assured my father that I’ll be back by dark.’

  But Anna tightened her grip (he realised she was holding his wrist) and said. ‘We are not going to them now.’

  ‘But why?’

  ‘You have got a wound—’

  ‘But it will heal.’

  ‘It won’t!’ she almost screamed. ‘It’s not ordinary. If I hadn’t found you, you’d have died in a minute.’

 
‘Let me remind you, I have got only five days to live and I want to spend them with my parents.’

  ‘I understand you but please … we have to know about the man who attacked you – don’t look at me like that, I gave you proof and I am not lying – please … I will personally drop you here. Just let it heal completely and tell us what we ask, hmm?’

  Derek was looking at his house, just ten steps away from him. And for coming days he’d be wondering why he said – ‘Okay, let’s go back.’

  She smiled and transported. They were back to her room and Derek found his foot an inch away from Bear’s tail. He cursed before scrambling into another corner.

  ‘I’ll stay but keep this thing off me.’

  ‘Okay.’

  CHAPTER THREE

  Sana

  Derek left his bed very-very early next morning, he waved away Anna’s proposals of sleeping in separate rooms at once (he couldn’t trust Bear with his razor sharp teeth, which, he thought, wouldn’t miss an opportunity to sink in his skin). So he slept in Anna’s bed and she on the floor with an extra mattress.

  He had not seen any corner of Sana yet, and for some reason, he didn’t want to (he did catch the glimpses of things hovering in air, but he somehow suppressed his curiosity) … the report-cum-prophecy of his death wouldn’t allow him to feel anything besides sorrow and misery. He dived into deepest pool of self-hatred and cursed himself, his fate and God until … Anna announced her presence.

  He had a suspicion she did this on purpose, they were best of friends from childhood and reading his thoughts was as simple as reading a signboard for her.

  Just in the morning, he had confirmed this thing.

  On the bed, he was sitting against pillows, deep in thoughts.

  Knock!

  ‘This is your room, Miss Anna, don’t be so ridiculously formal,’ he said in an annoyed tone.

  ‘I am sorry,’ she said, grinning and holding two cups of tea – she gave one to him and sat on a chair, beside the bed. ‘But I thought you were busy with your thoughts.’

  ‘I wasn’t thinking about anything,’ he lied, pretending to be surprised while taking his cup.

  ‘Lying is a quality you aren’t very good at, so don’t act.’