10:30, waiting for the metro to reach the station,Adil stood with a fatigued look on his face. He felt heavy in his shirt which was now soaked with the rainwater. The rain was still furious. "An unwanted monsoon" he thought in his head as he was not an admirer of the rain. Soon then he heard the announcement on the platform, his metro was arriving. Looking at it from far he felt relaxed. The metro train came to a halt and he stepped in. As it was late he luckily got a seat. Keeping his briefcase aside, he sat in the second coach. As always the first coach was occupied by the women. He knew his wait isn't over because for now he has to sit for another 15 minutes before the metro reaches his destination. Station after station, people leaped out of the metro which made him anxious to get down. He looked at his watch, it was 10:40 by now and the train had crossed almost 3 stations. He looked around. On not finding anyone around in his coach, he eased himself on the seat. The day's work had drained him out. Now His eyes moved like a pendulum reading the advertisements posted on the walls of the metro. Then his eyes shifted to the women's coach, where he could only find a single woman sitting who was also soaked with water. "Another victim of the rain" he thought looking at her. And then she too stepped out of the train at the next stop. He kept looking at her till the metro left. For another 5 minutes things were normal. Adil closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The time was 10:45.
4 mins later :
Adil felt a halt, he thought it was the next station but on opening his eyes, he found himself sitting in complete darkness. He gulped his fear, the stood up to reach the gates of the metro. "oh no! No!, he sensed the situation after a few seconds of sanity.
"Help! Help!, Help!" he yelled tapping on the walls of the metro. The lights were still off. Adil took out his cell phone and switched on the torch, he looked around finding himself alone. Gulping his fear, he went to the ladies coach to reach out the driver's compartment and knocked, "koi hai! (is someone there?) but he heard no reply. He mustered his courage and shouted again," plz heeeellllllpppp, heeeeellllp, I am stuuuuck". He kept knocking at the door and tried breaking the glass emergency door, but felt all strength leaving his body. Till now the fear crept him in. Adil sat on the floor, trying to catch some breath, hoping that the lights would turn on again. But nothing happened. He felt the light fading, his phone battery was dead. Shiiiittt!!!!, noo!!!, no! God! No!, his voice shrieked. He thumped his foot on the floor looking at his cell phone which had given up on him, "fuck! Fuck!," he shouted in dismay. He then banged again on the door, this time with full force. Emergency door was now completely out of his potential to open. He kept banging at the walls wherever he could reach in the dark. For another 5 minutes he ran across each compartment thumping, banging, shouting but all went in vain.
5 minutes later :
Adil did all he could. His throat had given up, his face was wet, mixed with a hundred drops of sweat and tear. Suffocation had NOW ingulfed his breath. He didn't know where his seat was, nor about his briefcase.
The hysterical fear mixed with suffocation now attacked his senses, he could only feel his head thumping and things became dizzy for him, Adil felt his eyes shutting and entering a deeper colour of darkness.
"Bhai!, bhai!" Adil heard a childish voice. "Let's play hide and seek."
"Okay" said Ali, you hide and Adil and Amaan ran to find their safety zones.
"Amaan!, what are you doing, go hide somewhere or else Ali will find you and then you will start crying again", sniffed Adil
Soon then they heard Ali counting "10....,,, 9....,,"
" Bhai help, find me a place " cried Amaan.
" You are such a freak, boy " scorned Adil and then he took Amaan to a wardrobe," Hide here!! "he said
" I am scared of darkness " said Amaan looking curiosly at his elder brother.
" Don't ruin my game, do as I say ", Adil said authoritatively to his brother who wasn't his very own.
Amaan followed his instructions coz he feared that he would be caught.
Then both of them heard Ali's voice from the background" 4...,3"
"Oh you get in, I'll accompany you, I have no time to hide now ", and they both scampered inside the same wardrobe. Shutting the door and trying to control their laughter,hushing each other.
Time passed, nobody came. They still kept waiting inside fearing that Ali bhai would be around. They kept sitting in the darkness, feeling tired and scared too.
7 minutes later they both stepped out because now it was too much to bear,giving up to Ali's plans.
But they didn't find Ali anywhere.Amaan hurt his foot in the meanwhile and started crying. Adil looked at him and then he heard a commotion downstairs, he left Amaan back there and rushed to the balcony to see what happened. He saw too many people flocking around something. The balcony was high, he jumped to get a clear view and then climbed. He saw stains of blood on the road and Ali lying there. Silent, unmovable, Amaan dragged himself through the balcony, bent down to peep through the railing gaps. Adil looked at him, Amaan said "But, we weren't t playing statue, statue, why doesn't he move?"
Adil felt " fear" that day for the first time.
Amaan knew his very elder brother got hurt and was bleeding,just like his leg did.
Amaan wiped the blood off his foot and touched Adil's arm and asked "When will this stop flowing?"
Adil was silent........ He looked at the watch in his room "it was 10:45"
..................
........
..
The alarm clock rang!
"Adil! Utho!
Ammi shouted from the kitchen which was attached to his room.
Adil woke up scared he sat and looked around, he was in his bed, in his room,in his own house in which he had lived with his parents and his brother Amaan and once even Ali.
Soon them Amaan barged into the room "hey bhai! Good morning!"
"Yeah", replied Adil
"Kya hua, you seem so worried? ", asked Amaan
" Maybe a bad dream ", replied Adil in a way if consoling himself too.
. After a minute of gaining his senses,Adil stepped out of his bed, though his head was still heavy.
By now Amaan had left the room." " a dream", he said to himself And went to washroom.
He took a shower, feeling a bit relaxed, he decided to shave. While shaving his bushy face, he got a cut and the blood dropped. "Oh!" he uttered.
To conceal the blood he held it with his fingers, and then looked at it blankly. Then he rubbed that blood on his arm just as Amaan did in the childhood and looked in the mirror. The same voice triggered in his head "When will this stop flowing?" and he still had no answers to this question.
Looking in the mirror, the truth dawned upon him 'Probably he was still trapped ' and everything was still there fresh. Even after this long he didn't have any answer to the same question Amaan once asked to him "when will this stop flowing?"
But this time it wasn't the blood that was flowing but the memories of his past:his brother's death!
Yes, Adil wasn't trapped in any metro but he was trapped in his past. The darkness of the wardrobe was no less than the one he felt in his dream, the glimpses of the long gone incident still triggered his senses and he had still not found the way to escape it.
Not trapped in his dreams but reality of the past.
Till when and how long.... He had no idea even how to escape it.
.. How long he will be trapped in it........ Who knows?