TWO: Sweet Dreams

“As he looked around him, there were countless bodies lying as far as he could see. His face was covered in dried blood, his robes were tattered and bloodied, he was wounded and tired. ssswissshhh….ssswissshhh…..swwwissshhhhh. He raised his head to see a large bird flying in the sky. The sky was filled with cries of the vultures..carrion eaters.. but this bird was different , it looked bigger than the others and was stark red. He realized that the bird was flying towards him, growing bigger all the time as it approached him. As the bird came near, he raised his right hand and a bolt of energy ensued from his forefinger and struck the bird in its chest with a resounding noise.”

Rnnnnnnng…. Tttrrrnnnng….. tttrrrrrrnng.. avik woke up to the sound of his alarm. He was drenched in sweat and surprisingly very tired, as if he had run a mile. It was those dreams again he thought, you would think that at 18 you would stop having these dreams with all the fantasy and magic. You were supposedly an adult at this age; surprisingly the frequency of these dreams had increased since he had turned 18. He generally got up feeling tired every morning after he had these dreams and they all seemed so real.

At 5”8 avik was one of the people who just didn’t put on weight, he had a good physique but he didn’t exercise at all. He was the envy of most of his colleagues who went through grueling gym sessions just to keep fit. He had turned 18 a few months back and was an avid science freak. Avik was a first year science student studying at St Xaviers, a college which was not far from his home.

It was 8.30 am and as usual he had very little time to get to his college. Knowing that his parents had probably left by now, he made his way lazily across the room to the wash basin and began washing his face. He quickly brushed and bathed, got dressed and slammed the door as he left his house. This was a usual routine for avik, but today was a bit different; in his hurry he didn’t notice the juice which was left by his mother on the dining table neither did he notice the thin crack on the wall opposite to his bed or the blackened nail on his right forefinger.