The Resident of The Nap Room

I am usually not the kind of person to take a nap during work hours, but, today was different. Mondays were never my cup of coffee, that too after a long night of partying. I should have called in sick, but my guilt din't let me to, and here I was three hours into the day, guiltier and sleepier, trying to grab a shut eye.

I found it difficult to keep my eyes peeled, and get some work done. Instead all I got was half awake slumber, which made me even more tired than before. May be the idea of sleeping on work table was not a good idea to begin with. 'Why don't you take the rest of the day off, or go sleep somewhere else', I heard my colleague chime in from across the table, and the guilt just became my only emotion. Nap room became my next destination, and I left the table for good this time.

'There was a bed!!', I exclaimed in my head, 'Well duh, its a nap room for nothing'. I got my self comfortable on the bed, after flinging off the shoes to one side, and closing the door shut tight. Sleep was just minutes away, and soon I drifted.

My rest in the nap room was a short lived affair. I thought I heard a scream, or a cry for help, as I jolted out of my sleep. I strained my ears - in the half dazed state, to discern what the sound was. That is when I heard the knock. At first it was a soft thump, which soon turned into a loud bang. Another bang, and my eyes were wide open. It took a while for my eyes to get used to the darkness in the room. Another loud thump on the door got me scrambling up on the feet. I frantically scrambled for the light switch, and after a while of groping around in the dark I found the switch. My heart was racing by now, first, to be woken up by a scream, and then a the bang on the door. I slowly approached the door, and placed my ears flat on the wooden boards. hopping to discern what the source of the sound was. Once I was sure there was nothing to be afraid of, I cautiously twisted thee door knob. The lock clicked and the door creaked. I pulled on the door carefully.

At first I was not so sure of what I had seen, and after making sure the door really was open, I tried to feel the layer of bricks that lined the outside of the door frame, just to make sure what I saw was what I felt. It felt real, the coarse earthy texture of bricks, with the coarse sand mixed mortar. The door opened to a wall. I could feel my spirit panic, as tiny beads of sweat formed on my forehead. I closed the door back again, closed my eyes shut and opened the door again, hoping it to be an imagination of a sleep deprived mind. I held my eyes shut while I opened doors for the second time, but, the wall decided to stay where it had originally manifested itself. I tried banging and punching the wall, and in the last bit of terror, resorted to kicking. Nothing budged it, nothing moved it.

I had to keep calm, and think. 'Its just a nightmare, and it will pass', I kept repeating to myself. Once I was sure that my fear was in control, I started thinking about the ways in which I could exit the nightmare. I tried the age old technique of pinching my self awake, and once I realized that it was of no use apart from inflicting pain on my self, I scanned the room for alternate exits. My search for an exit led me to a fire extinguisher by the bed side. I found it to be a tad bit heavier than I had imagined it to be, but it served as a good hammer. The brick wall buckled under the continued blows from the fire extinguisher, first a brick loosened and slowly I could feel the entire wall shake and peal off. One brick at a time, one row at a time, and down came the entire wall falling to the ground. I was relieved to see the wall crumble. I did expect to see a glean of light, but the room, which the broken wall led to was pitch black. I existed the nap room, into the darkness, not sure of what I would encounter further, and slowly groped around in darkness. I was hopping to find an exit, a light switch, or at least a clue as to where I was. After a while of prodding around I chanced upon a handle which seemed like a door knob. I tried the handle, twisted it around a bit, but the door was as adamant as I was. I let the door be, and continued the search, moving farther away from the only light source, which peered from the broken wall of the nap room. The air around me started to get heavier and colder, and I saw that I was pretty far from the only comfort in this nightmare, the bed in the Nap room. My search for an exit in the darkness was cut short by the rattling of a chain. I decided to retreat to the nap room. As my strides became faster, the rattling of the chains became louder. My sprint gave way to a dash as I leapt towards the nap room. I could see the light peering from the crack of the wall. The hope rose in me, to find safety in the Nap room, but that hope soon gave way to despair, as I saw the hole in the wall shrinking. Each of the bricks which I had pulled out from the wall started to fly back into their place, and soon the last ray of light was blocked as I approached the wall. The last brick slid straight into its place, and I was left with nothing but pitch darkness. The rattling of the chain grew louder and suddenly it stopped. I sat cuddled on the floor against the wall, pacing my breath, and the only other sound was that of my pounding heart, I hoped the nightmare would end, and I closed my eyes, but it had a different plan. I felt cold breath against my face and I could hear a laboured breathing as nightmare breathed straight onto my face, cold and sinister. I curdled closer to my self, and my panting had turned to sobs now. Soft sobs, as I lay uncertain of what would happen, until a cold hand grasped me, a cold and tight grip.  I let out a scream, and started frantically clawing and banging on the wall just hopping the nightmare to end. The cold hands that held me dragged me away from the wall, and a despaired scream escaped my being.

The scream was still ringing in my ears, as I opened my eyes, and the familiar sight of the Nap room slowly cleared itself into my sight. 'Bloody freaking nightmare!', I sighed to my self, as my heart pounded like a blacksmith's hammer. My throat was parched dry, and the clear sign of a dehydrated sleep were abound. I decided to end the debacle at the Nap room. I collected my stuff from the room, and opened the door, which seemed locked at first, but after a little fiddling with the knob, it clicked opened.

We all have that phase in our life, where we get optimistic with nightmares, I believe, I too got optimistic with mine, and as for my spirit, it sank inside me, my heart skipped a beat and the cold perspiration found their way back onto my forehead, as I opened the door.

The red bricked wall, greeted my eyes.

The Traveler-4: The Riders of the Dark Sand

I have traveled long and far, in search of things that the world has seldom heard of. The journeys I have taken in search of Fear, The Forest Nymphs, and the Devil himself have already been written about. My journeys have taken me to the ends of the world, from where there seemed no return. One such journey took me to the land, covered under a sea of sand. It was everywhere, it spanned from horizon to horizon, and it was here I heard about the Riders Of the Dark Sand.

I was part of the caravan, and we were to cross this great desert to reach the other side, to the green lush fertile land along the River Nile. The caravan was actually a transport for a precious jewel, guarded by an old priest. There were stories about him, and how he had always guarded the jewel from the desert robbers.

I walked over to him, eager to know what was so precious about the jewel, but before I could ask him, he started the tale.

Long ago, during the reign of Thoth,
The heaven was torn apart in war,
Horus in arms against Set, the God of sands.

Thoth conceived a jewel, of pure power,
Power to alter time, and resolve fights,
And handed the jewel to a man, priest in his temple.

But the greed in man's heart was strong,
And he yearned to be powerful,
He fought for this jewel, to control the time.

One such man was Hareb, a mighty warrior,
Who up with his four men, laid siege on the temple,
Killing the priests, and stealing the Jewel.

His insolence angered Thoth,
And this anger gave birth to a curse,
A curse to be captured within time.

And together with him, his men perished,
Only to be risen on the day of no moon,
When they fight to regain the Jewel.


Well it was an astounding story, and the old priest could see the glow on my face as I heard about the power of the Jewel.

"Stranger, be warned, no one has ever returned back from the desert nor has the jewel reached the temple by the Nile. Those who die in battle with the Riders, . . . ", his speech was cut off by the bull horn. The journey was about to commence.

I was a bit afraid, but still was determined to see the marvel that lay up ahead in the day.
We were fifty brave men, strong warriors to protect the Jewel, and I was confident that I would be able to set foot on the fertile land across this great desert.

So the journey began. . .


Fifty brave men, mounted on horses,
With swords drawn ready to fight,
Across the desert, they ride,
They ride along with the sun.

The hot days, take their tolls,
But the brave never give up,
For across the desert, lies their dream,
A dream of fertility and pride.

The priest travels along, guarding the jewel,
With fear in his heart he rides,
And as the sun dips towards the horizon,
His eyes betray his fear.

"I have traveled this sand, thousand times,
But never do I see the green land."
Sang the priest, as the skies darkened,
And darkness covered the land.

"They will come, and take all of you,
They will come, to enslave your souls,
But for me, I have the jewel, so I shall live,
The jewel shall set my times right."

And soon the sands turned dark,
And no moon shined in the sky,
Then we heard the sounds of hoofs,
As the Riders of the Dark Sands arrived.

Four men, and their horses breathing fire,
With swords drawn, ready to take the lives.
"If its four, we can take them", I thought,
But my hopes soon turned to despair.

With his hands the rider waved to air,
"I am Hareb, listen to me oh great sands,
I have been yours for many years,
Now give me what is mine"

Soon the earth shook and split
And our sights were blinded by the winds,
And then rose the many who had died,
Died protecting the Jewel of Thoth.

The undead, rose to their feet,
As my men charged ahead into them,
And I watched each of my men fall,
Fall to the swords of the undead.

It was me now, who stood afoot,
Between Hareb and his jewel, his desire,
And with a drawn sword I charged into the men,
Slicing the already dead to death.

"Its futile, that you may fight,
For your men are dead, and you stand alone,
Its futile, that you may fight,
For I still can summon the demons from hell"

And with a scream, Hareb leaped forward,
Knocking me off onto to the sands,
And as his cold sword pierced my chest,
I saw the priest stab the jewel with his staff.

I saw the life flash in front of me,
And the light shone bright, blinding me,
And then darkness followed for days to come,
Until I heard the call, and life ran through my veins.

I rose up again, with the sword in my hand,
And my men stood next to me, ready to fight,
But the fate had a different plan,
For now I was also the Rider of the Dark Sand.


Glossary:
Thoth: Wiki Page. Thoth is also the moon deity.
Set: Wiki Page.
Horus: Wiki Page.

The Aftershock - 2

continued from http://timjude.blogspot.com/2011/05/aftershock-1.html

"Dunno dude, I can hardly hear a thin'."

*BANG*

This time there was no mistaking, it was a gunshot. Soon the world came back into our senses, we were in some clearing or park. For all I could see was the green of the grass almost blackened under the darkness of the night and a thin cover of trees towards the boundaries.
Our hearts started to beat faster, well obviously we were supposed to be frightened, but I could't comprehend the gravity of the situation. My head slowly hummed, while my heart beat like a hammer against my chest.

"We should get outa' here". Ted pulled me up, I wobbled a bit.
We somehow managed to get each other up, but we were too late, for soon we saw two men with flash lights walking towards us. They were shining it in our eyes, so we could't get a glimpse of their faces.

"Whatcha' kids doin' up here in the night", Asked one of them. He was really tall, with a well built muscular body, and he had a really rough voice. He could have been easily mistaken for a giant.

"N'thin', we were just passin'by, thought we'd rest a bit before headin' home." I blurted out, somehow.

And it was then I saw the shot guns in their hands, and it was my feet that did the talking. I ran straight into the tree cover, I cared for no one at that moment, no one at all, not even the other three.

"Hey Kid waitup", I could hear the man shouting back at me.

I didn't stop, for all I cared was to save my sorry little ass. I ran into the trees.

*BANG*

I heard the gunshot behind me as I ducked in behind a tree, and flares brushed past me. One of them caught me in my left arm, It was like a pin prick, and then a quick spasm of pain, and I felt like my hand had been ripped off my body. I was scared, I could hear the other man shouting at the shooter for being clumsy, for missing his mark.

"I have to escape from these men, somehow I have to run away from them"

"What am I going to do with my arm?"

"What will happen if they catch me?"

Damn I was so confused and scared, I somehow scrambled back to my feet holding my left arm, trying to stop the bleeding. It was just a flesh wound, I breathed, a deep breath, before breaking into a run, I ran straight into the ever thickening foliage. It was dark, pitch black, I could just make out the outlines of the trees as I ran amidst them. I could see the long shadows cast by the flash light behind me.

"They are up on my heals, damn", I thought to my self.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I din't notice the ground sloping downwards. I stumbled upon a root and fell flat on the face. My nose hurt like hell, must have broken from the impact. A warm stream of blood rushed out of my nose, I got back up on my feet, rubbing off the blood as it streamed. I was really hurt this time, a bloodied arm and a broken nose. I waited, breathing heavily waiting for the pain to wade off. The faint light of the flash-light was growing thinner and thinner and soon it was dark again.

"They might have given up"

I slumped on to the nearest tree, hiding perfectly behind it, I was scared, dead scared, breathing heavily, and was just lost. It was dark, I din't know what to do. I didn't know what had happened to the other three, they would have been killed, and dumped in some swamp or taken hostages, hog tied and tortured. I sat there by the tree, and started crying. I felt helpless.

I don't know how long I had been under that tree. I was no longer high, everything was normal except for my beating heart. It was racing, it was beating as if it wanted to get out of my chest. I gathered enough courage and got up, I could hear vehicles, engines roaring. I walked towards the sound and soon emerged into a road. It had a long line of tree cover on both side of it, as it snaked through the green cover. I limped up to the road, hopping to get some help. From a distant curve I saw the two beams of light and soon two headlights came into sight. I limped forward and trying to flag it down, and as the car drew nearer, I felt a wave of relief passing through my body. I saw the beacon light, like the ones used in a police car. I was lucky. The car stopped in front me, and a middle aged cop stepped out of the drivers seat. I sighed.

"What happened son, You look terrible", His soft voice soothed my nerves.

I started to blurt out everything, what ever had happened that evening, about the shooting and how I had escaped, everything.

"Why don't you get in the car with me, I will hear your story, as I get you to a hospital". And as he said, he opened the rear door of the car. I was happy, and was not scared any more. I had got help at last. The door closed with a click.

He got back into the drivers seat, picked up his phone from the dashboard and dialled, and put the earpiece to his ears. I could hear the slow ringing sound, and then it stopped.

"I have got him, he is with me in the car."

To be Continued....

The Aftershock - 1

It was my best day, finally I had graduated, and nothing could stop me from being what I wanted. Well I could say that, the world had a different plan.It was a pleasant day. A copper sky, which marked the sunset, a light breeze which made the trees sway along with it, a slight chill in the air, which said, "Hey people winters' at your doorstep".

"I suggest we go to the Blue diamond, free starters, disco and a lot of hot chicks", chirped in Bierty. Well I loved him for his head. A cheap bastard he was, but still I loved how his brain worked.

I think I missed out on a lot of details to begin with. Well we were the gang of four, Bierty, Mat, Greg, and of course me . We stood up for each other. We were the main brain behind our batch functioning properly, well I am allowed to boast, but truth is truth, we were the best at what we did. We had started with random hacks, then a main grid, and bang, we were popular all over the campus. "The four Owls", as we were so lovingly addressed. Nights were our days and the days were well of course our nights.

And yeah coming back to the incident, we all agreed to what Bierty had to offer, we were cheap bastards too. The night of our graduation, in some random disc by the name Blue Diamond, and we four hopping for some fun.

"300 bucks each", the bouncer at the gate, pointed at the board. We fished out enough, and much was left with us for a pretty decent night.

The world that emerged at us behind those black doors was something we would never forget.

"Dude, the blue light is already tripin' me m'man", I heard my self hiss in a low voice. The interior of the disc was electrifying, splendid and really ( well I would require a good word to describe it folks )

I saw Greg and Bierty go straight into the dance floor, may be they wanted to hook up, I don't know, but I took a corner seat with Mat, and within half an hour we were already down with seven vodka shots. I could feel the world dance along with me, as I head banged away to the marvellous music that was playing by. Mat sat there unmoved, for him seven were still less, and within another fifteen minutes, he joined me, 10 shots down.

Well we danced the night away, until Bierty came up to us with something.

"You should try this mate, this is some serious stuff.", Well we couldn't hold our horses, and jumped all over it as hungry pack of dogs. It was something out of this world, something marvelous. We were soon in our own world, splendid, everything slowed down, the music, the dancing, everything, except for time.

"This is the last one for the night, thanks for coming along", screamed in the DJ, and soon we were out.

"I can't feel m' leg mate".
"Keep walkin', ye'll start feeling it a' soon as ye get tired."

And so we walked, reached somewhere, and slumped to the ground. Peace. Silence. Quite.

!!BANG!!

"Was that a gunshot!!!!??" Greg sounded a bit scared.

To be continued...

Silence

I knew a man, long ago, back when the birds used to chirp and the trees used to swing. He was fond of killing, taking life, but only in talks. He liked the concept of death, which was something every human being feared. He was fearless, he never cared about death or for that matter about any thing else at all.
He used to say, "We humans fear what we don't know, and if you don't care about your ignorance, you don't fear any thing".

He was brave, he was mighty, he could have led an army of thousands of men, but he never did. He loved his imagination. He loved to think, to think he had the power to take that which was most precious to all. Power to create his own world, power to destroy what he created.

He used to say. " This is intriguing, I love it", then after a while he would say " I have lost interest in it, its nothing more than a regular human dumbness.". He used to despise human life, despise the way they used to live, loving, caring and worrying about tomorrow. He had loved once, just once. I don't know what went wrong or what went right, for he never loved again. He loved to teach though. Rub off a bit of wisdom on his fellow beings, and I just happened to be one of those he used to teach. He was brilliant, he was marvelous.

His desire to take life, dominated every other desire. He used to joke around " Lets kill some one today, Its too boring to live without a li'l bloodshed". He had the resolve to kill, resolve to take life, but he was too gentle to even hurt an ant.

Then one day I saw him kill, I saw him kill what was most dear to him. He said he had to get out of all the attachments. He had to get rid of everything this world had to offer. That was the day I started to fear him. Fear the very man who existed within him. I had never seen blood on his hands, but today he stood soaked in blood. His daughter lay next to him, drenched in blood as he was. She didn't move, she didn't blink an eye. She lay there cold, shriveled, in a pool of blood. I heard him laugh a bit, then he swung the knife. I couldn't do anything, I couldn't move. And before I knew anything He fell, next to her.

The Other side

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfrfwvjz_0dtcbd6gz