By Vasudev Patel
I should have been dead, long ago, but he saved me. The last memory I have, the only memory I have is that of drowning. I was drowning, in a river or maybe in a lake, I don’t remember. I tried to swim but, I couldn’t see the surface, I couldn’t see the bottom, I didn’t even know up from down. Have you ever drowned? In the water, if you go deep enough, nothing exists, no sound, no noise, no up, no down, nothing. There is no hope either. That was when I first met him. In the water where nothing exists, he was there and he saved me. I don’t remember much after that but, after that I have never left his side.
It was mid-November, I think, when we escaped that place. Yes, it was mid-November, I remember now, it was just about three months since the world was taken over. We hid with some others but they too turned soon after. He had to kill them to save me. He saved me again, my saviour.
It was an evening just like this one, there was rain, the beautiful sound of thunder and a world on fire. One day I woke up and the fire was just there. Somone had set the world on fire. Every inch of everything was on fire, even the room I was in, but it didn’t burn me. The fire didn’t burn me, but I was scared, then he came in and took me away. Once we were out of the room, we saw who set the fire that burned nothing. It was standing right in front of us. It had two hands, two legs and everything else like you and me except for a face. There was a hole where the face was supposed to be, a big circular hole. At first it seemed like a normal man, but as we looked at it more and more, it became clear that its lack of a face was not the only difference between it and us. It had two horns protruding from the part of its head that was left. The hole in its head seemed like it was made by pushing something into a fully formed head. Its hands were long and thin, its legs even more so, its back was hunched over and its whole body was covered in red flames. When it saw us it was the size of normal human and looked like that too, except for it being covered in flames, but then it grew, almost to the roof of the burning hallway. It swinged its right lanky hand towards us like a whip, all the while screeching like it wanted to say something and almost formed the words but the screeching was all it could get out. He pulled me down with him to duck from the swing, then he told me to stay down and went towards the thing to fight it. He pulled out a knife from the back of his pants, ducked from another swing of those lanky arms and plunged the knife into the back of the burning creature, he saved me again. Then we ran to the front doors. On the way we found many of those creature lurking throughout the building, he killed some of them, by his hands, by the knife, he killed one by biting his throat off. These creatures only looked scary but they were weak. Good for us, I guess. When we got out of the front door, there were two of these things guarding the door from the outside. One of them grabbed me and tried to drag me back inside but I bit it on its arm. The red flames didn’t burn me, I saw that the flames didn’t burn anything but I had my doubts. This cleared them. The flames didn’t burn anything, they were just covering everything. The thing let go of me for a moment and screeched, then I plunged my teeth into its throat. After a few moments it stopped screeching and he had already taken care of the other one. Then we ran, I saw two ambulances parked outside and I thought, was their anyone else left inside. But then I read the inscription on the side of the ambulances, and I thought I wouldn’t want to be the one they were here for.
We ran and ran, we saw those creatures on the roads and inside shops, behind carts, some small, some large. But, why are we still human, that was the first thought that came to me. The creatures were just looking at us, some gave a low screech but others just looked at us. We ran among them but they didn’t seem to care much for us. We stopped in front of a house. We were hungry so we went in. The house was empty except for two others, they were hiding in the kitchen. We saw them when we went to the kitchen to look for food. I remembered seeing those two, but I couldn’t remember where and looking at their faces, they were having the same problem with us. We talked to them but we couldn’t find out where we could have seen them or they could have seen us. They told us that when they came in the house there were three of those things in here. One was a little smaller than the other two. One of the big ones tried to kill them so they killed him instead and the other two before they could kill them.
We found some biscuits and bread, we ate them and decided to stay inside the house until we figure out what to do next. Now that the world was burning and these creatures are everywhere, we need to find a safe place for ourselves. We talked, the four of us, about what we can do next, the other two wanted to stay in the house and go out only when they need to but we wanted to go away from all this as soon as possible. We thought it would be better if we leave at night. The other two decided to stay and we decided we would go back to his home and hid there for the time. We took one of the bedrooms and they took the other. We slept as soon as we hit the bed. During the night I was woken up by a loud screeching, he was already up and had his knife in hand. One of those creatures came in the bedroom breaking the door and some others followed behind it. He tried to kill them with the knife he had, he was able to push it into one of the creature’s chest before the others held him down and one of the creatures pushed a knife into the back of his neck. I felt dizzy after that and as I fell on the bed, I saw the creature who pushed the first knife take out another knife and push it beside the first one. As he was pushing the knife in, the creatures grew smaller and smaller, the world burned a little less and a little less. Soon the creatures had grown smaller into men and the world has gone back to the way it was.
My memories became clear after the world went back to the way it was, but they were not my memories. My memories start from when I was drowning, but now I know where I was drowning. I am drowning once again. In the water if you go deep enough, nothing exists, no sound, no noise, no up, no down. In the water where nothing exists, this time, he was not there to save me. He was not there to pull me out of the water and take me away to somewhere better. In the water nothing exists, not even someone who can rescue me.
It was not a lake or a river or even water I was drowning in. I was drowning deeper and deeper. My memories were not my memories because they were his, and in his memories, I was the one he needed to save, but couldn’t.
“We have him ma’am”, the man who just medicated and tranquillized Manish was saying into his phone as the others were bringing him out of the house and putting him in the ambulance. “Good, bring him back immediately”, the voice on the other end said and hung up the phone. Once Manish was in the ambulance the man got in and one of the officers got in with him. Manish was a patient in the mental institute the man was an employee in. earlier today Manish had killed four people in the institute including a cleaner, a doctor and two guards. The first one with a knife and the others by ripping out their throats with his mouth, all the while screaming, “THE WORLD IS ON FIRE” and, “THE CREATURES WILL GET ME”. The man didn’t know what went inside the minds of the insane and he was glad that he didn’t know. To his knowledge Manish was suffering from multiple personalities. The man who was taking Manish back to the institute was told this by his doctor because it might be useful in bringing Manish back. The man wondered what it feels like to be one of the other personalities inside people like Manish. He asked as much to Manish’s doctor. The doctor said, “For the other personalities, the ones that are not on the surface, I think it might feel like drowning”.
By Vasudev Patel
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