My Well Wisher (Editing)

Chapter - Two

The backyard she was standing on seemed familiar to Fleur, but even though she tried to, she could not remember why it seemed so familiar or even how she came here. The sky above had a blinding afternoon sun decorated and she could hear birds chirping from the forest adjoined with the backyard. A giggle followed by the sound of a dog barking caught Fleur’s attention, and soon the source of it came in view. A girl, no older than five, came out running from the backyard door with a German shepherd following her trail. Fleur found herself slowly kneeling down on the ground and watching the little version of her, realizing that this place had once been a part of her childhood, it had been her home.

The five-year-old version of her ran around the length of the backyard with the dog, paying no heed to Fleur. The whole scenario should have irked her, but strangely enough, it did not.

As the little girl continued to play with the dog, Fleur noticed the change in the dog’s demeanor. With each passing moment, he became more and more rattled. With a shake of his head, he barked towards the forest and ran into it with the worried five-year-old running after him. Fleur ran after the duet, anxious to see what had caused this upheaval. However, the farther she followed them, the more lost she found herself in the dark forest. Soon, her ears lost the sound of the dog and the little girl; even the chirping birds had become quiet.

An abrupt rattle in the bushes by her side caught her attention, and cold breeze coming from the direction engulfed her. As she moved towards where the breeze was coming from, she noticed how the sunlight had slowly started to fade away, leaving behind a gray sky. The trees started to lessen the farther she walked and soon enough she found herself standing on a desiccated meadow. Slowly and somewhat hesitantly, she walked a little further and gasped when she found herself standing on a cliff facing vast ocean. As she took a few steps forward and looked down the cliff, she saw a beach covered with silver dust that was touched every now and then with a passing wave of water. As far as she looked, only the sight of silver dust and a black ocean greeted her, all of which under the gray sky. The lack of colors might have disrupted the scenery, but strangely enough, Fleur found it soothing.

“It is beautiful…” the words left her lips in a whisper.

“You would be the first one to say so,” The voice startled Fleur and she turned to face this new arrival. The man continued, “Most find this place rather dull, even repellent.”

The presence of this stranger ought to have scared her, but instead of losing her wits, as any other person would have, she felt at ease. Mostly because a part of her brain thought of it all as nothing but an odd dream, as she have had a plenty of her share of such in the past, if not more. Though a part of her knew this felt too real than any of the ones she have ever had, she dismissed the thought not finding it to be of sense.

Thus, she merely found herself frowning at his words, “Why so? I find it rather peaceful,” she continued as she looked back to ocean, “Nothing here seems to pinch the calmness. The mind gets a sense of serenity in this silence.” She took in a deep breath, but instead of the smell of salty air of the ocean, her nostrils were kissed by a breeze the held a metallic scent. So caught in her thoughts she was as she tried to remember what this scent belonged to, she did not hear when the stranger walked towards her and stood by her side.

“You should not be here, you know that,” He spoke in a soft tone as if talking to a scared child.

Yet again, she merely frowned, “I want to though. I am glad to have left behind the muddled life that I lived.”

The man looked at the sparkling silver dust beneath the cliff, his expression the same as the vast ocean in front of them, calm and still, hiding the darkness that was within, “All that takes place is meant to happen in the order that is set for them. A tree will not shed its leaves before autumn; neither will it bear fruits before the monsoon. An infant will not be born before when it should be born and neither is one to depart from this life without the reason they are meant to,” He looked back at her and she found herself staring in coal black eyes, “When the balance that has been set is wrecked, only mayhem can come off as a result.”

His words, though plain as they were, seemed dark as the ocean beneath them and for the first time since she found herself in this strange place, Fleur realized that she should not be here.

She asked what she realized she should have had asked before, “Who are you?”

He took a step forward and held her shoulders, only then did she saw how close they had been standing until now, “Keep in mind, no matter what you are offered by him, you must refuse to give in to it with all your might. Not always what that seems to be in your favor can be what would pull you out of the abyss, it can also be the cause your downfall.”

It had certainly not been the answer she was expecting; but before she could ask what he meant, he pushed her down the cliff. As she fell down it seemed as though the silver sand beneath her was pulling at her like a magnet and expected to fall hard on the ground.

Instead, she felt a strong hold on her chest and found herself gasping for air and blinking rapidly in a dim lit room. A high pitch buzz rang in her ears and her head felt as though it was about to explode. She could not feel her legs or her arms, and her vision slowly started to leave her even though she felt wide-awake. The air around her was chilling, and she found herself struggling to breathe, as though someone dropped tons of weight on her chest. With panic burning inside her, all her senses told her to scream; and scream she did.  For her it was a scream for help, if someone had been standing beside her then for them it would have had been a wail of an abandoned soul, but for all those walking in the hospital corridor outside that room, it was a bloodcurdling scream coming from the morgue.