Light or illusion

The dead end.

It was dark, like a forgotten corner of the world where even light couldn’t reach.

The walls had fragments of old paint stuck to them. The bricks were visible despite the darkness.

On the ground, there were scattered pieces of tiny white particles.

Maybe bones…

And,

to the left side, there was a faint but visible trail of blood.

I stared at the blood, and the expression on my face changed.

It was like I saw something I didn’t want to see.

“That… was not a dream. This isn’t human blood,”

I said with a terrified expression.

“I don’t know how… but I know it’s not human blood.”

Naman remained silent.

But he wasn’t scared.

He kept looking at the blood and said,

“Shouldn’t we report it to the police?”

I didn’t hear him.

“Yashhhhhh!” Naman screamed.

“What?” I finally replied.

“Did you even hear what I was saying?” Naman asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “But we can’t report it. If we do, they might think we’re involved and put us in quarantine. You know how dangerous the government becomes when it’s something serious.”

“Hahhh, whatever,” Naman replied.

“So what should we do then?” he asked.

“Nothing. Let’s just leave. I don’t want to get involved in this,” I said.

I picked up a piece of the white thing lying around, and we both left.

We were walking home.

The sun had already set.

Starry night.

The sky was glowing like someone had pierced a dark cloth with needles and the light was filtering through it.

We walked down the road.

The street reflected the dark but slightly blue sky and the stars above, because there was leaked water on the street.

I glanced towards Naman.

He was thinking about something with a serious expression.

For the first time, I felt that he is also human – that he also feel fear sometimes, even if he don’t show it.

We both stayed silent.

Then Naman asked me with a dead serious expression,

“Hey Yash, what was the size of that thing?”

I thought I shouldn’t tell him the real size, since he might get scared, but I told him anyway.

“It was 7 or 8 feet tall. I don’t remember properly.”

He looked at me seriously and said,

“Then just think about how big its penis would be.”

I stopped and sighed, annoyed and relieved at the same time.

Annoyed because Naman never takes anything seriously,

and relieved because he wasn’t that afraid.

Maybe that’s the reason I took him with me.

“Really… is that why you were serious all this time?” I asked.

“Yes, what did you think?” Naman replied.

I thought to myself,

“I’m a dumbass for thinking this psychopath can be afraid of anything.”

We kept walking as Naman continued spitting his nonsense about how Kuldeep would die just by glimpsing that thing’s penis.

Suddenly, I bumped into someone.

“Ah, I’m sorry,” I said.

He was an adult. He patted my head with his palm and left.

I looked back towards him as he walked away.

While walking different paths.

I thought,

“Maybe I’ve seen him somewhere before?”

I turned back and kept walking.

Naman didn’t even notice him – he was too focused on his nonsense talk.

And we vanished into the glowing starry night.

Many days passed.

One morning, I saw something on the news while eating breakfast.

> News: “There are reports about visible shadows and dark figures being seen at night. There are also reports of missing persons and murders in various cities of India. So The Prime Minister is declaring a night curfew.

As for the asteroid incident, we’ve learned that it didn’t only fall in India. Many other countries were hit by asteroids of different sizes and amounts. For example, in India the asteroid was luckily medium-sized, but in America it destroyed two whole cities. As for Japan—”

My mom turned off the TV.

“Mummy, I was watching the news,” I said.

“Gosh, Yash, finish your breakfast and go to school already. Don’t stick to the TV. I have my work shift soon – we should leave already,” she said.

I was about to say something, but her gaze was so terrifying that I swallowed my words into my guts.

Yes more terrifying then that thing.

“O… okay, mom,” I replied.

We left together.

Mom gave me a spare key for home and said,

“Go straight to school. Don’t play around on the way, okay?”

She kissed my forehead and left.

I was walking to school, thinking about the news.

“Maybe it could be connected to what I saw that night.”

While going to school, I overheard some people talking.

> Person A: “Did you see that pretty girl smoking? She was looking pretty hot.”

Person B: “Yeah, I saw her too. She was looking good.”

Suddenly, I felt like someone was following me.

But when I turned back, there was just the normal crowd.

“Maybe I’m not sleeping enough,” I thought, and kept walking.

When I reached school, kids were talking about the news.

Most of them knew about the night curfew. Some of my classmates were terrified, some were overjoyed because of the reduced school time, and some were joking that aliens might come.

In all that ruckus, Naman was sitting on his bench, drawing something in his textbook.

He was so chill that I thought he didn’t know about the news.

So I went to him and told him about the morning news.

After listening, Naman replied,

“I also have a TV at my home, dumbass.”

I asked,

“How can you be so chill in this situation?”

Naman replied,

“So being panicked would change anything?”

I thought in my head,

“No matter how crazy he is, he’s right about this.”

Then bell rang and class started.

I was sitting on my bench beside the window, drowned in my thoughts.

Then I suddenly saw a truck going outside the window branded as RED.

I didn’t know why I noticed it, but I just shifted my gaze to sky.

After some time, the bell rang again.

I stood up from my bench and took my bag.

As I was about to walk, I saw Kuldeep staring at the class gate.

I went to him and asked,

“What are you watching?”

“Nothing, just watching the mop man,” Kuldeep replied and left.

I wondered what he meant, but I also left.

I kept walking, thinking about why Kuldeep was staring at the mop man.

And suddenly I noticed – I had reached home.

“Already? How am I home so quickly?” I thought.

It was surprising because it usually took me at least 20-25 minutes to reach home at my normal pace, but today I didn’t even try and reached home in 10 minutes.

I wasn’t even tired.

I ran to my room and tossed my bag down, stripped off my shirt, and started doing push-ups.

10, 20, 30, 50, and then 100. I did 200 push-ups.

And I wasn’t even tired yet.

I was surprised at my own strength.

“How did I become this strong?” I thought.

At that time, I was so happy, unaware that this would soon fade… because life had already started becoming dark.

After all, light is the one who creates darkness.