Chapter 6:

Socializing

Whispers heard in the dark


Reavan returns to his office cabin, the room is dull and dry. It looks lifeless with the regular occupants being the table and lots and lots of papers, spread all over the place, there is no single location where they are not.

Though they may seem assorted to an outsider, Reavan knows how organized they were. They may be lying here and there, but he knew where to find what case. In other words, they were no mere sheets of papers, but case files that he would go through every day, just to see if he had missed any clue in any of them, thus kept then handy and organized, according to him.

It had become much more like a ritual to him, where he enjoyed going through old files with a cup of hot coffee and jotting down what he had newly found from each case.

***********

This day was one such day where though he was so tired and exhausted to his bone, he still wanted to input certain details about the case. In fact, I would rather say, he wanted to make a note for his dear charmer, Ashura, about what he had learnt from it. He thought, this could also serve the purpose of bringing the kid out of his room, to trigger him to socialize. He thus starts writing, picking up an empty A4 from his bunch.

“It is always beneficial to be social rather than being locked inside a small shady room.....

People either try to understand or get used to your character, thus you needn’t worry about getting hurt or hurting them. One can definitely live alone, which can be pretty much agreed upon, but everyone falls at least once in their life, it’s not that you cannot get up on your own, but your mind won’t let you do so, it’d search for someone around you, for you to grab on to. You cannot prevent that from happening, reason being the innate nature of us.

 Frankly, you are no different from the rest of us, I definitely saw you smiling after our conversation the other day. It does feel good to have company, isn’t it? Without your own knowledge you have been craving for friends, and I promise you, it will be alright. Frankly, I consider you as one of my friends, I thus am very worried and currently highly disturbed about the case I just solved. 

Obviously, I won’t tell you about the same, but I do have questions about the other day and what was your thought when you wanted to kill yourself. I know its safe to ask you as I could see it in your eyes that you didn’t want to suicide, rather it seemed as if someone was forcing you to do so. This being the reason, I would like to have a chat with you. 

Again, hope you are fine with it, I pray that i get to meet you soon. Until then, take care. 

P.S.  Be nicer to mom.” 

He finishes writing, along with his signature. Stops at that, he suddenly has a change of mind, crushes the sheet and throws it into the bin. 

It’s not his ego but the thought that he shouldn’t give out clues to Ashura suggesting he’s interested in him. What if, it shuts the door between them? There would be no point in trying to befriend him then. In fact, he was worried that him being honest and straight forward might be offensive to Ashura, who had recently got to know about the existence of a person called Reavan.

Talking to Ashura is much more like walking over a creaky wooden bridge, one miss step and he would be done for. He wondered what Ashura must be up to around this hour in the evening.

*************

Meanwhile, Ashura is occupied with one of his puzzles. Without any prior thought or intimidation, he suddenly starts getting an image of a friendly man, betraying his family, running away from the colony… quite instantly, another image flashes before him of some man’s shoulders being tattooed. A snake at that. No, not just a snake, but a COBRA. Superimposed by another image, a dark room, someone argues with someone else followed by sound of gunshot.

He returns to the reality, then starts pacing rapidly around the room, panting and thinking what can be done, how can he save that person. He seemed to be genuinely worried, in fact the thought of the death of a girl of his age was already too much to take, also since he could relate to her and could sympathize with her, it ended up being a burden. Over and above this, he got to know about a possibility of a death that might occur, adding on to his struggle. 

Truth being told, he understood that he too might end up in a state like her where he had no one to save him or be present for him, to support him. After all this, when he gets to know that there might be another life at stake, he wanted to give his best shot at altering the outcome and to prevent the death from happening.

Realizing that he was stressing himself too much, he stops in his tracks, drinks some water, calms his mind down and then does a run-through over his vision. The whispers that had intensified earlier had now softened he could now focus more.

He was relieved when he realized that the incident might happen in a few months from now and not immediately, thus, there was no need to panic. After all, he had to warn Reavan as otherwise the only place he might meet Reavan next is in his funeral. 

He can’t afford to lose him, as he too was happy to have found a human like him. He was too proud to admit, but the truth is that he had finally found a human to be interesting. A change had come over him, from his interest on puzzles to finally upgrading to normal human standards.

***********

He calls his mother, who comes rushing towards Ashura, this being the most unusual scenario in her household, she rushes to him with tears in his eyes having a difficulty in processing what was going on but with a face which can legibly be read from any angle to be that of a happy mother to see her child finally call her. Every parent feels so happy when they see their child walk for the first time, talk for the first time, but here we find an amusing scenario where the mother is happy just by being called by her son.

Realizing that, Ashura apologizes for taking so long, they then sit together for some time, mom shares about all that’s going on outside and about what all were happening in her life. She also got to find out that he had already met Reavan and things were going on pretty well between the two. That’s was his cue to ask his mom to request for another conversation with him. She finds it more fascinating. Now that he is slowly coming out of his cocoon, she would immediately call Reavan and setup a meeting for them. She was on cloud-nine to see her kid transform. The very thought gave her strength to carry on with a greater tomorrow.

************

Reavan, indirectly wanted to check up on how Ashura was, he thus reaches his hand for the phone when it suddenly starts to buzz. 

He saw the caller ID, it was Maya, surprised but shocked at the same time, Reaven attends the call, “Hey Maya, what a surprise! I wasn’t expecting a call, so what’s the matter?” 

“My son……” she continues with tears of joy, “he called me and spoke to me for sometime, he also wanted to let you know if you could come over, as he wanted to talk about something to you.” 

He wasn’t just at luck but had hit a jackpot. Being a pro in containing himself, he maintained his tone and replies, “Well, does tomorrow sound good, coz I’m afraid I might not be able to meet up otherwise?” 

“Yes, yes! so tomorrow? I’ll tell him” Maya replied, brimming with overwhelming emotions. 

He responded with a “Ok, bye” and hung up grinning like an idiot.

Once the call was hung, he immediately called his senior to tell him he might not be able to attend the meeting tomorrow reason being an interesting lead for the case just stirred up and that he might have to talk to someone about the same during their scheduled meeting.

 The senior understood and also approved not only because it was work related, but he knew him for who he was, a sincere and dedicated worker. And also, because he has never asked for such a favor ever before, so he was obliged to do so.

Makech
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Verson
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Jungi
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