Chapter 8:

Decoding the Whispers

Whispers heard in the dark


Maya takes a wooden tray fills it with snacks and tea, then takes it upstairs and knocks on the door. A familiar voice, that of Ashura’s approves her entry. She keeps the tray on the table which was newly arranged in the room for the convenience of their new guest, then exits closing the door behind her.

She reclines on the same door and hugs the tray with teary eyes, glad to know that her child had made a new friend. Thankfully it was a human, instead of his regular companions like that of chessboard, puzzles and books that kept him inquisitive about the story line. More than just reading he used to predict what might be the possible outcome, once a part of the story had resurfaced. His predictions were always correct, he thus would immediately loose interest in the book and toss it aside.

 He was so bored of the books that he started reading multiple news papers. As and when he did so, he started getting interested in crime section of the report. It became so interesting that he couldn’t ignore them. In fact, he loved to deduce different cases into a clear logical outcome that made him feel like God, who knew it all. He was not a person who would give up until and unless he could solve each and every crime that he read about.

There would be a time when he would talk in his sleep about that particular crime, which he came across the very same day and would talk to himself about the ways to solve it. He was so obsessed in solving them, as that’s the only thing that kept him occupied.

This attitude and obsession had slowly become his habit and daily routine. He started becoming an expert in solving them all. Every crime or a clue of crime that he found could be perceived by him to be precisely that. He started solving crimes having very less evidences and yet found the culprit behind it.

As this went on, his mother being so worried about him and about as what he was becoming, had shared it to her neighbor who had recently become close and trustworthy to her. She said, “Reavan, I am so worried about my child. He loves his own company and doesn’t explore the world around him. He gets stressed whenever he finds new things or when new people try to interact with him. He feels insecure and triggered when he is disturbed by others from his world of thoughts. He yells and runs back into his room and locks the door.-

-What do I do about him? I have been trying to bring him out from his own barrier. He seems to be chained to a hinge which gives him an illusion of being free and open, but all he is, is limited to his thoughts, he doesn't go beyond it at all. Can you help me out Reavan?”

Reavan smiles, holds her hand and assures that he would do so.

This had happened two years ago after which there had been a lot of developments, like that of the death of Ria, and the whispers that Ashura had started hearing. Little did they know that the whispers were the manifestation of Ashura’s extreme obsession over solving mysteries and crimes.

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Now, the day had finally come where Ashura had finally started opening up to Reavan. It was good, he was improving and she was glad. Once Maya went downstairs, they resumed the conversation.

Reavan started, “So, I guess you already know why I am here. Ashura pretends to guess; though he knew for certain that it was about the fifteen-year-old girl’s case, “I think I do, well what are you here for anyway?”

Reavan tries to pilot the conservation and responds, “umm, so how are your injuries from the last time?” he looks at Ashura’s bandaged hands and continues, “Hope you changed your dressing since I dressed it two days ago.”

“Yes”, Ashura keeps his conversation to a one-word answer.

Reavan thus tries so hard to make him speak up.

Ashura wanted to share a lot, there was so much to say but was hesitant. His hesitation was not because of the thought that Reavan might start judging him but because he was shy and awkward for the first time in his life since he had finally got a friend who could be invited to his home.

One should appreciate Reavan’s nature of not giving up, he started asking him about the day of their recent interaction and what had happened to Ashura. He thus spoke, “well, Ashura I'm pretty clear that you don’t have an intention to kill yourself, but thinking about what happened two days ago, are you sure you’re ok? And by the way, what had actually happened? Why did you end up in that state?”

Ashura thinks to himself, pretty straightforward huh? Well, I shall just answer you like I normally do. Guess I am finally getting the hang of it, finally grasping the surroundings. He thus answers, “I have no idea what so ever about why I ended up where you found me. All I know is that I had this peculiar thought that I wanted to get rid of everything, I wanted to run away from it all, just quit them all. but if you ask me am I ok physically, yes but I feel sick mentally”

Completely confused Reavan, trying to help Ashura figure out, further enquires, “have you ever felt like that before? You planned upon killing yourself with a shard of glass, I don’t think you are a person who would go to that extent to die.”

 Sarcastically laughing Ashura replies, “No, I won’t. If I maintain a record of this death, it would be categorized under the dumbest ways to die” realizing that he mocked the dead, his curled lips retract and he has a serious visage. 

Trying to shield what he just said, he says, “usually people tend to suicide in ways that don’t hurt them until the die, the very moment there is struggle for life they would die. One can take an example of any kind of suicide and this is the basic mentality. But knowing she would go that far to cut her own throat, she must have been numb to all the pain….”

 “she? I never told you there was a she” Reavan interrupts.

Knowing clearly well where Reavan was going with this, he confessed the truth and all that he knew about the whispers. Ashura thus spoke, “yes, she, the girl of my age. The thought of her death has been haunting me until now, I still can’t sleep or live peacefully. Its so disturbing as I can see myself in her. The way she has always been lonely and had no true friends. Though I sympathize with her, I have never once considered suiciding an option. But if you have a question as to whose fault was the cause of all this, it was, that of her parents-

-First, her mom for being psychotic and beating her up while she should have served as a support to her. Since children look up to their parents for courage and support, it would have turned out to be better if the mother could have been a bit helpful. Secondly, her father who ran away from the house, he now serves some organization for the sake of his love towards the child as she was other wise used as a bait to threaten him”

Reavan’s eyes widen as he hears a new development in the case. Ashura opens his mouth to speak again but is interrupted by Reavan’s question, “how do you know for certain?!”

Ashura smiles weakly with pitiable eyes, then responds, “I have been hearing whispers since the past one year. It has been telling me about all the crimes that occur in this city with the exact cause and proof of the same.-

-In fact, truth be told, I myself have no idea about the whisperer, but it used to calm my mind. Recently, I have been put under turmoil by the whispers, they no longer sound soft, they sound strong and powerful, they seem to reverberate inside my skull. If I have to put up a comparison, the voice sounds like thousands of barbarians yelling as the dance around the flame. Whenever I get to hear such whispers, I notice that I lose my cognitive abilities and my control over the body. I then have no idea of what actually happened during that particular duration until the whispers calms down-

-Once I gain consciousness, I find myself in a completely different place. Truth being told, that’s why I prefer to have limited furniture inside my room and ask my mom to keep the door locked. If not done so, I end up walking towards the weapon with which the victim was killed almost at the same time as that of the crime.”

Reavan finds it all crazy and weird, but doesn’t react or comment unlike the normal humans. Reavan was a logical person and knew Ashura to be so too, though he wasn't certain if the kid was completely sane, he couln'd find any other logical explanation as to why he knew something more than that of the investigator himself. Lucky, that Ashura chose to tell Reavan about it, it might end up being beneficial for both the parties.

After Ashura finished talking, Reavan asks him since when did he start realizing that he might end up killing himself? Ashura repeats, “recently, though I have no clear-cut answer for the same. It’s as if I gave it powers to intensify its nature. Compared to that of earlier, I have started getting better to learn or deduce from what I see-”

 “what, you see?!” Reavan interrupts, 

“yes, how do you think I figure it all out? I witness the whole scenario; I can see it all as if I was the one who got killed.” 

“So, you feel their pain too?” too curious to let him finish, Reavan interrupts again

 “Well, sometimes yes, but sometimes I don’t, I usually end up fainting” 

“so, you are saying that its much more like you enter into being that character for a brief moment where everything including the thought process is that of the victim?” 

“Precisely that!” Ashura was satisfied that Reavan understood, as such infromation wasn't even available for Maya to claim. 

Reavan still processing what he just heard remains silent as Ashura diverts the topic to the reason that he wanted to meet Reavan. He says, “you please be careful in your investigations, and please beware of people wearing cobra tattoos.”

 Distracted Reavan reconfirms what he just heard, “did you just say cobra, why so?”

Ashura was put in a bind, he didn’t know how to break the beans and tell him that he might die in the near future, he also couldn’t come up with anything better.

Thankfully, Maya called them for dinner, he used that as an excuse and promised to tell him the reason the next time they met, but for now he was just warned. In fact, Ashura wasn’t certain about Reavan’s future, it was just a vision, an intuition. Thus, it all depended upon how the future unfolded further.

They both had a good sumptuous meal, Reaven then thanked Ashura and Maya for having him home and left promising Ashura that he will meet up soon.