The clamour of Rohingyas who were chasing Win Thura was ominously getting closer. Win Thura felt like his chest would explode at any moment. Despite the tremendous urge to stop and rest, he kept running like a hare being chased by a pack of hungry wolves. He ran as fast as he could. And so did his pursuers. The closer they got, the stronger the urge was in him to climb a tree. He came under a huge banyan tree, and like a monkey, scrambled all way up to the top. From the top, he could see the mobs gathering around the foot of the tree. As far as he could see, there was nothing but a sea of angry mobs. In the meantime, a man with a sharp machete had already been climbing like an expert. Win Tura prepared himself to confront the man with his stick. The man had medium height, a slender face and brown complexion. He looked so familiar to Win Thura. But he couldn’t remember exactly where he had met him. Then the man came within ten feet from him. With a dirty grin, he stood on the branch where Win Thura had taken shelter. Like white pearls, almost all his teeth were clearly exposed. In order to hit the man, as Win Thura raised the stick over his head, with utter contempt the man said to Win Thura “What’s the matter, don’t you remember, who I am?”

Unwittingly it came out of Win Thura as a whisper, “Nuru, isn’t that you?”

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Right at that moment, his feet slipped, and he was gripped by a sinking feeling in his chest. Just before crashing onto the ground, Win Thura’s eyes opened. He sat on his bed only to find his whole body drenched in sweat. He removed his robe from his shoulder and tried to get himself dried under the fan. For a while, he sat there as if he was in a trance. In his life, rarely he had nightmares at night. During his childhood once he saw himself getting burned. On another occasion, he saw himself murdering someone. Apart from these, he had no memories of nightmares in his life. He couldn’t stop wondering about the meaning of this nightmare. Could it be that he was being tormented by the souls of the dead Rohingyas? The very thought produced a wicked grin on his lips. He shrugged off his anxieties, and stood up. When he opened the windows, the eastern sky had already taken up a fair look. Only a day earlier he transferred his chamber to the fourth floor of the building. He turned on the electric lamp on his table. Then he lit some incense sticks, his intention was to cleanse the chamber from unholy spirit. Subsequently, he circled inside the chamber with the incense holder in his hand. After this ritual of purification, the young priest took out a washed robe and a towel from his elmira and left the chamber for the washroom. After taking a bath, for meditation he planned to sit before the Buddha statue situated inside the hall room of the first floor. It would be followed by a session of recitation from the sacred scripture and distribution of rice to his disciples. However, this daily routine could not be followed because of the arrival of a guest from Aung Syke.