Without looking at the being. Vishwa realise the entity in front of him was trying to read him. If he tried anything he would die in an instant.

‘Strange…bei…’ the being said.

Vishwa flinched.

Vishwa had heard him for the first time. It sounded as the sound of someone who hadn’t spoken for a long long time, and had been having trouble just saying something.

Vishwa didn’t knew the language spoken by the being. At first he thought he has misheard it. But it seemed like the thing in front of him was saying something similar to ‘strange being.’

It came out as disjointed but he was able to understand it.

The being continued, ‘A… Stra…nge….bei….is….protec…ou.’

Vishwa was surprised by the choice of words by the being, such that he wasn’t able to keep his expression in check.

‘Huh’ The instant Vishwa said that. A knife appeared in the being’s hand. Now that he was just inches away from the being he was able to see clearly, the knife was not made of some metal. But it was made of bones.

Vishwa saw the being just flicking the knife from where he was standing. At first he thought, was the being playing with the knife.

But the next instant he stopped. Because his thoughts had gone blank. A thin line had appeared on his neck, if one were not careful they wouldn’t have been able to see it. But Vishwa had felt it.

Because the next instant he saw his rolling head looking at the crouching body of a boy in poor clothes without a head.

‘It will start again.’ That was his last thought before he was engulfed by the all familiar darkness.

Gasp

Vishwa gasped for breath. A stinging pain came from his nose. This was something new. Vishwa tried to touch his nose. More pain assaulted him, forcing him to keep his hands away.

‘What is it, this time,’ Vishwa thought he had gotten used to mysteries. But now he was in a new place and he didn't seem calm anymore.

Numerous thoughts crossed his mind. ‘Is this another one of those streets. The ghost must be responsible for it. Is it a new scenario of some kind?’

‘You must have been feeling quite some pain.’ A voice came from near him. Someone had spoken to him.

Vishwa felt like this time, it wasn’t a dream anymore.

Vishwa looked at the speaker. The person was calmly eating an apple.

‘Why are you here,’ Vishwa recognised the person. Though he hadn’t seen this person in months, he couldn’t just pretend that he didn’t know the person.

‘As you can see, I am taking care of you,’ The boy said, taking another bite of the apple.

‘But why, you were out of the village weren’t you,’ said Vishwa, looking perplexed.

‘I was, but I got a break, and I have completed what I had to do. So I came back to spend some restful days in this cozy village.’ The boy said his eyes glittering before Vishwa.

Vishwa tried to sit halfway. But it was accompanied by much struggle. His muscles were screaming with every visible turn and twist. That was still better than that accursed dream.

The boy saw Viswa in his own imagination. He mistook it for, the shame he must have felt getting beaten by those bullies.

‘Don’t worry too much about it.’ The boy said.

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Vishwa looked at the boy in confusion.

‘I know, you must be feeling anger and shame on yourself for what happened in the market. But it isn’t your fault. You were surrounded by people much stronger than you, I am sure, giving you time, you will be stronger than them.’ said the boy, consoling Vishwa.

Vishwa was giving strange looks to the boy.

‘But how did you know,’ Vishwa asked the boy.

‘Huh, who do you think carried you all the way to this village hospital from that far.’ The boy said, he was astonished that Vishwa was even considering this question.

But Vishwa hadn’t realised. So he asked inquiringly, ‘Who was it?’

‘Are you dumb. Of course it was me, who carried you all over.’ The boy said, looking at the dumb looking Vishwa. He continued, ‘If I hadn’t been there at that time and made a false alarm about the police. I don’t think it would have been just your nose.’

The boy looked at Vishwa’s face.

Vishwa reached his hand toward his nose, but this time he was gentle with it. He felt the smell of antiseptics and the bandages it had been wrapped around his nose.

Vishwa hadn’t realised that had been the case. It was true if he hadn’t been there when those had surrounded him. It might have been much worse for him.

Vishwa felt a genuine gratitude for the boy and said ‘Thank you’.

The boy just shrugged it off, making gestures with one of his hands. ‘No worries.’

Vishwa sat silent for a few moments. The boy didn’t mind and continued eating the apple.

The dream had been perplexing, especially the nightmare within. And the strange thing that the being had said before killing him. Just thinking about all of it was giving him headaches.

Vishwa decided to ask something else from the boy.

‘So tell me June, how was the job. Working with the underworld. It must have been quite an experience.’ asked Vishwa to June who had eaten the apple, and was playing with the remains.

June looked in VIshwa’s direction.

‘It was alright. Underworld is certainly a dangerous place. Working between criminals and lunatics who might do something to you, if they think you have something they want. It was an experience. But I learned to mingle among them, not too much. Just enough that I could get information out of them. And certainly I have seen a lot.’ June said with a shake of his head. He continued, ‘I got used to it.’

Vishwa saw a certain confidence in June’s words and manners. Such that it felt like he was talking to an adult. Vishwa was overwhelmed with emotions in an instant.

Vishwa and June certainly had a good friendship in the past. Such that Vishwa would just go and road around June.

June as Vishwa remembered had always been the bigger one, if he guessed June was certainly around 20 years old. Three years older than Vishwa.

But their experience had been world apart. June had lost his parents at a young age. His education and everything was taken care of by funds his parents had accumulated. But it had run out. And June wasn’t someone who was much interested in schooling and education anyway. So he decided to try his luck in earning money.

Vishwa was someone who hadn’t seen much of the world. Whereas June must have experienced the worst the world could get.

And he earns from the worst too. But it was alright with Vishwa. At Least he was earning. Not like he, who would just scoop around the neighborhood to try and find some news he could sell to his boss.

‘You have changed June,’ Vishwa said with emotion.

‘What is with you getting sentimental all of a sudden. I don’t like it one bit.’ June said. He looked calm on the front. But Vishwa knew, he just wasn’t comfortable with showing emotions.

So Vishwa changed the topic. It was something he was very much curious about.

‘You said, you had been to different towns, what were they like?’ Vishwa asked. His expression was like that of a child who was curious about the wonders of the world.

‘Well let’s see, the towns, they are much bigger than the villages. In a sense if you think of a town consisting of a village. Try constituting 10-20s of them. That is how wide a town is.’ June said relishing his own knowledge about the town scale.

Vishwa thought it must have been pretty huge. His village, as far as he could tell, consisted of 100’s of families. It also included places like the market. The local pond and the agricultural farm and many more.

‘So big!’ Vishwa said.

‘And that isn’t all, you know there are many villages who come under a town, that is, their governance and maintenance as such are the responsibility of the likhit town.’

‘The people there wear fancy clothes, not like us,’ June said. Vishwa looked at his own clothes which were torn due to the constant usage. ‘You know, you can buy 10’s of village clothes with the money to buy a set of those fancy clothes.’

‘The wages too, they are higher than here. But the competition then is higher too.’

‘And the education system. I have not visited any of them but I have heard there are many big schools and there is even a university. You heard it Vishwa ‘UNIVERSITY’. They are so grand. You know the rich people, they send their kids to those universities.’ June was making gestures. He too was getting fun from telling Vishwa.

They hadn’t realised, but some of the other patients had started listening to June talking about towns at one point or other. Some had expression of nostalgia, while some just shook their head as if trying to shake off bad memories of the town, and there were others like Vishwa too who listened to June like he was messenger of some kind.

‘And there is another thing.’ June said. Vishwa was listening intently. It was as if he wanted to absorb all of it.

‘Electricity’ June said. Vishwa repeated behind him ‘ elekriti’ with a fascinated expression.