In The Dark

 In The Dark

Dark marking the depth of night, stillness assuring its longevity, and stars its nakedness, while street lights marking the limit of its reign. 

Through the specialized night vision floating hypothetical eyes and with an animal's hearing we scanned the world around us. The village beneath is all quiet and still, but alive like a hibernating animal in a deep sleep. Highway in the North, and not too broad road circling around the rest three directions marking the Amoebic shape of the village. Streets like arteries are stretching to the ends of the boundaries while some are disappearing within like capillaries. Midnight has approached and the village is all hushed and seem to be in a mysterious deep sleep.  

Floating in the dark sea like a fish in the air, somewhere inside the thicket of black sheet, although the thicket of black sheet isn't the thing we needed to camouflage our presence since we have no material presence at all: no body, no sense, no nothing, we are just two invisible prying eyes floating in the mid-air we keep on scanning the area. 

Without any specific intention we keep on lingering in the mid air right in the heart of the dark sea. There is a profound silence here. Anyone who will hear the silence will sink deep into it, such is the intensity of it. For not long we are flying in this dark world then we hear a cry. Caw, from somewhere inside the pitch black darkness comes the crying of the crow, with a sinister sense it disturbs the stability of the night, but for us this is a signal. A signal that now we should descend down. The glow from the street the very instant the crow cried had gone. It’s a power out. Taking advantage of the situation, the dark quickly engulfs the village. Now everything is dark down below as well. No light limiting the kingdom of the darkness.   

Flying like a bird, smoothly cutting the air, as if diving into the sea, we start descending down, every passing second we are closing the surface, the world of the village is zooming. Now that we are closer we have a better look at the village, the cows, the buffaloes, trees, the senseless architecture of the houses, the special night vision eyes can gather much more details than before. We flap our imaginary wings prepared to land. We fly past a big Peepal tree, its long dropping branches looks like some ancient creature's body - even a holy being like Peepal took such a sinister look in 'the dark' : dark paints everything regardless of sanity or stature. Flying past the big peepal tree smoothly, dictating every move of a bird adroitly, we perch against a room on the roof of a house. There's a young boy inside the room, that's where we have to go.

Standing outside on our imaginary legs we scan through our special night vision eyes the surroundings. It’s an ordinary ancient roof, ages old. A stairway joining it to the world below it and a room in one corner stands over it. From outside not much can be said about the room, except for the fact that it is a rather small room.  

With sure yet cautious imaginary steps we come to stand against the open door of the room. Standing there we sniffs the silence inside the room, and analyzes the darkness. For reasons unknown both elements seem somewhat a degree higher than outside - the reign of darkness at its epitome. It seems like the darkness inside could swallow anything and everything, while the silence could multiply it beyond our imagination. After making a quick note of all these facts we stepped inside the room in a similar cautious fashion - one imaginary step at a time. 

As we entered the room our dog's strong sense of smell sniffed salty sweat from the air. Human Presence. Two steps more and we reach halfway in the room. Standing there we give time to our special night vision eyes to adapt to the degree of darkness inside. 

About a minute has passed since our appearance in the room or it seemed like a minute at least, the eyes are all set to scan the dark room - such specialized eyes. Running the eyes around the room in a quick free movement - a moment that only a set of specialized eyes hanging in the mid air can do - we take a rough note of the dimension of the room. As expected the room is rather small. We make an imaginary tick mark on the imaginary note we had made previously about the size of the room. 

Turning the eyes at right angle anti-clockwise, and scanning straight we capture the sight of a bed - dull in appearance and bad in condition. Nowhere near to fluffy, rather tough like a sheet yet comfortable. A young boy lies in the bed, asleep. SEA, the name of the boy. We know this without having been told so by anyone. It is pronounced like ‘C’, but is written in all capital letters, S-E-A, all three letters in the same fashion like if weighted they should have to weigh the same.

He lies still in the middle of the bed like a log of tree. We observe him for a time. Perhaps it can be said that we are peeping in on him. Our angles change in the mid-air taking different shots of his body. A radiant calm is sparking through his bony face. He lies with his head on the pillow as if looking up at the pattern of the ceiling. He isn’t, in fact, looking at anything. His eyelids are closed tight, even the dark could hardly make its way through them. He is deep in sleep. Perhaps as deep as his name, as if seated deep down in depths of his own sea, where no sound can reach, no light can penetrate - a perfect fortress for a   deep sleep. He is so dead still maybe he isn't even dreaming at all. 

There is however something unnatural about this sleep. It is too perfect, too deep, even better than a baby's sleep. Not a muscle of his body moves. Each part of his body seems to be relaxed unevenly. Limbs falling punctured on either side, slender neck bearing the remnants of faint breathing, some remnants of respiration can be seen in the very subtle movement of the belly. His slim but solid body remains totally still without showing even a flinch, such a total surrender of consciousness. 

Losing consciousness can't be fatal for sustaining the major function of life, the heart beat, respiration, all these things are ingrained deep in the head of the human brain, that means for the material body going in such a deep sleep should be of no problem. So, however dead still the boy is in his sleep and so lost of consciousness, he is still lingering at the edge of existence very well. But what or how this condition was brought about we yet have no way of knowing. Despite the humidity and warmth in the room, his body is cold as if he is enveloped in ice. Clearly something here is incomprehensible and needs to be explained. This is all we can conclude for now. 

The two floating dark vision eyes darted back slowly, now ready to capture the entire room. The hypothetical non-existential night vision specialized  floating eyes are in search for some clues. This is of course the room belongs to a boy, for it's almost plain, and shows no taste of decoration. No posters or calender, but three paintings lined simultaneously side by side. Two of them showing landscapes - apparently one of sunset and another of sunrise - and the third painting show seven white horses running under the calm of a full moon sky. No painting in particular stands out, in fact they look very ordinary, and the condition they are in - all dusty and gloomy - they perfectly blend with the mood of the room. Paint from the green colored wall is peeling everywhere making shapes which look like souls stuck under them. Just below the paintings are two pairs of sockets, kind of like a ventilator or skylight, though because of size they seem helpless to be any of it. The sockets open in the outside world, which gives them the appearance of two eyes of this small world of room. 

There is a bookshelf  stuffed with academic books or rough notebooks. Beside the bookshelf, facing the wall, there is an old wooden desk and two stiff old wooden chairs, though their appearance making no coordination on the similarity of their origin, their age appeared quite the same. The desk is stuffed in books, though not only books there are pens, a thin black hp laptop, earphone, charger, a red capped box having almonds inside are scattered all over it in no particular order. Such a complete mess and chaos. Just opposite the table is a window giving a broad view of the dark world outside. Beside the desk is of course the bed, and above the bed is a big self all stuffed in things which must have their usefulness only during harvest times. 

Until now nothing of importance has shown. Our suspended two sets of eyes keep moving freely in the space, facing now a dresser with a mirror attached. Laying beside the mirror is a big box and some weights for exercise. 

Our suspended camera, having no hypothetical existence, picks and lingers over things like this in the room. We are invisible, anonymous intruders, but intruder is the very wrong way to describe our presence. We just watch, listen, and note smells. We have no material existence. We leave no traces behind. And we alter nothing and disturb nothing. 

For some moments, which seems like a very long time in such a dark and husky night, we keep lingering in the mid-air stationary undecided where to go, and what to do. We casually made another detailed survey of the room. 

Momentarily our field of view is fixed in a place, as if stuck by some thought, and starts approaching there at that selected place. We are attracted by some shine in the corner of the room where the dresser stood with a mirror attached. It was just a momentary flash, like a latch happening for just a fraction of second, but our specialized eyes didn't let even that small change go unnoticed. Such fine eyes.   

We are standing in front of a metre long and an elbow width mirror, very ordinary in shape. Nothing seems strange about it. It isn't reflecting us which explains it still binds to the natural physical laws. Instead it is reflecting the bust of the sleeping boy named SEA, his face equally calm, his muscles equally relaxed, it seems so real that we stretch our imaginary hand to touch him. But as we touch the mirror with our imaginary hand, there comes a faint cracking as if snow is breaking on a sunny morning. 

We hold our breath and listen. Nothing follows. The same quiet, the same dark. We waited. We waited for a long time. All the while our eyes are fixed on the mirror but nothing strange happens. It seems to have reverted to being the same ordinary mirror. 

Just as we are putting our guard down the faint cracking comes  again, and a bright image shows on the mirror just for a second. As if life crosses through the mirror the mirror screen starts flickering unsteadily. That's an inexplicable phenomena. Where does that life in the mirror come from? Is it some special mirror? Is there some kind of trick? But no speculation seems likely. Assuming that these kind of things happen in a dark night like this we shrug off the matter - logically and theoretically. That's a good enough and simple explanation for us. 

Bright lines appear, flicker, break up, and vanish. The faint very subtle cracking follows up every time but only before the appearance of the image. Soon, we can see a diagonally deformed image. It is the kind of images we had on old TV when TV's antenna was being displaced by a strong wind or a bird or something. Those were the days of Doordarshan. 

The sleeping boy appears to be totally unaware of the commotion. He is a sleeping silent sea. And surprisingly the light from the mirror isn't disturbing the dark of the room even for a bit. That's another strange thing. Like us this flickering image on the mirror surface is a silent intruder. But unlike us it bears a kind of ominous intention, we sense them intuitively. Unlike us it will try to intervene at some point. 

Still the image on the reflecting surface of the mirror is coming and going, but its stability is increasing. However, it's too early for us to make sense out of the image since it is too hazy and bends up.

As before we sit still. We see. We hear. And we wait. We do not want to miss even a single change. We are like a cautious predator all set to capture his prey. 

5 minutes has passed since the mirror's surface has started to show flickering images. Still the image on the reflecting surface of the mirror comes and goes, but its stability is increasing gradually which has been happening since the very first such flicker, in an order like some sort of mathematical sequence has applied to it, though we hadn't noticed it first. Only when the picture is gradually becoming a lot clearer do we come to notice this change, but still it's hard to interpret what the image is all about, for it seems now kind of like light flared images since There are so many bright dots and colors are mixed.  

Waiting, sitting still, listening, watching, a long time has passed or it is what seems, the image has finally reached a decent enough stabilization. But as we see this stabilized image now, this seems less like an image and more like a live TV broadcast of a place unknown. 

The picture shows a big room, profoundly bright as if light bulbs are fitted in bulk everywhere, that can be seen in the mirror surface. In the middle of the room sits a person on a sturdy wooden chair, his back straight. The build of the person seems to be that of a man. He is wearing a long sleeve pale-blue shirt plain and ironed carefully. A plain blue tie. Seems not good in taste but decent. He has black-professional pants covering his legs, and black leather shoes shining in both feet. A gentleman's attire. His build is strong, and presence remarkable. And the way he is sitting there in the middle of the room - so calm and still - he must be in a deep thoughtful state like a Buddha meditating in the forest. Though his face is in a little dark and seems all covered in a kind of opaque membrane, even our special night vision eyes fail to form the features or the shape of his face. It seems he, or someone who isn't he, is trying to hide this man's face. Well, if this is the real intention, that's a neat way to do it. The man is of medium height and has a good build, but predicting his age is a difficult task. The images are still breaking now and then. It will take some more time to reach a stabilization.

Another long time has passed; all the while we are focused on the mirror, because no matter what we don't want to miss even a minor change. We See, we listen, and we wait. This is our motto. Nothing has changed in the picture since last time, except the room seems to be contracting little by little. Besides this all things are the same: the room was stuffed bright, the man maintaining the same thoughtful position and the chair too is at the same place as before.

Just now, something has come up on the screen. It’s a message written in red exquisite letters. The message reads, “We are the extension of our rooms.”

What does that mean? Or does that even mean anything? No, that must mean something otherwise why was it displayed on the screen. And who are we? The message faded away in a real slow motion like morning mist disappearing as the sun shone on it. The screen reverted to the same old scene. Oh wait, it seems the position of the man's chair has been changed, or it can be due to the slow shrinking of the room. But the camera isn’t stopping here this time, it looks like it is zooming slowly. 

 We have no idea how much time has passed, but right now the image is zooming and focusing on the leftmost wall. The close up scene of this side of the wall seems like a night sky filled with uncountable twinkling stars. We thought there would be a bulk of light bulbs but it seems like there are far more light sources than we had anticipated. Slowly the camera filming on the other side of the mirror moves along in a circular radius taking to the left always, taking close detailed shots, focusing on each and every thing, making sure every detail must be covered, not that there is anything to be seen until now: the room is seemingly plain and empty.

Scanning, the inside camera has reached the front wall which is all the same as the previous one except there seems to be more blue lights here rather than yellow. 

Another right turn. The right hand wall is visible now, it is little less bright and as we are approaching towards the edge, the darkness too is approaching gradually. At last with slow deft movements this side of the room has been covered as well, nothing new is seen until now. But what is next? What is at this side which is hidden from us all the while? The camera halts. Is that the end? Please just one flash, at least show us one flash of this unseen side. As if listening to our appeal the camera on that side moves, now it is dragging in a snail’s movement. 

Black. Dark. Nothing. There is nothing on the screen but darkness. How can there be so dark on one side when there is so bright on the other three sides, that’s strange. However, because of the slow drag of the inside camera there is plenty of time for our special night vision eyes to adjust to the darkness of this side. 

As the picture is clearing bit by bit, we can see a small section of a room on this side. There is a table, a chair, and a bed - no one is sleeping on the bed. Isn’t this the same bed? Without a doubt this is the same bed and the same room we had entered in at first. As freely as we can, we move our eyes one- eighty degrees behind. 

Impossible, there is no bed behind us. We aren’t even in the same dark room. Instead there is a wall, a bright wall. And the bed we can see is displayed on a screen which seems to be a telecast scene from some other world.

 When did that happen? When did we transfer to this side of the world? There is no longer any man in the room but we - our hypothetical specialized night vision eyes. There is also an unevenness at this side of the world as well. The reality here seems to be crumbling every second, the walls are closing in; and though we are hypothetical point of view having no material body, but just two hypothetical non-existence eyes, yet we too are experiencing the consequences of being in an unstabilized world; our existence too feeling the threat of expunging. We are connected to the room. Yes, there is no doubt in it: we are connected to the room. It’s like what is shown on the screen before the camera zooms and starts to scan the room: WE ARE THE EXTENSIONS OF OUR ROOM. Maybe, at this point we are the extension of this room, for as we shake the room shakes, when this room shrinks we shrink as well and as we move this room move as well.

“ The Consciousness is wandering away from the material body. Tell me, what am I - a body, a consciousness, a soul, or something inexplicable: an other worldly thing?” The room speaks. Not like speaking literally, but as we are connected to the room, so we know no one but this room asks this. But how can we answer this - a pure hypothetical point of view - who himself has been surrounded with numerous questions. Where are we? Where did this boy named SEA go? 

The space is crumbling, the room is diminishing. This room’s existence is diminishing. Darkness is increasing. Everything is cracking. The sound of ice breaking on a sunny morning can be heard loudly. And frighteningly our existence is diminishing. Everything is diminishing except the questions which are increasing. And…

An Original Story By Sagar Sharma