Misery

I wake up to the sound of rain splattering on the window pane. 

I had a feeling that, if I look out of my window I will see the skyline of Kolkata as well as hear the buzzing sound of the cars from below. 

But much to my disappointment the skyline was grey and there was a crimson tinge lingering far away in distant skies. 

No, it wasn’t Kolkata but there I could see the sea as well as the horizon, where the sky kissed the ocean. The place was obviously alien to me.  I never anticipated to find myself waking up in a different time zone.

The digital clock says it is six in the evening. And the date below shows 9th Novemeber, 2017. 

Perhaps I am travelling in a time machine, and maybe in the next hour I will move to some distant future. 

The room smells of some kind of antiseptic liquid, and there are stacks of small white bottles placed on the table beside me. I picked up one, and realised they were medicines. Some pills and some liquids.  

I close my eyes and breathe in deeply. The images once again started flashing infront of me. Torn pieces of memories, but they were so fresh as if happened yesterday. According to the calender my clock rewinds a year back and there she is.

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In the cold night I could feel my bones freezing, while I stand infront of her house. She takes a lot of time to get ready and sometimes it crosses my threshold of annoyance. I look up at her brightly lit room and gesture her to come down. 

She waves her hand and dismisses me once again. I could see her pulling the zipper infront of her dress and wearing a jacket just in case. Then cautiously putting on her shoes she finally comes down. 

This night would be a special one and one of the best memories to cherish. My appearance infront of her is so puny and gloomy that people may mistaken me for her brother or maybe an assistant. But in these nights I have been particularly careful to dress well. The elegance of our appearance had already hinted at something grand about to happen. 

I fired up the engine, and reversed my car on the road. Then slowly accelerating we drove on to the main Street and then, I started increasing the speed gradually. The cold was biting on my skin and I was certain of catching a cold.

She has already anticipated the outcome of our 5th Anniversary (Well, not marriage one but just the anniversary of being in love.) and gave me a quick peck on my cheek. I could see her lips were burning with lava red. And her sweet smell made the atmosphere more promising. 

She held my arm and, sang with me the soft tunes of ‘A thousand years.’ 

The tears on the corner of her eyes, never left mine all this while and all my plans came down on my knees when the handkerchief she gave me, bear the word YES stitched with red. 

I was overwhelmed by the emotions flooding me and for a split second my eyes went off the road and my fingers left the grip on the steering wheel. 

The car swayed unnaturally and then, entered the opposite lane, before having a head-on with a truck. 

Her grip loosened and then, I could see her body twisting and getting burried in the mass of metal and foam. 

My pain was excruciating and my agony was boundless. I started screaming until I blacked out and slipped past every senses.

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I woke up with a jolt. 

My throat was dry and moistureless. My eyes wet from the vision I had just now. 

I know I have survived that somehow, but this future which I’m living in looks so lonely and forlorn. The thunders crackling from the sky, is a warning that, 

agony and despair has kept it’s pace with time and have visited me in this future to disturb me in my absence.