Chapter 1
The Beginning
“In a darkness infested night
while everyone sleeps in your PG house, you suddenly wake up feeling thirsty
and you get up to drink some water. It was a harmless thing to do but while
passing by the nearby room towards the refrigerator, suddenly something pass by
your sight, you see someone sitting in the bed and looking at you. You are
afraid to turn to that side. You know that, that room was unoccupied by anyone
since your friend left for his native.
What if you steal a glance with
your hindsight and see, ‘Something’ instead of ‘Someone’? Something whose eyes
are naturally red and tongue long and dropping and the moment it senses it got
someone’s attention; it tries to call you waving its hands at you. The bed
doesn’t seem to move but that something, sitting there, tries hard to move; is
restricted to come down from the bed. It is human but dreadfully
You have two choices: to look at it,
confront it and let the fate decide what happens next or just move towards the
refrigerator, drink your water and go back to your room without turning towards
that room.”
There was complete silence in the
auditorium; his voice produced an eerie effect. His eyes were intense with fear
which he had transferred into the minds of his listeners. They sat there frozen
and clutching the armrest with their fingers fearing what unfortunate thing
they would hear next.
“This is the story of fear and
monsters. They are real but not here”, he waved at the surroundings.
“But inside your head”, He added
with a bright smile.
The lights went on and that was
when everyone breathed their relief.
A young man not more than 26
stood on the stage with his one hand hanging freely and the other holding a
book with the title “Believe in me”. His dark brown eyes smiled at his
audience. He was not enormous tall but not short, just the right height. His
jet black hair fell over his face as if it could not spend a second without
touching his face. He was happy for something.
“Thanks for the brilliant
speech”, an elderly lady came up to the stage and congratulated him.
“Ashwin was one of the few
writers from our organization and we are happy to have him here explaining very
much about fear and all the monsters from his debut novel ‘Believe in me’.”
Ashwin beamed at the audience.
“Our organization got talents and
our Book Week is all about bringing it out. We wish Ashwin, All the best and
successful in his future endeavors.”
With that, she presented a gift
wrap to Ashwin. Ashwin accepted it with gratitude and spoke.
“Friends… I seriously never
expected such a big audience for me. 150 seats full, for a writer that’s what he
could ever ask for.”
He continued, “And I know that,
most of you guys might be here to collect the prizes from the Book week events.
I understand the management’s strategy involved in keeping you here.”
He smirked and the crowd
applauded.
“But still I am happy. Any
Questions!!!”
There were questions about how he
started writing, how he became an author and how hard it was to get a publisher
these days. Ashwin answered all those questions with enthusiasm.
A hand threw itself upward and
the mic went to it.
“Are you afraid of something?”
The question was very much blunt but it took all of Ashwin’s attention towards
the questioner. The voice belonged to a young girl, pretty and confident,
wearing a white kurta, blue jeans and a pair of glasses. She was pretty with a
round face and a perfect nose to hold the glasses.
“Hmmm we all are, are we not?” Ashwin
deflected.
“You must be afraid of something
in particular. It is pretty common in human beings that everyone holds a kind
of extreme fear for a particular something. Some are afraid of heights, bats
and even their own shadow.
What is that particular something for you?”
Ashwin’s eyes widened with
surprise. She was an intelligent girl and definitely well read too. Ashwin was
pretty much impressed with her question but he couldn’t possibly put his
deepest fears for the outside world’s view.
“That was a brilliant question
but I don’t have anything like that”, Ashwin resigned.
“You are lying”, she smiled and Ashwin
didn’t expect such a reaction from her but still he reciprocated the smile.
The old lady interrupted the
conversation which was about to happen.
“Thanks for the questions and we
definitely now know a lot about publishing and writing novels. It was nice to
have you on the stage. Thanks Ashwin.”
Ashwin said, “The pleasure was
all mine”
Ashwin got down from the stage
and took his leave from his audience who came and accompanied him outside the
auditorium. It was a moment of glory for him. He was a debut novelist and his
first speech was delivered in the same organization where he worked with. It
was a dream for him but it happened after long efforts.
“Fear is what that made me stand
here”, he said to himself.
Continued...
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