Birthday

By Kumud Dhankhar

Hello. I’m Owen. I’m fifteen. I don’t play with other kids-mainly because I have no friends. Everything else is...normal. Except that nothing really is. You see, my parents died when I was one in a car accident, or a plane crash, or their death had something to do with them being crushed somewhere, somehow.

Confused? I was too when my foster parents, Jack and Ruth, with whom I have been living since told me different stories every time my parents came up in a conversation, which really isn’t that often- the conversation I mean. They don’t really care about me and they never did, which I am fine with. Whatever. I don’t care. They have a neat little house which I call home, though it never felt like that. Anyways, I have to admit, I was a little curious about why they would lie to me, though it didn’t really matter to me, that’s just how I am. To others, I’m a freak (makes sense). Truth be told, I am just an orphan, living with fake parents who like to think that I don’t even exist, in a house where curses are thrown around like confetti (I haven’t actually seen confetti, just read about it. That’s right. Welcome to my life). I didn’t even know what jobs my ‘parents’ had. Did I care? Nope. There was no reason to. I didn’t even go to school. Jack taught me how to read when I was little, with dying enthusiasm, but I learned fast. In a nutshell, everything about my life is miserable. So, at a very young age, I distanced myself from everything, and everyone. Feelings were a pretence. I just didn’t care.

So, everything was ‘normal’, until the night I turned fifteen. I turned off my bedroom lights as the clock struck midnight and I stopped staring outside the small window like I usually did. So I had survived another year. Huh. Pathetic.

Anyway, as I drifted off to sleep, I dreamt a dream of the most peculiar kind- two robed people- a man and a woman- walking down a narrow alley, eerie moonlight hugging the concrete below. The man carried a bundle of blankets in his arms, while the woman made sure that the coast was clear. The bundle started to wiggle and squirm, and a loud cry- that of a baby- pierced the silence of the night. “Hush now, Owen.” They said, and the woman hummed a lullaby, her soft voice ringing in my ears, like an unsettling, haunting tune that made realisation dawn on me in an innumerable, dreadful ways as the baby lay still, bathing the area in silence once more. “Mother! Father! Wait!” But they kept running, sweat lining their forehead and dripping down their jaws. After yelling some more, I understood that they couldn’t hear me. At this point, my hands were shaking and I had trouble keeping up with them. They suddenly turned a corner, and everything became hazy. I heard a laugh, a despicably evil laugh, somewhat familiar, before my head started to swirl and I opened my eyes to my lightly furnished, grey room, sunlight pouring in. It wasn’t until I began to sit that I realised that I was shaking and my clothes were drenched in sweat.

“What happened?” I thought, and recalled everything, from it being my birthday, to the dream and what happened in it. I was about to dismiss it, but the voice inside my head telling me that it was something different, became louder, till it was all I could hear, loud, driving me crazy. “Nice birthday present” I scoffed as I exited my room to go downstairs, finding the house empty, as usual.

They never remembered my birthday and this time was no different, not that I cared, especially now. I heard the doorknob turn in the main hallway, which meant that someone was coming inside. It wasn’t unusual, and it would be one of them, and we would nod at each other, acknowledging the other’s presence, and would maybe ask something regarding breakfast or just mind our own business. This time though, I instinctively leaped over the low table in the living room and hid behind the sofa, peeking carefully by leaning to the right.

It was Ruth. She carried a duffel bag, looking around cautiously before rushing to the master bedroom. I followed her, careful not to make the slightest sound. I heard the huge almirah door open, and saw her bend down before it, her back to the door where I stood. She felt the almirah’s floor before pushing with both her hands and removed the false bottom! She dumped the bag in there, and restored the bottom before standing up again and finally disappeared in the bathroom. I hid behind the sofa again as i watched her leave the house in a hurry. Then I rushed to the room and opened the almirah, removed the false bottom and peered inside. In there, was a huge, empty space, not enough to fit a human inside, but large enough that it carried a lot of duffel bags packages, and a Glock. I opened a large bag and in it, saw wads of hundred dollar bills. I opened another one, and saw the same. Then, I ripped a package, with difficulty, only to discover white powder gush out. Drugs. That was what they dealt with. They were drug dealers!

I had read about drugs in a queer magazine I once found laying around the house. I was frozen, too shocked to move, even as I heard footsteps in the hallway outside and muffled voices that were of none other than Jack and Ruth. Hurriedly, I grabbed the gun, stuffed it in the back pocket of my jeans, and closed the door, shoving the false bottom beneath the bed beside me.

Then I got up and met them at the door to that room. Surprised, they eyed me suspiciously before asking me what the hell I was doing there in the first place. I, on the other hand, could not think straight and stammered something about using the bathroom as I tried to edge past them. Suddenly, Jack grabbed my wrist and spun me around. “Happy birthday” he said. “Y-you rem-remem”.

“Of course, son” he said and let me go, his fake smile revealing nothing as his cold eyes gazed into mine. Ruth just looked confused. Something was fishy. A wave of brevity overcame me as I remembered that I needed answers and felt that somehow, things were going to change anyway. They were both staring at me as I pulled out the Glock and pointed it at them, staring right back at them, my eyes filled with hatred and anger. After a long time, I was starting to actually feel something, knowing that I wasn’t dead inside after all.

“Tell me. Tell me everything.” I said gravely. Eyes wide, they told me to put the gun aside and to calm down. As I took a step forward, Ruth asked, “ What d’you wanna know?”. “Everything! TELL ME EVRYTHING! My parents...It was you I heard in my dream” I said, looking at Ruth. My voice came out heavy, a voice I didn’t recognize as my own. I stepped in their direction, backing them against the corner of the bedroom. “Okay, okay, we’ll tell you all of it. Just put the gun down” Jack pleaded.

Without even realizing it, I shot his leg and he screamed in agony, as I smiled a purely sinful smile. He clutched his leg and cursed as Ruth began saying, “If only we would’ve been more quick... you don’t think that we didn’t know about today, that I didn’t see you sneaky little good-for-nothing brat sneaking behind me, did you?” and let out a hoarse laugh. “If only I didn’t have that emergency to...wait, you want to know, do you?”

I just stared at her. “So we deal drugs..surprise surprise..it took you long enough to figure that out, you little...”. I shot her leg too and she screamed. Then jack began by saying “your parents... ” He scoffed...”they were poor. They had no money and one child. So they came to us, asking for a ‘job’. It was supposed to be a one time thing. It was nothing major too, just a delivery, but they were so good that we hired them- permanently. So desperate were they..to keep you healthy that they didn’t refuse. Eventually, things got difficult, as they do in this business, and they threatened to leave.” “Then what?!” I yelled.

“Then” Ruth began, they tried to escape.. from us! Can you believe it, they actually thought...” My gaze hardened “Anyway, that night in the alley.. you were only a year old..they decided to run out of the city, and we got wind of it, of course, and we waited for them to walk right to us, to walk to their deaths...”as she let out an evil laugh. “Then we shot them both, and as soon as we were about to shoot you too, we heard sirens, and before we knew it, the cops were there.”

“Jack then grabbed you quickly, hid the gun and I screamed. We convinced them we were victims and that the ‘thug’ ran away.”

“They escorted us to our house and checked with us regularly so we couldn’t kill you..and we soon figured that you were dumb enough to not figure anything out anyway...and we were right, until now”and smirked.

Overcome by rage, I pulled the trigger and the bullet went right through her head. Jack screamed as my own voice, laughter rang out. “Go on” I said “or else”.

“That’s it. Really. Please. You’ve been like a son..” I scoffed “so that’s why you wished me.. you knew...came to finish me off, did you?”

“Listen, Owen, I’m really sorry....just listen to me..”

“You know what, I..forgive you...”

“Really? That’s s-...” He stuttered as I shot him in the head too.

“..Not”.

Only one bullet left. I stood over their dead bodies for a while. No guilt. No remorse.

I went over to the phone and dialled 911 and said that someone had been shot and gave them the address. Then I went to the almirah, poured all the contents out, walked to my bedroom upstairs and looked in the mirror, not recognizing the dishevelled man in front of me, eyes full of hatred and lips curved in a twisted smile.

Then I looked outside my bedroom window and watched the cops. “Officers!” I yelled as they looked at me.

“Nice job.” I said, laughing my heart out, as I put the gun to my head and pulled the trigger.

As I was walking down the distant avenue, lined with a spectacular array of trees of a certain quality that didn’t let much light to pass through and led straight to my humble dwelling at the end of the street, I was reminded yet again of the strange dream I had experienced last night. To put that entire experience or even a part of it in words is a particularly difficult task. The dream was of the most unusual nature, and had left my whole body thoroughly dilapidated as I awoke and watched the sun rise, dazed as if not quite awake.

What was even more unusual was the fact that I had been experiencing this recurring dream for almost a month now. Every time, as if to be tone the utter helplessness of my form in that particular state, I could observe only a singular change every night. The music.

It would perhaps be easier to understand the tumultuous ordeal, after being somewhat familiar with the now frequent procession that I underwent each night.

As I naturally prepared to lie down on my bed each night, I somehow always encountered a feeling of the strangest nature, as if some force, unknown to the inhabitants of the lowly human race, beckoned to me each night, and I found myself inevitably drawn into the stage of sleep, regardless of my will to do so. But it seemed like I had no choice, for once again, I was forced into that dreadful place again which was situated in the depths of my mind and revealed only through unperturbed dreaming. For if I had a choice, I would never set foot in the horrid place again!

Steadily, a world only too familiar unravelevealed before my eyes and began to shape itself around me, for I seemed to be floating around, weightless, though fully conscious of my still surroundings.

I was now facing a mirror. The same one that I happened to face every dreadful night, which met all four corners of an undetectable wall inside some sort of an empty hall I seemed to be trapped in. I could see my frightened reflection and then looked towards the ground. The dark hall in itself wasn’t merely the cause of dread, but it was what lay inside the mirror that gave me goosebumps, which lingered even after I awoke the next morning.

Suddenly, it began. The strange music, with new notes again this once began to fill my ears. It wasn’t the normal pleasant music our ears are accustomed to, but it was entirely different, in a queer manner, unique in itself. My insignificant knowledge of musical instruments allowed only to determine that it seemed to originate from a violin. It’s shrill, extremely eerie and beyond predictable sound rose and fell in a rhythmic manner which chilled my very spine.

Slowly, as I raised my eyes towards the mirror, instead of finding my own dishevelled and undoubtedly pale and fearful appearance, beyond me I only saw unbelievable stretches of-outer space!

I could see galaxies, nebulae, and an endless array of stars which most certainly seemed never to reach an end. It was both magnificent as well as frightening, for slowly, an angelic voice began to accompany that ingeniously horrid music, and I simply stood motionless, in a state of shock and tried to listen carefully. It took me around thirteen nights to make sense of that beautifully daunting, inhumane voice. Now I knew what it said-

‘Set afoot in the land of no return, where happiness and glee you are sure to find. Come here and ye shall learn, the true secrets of brilliant minds. True satori you will discover, inner peace shall find its way. Here you shall lie in bliss, and I warn you not to turn away. I warn you not to turn away!’

It was sung in such unsettling rhythm with the music that I found myself paralyzed with fear. Where was I to go? If I was to step into such depths of space, I knew not, and so I remained perfectly still, staring out into oblivion as the verses kept on repeating themselves inside my head with perfect calm.

The next day was the most terrible of all. It is my worst memory yet and the very thought of it sends me into uncontrollable fits of terror. I remember that day, that I had another particularly nasty fight with a co-worker at the small place I used to work, and was later fired because I was supposedly responsible for creating an ‘unhealthy environment’, whatever that meant. I simply couldn’t help being on edge after such nights.

That night, as I began to drift into that unknown place yet again, the music, with different but equally, if not more frightful tone, filled my ears once more. The voice was shriller today, mocking me, as if it somehow knew how terrible that particular day went. That day though, I decided to finally end the mystery. I knew not what to do, but I was aware that now, I had nothing left to lose.

So, unknowingly, I said as if addressing someone, that I was ready. My voice was steadier than I had expected it to be. But again, I had no real control. As I approached that so-called mirror, staring daftly at astounding nothingness, the music suddenly stopped.

Before I could help myself, two claw-like scrawny hands reached out from below, ice-cold and bluish, and pulled me with them right through that professed mirror into a void- pitch black, apart for some undetectable source of little light before me, wherein stood the most horrific creature I had ever laid eyes on for it was indeed the most dreadful and treacherous sight ever! Amidst the dark pandemonium, stood that most gruesome creature of sorts, with a disturbingly elongated bluish neck, shrivelled cheekbones, and eyes darker than their void-like surroundings and those iniquitous eyes seemed to draw me towards them!

It opened its mouth and laughed the most malevolent laugh one could possibly imagine.

Slowly, I felt very dizzy and almost fainted. With that, the darkness started to engulf me, a queer sort of feeling, and I knew that this was going to be my fate...perpetually.

Then it opened its mouth, only to reveal rotten, fang-like and ugly teeth and a nauseatingly violet, hissing tongue and spoke in the most callous voice imaginable, immediately filling me with utmost melancholy and terror-

‘Fool! I am the shiver that you feel in your spine, the dark shadow you thought you only imagined. And you, my victim, are now mine; and it is because of me that you have sinned.

Now as I shall trap my next victim, your soul will I feed on. The next time someone dreams about The Mirror, it won’t be long before they, too, are gone!’

By Kumud Dhankhar