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Underground

By P Sasikanth

Two small eyes peeped out of a small hole near the public drain. It’s the rat, its small eyes were intensely focused on the thrown over food near its hole. But its heart, with the fear of a predator was alert ready burst to like an alarm, . Finally raising the high stakes on his life, it leapt out into the world, the light. Quickly grabbing the food, it ran back in, and peeped out again in exhaustion, a wave of relief passed over, as the mission for that day was successfully accomplished. It peeped out again, why was it afraid so much? It didn't understand. It went in, into the darkness, his own underground home.

It lives alone, and always yearns for company. In contrast to the outside world his home is a dark maze, in the beginning it wanted to run away from it, but where could it go? Into the outside world of predators? Waiting to devour him the moment he steps out? No, he’s not gonna take that risk yet. True that he feels dead bored inside, in his tiny hole, alone, stinky and dark; in order to deal with it he nurtured a hobby, every time he felt bored, he digs the hole much deeper. Not that he is curious but he’s bored. Sometimes he digs horizontally, and sometimes vertically upwards or sometimes he just digs straight down. When he thinks he reached enough depth he starts digging from another direction. Like this he created a whole maze inside. Some lead him out, some, to a dead end, and some, just nowhere. He was addicted to his hobby so much that soon he forgot his curiosity for the outside world, he forgot his loneliness, his boredom everything. He dug it without any conscious plan or purpose. He just dug it, sometimes with blind passion, with reckless rage, or with brutal strength; with anything he felt at that moment. This went on for a while, the maze which started at the periphery grew into the depths of the underground, and expanded into an enormous one.



One day the rat felt tired and wanted to quit his hobby, the old curiosity for the outside world sparked again. Irrespective of his fears, he wanted to go out, and enjoy the tasty drink called freedom that everyone else was enjoying. That day the rat went along with his hobby half-heartedly. He felt the same on the next day too, and on the next to next day too. As days dragged on, the curiosity and the disinterest for his hobby spiked simultaneously.

One day the rat took a break from digging, to have some food. It was unable to find it's way back. It ran horizontally, vertically, downwards and upwards. All it saw again and again were the dead ends, the crossing over tunnels leading one to another and the intersections of different tunnels. Fear amplified beyond its capacity to handle it. The darkness around looked like a demon, ready to devour it the moment it closed its eyes. Its heart ran faster than its legs, desperately searching a way out. It prayed for the walls of the maze to collapse but nothing happened. Every attempt of his, to get out were wasted. It got stuck there forever. The maze never collapsed. And the rat got stuck there forever.


By P Sasikanth




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kiran sai
kiran sai
May 26, 2023
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.

Wonderful

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jhilmil swapnalin
jhilmil swapnalin
May 23, 2023
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.

Great!

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