Zed black was the colour of the room and the only sound that could be heard was of insects in the dark. With no light, electricity and food; Silence spread all around which made Rohan go even duller.
Woken up in the middle of the night, Rohan felt as if someone was trying to dab him with a knife, but the only thing that he could make out was a flashy moment with no-one in the room apart from him and his little cat, Ginny. He stood up, went to check the door, but still found himself locked from outside. Left with no option, Rohan came back to the bed and lay down. Watching the ceiling with no fan, he fell asleep gradually. He was getting the same weird feeling from the last 2-3 days but never found someone there with him in the dark empty room, until that day which changed his life.
Rohan was a 14 year old boy with a round body. His round eyes in the oval cut face with chubby cheeks and outward ears made him a rare personality. His long hair covered his one eye whereas his chin had a round little dent in the centre completing the distinct looks. Small hands with flat stomach and thin legs made him look like a pumpkin on a bamboo stick.
Rohan was Sunil’s nephew, who was the richest man in the town; who owned 3 houses, 2 shops and a few acres of land. Rohan was an orphan since the age of 4. Sunil with his second wife had taken care of him for the last 10 years but the care was just superficial. Rohan had been living in this small dark room all day long for all these years except when he was required to clean the house, do the utensils and attend to the guests etc. Though he never went to the school, he still knew how to read because of his gifted abilities. The only missing thing was his inability to write, which restricted his dreams of doing something big. He was a voracious reader and read many newspaper columns on a daily basis.
That night seemed to be like any other night. After completing the household work during the day, Rohan came back to his room feeling tired. It was already very late and he wanted to go to sleep as quickly as possible, since tomorrow was another busy day at work. Tomorrow was Sunil’s son’s 10th birthday and there was a party in the house. Besides doing all the mundane jobs of cleaning the house, doing the utensils and cooking the sumptuous meal, he had an extra burden of the party. But Rohan was happy and elated to celebrate his cousin’s birthday with enthusiasm.
As he lied down, he spotted a small hole in the ceiling from where moonlight dazzled his small room. Admiring the beauty of what he saw, he dozed off within minutes. Around 3 in the morning, he felt someone’s presence in the room which woke him up but was too afraid to open his eyes. But suddenly, he felt a cold shiver down his spine. The temperature had drastically dropped all of a sudden. Wondering why it was so cold, Rohan opened his eyes. But as soon as he saw the room, he froze with his mouth wide open and shock filled eyes.
The room was filled with white snow kind of smoke. After he got aware of the smoke, Rohan realized that there was someone floating in the air. Though he got terribly scared and froze to death, he tried to notice the bodily structure of that someone. The creature had an absurd face and body. It was tall and slim, had his face directly attached to his shoulders with no neck, a round face with a poky nose and astonishingly the eyes were missing. The black creature had long open hair which along with black gown and black trousers made it not only look creepy but also scary. It did not have any legs and had a shiny belt tied on its waist which was releasing the white smoke that filled the room. Rohan realised that the black gown was touching his legs. As he blinked, he realized that the room had once again turned black.
The room was dead silent and even the sound of a dropped pin could be heard. Gathering all his courage, Rohan stood up. He found Ginny was still sleeping and showed no intentions of getting up soon. The bed side clock showed 4.30 am and the morning hue had started to seep into the room through the small hole. He rushed to the door and tried to unlock it. But the lock was too huge and didn’t even move with all his efforts. Tired and scared, Rohan went back to the bed and lied down and soon went to sleep again. But after few odd minutes, he felt again as if someone was holding his hands and trying to wake him up.
Hell scared, Rohan opened his eyes again and found the same creature standing in front of him. Gathering all energy and trusting his instincts, Rohan got up to face this black creature. Though he was terrified, he somehow knew that it would not cause him any harm. After examining it for few minutes, Rohan realized that it had a familiar face though he was not able to recall it. And then the black creature uttered these words –
“Rohan, get up and listen to me. I am here to help you”.
Rohan was listening to the mysterious creature but was too petrified to comprehend it until he heard these words
“I am here to help you get rid of my evil brother”
YES!!! That black creature was his dad. Shocked by all the events of this night, he listened to the man.
“I am here to help you get rid of my evil brother and his family who is planning to do something really bad with you tomorrow. You must be atrociously scared of me and might not even believe that I am here to help you. But still, I want to help my own blood as I cannot see you suffering anymore. My son, this current demeanour of mine is all because of my misdeeds in the past. When you were born, I hated you as you came in between me, my work and my wife and then took away my wife from me. And till the day I was alive, I hated you and wanted you to always stay away from me. I have never been nice to you, never cared for you and never thought of your goodness. And it is this injustice, which has kept my spirit haunting. But it was too late. Time had slipped through my hands and I was helpless. I wanted to reverse the time and go back to the life to give you all the love and care which you deserved. But god never gave me another chance till today. Today, I am lucky that I got a chance and I am standing here in front of you talking to you and able to express myself. Rohan, you are a big boy now. You understand the good and the bad but then I love you beta and want the best for you.”
Rohan was still not able to see the face clearly and was still too scared to utter a word but his eyes were moist.
The Black man continued, “Rohan beta, I always thought that my brother was a very close friend and a good care taker and he would treat you like his own son, but I was wrong. But still, I am thankful to him for all that he has done for you. He could have left you on the road at a tender age of 4 but he did not. Rohan, now I want you to take charge of your life and stop depending on others. You should decide about what you want in life on your own rather than staying in Sunil uncle’s house. I will open the lock of this room for you and want you to unlock all the other locks in your life yourself and be successful.”
And the next moment, the door was unlocked. It was dawn and Rohan could see the bright road jewelled by crisp morning sunrays. He knew in his heart that it would lead him to great success. As soon as he turned back to check his dad, he only saw a white divine light which was slowly fading away. He tried to open his mouth and speak but nothing came out and the only thing left in his mind was to get out and start a new life ahead for him and for his father’s happiness. J
