DELILAH

"Sometimes the monsters are...you."

 “The moment that wooden moon-shaped thing smashes against his head, he slowly descends towards the floor and his body drops down with a thud. Bright red fluid starts to ooze out of his head and suddenly a montage image of a female hand holding that wooden moon, which is dripping with blood, collides in between. There is a jazzy butterfly tattoo on her wrist. Eventually, a lifeless body of a lady tumbles over the ground, parallel to his body,” elucidating my hideous dream to my best friend on the other end of the call, I wipe off the hot sweat trickling down my face.

“I’ve heard this scene a million times Maya, tell me what happened after that?!” she asks inquisitively as curiosity got the best of her. 

"Then what, as usual, today also I could see none of their faces. When they were about to turn towards me, my doggo dragged me out of my bed and right now we both are standing in the middle of the road, trying to figure out who is walking who,” huffing and puffing to catch a breath, I stare at my golden retriever who is tugging the leash to walk me

“Holy lord, why? Just why can’t they reveal their faces already? This is getting tiresome Maya!” she sounds exasperated.

“Heera, I do understand your irritation, but I have no say in this. I feel there might be an important reason which is yet to unfold behind this puzzling dream - I can feel it in my bones. So let’s hang on for a while okay” consoling my miffed friend I trudge back home with my golden boy, Cerberus.

-

A cluster of little kids barges out as I open the door of my room. On normal days my room is off-limits for outsiders and kids, but today my whole house is brimming with relatives as it’s my brother’s wedding tomorrow and I can’t do much about my little cousins and nephews raiding my room.

Once the coast is clear I walk in with a cup of hot coffee, rummaging through my phone to find the contact of the catering service.

Suddenly my left foot toe dashes against something firm.

Wincing in pain I look up from the phone and my eyes rove through the room. Letting out a tired sigh at the sight of the unlatched treasure chest of my old toys, I grab that rigid object from the floor.

It’s an antique wooden box. A sheeny butterfly-shaped latch on the side of that worn vintage box vaguely defines the age of that box.

I’ve seen this wooden case in my chest box since infancy, but as a kid, this bygone box never hauled my attention amongst the pile of those colourful toys. This is the first time I’m going to explore this box.  

The moment I touch the latch, a shaft of current suffuses my system.

The box opens with a feeble screech revealing a wooden figure.

Scrutinizing the crescent-shaped object more closely, I figure out that it’s a half sun toy and I spot a few hooks in the side of the toy. Seems like this is just one part of a whole disk-like toy and hooks are provided to conjoin another half of this toy.

Time elapses as I continue to stare at it and something feels oddly familiar about this toy

My pupil dilates in sudden realization, this sun figure downright resembles the moon figure, with which that stranger is attacked in my dream.

My curiosity soars aloft and my finger reaches for the toy.

Tracing the patterns over the border of the toy my finger halts at the centre part, where an emerald green stone is embedded and the toy starts to glow out of the blue. 

Before I could realize what’s happening, elusive energy whacks my mind sharply and all I can feel before wholly losing my consciousness is my soul falling into a dark hollow of the void.