◻Elegiac Embers◻
Am I a pest? Until you run away, yes, I'm a crisis. I can reign to rot you. Stop running. Oh, my master, make me your friend.
~FEARS
__________________⚫___________________
Honk! Honk!
He kept pressing the puffed steering with every halt he made with the inch-by-inch move of the traffic.
Agh! This day can't get more exciting.
He sneered as he rolled down the window to look at the stagnant vehicles crossed and jammed before him.
Oh my... These honking four-wheeled, giant bison and two-wheeled, lean dogs and the toxic black smokes. Pity!
His sweat dribbled down his nape while some thick spurts of sebum heavied his face.
"Looks like it would take an hour or more." A man from the nearby bike commented to his friend behind him.
"Bro, almost an hour has passed," Tushant replied with an enraged smile.
The maddening haste of honks made them toss their heads to realize the flashing streaks of blue and red siren some meters behind them.
"Uff! Bro, move the dog- sorry, bike to the sides. Then let's tail behind."
Tushant's words earned his wink. As he tilted the handle to the sides, Tushant moved his car to the other side. As every vehicle allowed some gap, the siren lights approached nearer. Snaking through the trivial spaces of the croaky road, the other men kept up their tactics.
Once the silent sirens began to cross them, they steered their wheels to gear behind the white-boxed vehicle. As the fight for dominance began, Tushant began to close every ounce of the gap he could find, blocking every other vehicle, even if it cost him some pungent profanities.
Too many bugs and hoppers!
He slurred as the bikes kept intruding on his moves to get off the clustered traffic. With wise blocking and annoying sudden brakes, he surpassed the rugged road. Sighing out the dusty wheeze, he turned up the windowpane to breathe in the conditioned air.
He pushed in the cassette that his hands could first pick from the dashboard. The harmonious instrumental music collection made his lips spurt the joyous smile that shined through his eyes.
"Now this feels better!"
He swayed to guitar and piano tunes as the bass glided up to fall. Between his iffy relaxation, his eyes caught up on the signboard glaring in white lights in the day from the corner blind turn of the windy road.
"Kaapi 2.0?"
Curious giggles lit up his eyes as he looked at the icon of a happy samosa offering the steaming silverware, with a cheese-made cone hat on the other hand. He halted the car at the entrance and pushed his phone to the side pockets.
Locking the doors, he strode to the teal marble-floored reception. Reaching the crude stone desk placed in the background of coarse brick walls, he pulled out the heap of gold coffee beans printed on the card. As he strode through the folds, ten parallel pages were behind the thick brown sheet.
So much to choose from?
Fleeting through the menu for a good four minutes, he looked up at the pearly white smile, the only visible part of her bangs-covered face. Cornering some strands to reveal her happy browns, she stood bent as if to spill some secret.
"One smoked coffee with some salted breadsticks, please." He said with his palms ruffling his bangs to the sides. He attempted to read her name through the teal and coral apron adoring her beige collar shirt. His eyes wandered through her petite curves only to stop at the two buttons left open at the top.
"Is that-" Her sudden query made him straight while his gaps made her pull the widened collar of her shirt.
"Yes, that would be it." He blurted as he turned to the menu card to avoid the tipsy moment.
"Mind adding a cup of Irish coffee." A dizzy voice from the back made him dodge his head.
He scrunched his nose to lessen the colossal odor of musk that hung strong enough to sedate anyone around. He gaped at a man in his mid-thirties. Gawking at his faded black shirt with white vapors revealing a red-eyed crow, Tushant arched his brows.
"Excuse me, do I know you?"
His frigid eyes studied his confused expression, only to reveal a weak smirk.
"Argh! Should I rewind time?"
"Haahaa! You are a superman or-"
"Hey! Aren't you that hoo-man who matched your sassy beats to my cranky moves?"
Tushant blinked for some ounces of time.
How did he know that?
His hypnotic golden brown eyes were fierce with every moment he took to form his words.
"You are-"
"I know you are looking for me."
He rubbed his palm on his neatly chiseled jawline. His fingers tickled the thickly fenced beard as his eyes edged. The girl behind sighed out her tensed breath, making him lift his bold mustache to flinch coyly.
Tushant looked back. But to his surprise, the girl glanced now and then at the man behind with a kittenish grin. She bit her plumpy lips and crumpled a tissue timidly as he giggled at her moves.
"Get the Irish with some strong whiskey and catch me at the last table on the first floor."
"Aah, but-"
"Yes, darling." Her honey-dipped voice made Tushant gulp down his snarls.
"Sir, one Irish coffee, smoked coffee, and salted breadsticks. Right?" She threw the crumpled paper into the bin as her voice turned alert and alive. Mending her cheeks in a moment, she gulped down some water, and her fingers rushed to type.
"Yes! Add one sugar sachet, please."
"Will be given along." Her slang rushed as she wiped her forehead.
He nodded with a courteous smile to mask the frigid burns on his nape.
How could he? Better be aware.
With jittery strings poking him, he turned, but he couldn't see the man standing behind him anymore.
~•🔳•🔲•🔳•~
"Kraaaw!"
Her lashes snapped as the cries and clattering of the wings woke her. Under the little evident illumination, her lazy lids skimmed through the place where she was. Chaotic shudders crept down her spine as the unkind waves of wind awakened her skin.
Where am I? A dungeon?
Her anxieties surged as her eyes looked around, through the heavily carved golden arches. They curved as they stood above the back of the two angry bullocks feigning at each other. Through the arc, she could see some heavy grey vapors whisking to lay down a pathway.
Scary and strange!
As she stepped towards it, it began fuming some raven smoke. Those murky whirls ravaged the pearly clouds of the day sky, absorbing every hue of fervor into the vacuum of wrathful woes.
"Gods! Am I in-"
Kraww. Kraww.
Her ears flinched as the sounds echoed wildly. Sweat dribbled down her forehead while some driblets strutted on her cheeks. She dodged her head to the sides to latch up her skepticism.
Her agitation withered its patience, making her palm crumple her dress which felt thicker than it should be. As though stung by a bug, she shifted her eyes down. Her breath choked when she saw the hues of her dress fade. Slow whispers of frenzy waves crammed her ears, making her hurl the frills.
Where am I? Why am I here?
Stampeding shudders stirred her qualms. Akin to the white feather caught in the trembles of currents, the ruffling odes of this strange place caged her heart.
I shouldn't have taken the meds!
She kept her eyes widely opened, observing the plain opaque canvas above her. It kept emitting thick vapors to envelope the plane below.
I must be alive! I should be alive.
Her tears jerked with panicking twitches on her cheeks. She placed her palm on her chest, but she could see her beats grow feeble.
Plea- please... My end shalln't be soon.
Those phrases made her heart pound heavier, but yet again, they faded.
No!! No- Please! Let me live. Please!
Her breath grew raw, absurd enough to make her match the hurling howls of those hasty chilling winds.
"So scared to be dead?"
A guttural tone made her legs twist in haste. She gulped down every lump that battled in her throat. She looked around with every ounce of courage thickening in her heart. To her surprise, she saw something emerging behind her.
"They say truth rules the world. But they seek pleasing lies when the truth is painful. Even you?"
She piled her breaths in her ribs. Her blurring visions made her narrow her eyes. Through the slits, she glimpsed at the streaks of mist that glowed a faint shade of grey.
"I'm asking you."
A shudder of wind curled around the faint streaks as the limbs emerged from that unknown void. She stood still while the little figure appeared, in fractions, putting off the tyrannical whisks coiling it.
"Should I train you to speak?"
Words deceived her defense as her constricted pupils pried at the three-foot figure in front. His pale and flaky skin was adorned with a shimmering purple serpent coiled around his waist. Her fingers tangled as she knotted them.
Shh- Snn- Snake! Is it alive?
The slimy shimmering creature twisted its head from his protruded belly to glare its opal eyes at her. The notched tongue slithered as those eyes expanded to shrink. She kneaded her sweaty palms, melding some salty zest into the rusty odor.
"Haahaa, she is too scared!"
He commented to his left, making her notice the slowly emerging bird plummeting its raven feathers. Its popping obsidian eyes streaked in the color of rainbow while its too-pointed beak wore an oddly gold ring studded with a blood-red stone.
"Kraww. Kraww."
Am I cooking up things? Noo!-
"Imay!"
Her brows knitted together as she furrowed them, but his broad smile flattened her parted lips.
"Imay. You aren't imagining but glimpsing a piece of you."
Uff! Uff! Awooooouu!
The caterwauling howls made her step back while her eyes brimmed with uncalled tears.
"Who ar- Huh. How do you know me?"
Her words made his parched raven eyes glower in shimmers of grief.
"Argh! Why is he always denying us?" The snake glided its amaranthine tail on his face to settle his worries.
"Who? Denying what?" She whispered, looking at his glistening eyes.
Wooof! Grrrr- Woof!
"He will never stop!" The bird retched.
"Who?" She tossed her looping thoughts in every nook.
"Imay?"
His eyes were cold and lifeless as he stared at her.
"You have no idea who I am. Do you?"
Gleams of furious carmine rimmed his skinny torso, evoking a throbbing ache inside her.
Woof. Woof. Geeerr!
She could sense an excruciating pain blooming on her forehead as his moist dilating eyes tried to pierce through her soul. Before his cold stares could feast her pain, she clasped her lids, letting some drops trickle past the edges.
"Perhaps the fly couldn't withstand the fire. Kraa-awh. Kraaaa-aaagh. Kraa-"
The cracked chuckles were muffled when a sudden thud was heard. But she knew not what was happening as she fell into the void of a catastrophic ceasefire.
FOOTNOTE:
Kaapi: Tamil word for coffee, pronounced as 'Caw-pea'.
All the characters are revealed. Who is the player, and who is being played? Read on to know more.
Ever in your memory,
🪢..Yaris..🪢