"What's that?" a voice startled me. I found my brother leaning on the door, holding a family-size pack of chips, pointing at something on the table beside my bed. I sometimes forget that I have been raised in a joint family ever since I was born.
My very orthodox father believes that living in a joint family allows us to maintain close relationships with the extended family There is always someone knocking on the door now and then which makes me go insane at times. The word 'privacy' simply doesn't exist in my home.
I shifted my gaze to where Carrie was pointing or to be exact at what he was pointing. I crawled my way to the other end of my bed and grabbed the object from the table.
Weird, I thought. This thing shouldn't be here. It was a small rectangular box a little bigger than the size of my palm.
My brother snatched it from my hands earning a smack on his head from me.
Before I could even warn him not to open it, he tore the packet not worrying about its owner.
Spoiled young siblings.
"These look like playing cards. Have you started gambling or something? They are quite fancy though," he said chuckling.
Fancy playing cards, huh?
I observed the box, but there wasn't much written on it, except for the number 100 which was written in bold black letters.
Who even kept this here?
"They aren't mine," I said.
"Aren't these cards used for future prediction?" he said as he spread them in such a way that I was able to see each card. They were in shades of black and white with something different peculiarly drawn on each one. Observing them, I concluded they weren't playing cards. The cards somehow intrigued me.
I unlocked my laptop and my fingers danced across the keyboard as I navigated through informative websites.
"These are called tarot cards," I explained to him from the website.
"They tell you messages from the angels," As soon as I said angels, my brother started laughing.
"You mean the creatures with the wings?" he said between his laughs.
"Yes, Maybe. Just keep them back in the box."
He gave me a mischievous smile and ran straight out of my room which was his way of telling me - I'm not doing that..
I still don't know who kept these there.
Sighing heavily, I gathered the cards, placed the deck inside the box, and kept them aside not bothering to find out whom it belonged to. Like seriously more people are living in this house. Someone might have forgotten it.
I flopped onto the bed like an old rag, absorbing the coziness of the soft mattress. My muscles relaxed, releasing the tension of the day.
The cascading thoughts in my mind started to diminish and slowly drifted into a tranquil haze. Outside sounds became distant echoes. Gradually, my mind descended into the embrace of dreams, and my body sank into the peaceful embrace of deep sleep.
Sleep helps me to forget whatever bullshit that is going on in my life. Even if my life is not so interesting, there are some things that particularly ick me. Not being able to socialize can be counted as one of them.
Only if I was like my mother - a social butterfly. But I'm not, so I sleep. I sleep long enough to not get time to socialize with others which according to me is a very smart way of dealing with my problem.
I very much treasured my sleep but unfortunately, this time it ended too soon.
I couldn't exactly explain when or how I transitioned from my deep slumber to a state of consciousness. I felt something unusual. I sensed some movements around me and could hear the faint whisper of air. My eyes were still closed but I was wide awake.
Maybe Carrie or my cousins were messing around. I didn't bother to open my eyes and changed position.
The noise subsided for a couple of minutes but started again. It was difficult for me to sleep like this. Those weren't my cousins or Carrie.
The thoughts of ghosts lurking around my bed scared me. Now the question was to whether get up and chit-chat with the ghosts or stay quiet and wait for them to go away.
No, I was not being funny.
Something was going on.
My throat became dry.
I tried to get up, but I could not move!
I could neither open my eyelids nor could I move my limbs. It was almost as if I was paralyzed, sleep paralyzed.
Panic set inside me as I tried to call out for help, but my voice remained trapped within my throat. My heart raced, and I felt a weight pressing down my chest.
I struggled to make sense of my surroundings, my mind alternating between a hazy dream state and the stark reality of my paralysis.
As fear coursed through me, I desperately focused on trying to regain control over my body, hoping that this unsettling experience would soon release its grip on me.
Fear surged inside my veins, its icy grip intensifying as I grappled with this bizarre predicament. Every fiber of my being longed to break free from this terrifying state.
Suddenly, the soft, warm mattress beneath me morphed into something hard and cold. The ticking sound of the clock was the only thing I could hear, and with every passing second, it intensified.
I concluded that a ghost was haunting me.
As I was about to give up and accept that this was the end of me, my eyes snapped open and my body woke up with a sudden jerk. I found myself on the floor, my chest rising and falling rapidly with each breath. My gaze darted around the room searching for familiarity and reassurance in the dim light.
How come I fell from the bed? I wiped the thin sheen of sweat glistened on my forehead with my trembling hand. My nose sensed a light-burning smell of candle wax. My hand dropped back on the floor and I felt something beneath my palm.
The cards.
As I looked carefully I found that the tarot cards were scattered around me. But it doesn't seem that random. They were spread almost in a circle with me at their center. Upon observing I found some dark reddish-coloured powder smeared on my feet and arms. What exactly happened?
The only thing that hovered over my mind was something that we humans refer to as confusion.
As I was trying to connect the dots, out of nowhere an invisible force on my face pushed me back on the floor. My head went down about to hit the floor and the next thing I knew I woke up on my bed.
It was a dream.
I looked at the wall, and the clock struck two. The nightmare drained all the energy out of my body and I dropped myself back on the mattress.
It was a dream.
It was too real to be a dream.
I got down from the bed and started walking towards the kitchen. But my steps came to a halt when I found Aunt Lira outside her room.
"Yana?" she said with a glimpse of panic in her voice.
"Did I scare you?" I asked. She might have flinched at my sudden appearance behind her.
"No," she sighed, Why are you awake?
"I need some water, I am heading to the kitchen."
"Where are....." and before I could ask her where she was going she twisted the knob of the door and went inside her room. What's wrong with her? She must be feeling sleepy.
After chugging down two full glasses of cold water my throat cooled down.
By the time I went back to bed, it was already half past two. The memory of my bad dream still lingered in my head. Brushing it off, I closed my eyes and reentered my slumber.
****
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