All at once, daylight exploded into the mood-lit interiors of the café. A large cloud of dust had risen, the particles still flying all around. Pieces of rubble had flown in every direction, smashing objects, hitting the walls, even falling on people. And then someone screamed. Anay looked at her. She was a girl, holding her forehead, stemming blood from the fresh wound. Someone else looked dazed at his laptop, whose screen was smashed by another fragment of the rubble. The very next moment, collective screams of people rent the place. Someone stood up and rushed to the door, and then another followed. What had been a normal day at the café turned to a scene of pandemonium within seconds, as everyone rose at once to get to the nearest way out of the café.
Anay stood rooted to the spot in utter shock. He had realized that the debris had fallen on the exact spot where Shanaya had been standing making the payment moments ago.
"Shanaya! Shanaya!" he screamed, looking at the mound of rubble now on the floor next to the payment counter.
There was no reply.
Something inside him blacked out. He lost all hope in that moment. Something just snapped. He knew he would not get past this. This was not meant to happen. He had just met Shanaya; hadn't even got to know her well. Was she there? Trapped under the debris? Tears and shock took hold of him.
Another portion of the ceiling collapsed, this time right behind him. The glass façade crashed. People screamed again, those stragglers who hadn't yet been able to find their way out. Anay saw, with great horror, that a splinter was embedded in his arm. A tiny one, but it brought him back to his senses.
Then he heard a shout, "HEY, YOU! HELP ME OUTTA HERE!" It was the man behind the counter, apparently the owner, who had just been laughing with Shanaya.
"Shanaya! Where is Shanaya?" Anay asked.
He came running to the mound and began to look. No, it didn't seem that she was under that slab. No, of course not! She wasn't there! She must have run out! Joy suddenly swept over him as that thought struck him.
"Hey, help me!" the man screamed again.
This time, Anay looked at him closely and then stared, wide-eyed. The man was trapped. Part of the roof had fallen directly over the counter. Anay leaned over the counter and saw—the man's leg was trapped under the rubble.
Anay looked around. The café was almost empty now; Shanaya had definitely run out. Outside, there was chaos. But this man was in here. He could not leave him. He hopped over the counter and said, "I'll get you out, man!" Furiously, he began removing the pieces of debris around the man's leg.
"That hurts!" the man screamed as Anay tried to shift a particular piece of concrete that was right over his knee, which was evidently broken.
"Hang on!" said Anay. "This is heavy, but I'll get help." But as he said that, there was another rumbling. Anay looked up in fear. Another portion of the roof's concrete was now dangling precariously right above their heads, and this was a much larger piece. It had parted away from the beam structure on three sides and was now just dangling from a fourth. It could fall down at any moment.
"There's no time!" Anay screamed. "Try to move, man!"
The man winced as he put all his strength into moving his foot, ignoring all the pain. He lashed around his arms to try to move, but the slab of debris on him was too heavy. And then, it moved. If only by a fraction, it moved.
The man screamed, "Try to take it off now! Do it now!"
Anay bent to do whatever he could. He put his hands on the slab, not caring that its jagged ends now punctured his own flesh and grunted as hard as he could.
Overhead, there was another rumble.
Anay did not let go of the slab. It was somewhat loosened now. A few more heaves and it would be out of the way. But was there time?
Then Anay made the mistake of looking up again. He looked at the broken ceiling. Out of the gaping hole, where the sky was exposed, Anay saw it—
—that same ghastly thing writhing along its edges. That dark entity that he had seen in his room, with its blue blazing eyes and billowing arms. It was there, wrenched in that gap on the roof. It was trying to bring the rest of that slab down.
"Go away!" Anay yelled. "Go away. Don't do this!"
"Motherfucker! What are you doing?" the trapped man screamed. "Move the slab!"
Anay juddered and fell backward. The creature or whatever it was had brought down the ceiling. Its arms were now moving forth, moving toward Anay as if to stop him. Anay froze. The thing glided and placed its mouth on the man's neck.
"No..." Anay yelled. "Don't do it. Let me save him."
The words just rushed out of Anay's mouth in a pleading voice that he had never heard on himself before.
But a part of him knew that he could not save the man. He was doomed. He could hear the man's cries and abuses and shouts, but there was nothing to be done. The man was in the grip of that agent of death. Something pushed Anay back, a cold piercing force that he could not explain, and he was thrown off toward the door of the café. He was still crawling on the floor, when that remaining portion of the slab gave way and collapsed right on the skull of the poor man.
His final scream was cut off midway as the slab shattered his jawbone right into his vocal cords.
The sirens of various emergency vehicles filled the atmosphere. The stunned Anay was shoved by someone to the other side of the road, away from the crash site. He was still shaking, having lost all control and consciousness, not knowing what strange hell he had been pushed into, when he saw him again—the perpetrator of all this doom.
The entity stood there in the middle of the ruined café, unaffected by the falling debris and the clouds of dust everywhere around, and unperturbed by the crowds running helter-skelter. Though Anay could not see the facial features, he could sense that there was a smile lurking in those cold blue lips. And he could tell—it was a sneer of malevolence.
***
Anay took a while to spot Shanaya. In the mayhem that had ensued, she had run ahead, pushed on by the screaming people.
"Oh my God, Anay! You are all bloody. Are you fine? Are you all right?" she said without a pause.
"I am fine," he said, his voice phlegmy because of the nausea. He could say nothing more.
"What happened there, Anay? Why did you take so long to come out?"
"That guy," said Anay, his voice and body both trembling. "He was trapped. I tried to get him out... but..."
"Oh damn, what happened to him?"
Anay felt something behind him. Immediately thinking of the shadowy figure, and scared to bits, he turned to look. It was just a mother dragging her child away from the scene.
He stole a look at the café, terrified as to what he might see there, and noticed that a police van had reached the spot. An inspector was surveying the area. He was asking zapped bystanders a few questions. One of the bystanders pointed at him. The inspector looked at him, and the next moment, he was by their side.
"You were the last to come out of the café?" the inspector asked gruffly.
"Y-yes..." Anay mumbled.
"Where were you sitting?"
"Near... near the counter."
"What exactly happened?"
Shanaya answered this one. "We just settled our check when there was a rumbling sound. A small portion of the roof fell first and everyone started to run out. I ran out too, thinking that Anay was following me."
"Was he with you?"
"No... I thought... I thought Shanaya was trapped under the debris."
"Do you know the man who died?"
"I was trying to help him..." Anay mumbled.
"But he is dead," the policeman said.
"I... I couldn't get him out."
The inspector gave him a nasty look. "Why not? Did you even try?"
Anay turned to Shanaya, shocked. "Is it my mistake that man is dead?"
"Of course not!" Shanaya said firmly. "Sir, my friend was in shock. He could not even move. How could he have saved that man when he himself was paralyzed with fear?"
The inspector shook his head and walked away. He said something to his constable and they both laughed derisively.
"You are badly shaken," Shanaya told Anay, drawing his attention away from the insensitive policeman. "I understand the state you were in. Here, hold my hand. Where do you want to go now?"
"To the office... office..."
"Come on; it's right across the street. Let me take you."
His head was buzzing. His eardrums reverberated with a tinny sound. The spots in front of his eyes would not stop. He allowed her to grab his arm. There was already a traffic chaos on the street. None of the vehicles were able to move. Two fire-brigade engines had arrived, but they weren't able to maneuver the street and navigate into the smaller alley where the café was. Had been. Shanaya led him by the arm. They crossed the road together, finding their way through the stalled vehicles incessantly blaring their horns. On the other side of the street, they came to the tall glass-walled office building. She got Anay into the elevator. On the eleventh floor, it stopped and she helped Anay out.
The security guard came running up to them. He was horrified to see Anay's condition—his tattered clothes, his disarrayed hair, his shaking body. "What happened?" he asked.
"We were in the café opposite."
"Oh, no!" the security-man said. Evidently the news of the collapse had reached the office. It would be in the news all over the city shortly. Without any further question, the guard brought them into the lobby and made them sit in the waiting area. The receptionist at the welcoming desk let out a shriek and ran inside to call someone.
Renee, Vishwa, and Kautuk came rushing out at once. While Kautuk took the chair next to Anay and propped him up on his arm, and Vishwa ran to grab a bottle of water, Renee checked for any wounds. Shanaya stepped back as the friends took over.
"I hope you are not hurt, Anay..." Renee said. "We heard about the crash. Heard the owner died. Fuck, are you all right?"
Anay nodded.
"Glad to know you still have your life, bro!" Kautuk patted his back. "Everything else will heal."
Vishwa came back. "Should we take you to the hospital? There might be some hidden injuries, man..."
"I'm all right," Anay said. "Just a bit shaken, that's all."
Renee spotted Shanaya. "Hi. You were with him?"
"She's Shanaya," Anay replied. "My schooltime buddy."
"Oh!" Renee's look said more than it expressed. "Thanks for bringing him here."
"I must leave now," said Shanaya. "Anay, see you later, okay?"
Anay nodded. He raised his head to look at her with some difficulty and gave her a warm goodbye smile.
Kautuk chimed in, "You two go ahead. I'll sit with him for a while."
"Are you sure?" Vishwa asked.
"Go on, man."
Vishwa and Renee patted Anay on his arm and spoke a few things softly to him and then ducked inside. Kautuk did not move from his seat, nor did he take away the arm on which Anay was resting his head. After a few minutes, he asked, "What do you want to do?"
"Take me home, man! I just need to lie down."
Kautuk ducked in and brought out both their bags, and then signaled to the receptionist that they were signing out for the day.