The Destiny of Nexus

Chapter-4

                                              I woke up and found myself standing at the entrance of my company. I have no clue how I reached there. I went inside and everything seemed normal for a while. But the strange thing was no one had noticed me even after I entered inside. I felt like the people were ignoring me. Previously they used to smile whenever they see me, but now no one cared. Everyone was acting weird. So in an attempt to understand their intention, I approached them. Even then, no one looked at me. It exasperated me, and I yelled. For f**k’s sake, someone respond to me. Yet there is no response. It’s as if I don’t even exist to them. I was about to scream again, but I became flabbergasted when they passed right through me. What the hell? Am I a soul? Did I die yesterday? Is this my own personal hell? Many questions popped into my brain. But this makes sense because I used to love socializing with people and reading them, but now people can’t even notice me. It’s like I was stalker in everyone’s life. It kind of made me a creepy person.   

                                                I went to a corner and sat on the ground thinking how I am going to spend an eternity where no one can see me. I am sure that I would go crazy because of the boredom. I got a demotion from being human to a wandering soul. I read somewhere that when a person dies with a strong unfulfilled desire, his soul would be reluctant to cut its ties with the living world. Unless it fulfils its desire, it keeps wandering among the humans. Such souls are dangerous. So now am I a threat to humans? And what unfulfilled desire I have? Also where the heck is David? Maybe he is in his own personal hell too. These kinds of questions kept running in my mind. While I was looking at everyone sitting in the corner, I saw a person who was staring at me and giving a pleasant smile. He kind of seemed fuzzy. I can only see his smile. His face looked indefinite. He was approximately 10 metres away. Seeing him like that, I came to two conclusions, he either knew me personally or knew that I was a wandering soul. I kind of felt relieved to see a person who could actually see me. I got up on my feet and started walking towards him in order to get some answers to my innumerable questions. As soon as I entered his social space, he faded away. 

                                                 Then I started hearing faint voices. Steve? Are you all right? Wake up, man. I then opened my eyes. David was standing beside my bed. That means this was all a dream. No, no, it was a nightmare. David looked better than he was yesterday.

‘Had a bad dream?’

‘Yeah, it was a crappy dream, and I was a creepy person in it. So are you ready to talk now?’

                                                   He wanted to share but was reluctant to open his mouth. I made him feel comfortable and only then he was ready to speak. He started saying, I am an irresponsible person my whole life. Right from my childhood, I never took anything seriously. Even when my family was at a crisis, I didn’t bother to help them. As time passed, they made peace with the fact that I’ll never share their burden, never treat them as my responsibility, and finally they marked an impression on me that I’m unreliable. It was acceptable for them to think in that way because I behaved in that manner. Despite that, it hurt me at that moment of time, and I got over it later. A week ago, my father approached me.

‘Could you lend me some money, David? I promise that I’ll return them as soon as possible.’

‘Why? What happened, Dad?’

‘I am bankrupt. So I sold my home a few days ago to pay off all the debts. Recently, your mother has been in an accident and now she is currently admitted in a hospital. To be honest, I don’t have money to afford for her treatment. I begged the hospital management for a week of time so I could arrange the money. They granted it. I tried everywhere, but no one is willing to lend me money. I’m out of options and time is running out. So I’m here hoping you would help us. I know you don’t like being responsible but there was no other option left for me, so I had to ask you.’

                                                   Tears started rolling down my eyes as soon as I heard about my family’s condition. I said I’ll surely arrange money by the end of the week. So don’t worry, just take care of mother. I’ll clear the hospital fee and buy medicines too.

‘How’s mom?’

‘She is hanging in there. Doctors say that her condition would become worse if we delay the operation.’

‘Just ask them to start their procedure. I’ll come with the money.’

                                                    He left after that. I almost had it covered, but police caught me during the exchange. For the first time in my life my father came to me for help, but I let him down again. I am a useless piece of s**t and a burden to my parents and to the Earth even. There is no point in being alive. Saying so, he started weeping. I never saw him such devastated. I wanted to help him in any way I could. So I made a phone call to my assistant Lexi and explained her whole situation and asked her to trace the hospital where David’s mother is admitted and send the money in his name and then I cut the call.   

                                                     Now I had a great task ahead of me that is to console him. David, listen to me. Responsibility is not something that can be forced upon someone. You need to be accepting it willingly. The day when you feel like you are responsible for something or someone, that day it would transform you into a man. From that moment on, responsibility does not feel as a burden to you. Some people become responsible at younger ages while it takes some time for others. It’s different for different people. It’s never late for you, mate. Even now you can be the son your father always wanted. The kind of son that would share the burden of his father. I already sent money to the hospital for your mother’s treatment in your name. They will be so happy that their son came to their rescue in times of need. Now they know that they can count on you if they have a problem in the future. Now go to the hospital and meet your mother. Reconnect with your family. He hugged me and whispered in my ear, you gave me a second chance, you are not just my friend, you are also my brother. Saying so, he left to the hospital. Tears of happiness started rolling down my eyes.

                                                      In the process of consoling him, I realized how wonderful my life would have been if my parents were alive. All my happiness turned to sorrow. All of a sudden I started feeling so lonely. My heart started to ache. I could not take that pain so I took two pills of Ambien (sleeping pill) to ease my pain. I slowly drifted into sleep soon after.

                                                       The sleeping pills worked just fine. I had a sound sleep. I woke up later than my usual time. That might be because of the pills. I had a strange and suspicious dream. In the dream, I was a kid again. It was a phase of my life where I couldn’t accept the death of my parents. I used to burst into tears whenever I thought about them. That was depressing. So I was crying in the room's corner, and I started hearing whispers. They were overlapping voices, so it was unclear. Slowly the overlapping reduced, and the voice started to have some clarity. I was frightened. Who are you? I murmured faintly. Both my voice and my body shivered. Then a gentle voice said, fear not my child. I’m not here to hurt you. Just remember that you are not alone and I’m always with you. You should just learn to feel my presence. You are so strong my child and never be sad about anything. You are destined to do great things. A whole new life is awaiting you. Never feel yourself weak or abandoned. I’m always here for you and will always love you. Then all the particles in the room started getting closer, and they formed a figure. The figure finally appeared to be a silhouette of a man. This kind of looked like the same fuzzy man in my dream the earlier day. I perceived it as a fatherly figure. Maybe I was desperate to have a father so I assumed everything to be my father. I felt like he smiled at me with affection. Then the figure vanished.