A faint breeze caressed Vishnu’s hair as he walked towards his house. The sky was a dark shade of blue with waves of orange. Vishnu wished he had not stayed for the football game after school. He was late and his parents would not be too happy about that. He glanced at the fresh tear on his trousers which would be another reason for his mother’s upcoming wrath. The trouser had torn at the knee when he tried to tackle his buddy Mohit. He had gotten the ball and at that time he had been euphoric. Now, not so much.
Leaves rustled above Vishnu and he heard wings fluttering somewhere nearby. A twig crunched in the darkness to his left which made him stop. He looked beyond the shrubs and trees but saw nothing. Mohit had once told him a story about a tiger that ate two men in his grandmother’s village. The two men had been walking back to their homes on the other side of the village, after a hard day’s work at the farm, when they were ambushed by a tiger. Vishnu hadn’t believed him at the time, but right now, on this dark, lonely path, with twigs crunching and leaves fluttering around him, he wondered whether it might be true. The thought was unsettling.
Vishnu clutched the straps of his worn down backpack and walked faster. He looked up at the sky. It reminded him of the marble cakes his mother bought for him sometimes. Vishnu’s brown sandals dragged across the dusty path as he walked leaving a trail of dust floating behind him. His father would always scold him whenever he did that. Vishnu made sure to not do it when he walked with his father, and he made sure to do it when his father was not around.
A bell rang somewhere behind him. Vishnu stopped in his tracks and turned around. He stared into the darkness. Something was approaching. Fast. He could hear it piercing through the dusty track. The bell rang again. This time louder. Before Vishnu could make out the silhouette of the bicycle, it whooshed past him.
‘Wait,’ Vishnu screamed, and held up both hands. This would probably be his only chance to get home quicker. The person riding the bicycle, his back hidden in the darkness, slammed the brakes hard. The bicycle came to a screeching halt and blew up dust around it. Vishnu coughed as some of it got into his mouth. The dust invaded his eyes and made it watery. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand as he walked towards the bicycle.
‘What? Need a lift?’ a raspy voice asked.
‘Y-Yeah, can you drop me about a kilometer down this road?’ replied Vishnu, a tiny bit uneasy by the fact that the man on the bicycle had not turned his head to look at Vishnu and the fact that the man was hidden in the shadows. Vishnu could only make out the borders of the thin figure on the bicycle. The bicycle was also pitch black if not for some shiny surfaces here and there. ‘Please,’ Vishnu added.
‘Get on,’ the voice said.
Vishnu hesitated for a moment. His father had always warned him about strangers. ‘Don’t eat anything a stranger gives you,’ he said sometimes. His mother also said the same from time to time. And so did some of his teachers.
I’ll jump off the bicycle and run the second I smell trouble, Vishnu thought and climbed onto the back of the bike.
‘Thanks a lot sir,’ Vishnu said and clutched the cold metal frame under him with both hands. The man said nothing. Vishnu felt uneasy again. The man pushed against the ground and the bicycle moved forward. Vishnu clutched the frame tighter and told his heart to slow down. His heart did not listen.
The bicycle sped along the path and the trees, like dark seaweed, swayed around it in the wind. An owl hooted from somewhere behind. Vishnu’s grip tightened on the metal and he felt the bicycle pick up speed. He wanted to tell the man to slow down but his throat was dry and words refused to come out.
As the bicycle drifted along the meandering path, Vishnu wondered how the man could ride so fast in the darkness. Looking over the man’s shoulders, Vishnu could barely make out what was ahead. If it weren’t for the faint light cast by the orange light that seeped in through the treeline, they were traversing pure darkness.
Something crunched under the bicycle and Vishnu looked down, his hands still clutching onto the frame. He faintly saw the leaves and twigs that littered the ground and the shadow of the man’s leg as it went through the circular motion of pushing the metal frame forward. As they passed under a clearing in the trees, he saw the leg clearly. He saw the dusty, worn down pants, he saw the dark, cracked foot twisted backwards, and he saw all the dirty, broken toenails pointing toward him. Vishnu winced as a scream failed to escape his dry mouth and lurched backwards. His body detached from the bicycle. Vishnu tasted sand and iron in his mouth as he hit the ground. He wanted to get up but his body refused. His head ached and his ears buzzed. He fought his eyes from closing shut for as long as he could but in the end they closed.
He did not hear the man walking towards him.
***
Vishnu mumbled something as he tried to wake up. His eyes fluttered open but snapped shut as a blinding white light pierced through them. He tried to move his hands up to his face but it hurt so he stopped trying. His only comfort came from the soft surface under him.
‘He’s waking up,’ he heard a sweet voice. His mother.
‘Let me see,’ he heard his father’s voice from somewhere further away.
He felt his mother’s soft hand, colder than he remembered, on his face and heard his father’s heavy footsteps approach.
He turned his head, opened his eyes, and stared at his mother’s face. She was crying. He saw his father behind her. He smiled, a cold smile that felt like his mother’s touch. Vishnu attempted to smile back.
‘Rest son, we’ll talk later,’ he heard his father say. Vishnu mumbled something in reply. He felt his mother’s hand caress his cheek again before she stood up. Vishnu tried to raise a hand to stop her from leaving but he couldn’t. It hurt too much. He looked at his parents through wet eyes. He saw them turn around and he saw their feet twisted backwards just before they left the room. He saw the room darken around him, heard wings fluttering somewhere above him, and tasted the sand and iron in his mouth. His head started to ache and his ears began to buzz. He saw the slender figure of the man looming over him, looking down on him. His face was hidden in the shadows. Vishnu saw the man raise a leg, and he saw the cracked, and dirty sole of his twisted foot. Vishnu cringed when the rotten smell penetrated his nostrils. The foot dangled above him for a few seconds—then it came down. Vishnu felt the rough cracks on his face before he could even scream and then felt nothing.
