AFFLICTION

2 ~ [The Fears I'm Hiding]

I'm afraid of this fear.
I'm afraid that you are near.
But everytime I breath, I know,
we're breathing the same air.
And the weight in my heart is
So much more than I can bear.

LEERA

"Excuse mee, Miss" I hear a faint, unrecognizable voice but I have no clue where it's coming from. "Hey- Are you listening??" This time the voice is louder than before but still I feel like I'm in a delusional world.

"Miss-" My eyelids flutter open as I feel a hand tapping my shoulder out of no where and find a peculiar guy standing infront of me. My forehead creases, perplexed as I stare back at him while he's boring his eyes into me. "Who are you?" I nearly snap the question at his face and my hands wrap around my body defensively. Why was he touching me? He looks at me with a bored expression hearing my question.

I check the surrounding around me and only then I get reminded that I'm in the bus. What the actual hell?

Then he gives me a foolish, strange look thinking me to be crazy doubtlessly. Sighing he taps on his wrist watch, "Miss, we are off duty. It's the last bus stop. You need to get down." My eyes widen and I check the time in my wrist watch. It's 7 PM. What? I was supposed to go home directly after class within 2.00 PM and I also had my shift at the library at 4! How could I be sleeping so undisturbed, half dead this long?

I look around once again for confirmation and see there's literally no other passenger except me. "Where are we?" I ask the guy calmly, trying to sound sane while I'm internally freaking out. He names a place which is almost 2 hours away from my home. It's strange because it's still evening, the bus wasn't supposed to be off duty this early and there is no presence of any other passenger too. Nonetheless, I get down and Taking my phone out, I find it loaded with missed calls and messages.

9 missed calls from Mom.
3 missed calls from Aria.
2 missed calls - from library.
And 17 messages from Mom and Aria.
My phone has been silent all this while. Great!

Before anything, I dial my mom's number because I know if I don't inform her, she is definitely going to kill me when I get home for not responding to her this long. She receives the call just in the second ring as if she has been waiting with her phone for my call, and I immediately hold the phone distant from my ear before she starts to yell. "Where are you Leera?? Why haven't you answered my calls!" She sounds too restless as well as vexed.

"Mum-" I try to speak but get muted when she starts shouting again, "I even called your friend, Aria to ask where you were! She told me you left early as you weren't feeling well. Where have you been Leera? Did anything happen?"

"Mum, let me speak first? Calm down please. I'm absolutely fine and I'm soo sorry!" I say ruefully. I don't even know what lies should I assemble now. I can't say the truth that I dozed in a stupid bus that too for hours and I'm currently in a place from where I don't even know the way to my home. My death will be certain for real this time if I tell this to her. Finding no other solution, I tell her the first story which my mouth utters without even a proper think.

"Actually mom, what happened is- when I was about to come home I got a call from the library where I work as a part timer. My shiftmate called me and said that she won't be able to come because her mother was really sick and humbly requested me to take care of her part of work too. As there was no other way I had to do it. So I went to the library early and had to stay there longer than the time." Relief washes over me as I come up with a story to save myself from her scolding.