Dear Aadi...

“Aadi, Nirvaan Chai is getting cold, both of you are always in your rooms, this is your home, not a Hostel”.
Mummy shouted.

“Just locking my door”.
Nirvaan shouts back.

“Why do you always lock your room as if you have some treasure inside”.

“Haha something like that”
Nirvaan replies.

Both of them walk into the living room, where Mummy sits on the sofa watching TV.

“What were you both doing in the room”.
Mummy speaks.

“Mummy, I was studyi-

“No mummy, Aadi bhaiya is lying, he was playing mobile games with me”
Nirvaan interrupted.

“Okay okay, everybody knows Aadi studies too, you should learn something from your elder brother, he manages studies and entertainment so well”.

“Mummy let be have Chai please, then I’ll think about studying”
he giggled.

“Yes, you have plenty of time to relax, before that go and bring Namkeen from the general store”.

“Alright!”.

A police car stops at Mr. Arora’s house.

“Mummy, have they found Mr. Arora?” Aadi asks

“It’s been almost 3 days since Mr. Arora went missing, Mrs. Arora has lost her senses, the neighbor told me yesterday that Mrs. Arora was awake all night, she was staring at the gate in hopes that Mr. Arora will return, poor woman”.

Nirvaan returns with Namkeen, “the police couldn’t find him, they are closing the case”.

“I can’t even imagine” Mummy says “what Mrs. Arora is going through”

“Now can we have chai and namkeen please?”
Nirvaan spoke.

Mummy stares at Nirvaan.

“Sorry”.

The same Night.

“Nirvaan! Where are you? Have you seen my charger? I can’t find it anywhere”
Aadi enters Nirvaan’s room.

The room was pitch dark, only little light came through the window, the fan was off yet a strange cold spread all over the room, as if it’s december. he air felt heavy, “Nirvaan are you there?” no reply.

Aadi turns on the light, yet darkness was all over the room, “maybe the voltage is low again”

A study table in the corner of the room, there were books lying everywhere on the table with empty chips and biscuits packets,

“He is not here, he is always roaming here and there when I ask him to work”.

Aadi steps on a crumpled paper, “this must be his test paper, I would’ve hid it at a better place”.

Aadi unfolds the paper, ‘Ajay Arora’  it says, “That’s Mr. Arora’s name, why did Nirvaan write it? and what ink is even that? So red and ugly. Is he going to solve the case on his own?

Aadi moved towards the table, a bunch of papers stapled together caught his eyes, “what’s this? Is he writing a book or what? I mean he reads a lot so it is obvious that he must be writing something, but why didn’t he tell me, "He doesn't hide anything from me”?

‘Aadi, Nirvaan Chai is getting cold, both of you are always in your rooms, this is your home, not a Hostel’.
Mummy shouted.

‘Aree mummy, I was studyi-

‘No mummy, Aadi bhaiya is lying, he was playing mobile games with me’
Nirvaan interrupted.

“Wait! I have heard this before, Yes! This was just a few hours ago. Well, what a strange way of writing a diary”.

He flips a few more pages-

“And then Aadi disappears forever just like Mr. Arora”

Thunder strikes and all the light goes off, Aadi looks at the window, across the window a human figure with a big smile, his eyes along with the teeth lit up.

Aadi’s heart skips a beat, his hands tremble and he runs out of breath, “Who are you!?” he shouts, and the figure keeps smiling at him. Aadi runs towards the door but the door closes with a loud noise.

“You shouldn’t be here big brother”, the figure says.

“Nirvaan? Is that you? stop playing-

“I had planned to give you a happy life but you always do things that you weren’t meant to do, now I will have to do what I wasn’t meant to do. Uncle Arora was living a happy life but his curiosity turned him into a crumpled piece of paper”.

The figure stood in front of Aadi, he couldn’t even see it coming near him.

“You aren’t Nirvaan, your voice is like him but you don’t look like him”.
His voice cracked.

“You shouldn’t have come into my room. Everything was so good, Mummy Papa, you and I, a happy family. Now I will have to erase you from existence just like your Uncle Arora”.

“You killed him!? Why would you? he was such a good human, have you ever thought about how Arora Aunty feels? Who are you? Whatever you are, you're going to jail, I will tell the police-

“So you think the police will put me in jail? I am the creator, I created you, everything you see, feel, and touch. I can erase the existence of any human just by thinking and you say that you’ll put me in jail. I feel pity for you, maybe in another story I’ll make you less curious so that you don’t ruin it just like you did”.

“You can’t do that to me, you’re lying”.

“Okay, how old do you think you are?”

“I am 17, don’t you know that?”

“Then tell me anything that you remember about your childhood”.

“Easy, so when I was younger, I….I….I don’t remember”
Aadi cries.

“Because I didn’t write it, you have to understand brother, none of this is real. It’s just I was bored so I created this story. You’re just a character from one of my short stories, nothing more. Okay, tell me, have you ever been inside my room before?”.

After thinking for a while, Aadi can’t remember any time he came here before.

“But what about my dreams, the aims that I have in life, my friends, my studies, how can all these be fiction”. Aadi sobs. “What about Mummy and Papa?”, are they fiction too?”.

“You don’t have any friends, have you ever been outside this society? Think about it”.

No matter how hard Aadi tries to think of the names of his friends, he remembers none. “Please tell me it’s a dream, please god wake me up!”.

“There is no God! I created you! Why don’t you understand! Somewhere in the room is a crumpled piece of paper, that’s your Uncle, I am done talking, goodbye big brother”.

“Wai-

Nirvaan stabs Aadi in the neck with his pen. He, using the blood as ink, writes ‘Dear Aadi’ in his notebook, Aadi falls on the ground, Nirvaan tears the pages and Aadi disappears.

“Fu*k! I hate this short story now”.
Nirvaan throws away the crumpled paper in the dustbin.