BEYOND THE REALMS #wattys2018

Chapter 27

"It was a perfect, sunny day for a picnic and she had come to The Rockaway Beach with her parents and husband ...The Sea was rough and the tides were high, but she and her husband were enjoying boogie boarding and occasionally throwing water on each other, while her parents lounged on the reclining beach chairs. After a while, she felt exhaustion washing over her, so she asked her husband to come with her to the shore, but he wanted to stay in water for some more time. He chided her for being lazy, and she smacked water sprays on him once again and returned to the shore... her mother handed her a towel and she sat on another chair and started drying herself...The water activity had left her feeling languorous... she reclined on her lounging chair and closed her eyes in the sunny bliss. He called out to her playfully once more, she laughed, and waving at him, she turned on her stomach and dozed off... Her parents laughed on seeing her sleepy stance and decided to leave her to relax for a bit. They got up from their chairs with an intent to walk along the beach. She heard them going away but didn't turn towards them.

Sleep was clouding her mind when she heard a scream... "Help"... Her mind instantly registered that it was her husband's call. She quickly turned in her chair and saw that he was drowning! Her parents had also heard his call and they were near too, so they rushed to save him and plunged into the rough sea... She saw that a huge wave was coming from their right, and before they could reach her husband, the wave hit both of them and they lost their balance and fell head wards into the water... and the merciless sea did not give them a chance to regain their equilibrium....the waves were vicious... the overriding tides engulfed them in a flash...in front of her eyes the water was taking them farther away from the shore ...farther away from her...

A scream escaping her chest, she sprang from her chair and mindlessly started running towards the water to jump in and somehow bring them all out, but something, or someone held her back. She desperately tried and tried to free herself from that unseen force, but she couldn't, and right in front of her eyes, they were gone..."

She was fitfully throwing her head from left to right on her pillow, her whole body drenched in sweat, her lips screaming "Please don't go...Please come back" Her hands clenched in tight fists, she wasn't able to do anything, her eyes tightly shut...when she felt as if a branding iron rod, really hot, touched her forehead. And as if that searing heat somehow seeped through her skin to her entire body. It was a burning force that was holding her, immobilizing her...and very strangely calming her down.

And then she woke up with a start.

"Hello there! Look who is awake now!" A strange voice said from her right.

She sprang up in her bed and looked towards the direction of the voice. She saw someone there...someone really tall...his arm extending towards her forehead. Suddenly she felt a tap, and she figured out that he was tapping his nail on her forehead. The branding hot rod was his finger nail! She realized with a start and squinted her eyes to look clearly in the dark of the room, with only some moonlight glinting it. The figure moved more close. It was a man! She could feel heat emanating from him...the hair at her nape raising... A sudden sense of fear washed over her and she asked in a trembling voice,

"Who...who are you?"

He came really close to her now, and she could see his red burning eyes...the strangest eyes in the world. It looked like two burning coals were placed in the orbs of his eyes. His other features were strange too. His mouth curled in a sardonic twist, he leaned closer to her ear, and whispered,

"My introduction is long...but I think I am the answer to your questions, Alisa...I am the one your soul has been calling out to." Then he backed a little, and in an eye blink, there was no one in the room beside her own staggered form and her thundering heartbeat.

He... had vanished!

Alisa felt her heart was beating in her throat and all the blood rushed towards her brain, her head pounding as if millions of trumpets were being blown in her ears. Feeling heady with the gush of emotions, she fell back on the bed...her back ramrod straight. She was unable to think about anything. Her body felt as if it was paralyzed with the amount of sensations she had felt in the past few minutes. Her eyes were wide open and she was just staring at the ceiling. The burning sensation on the forehead had gone and she suddenly felt very cold...and her body started trembling. She was unable to control the involuntary movements of her body. In a matter of minutes, she had turned into a quivering mass of horror.