The Torc Of Immortality

Chapter 1: That little cherub on the train

The train was ready to steam off and I thought I was ready too. I have been worried and scared and hopeless about that one question I have been asking to myself all day, "was the knot tying me to my other half still intact or has it withered away? Have I already become the stranded one in love and has our love proved to be just like anybody's else, painful and cold? Or have we won?". That still remains a mystery until this journey of mine has reached its pivotal point. When will I ever stop thinking about it? I haven't slept or eaten, or relaxed for a second! The dark patch under my eyes are showing! Why did I do this? Should I have listened? Love is pain.
Immersed in my never-ending thoughts I couldn't hear anything else, not even the loud voice of the woman sitting next to me. I didn't know why she was shouting and I did not care. Nothing other than the sight I am anticipating to see, in this world could induce in me any kind of interest today! But I was proven wrong the next minute. I saw her. She was sitting a good ten meters away from me and still I felt she was closer to me than myself. She sat with her head facing her feet. Something about her sparked in me a familiar feeling of intense affinity and warmth. A new voice spoke in me amidst all the other voices.

     "She needs your help; she doesn't look alright!"

Even though I doubted, if my legs still had the power to bear my weight I slowly stood up, breaking the trance I had put myself in. Every meter that distanced me from that angel felt like an impossible amount of space I could cross. After what felt like an eternity I finally came to stand at her side.

The angel lifted her face to look at the invader of the peace of her solitary existence. Her face bore no traces of age as it should be. I stood there with my gaze affixed on her smooth and glazy face, wondering if the light was coming from within her. It was penetrating my mind with a godlike power and all of my thoughts about my significant other vanished at once. All that was left was the eminent glow of her face filling the universe inside of me, infusing all of that illumination in every nook and corner of me. I felt like somebody had just ignited a lamp inside cleansing me from within. She smiled and her smile was contagious. The edges of my mouth curved itself as if by magic into what I presume and hope is a beautiful smile. Finally, after twelve months I smiled an unprecedented genuine smile, and this cherub of God made me beam.

     "Hello sir! How may I help you? Please tell me if there's anything-... Sir, Sir!"

I awoke from the spell her smile had cast me in, with a start. What happened? She was staring at me and her eyes bore into mine with such power that I feared I would be blinded. Her cherry lips moved up and down forming words that I couldn't comprehend.

     "Sir, are you alright?"

I tried moving my lips but it just wouldn't. I was spell bound.

     "Sir I might have to call somebody! Are you okay?"

Finally, I managed.
     "Oh, I am sorry! Did I scare you? I didn't mean to."

     "No, you didn't, but you looked like you saw a ghost or something!" Now I laughed with her. "Can I do something for you?", she asked after a minute.

     "Nothing much! I just needed some space to sit.", I said motioning to the space that was occupied by her bag!

She flinched but recovered soon and yanked her black Puma bag from the seat.

     "Sorry!", she said.

     "Oh, it's okay to relieve your thighs of the burden of your school books for some time! I have been through it myself", I said with yet another smile.

She smiled.

     "These are not books I am carrying today!", she said by gesturing towards the front.

I didn't see it at the first instance but after a second or two, I understood what she meant. There they sat, like a horde of crows perched upon a branch, a group of what appeared to be students in black sitting in every row of the compartment. I can't believe I didn't notice till now. They were like the bright moon in a starless night sky. How could anyone miss it? But then how can I not miss it? I was busy questioning myself, wasn't I?

     "What is it? A school trip?", I asked.

She looked uncertain and then she looked at the tall figure sitting at the front row with some of the students. It wouldn't take a genius to understand why she is hesitant! Of course who in the right mind would go rambling about their life to a total stranger?

     "I understand!" I said with a candid smile.

     "Please don't think I am rude. I am bound to say nothing to anyone by my teachers!", she said with an awkward smile.

I nodded.

I sat back and an unexpected wave of good feeling hit me. I was relaxed when I was beside her. I felt like there was somebody with me in this never-ending vast sea of confusion, the dwelling of otherworldly and strange things. Not asking myself any deeply unsettling questions anymore I was more than relaxed. I was actually living in the moment. I came here to ask her why she was sitting alone but now I thought better of it. She might find me a nuisance. It was then she spoke.

     "But I think I am ready to reverse the rule!"

     "I am sorry?" I said

     "I think I can tell you why we are here."

    "No please don't. After all I am a total stranger to you. I should have thought of it myself."

    "You remind me of my mother. She always told me to not talk to strangers. But then again, every once a week she goes to a total stranger's house and kneels on the floor and talks to him about anything and everything, from what she did with her husband on the bed the other night to what happens in her workplace."

I felt my eyebrows furrowing.

     "So, from this I can tell, that you are not a Christian and you have never been to the House of God. Most people go there on Sundays and spent their time talking to a man brutally fastened to a torture machine! For god sake he needs help not your admiration!"

It was then I knew why this angel possessed my mind and made it go haywire. She is obviously a reader and a thinker.

     "People of your kind won't accept my ways and your God itself shunned me! I am not invited to His house parties!", I said.

     "So, to which God does your allegiance lie?" she asked with an obvious tone of sarcasm.

     "My allegiance lies with the true one.", I answered her genuinely.

     "So, if you like the truth then tell me why you gave up your seat and moved here! Tell me, sir!!", she said with an unmistakable ferocity, her eyes shining like that of a feral. I knew I could melt under her stare.

I DON'T KNOW WHICH ONE WAS MORE STUPEFYING, WHAT SHE JUST SAID OR THE SUDDEN INCREASE IN THE LOUDNESS OF THE WOMEN'S VOICE.
Apparently, she was is a reader, a thinker and a great observer.