The Run

“You are out of your mind”, someone yelled from my left side. I could see nothing. My vision was not clear. I could see a woman in front who was strutting, and she was moving away from me, taking her feet backwards. To my right, I could see a man lying on the floor. I could see something reddish in his body. I guessed it was blood, and I didn’t know who they both were.

What took place there?

I could hear the screams in a female voice, “Stop it, throw it away, It’s dangerous, you don’t know what you are doing,”

I turned left and I could see a girl with short hair. Her eyes were wide open, sweat over her face, and was gulping. Still, I couldn’t guess who they were. She was holding a hand; it was a man; he was pulling her away from me. Before I could understand everything, I glanced at my hand; I was holding a knife with blood on it.

Did I kill them? Why? Who were they? The woman came to me; she was still slow, her hand grabbed mine and in my defence, I pulled my hand towards myself and I realized; the knife was not in my hand. The woman fell to her left in front of me. My eyes were wide open, my mouth could not shut, I could still hear the voices of the girl.

“No, what did you do again, Please let me go or else we can’t save them, take him away,” she was still screaming in that annoying voice.

I wanted to escape that place wherever I was standing then. I could see sunlight from my back and hoped it was the exit and started running; came out of the place and was just running straight and couldn’t see and kept on running until something hard hit me and landed backwards on my head.

I opened my eyes, realizing it was the same dream again. This is the 10th day I am seeing this.

I woke up, went straight to the bathroom and washed my face, looked into the mirror, deep into myself, not knowing who I was. I remember 4 years ago and woke up in a hospital with blood on my body. It was an old man who brought me; he was a single father; took me to his home after they discharged me. He lost his wife and son because of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. He treated me, sent me to university, and he expired a year ago. Now I live alone in his small 1bhk stinky apartment.

I don’t recall what happened to me in childhood; I forgot whatever happened before I was in the hospital. The dream, the same thing, every day. Maybe it was real, but I don’t think I killed anyone, whoever it was, the man, the woman, the girl and the other man holding her hand.

I put on my mask, my face shield, which is the worst of all, as it does not let me see the outside world. Four years passed even so I need to put on these things. I want to breathe. It looked blurred to me as in the dream always. I went to the supermarket to get some things for today’s lunch. I was coming back home, thinking about the expenses of this month, then someone collided with me and all the things in my hand fell off. She was a girl. She apologized and helped me pick up things. I saw her eyes, wide open, her short hair. She was the same as the girl from the nightmares. She wore a mask, so I couldn’t confirm. When I came back to my apartment, I was just thinking about the girl.

Is it the girl from the dream? I wanted to confirm it. I stole her purse there; knowing it was wrong to do it now, but I want to know who she was. I found some cash, two credit cards, and a gun. I quickly put it inside. Who was she? I wanted her identity somehow and then found a photo. It was old and torn. After seeing it for a long time, I realized it was my photo from childhood. I looked at it for around ten minutes, thinking about who she was, was she even real?

I then went to the same place where I hit her and then saw her coming out of the supermarket. She might search for her purse. It scared me, thinking if I was her target. Then she noticed me. She started running towards me and I dropped the purse there and I ran from there. I came back home; I didn’t want to stay here anymore and started packing my bags and was ready to leave the house, and then there was a knock on my door. Taking small and quiet steps, I opened the door. It was her.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to steal your purse. I won’t tell anyone about this.....” I pleaded.

“Brother..” she said, taking deep sighs in a hissing tone.

Did she call me brother? I then told her to sit on my sofa, which was almost torn apart. I gave her a glass of water. She drank the water, and she looked directly into my eyes full of tears.

“What do you mean by brother,” I asked

“Don’t you remember me?”

No, I didn’t. I told her about the accident for 4 years and how I recall nobody.

“You are my brother, we are siblings,” she started explaining to me. “You were born mentally unstable. It was unnoticed until you reached the age of 5. You were too violent and too naive. Our father planned to admit you to the psychiatric asylum, but our mother denied that plan. We kept you in a special room until you were 17 years old. Mother took great care of you, you only loved her. You hated your father, sometimes me too. One day, I heard my father crying and came there, you stabbed him. I tried to stop you, but when mother tried to stop you herself, you stabbed her too and ran away somewhere.”

No, I couldn’t believe that. The dream was true; I killed the man and the woman, my parents. My mouth was open for many minutes, my eyes held with tears, and sat down near my sister’s legs.

“So, I killed my parents? What mons.....”

“Not you,” she broke me

“You did not kill them”

“What do you mean, you just said I whacked them? I used to dream about it every night. I now understand they were my memories I don’t want to forget?”

She again looked at me but this time her eyes were red, “That man, my boyfriend, he was the leading reason you stabbed them” she said

She was talking about the man who pulled her away from me in the dreams; it was him, I guess

“Two days before the episode,” she went on, “I introduced him to our family, but they were against it. He didn’t like their decision. I told him not to make it a deal then. He still wanted to marry me and then came to you, knowing you are mentally unstable. He put the thought in your brain about your parents being bad people, misled you to kill them and you didn’t indeed realize you were doing it. When I asked why he did it, he said it was for us. I then left him to find you. After a few days, I found you were safe, and an old man saved you. I wanted to take you with me but I was sure that if you came with me, the police would catch you and when I heard about the old man dying, I again searched for you and I finally found you.”

So, it was him all along who did it and even if the police came, it’s all me and they would catch me instead of him.

“Where is he now?” I asked.

She started biting her nails and shaking her legs, “I shot him”

“What?”

“Yes, today he came to my house as he comes every year. He wanted me back and wanted to marry me. He blackmailed me that if I didn’t marry him, he would find you and take you to the police. So, I had to shoot him with the same gun he brought with him to warn me”

That means for now we both brother and sister committed crimes.

“What now?” I asked.

“We need to run”

Now we both need to run to escape from the law. I always thought something was wrong in my past. I never went out often and don’t know how the outside world works much. When that old man sent me to university, I dropped off the first day and was sitting at home the whole day. I never knew this day would come.

We packed our bags. When we were running to the railway station, I saw someone replacing my photo saying ‘Wanted’ now with my sister’s picture too included beside mine ‘Brother and sister on a run after committing four murders”‘

“Four?” I asked my sister.

My sister didn’t reply, and we were going to begin our new life as two siblings on a run as wanted criminals in the city.