Lost in Confinement

Content warning: domestic abuse 

Standing barefoot on a muddy path, under the flickering bulb hanging loosely from the top of an old rusty pole, he found himself alone, with only a swarm of mosquitoes hovering over his head. The sky above adorned a reddish hue from the blood moon shining bright. The light could not reach the land due to the fog floating over the ground. The hillock on the left was covered with a blanket of dew on Angel's trumpets, while a dense thicket camouflaged with the fog, swayed on the right side of the muddy path. Looking all around, disoriented and confused, he tried hard to remember the place and stared aimlessly. He did not recall having a hard fall or getting lost, and nothing but only a name kept circling in his mind, Emma. He cautiously ran his right palm from the top of his head and moved slowly through the chest, bending down to the tip of his toes in search of an injury but discovered no cut or wound. In disbelief, he stood upright only to get pulled back hard for a brief moment, as if he experienced ten times the gravity. He stared into the horizon for help but all in vain. The chilly breeze flowing by his ears, spoke of sounds unfamiliar. A faint noise of a distant stream slamming onto rocks hit him hard with a strange gust of unknown fear. He turned towards the sound of the stream flowing behind the ghostly woods, clenching fist, as if he wanted to fight back.

 While he was about to take his first step, he heard a high-pitched voice calling him out loudly from a distance down the path.

"Here, come here."

He immediately stopped and sighed with relief. He turned instantly to look towards the voice. He saw a child, a boy about 4ft 8inches tall with a skinny physique. It seemed the kid had not eaten a single piece of bread in days. He could see the kid's tattered red overalls but not the face because of the dense fog suspended over the muddy path.

 "Here, this way." the kid yelled again.

 "Where am I? Who are you?". he shouted back, hoping for an answer to get out of this confusion and misery.

 "Here, this way." The kid shouted again and ran away into the distance.

 Disappointed and unresolved, He started following the kid and walked faster, with mud splashing and getting in between his toes. As soon as he was about to get near the boy, He heard a familiar voice from behind.

 "Where are you going, Charlie"?

 He stopped in a flash and looked back instantly in search of the voice.

 "Emma, Emma, Emma." Charlie cried out loud on recognising the voice of his beautiful wife.

 His heart started beating fast as he looked helplessly in all directions in search of Emma.

 "Emma, come here. I need you" His breathing became heavier when all of a sudden,

 "It's too late Charlie, Let me go. It's over", came the voice again.

 "No!" Charlie shouted in anguish. " I need you. Please come back. You know, I am a mess without you".

 Charlie got silent as his eyes turned red. His body got cold and numb in anticipation of getting to see her, but, alas, all was in vain as the eerie silence filled up the area again.

 He fell to his knees and muttered in silence. " Emma, Don't go silent. Please, don't go silent". "I am, I am, I am just flesh without you." His voice cracked as he stared deep into the woods.

 Everything around was slowly turning black when suddenly he heard the voice of the kid again.

 "Here, this way."

 He got up abruptly and saw the kid with the red overalls standing at a distance, amidst the fog waiting for him.

 "Here, this way," said the kid and started running into the distance again.

 Charlie quickly gathered himself up and followed the kid again in search of an answer. As he kept walking fast on the muddy path, He began hallucinating and started to see Emma and his good memories. Emma was his teenage love. She was the only girl he ever fell in love with and was the only person he felt his own. While he was relishing the moment, a noise brought him back on the muddy path. He lost track of the kid and was not able to see him nearby. He was now standing at a place where, on his left, the hillock meets the plain. There lies a high-walled fence, behind which he could see the branches of a huge mango tree swaying with the wind. He also heard few men yelling and blabbering on the other side of the walled fence. Unable to find the kid nearby, he thought that the kid might have gone inside the area. He gathered two pieces of large rocks and placed them carefully atop one another. The wall was so high that even after elevating himself by standing on the rocks, only the upper half of his eyes reached high enough to peek on the other side. He warily stood on his toes with his hand grasping the wall firmly. At a distance, he saw four men quarreling and arguing among each other. They were sitting under the mango tree with a bonfire to keep them warm. Empty bottles of beer and play cards were lying scattered on the ground. Two middle-aged men, who looked identical and had visible signs of baldness and hunched backs, were shouting at each other. They were wearing ragged black half- sleeves shirts and red trousers to compliment it. Another man, rugged, muscly forearms, dense hair, about 6 feet tall, wearing an all-black t-shirt and trouser, was yelling at another thin man. Charlie was only able to notice the lanky man's collarless red and white checked t-shirt, as the man was sitting on the other side of the bonfire, away from Charlie's sight. He steered his vision around to find the kid but could not notice him anywhere inside. Charlie heard a slap so tight that it echoed all over the vacant place. He saw that the lanky man was being held tight by the identical twins while the tall, muscular guy kept slapping him.

 "Where is my money?" asked the muscular guy furiously.

 Charlie could neither hear the lanky guy's voice nor see the guy's face to see if he muttered anything since he standing with his back towards Charlie.

 "You rascal, I gave you the money when you needed it. I don't care if you kept losing. It's been more than three months, and I want all my money tonight, else you will not see the dawn".

 "Why do you gamble and borrow money if you cannot pay back, you filthy bastard" one of the identical twins. " You will be dead if you don't pay, you loser," said the other.

 Suddenly, Charlie heard the kid again, calling him from a distance on the path.

 "Here, this way."

 Charlie turned around rapidly and lost his balance briefly for a moment. He struck hard on the top of the rock with his heel. Because of the sudden hard contact, the rocks made a clacking sound. Charlie regained his balance and saw the men staring back at him in silence except for the lanky guy.

 On seeing possible trouble, Charlie got down quickly and walked away. After following the kid for a few steps, he saw that blood was oozing out, though minimally, from his left ankle. Quickly without stopping or looking behind, limping on his right foot, rubbed off the blood from the wound, and kept following the kid, who had by now gone a great distance away from Charlie. He felt no pain on his ankle as if it had no relevance. He only wanted the answers he was searching for. His search for answers was still inconclusive, wondering if the kid was taking him to his love.

 "Here, this way." shouted the child from a distance and turned towards left behind a Banyan tree. Charlie reached the banyan tree and saw a small secluded house surrounded by an unclean lawn on its right and front and evergreen trees on its left. He could find the child again. The house was in a near dilapidated condition with broken windows on the front nailed down by pieces of wood scraps and a broken porch with no railing on its right. The roof was with dried leaves with rust on the roof drainage system. The roof extended to the front, severely damaged and hanged by the pillar on its side.

 On getting close to the house, Charlie heard the sounds of a man and a woman's muffled voices. He eavesdropped on the man hurling abuse on the woman. His tone gave it away that he was drunk to the throat.

 "You destroyed my life. Is this what you gave for my love?" shouted the woman.

 "You are no queen, you witch. You are the reason I turned out this way. This would have never happened if you didn't give birth to this demon child".

 "How the hell can you say something like this. He is your child too. You were involved in it too".

 "You witch, you tricked me into your love. Why didn't you stopped me? We were too young. I could have gone to the city now, having a good life. But no, you destroyed my life."

 "Don't blame me for this. Blame your drinking habit and gambling for this."

 "Shut your mouth, it is all your fault. You gave me a burden of a child to look after".

 "Don't blame my child for this situation. You didn't refrain from it. You accuse me of destroying your life. It is all your fault. I am leaving you right now. David is coming along".

 "No, you can't and will not do such a thing."

 "I will. I am leaving"

 Charlie stood there in silence. He felt as if he heard those faint voices numerous times before. The house seems familiar, yet so strange and distant. All his thoughts stopped abruptly when he heard a big scream followed by a thud. He peeked through the window from the front porch and was shocked to see the woman lying sideways on the ground with a knife pierced in through the chest and a kid in her arm struggling to breathe. He recognised the face instantly. It was Emma, his love lying still on the ground. Anguish was overshadowed by his anger for the man. He tried to open the door but couldn't. His body was trembling with rage as he started kicking the door hard with his right feet. At that very moment, he heard someone getting out from the back door. Charlie quickly ran towards, with the hope of confronting the killer. On reaching, he saw a disoriented drunk man crying, shouting, and laughing, all at the same time. To Charlie's surprise, he was the same lanky, red and white checked t-shirt guy who was getting beaten up.

 "Hey, stop right there. I saw what you did back inside. Turn around. Do not try to escape. Else I am going to kill you." yelled Charlie with all his voice.

 Instead of complying, the guy laughed off Charlie's words and started running away. Charlie ran as fast he could and got hold onto the back of his collar. Surprisingly what Charlie saw next shocked him to the core. The guy had a similar wound on his ankle. Charlie pulled the man towards him, when all of a sudden, everything around Charlie started collapsing like pieces of a jig-saw puzzle and turned dark and silent.

He could only hear a faint thud, one after another. The number 666 started echoing, followed by a wave of noises getting louder. The very next second, in a flash, prisoner number 666 woke up with tears rolling down as he got up on his bed to find the jailor waking him up by beating on the jail rods. 666 sat still for few seconds with disbelief. Sighing heavily, he turned towards the wall of his bed and crossed out a tally by nibbling with the index finger of his right hand. It was his 111th day of experiencing the same nightmare. Trapped inside the same dream, he could see his home but could never get inside. He destroyed everything that made his house, a home. Now his time passes by fighting within, trying to escape reality in search of the place he once called home.