I am not Dead

A super-natural thriller

                The roads were clean without traffic since it was Sunday afternoon. Sunday has become the most beautiful word in today’s world. No work, no pressure, no stress. The day that comes once in a week, four times a month and 52 times a year is a inbuilt heaven on earth. A man spends 3650 Sundays in his life approximately. I don’t know which Sunday is this for me. But I have decided that this would be my last Sunday.

                I don’t want to tell about myself. I am not an important person or a normal man who has a job and family. I don’t know anything. I don’t have a family to teach something. I don’t have a job as I am useless. Like that, I have so many DON’Ts with myself. I have reached the deepest side of inferiority. My brain also started to disobey my commands. I think all the parts of my body will soon disqualify me from them. There is no use of me. Even my name will not be useful in dictionaries, because there are so many words like ‘useless’ and ‘waste’. The books taught me that each and every person must have some talents inside themself. But I could not find anything inside me. I am not sure what I am doing here. I don’t know why I am here. I am just wondering what I can do here. If I continue to live here, that will be a big shame to the human species.

                Most of the shops were closed as that was Sunday. But somehow I bought that. Poison bottle made up of Arsenic chemicals. Somewhere I have read about this Arsenic chemical. The King of Poisons. Hopefully I would not suffer much pain. Yes, I was going to kill myself. That Sunday morning I decided this. I wanted to be useful atleast to this soil. I have read that the dead bodies are the best natural fertilizer for the plants to grow. So, atlast I was going to be useful for this world.

                I never believed my decision. That might change at any time. But, this time I didn’t want that to happen. So I left my home at the moment I decided to suicide. I took my bike and went for searching of medical shops. Finally, I bought this. Arsenic chemicals can be used for some skin diseases. So there were no issues in buying this. I was on the way to my home. I was counting my minutes. I was going to feel the pain of death. Some imaginations were going on my mind. The feel of death, the chillness, floating in the air away from the body, slowly pushed towards upwards. I would be no more. Tears were coming out of my eyes. The moment I wiped my tears, there was a big sound. I was not able to notice what happened. I could see so many images rolling around me. Finally, I realised that the images were not rolling around me. I was rolling on the sky. At last, I heard a cracking sound and I felt the smell of blood. A mini-truck was crossing on the other side of the road. It was very late to realise that a mini-truck was coming at high speed and hit me at the four road junction at the time I wiped the tears.

                I saw so many faces around me, talking among themselves. ‘Can someone call Ambulance?’, ‘Can someone call police?’, ‘He is bleeding’, Don’t involve’. I could hear these words from the crowd. But no one came to help. My vision was slowly fading out. Finally three men from the crowd came towards me.

                “Hey.... he is bleeding badly.”

                “He is breathing.”

                “Come fast. Lets take him to hospital. We have to save him.”

One of them took the car and came to that place. Two of them managed t me to that car. At last, three men with heart helped me and they took me to the nearby clinic.

                A 65 years old doctor was analysing my situation. I was given A1 negative blood which is very rare.

                “What happened?”

                “Accident doctor.”

                “Are you his friends?”

                “No doctor. We were just crossing that side and saw him bleeding on the road. Is everything fine?”

                “Nothing danger. But heavy blood loss and two major fractures. He has to take rest for complete one week. Did you inform his family members?”

                “Not yet doctor.”

                “Do it fast.”

                The doctor left. The three of them looked each other with confusion. One guy searched my pant pocket and he found a mobile phone, a purse, a piece of glass with a sticker ‘Arsenic’ in it. The mobile phone was not working. They took the sim card and put it in their mobile and checked. There were no contacts. Nothing was there in the purse. They were really worried. They did not want to leave me alone in this position. The next five days they tried to find my contacts. But no luck. Finally, the day, which I recovered completely had come. All three and the doctor were standing beside my bed when I opened my eyes. The doctor started first.

                “How are you feeling now?”

I just blinked my eyes. I felt pain all over the body. I was in half-sleep state. I could not continue more. I wanted to sleep more. I closed my eyes again. I heard some overlapped voices and became silent after sometime. But one thing is confirmed. I am not dead.

                When I opened my eyes again, the three were sitting beside. They saw me opening my eyes and came near to me.

                “Are you alright?”

A sharp voice. He must be my age with 4 days beard and heavy eyes without sleep. Its been 6 days I had spoken. I felt difficult to vibrate my vocals.

                “Why did you save me?”

They looked at each other with surprise. I told them everything about myself. The pain of inferiority, the longing of support, the decision of suicide. They were listening to me without interrupting. Finally, they discussed something among themselves.

                “Would you like to join with us?”

I did not know what to say. I was silent. The tears were running down my cheeks and told the answer.

                We completed the discharging formalities. That was a small clinic. Everything was handled by that 65 years old doctor. I was very happy, because hereafter I could used the word ‘WE’ in my life. We got into the car. I sat behind.

                “I am Anand.”

                “I am Dany.”

                “I am Vasanth.”

I told my name to them. Anand spoke a little as he was driving the car. Dany was giving directions by sitting beside Anand. Vasanth was sitting beside me.

                “We know only computers. But we thought there are no perfect places to drain our brain.” Vasanth smiled at me.

                “So we decided not to work under anyone and we chose our own way.” Dany turned back and said.

Anand waved his hands, “We are the Boss. We are everything. No one is there to question us.”

I was listening to them in confusion. Vasanth started to explain everything.

                “We are Engineering graduates. We did not get any jobs which satisfies us. We wanted to do something which means to life. That time we came to know about free-lancing. Very low investments. The major investments are our knowledge and skills. No reputation is required. If you have talent, reputation will come to you automatically. We decided that this city would suit our business. We have rented one office come house here. Last month we came here and paid the advance. Today is the first day to our business. First we thought it would be impossible. Confidence will earn you 50% of success. Now we have got the fourth pillar to support our ceiling.”

All three looked at me and smiled. I felt myself great for the first time. Dany started,

                “Its a big Duplex house. It is a 2H3B2K house. But we got this only for Rs 10,000 Rs per month.”

Anand stared at Dany. Vasanth was silent looking at the window. It seemed that both Anand and Vasanth did not like to talk about that. Dany noticed this and started again.

                “He is one among us. He should know everything.”

I did not understand anything. I waited till someone speaks. Anand started to speak without turning back.

                “Nothing dude. We got this big house with a very very cheapest price. Because, people call it as ‘Ghost House’. People say there are ghosts inside. Thats the reason why we got this house in cheapest rent. We do not believe in God as well as we do not believe in ghosts. Do you have any problem?”

                “I believe in God. But I do not believe in Ghosts.”, I replied.

                The car entered into a street, from there it entered into a further small street. At the end of that street, there was a big bungalow with a big grill gate opened.

“No watchman or security here”

“That is waste of money dude”

The car slowly entered inside. There was a big garden which is spread beyond 500 metres from the entrance. Anand stopped the car in the car parking. We got down from the car.

                “This house is really very very big.”, I wondered.

The Garden looked so beautiful with bushes, Ixora species, Frangipani flowers etc. We entered into the house. It was fully furnished beautiful palace. I was wondering how did they get it for cheaper rate. I thought about those ghost stories and I withdrew my thinking.

                We all had breakfast. Dany seemed to be a great cook. He prepared 3 dishes in 30 mins. I took a small nap. When I woke up, the other three were sitting in the hall and were discussing something important.

                “Hey dude, come on. We are waiting for you. Had a good sleep?” Anand smiled.

                “I am afraid whether I can suit to your team!”

                “Hey, we will be there for you always. Don’t worry.”

I was still not convinced. Anand started again.

                “This is Information Technology’s world. People need so many applications for their business and for their entertainment. Before, they used to reach big IT companies for this. There were so many procedures to follow. People did not like to approach such big companies for such small applications. There comes this free-lancing. They started to publish their requirements in internet. Developers started to work from home itself and whoever can bid the projects. Those who bid for short time and moderate fee will get that project. If they do it in time, their market will increase. Already we have four projects in our hand. We believe ourself and also we believe you. Don’t worry. We are here to teach. This is very easy. Everything is available in internet. The logic makes money here.”

They taught me everything from the scratch. I never knew I would be such a quick learner. Days were passing by. Everything went good. We got a good market in this free-lancing business. People started to handle projects directly to us without bidding. I completely mingled in their team. For the first time in life, I felt proud of myself. Sometimes, I even felt like laughing when I thought about my suicide plan. Everything went good till that midnight.

I was working for our new android game project. I was using the desktop computer. Before that I should tell you the infrastructure of this house. In ground floor, there are two bedrooms. Both the bedrooms are in the right hand side of the hall. In the space between the entrance of two bedrooms, there is a desktop computer, which I was using. In the left hand side is the kitchen. The refrigerator in the kitchen is facing towards the desktop computer. If the refrigerator is opened, the refrigerator light will reflect on the wall beside the desktop computer screen.  Usually we do not work in midnights. That day, we had some issues with the android game project. We always sleep in the right side bedroom. All three were sleeping at that time. I was working in a third party animation software.

                I was very keen in analysing the issues in the project. At that time I saw the refrigerator light reflecting beside the computer screen. I thought either Anand or Vasanth opened the fridge to drink water. They do drink water often. I looked at the right side room. All three were sleeping. I felt some sudden chillness in my body. I slowly looked at the light reflection to ensure what I was seeing is true or not. My heartbeat stopped for a second. I asked myself a question what I saw was true. A shadow crossed the reflection light. That was in a fraction of second. I was not able to identify the shadow in that short time. I was sweating and at the same time I felt chillness. The only thought running in my mind was Anand’s words ‘People say there are ghosts inside.’ I suddenly turned back. No one was there near the refrigerator. I entered into the bedroom and wake them all.

                “what? a shadow?”

                “In the kitchen?”

Three of them exclaimed.

                “This might be some thief as there are no security for this bungalow.”

We all four went everywhere and checked. There were no signs of intrusion. All doors and windows were closed.

                “Are you sure that you saw some shadows there?”

                “Yes Anand. I am sure. I saw that shadow with my two eyes. In the reflection of the refrigerator light.”

                “Hey, this is stupid. Which thief came and opened the refrigerator!”

                “That might be the reflection of some vehicles crossing by the road side”

Everyone started to give their views. But no one knew what happened except me. The one which I saw is true.

                From that day, I never worked at midnights. Everything was going fine, but from that day I felt some weird things around me. I heard some weird noise during midnight. But I did not tell this to anyone as no one was ready to believe me. We call few things as ‘Apart from Science’. But actually it is apart from human brain. Our brain is not capable to understand such weird things. The concept of Ghosts is one of these. I was sure that something else was there with us in that big bungalow. I tried to visualize the scenes that happened on that day. A shadow crossed in a fraction of second. After so many times, I came to a conclusion that the shadow belongs to a man. Who is he? Why he is here? What he is doing here? All these questions left unanswered. I started to concentrate on my work.

                That day we reached the dead line of one web application project.

                “Tomorrow is the last day for this project.”

                “Back end is almost completed. Only front end validations are pending.”

                “He is a big client. We have to complete this on time. But now, we don’t have enough time.”

                “Anyone of us has to work at midnight today.”

I did not volunteer. I had not come back from that day.

                “No worries. I will do it.”, Dany accepted. I wished he should not see what I saw.

                I saw Dany was working in the same desktop computer before I fell asleep. I was in half sleep. I heard some weird sounds like someone was breathing heavily. I was not sure whether I heard this in a dream or not. I opened my eyes slowly. I saw a dark image standing near the door, staring at me. That heavy breathing sound came from him. I was dead for a second. I screamed like a ghost. Anand woke up suddenly and switched on the lights. Now, I could see him clearly. He was Dany. He was fully sweating and breathing heavily. His eyes told us he was in a great shock.

                “Hey Dany, what happened?”

We were also shocked by seeing his situation. He was not able to speak. At that time he was only able to breath. We made him to sit and gave some water. He slowly started to speak.

                “I was working in the system. I felt thirsty. So I went to the kitchen to drink water. There.... there.... there...”

He drank some water again.

                “There I saw a shadow of a lady near the gas cylinder. I am damn sure that the lady was staring at me. I dropped the water bottle and ran from the kitchen to hall. There I saw two shadows sitting in the sofa and staring at me. I could say that the shadows are a small boy and a small girl. I am very scared. Something else is here with us. Please Anand. We will leave from here.”

                “The shadow which I saw was a man.”, I told.

                “Hey... Don’t encourage him.”

Dany shouted,”This is not a joke Anand. Please understand.”

The place was so silent at that time. Our brain are not ready to accept everything as it is incapable to to so. Anand was not ready to believe these things.

                “Hmm.... Ok. Then we will see. I will plan for other place. But till that please don’t work at midnights.”

                From that day, none of us worked in midnights. Me and Dany were silent always. Vasanth did not know how to react in this situation. Anand was upset by hearing these non sense incidents. He wanted to pull back the situation normal. He started searching for office come home in internet. Everything seemed very costly which was not affordable to us.

                After Dany’s incident, I was not able to keep these things aside. I was always thinking about those shadows. I  visited the places in the daytime, where Dany had seen the shadows. I tried to find something which could help in this problem.  But no luck. Finally one day, I found an old half torn photograph in the small store room, near the kitchen. That was a family photograph. A father,  a mother, a small girl and a small boy. Then, I was able to draw a clear picture what happened in these past days. The shadow which I saw belongs to this father. The shadow, which Dany saw in the kitchen belongs to this lady. And the two shadows which he saw sitting in the sofa belong to these two children. But what happened to them. Why an entire family was roaming as ghosts inside this house. Why they are scaring us. What did they need. All questions are unanswered. But I was wondering always that I was living with some ghosts in this house. Every night when I went to sleep, I told myself ‘Nothing should happen.’ And every morning I woke up, and I used to say that ‘I am not Dead’.

                One night, as usual I started sleeping with the words ‘Nothing should happen’ within myself. I thought about my life. Started with nothing, brought up with nothing, no talents, no money, useless human being, decided to suicide, got 3 new friends, started a new life, understood my hidden talents. Everything was running in my mind. Slowly I slept. I don’t know whether that was early morning or midnight, but it was dark. I heard some weird noises around me and I slowly opened my eyes. I was lying on the bed facing towards the right hand side of the bed room. When I opened my eyes , I saw that thing. A dark image which belongs to that small boy, was sitting in that corner of the room and crying. I fainted for a second. I turned back and tried to wake them all. But another shock was waiting for me. No one was there. I was the only one in that room. I did not know what to do. I started running like a beast towards the hall. I fell down twice, but I continued running. There were steps near the hall entrance, which leads to terrace. I was running towards that. On my way I saw Dany was hiding behind the refrigerator, Vasanth was hiding behind the left side bed room door and Anand was hiding in a small space below the terrace steps. All three were shivering and breathing heavily. I guessed all four ghosts started attacking us. I wanted to save myself. I found a small shed in the terrace and sat down. I was not able to control my tears. I started crying. I was telling myself, ‘Relax.. Relax.... I am not Dead.”

                A police jeep was entering into that big bungalow, crossing the garden and parked in front of entrance. A family was standing in front. A father,  a mother, a small girl and a small boy. The small boy was standing beside his mom, holding her hands and crying. The other three looked so worried. The inspector got down and came towards them.

                “See. We don’t believe in ghosts. We are suspecting some intrusion. Thats why we came here. We are not going to believe what you told in the phone call.”

All of them entered inside. The inspector started again.

                “Who witnessed that?”

The lady nodded her head and stepped one step forward.

                “What did you see? Where did you see?”

The lady started speaking in nervous tone.

                “I saw four shadow like things. I am sure they are not humans. Something else.”

                “First tell me madam, where did you see that?”

                “I saw those shadows which are hiding behind the refrigerator, behind our bedroom dor, below these steps and one was travelling towards the terrace. My son screamed from the other bed room. When I came to hall, I saw these things, Inspector, please believe us and please help us. We came here just one month before. My husband rented this house though people call it as ghost house because of cheap rent. Now we realised. We need your help. Please help us.”

                I am not an important person or a normal man who has a job and family. I don’t know anything. I wanted to be useful atleast to this soil. Somewhere I have read that the dead bodies are the best natural fertilizers. I never believed my decision. That might change at any time. But this time I didn’t want this to happen. I bought this Arsenic chemical, the King of Poisons. The moment I wiped my tears, there was a big sound. I was not able to notice what happened. I could see so many images rolling around me. Finally, I realised that the images were not rolling around me. I was rolling on the sky. At last, I heard a cracking sound and I felt the smell of blood. A mini-truck was crossing on the other side of the road. It was very late to realise that a mini-truck was coming at high speed and hit me at the four road junction at the time I wiped the tears.

                I never know that I was spot dead in that accident. Anand, Dany and Vasanth never knew that they were dead in a road accident when they returned back after paying the advance to that house. The 65 years old doctor never knew that he was dead in his sleep due to silent heart attack. We all never knew that we are dead.

                I am still sitting in that place in the terrace and saying to myself ,                                             

‘I AM NOT DEAD’

 

Author's Note

This is my second short story. I have tried a different narration technique here. A short film script is converted into a short story.

Reviews

[Karthick]

Brilliant Thriller :) Loved it :)

[Ashokkumar]

Really It thrilled when reading,,, Super.....

[Kutty]

Title is very good...."I am not Dead"....

Really its thrilling Irshad......Good story.. I like the way of narration..Unexpected Twist at the end..

After reading this story now I am telling to myself that "I am not Dead":)