chapter 1

Introduction of the main character, his daily life and his friends and family

1st April 2014

It is yet another warm and beautiful day in the beautiful town, Pithoragarh. The thing that I like most about Pithoragarh is that it is surrounded by hills. And these hills are full of trees and wildlife. If you are one of the few people who wake up early in the morning then you can hear the chipperings of all kinds of birds sitting in the trees outside your window.

Compared to the city in which I used to live earlier, Pithoragarh was a paradise. Tough the citizens here, sadly, did't think like that. They are just, what they say -- used to it's beauty. However, I don't blame them for this. It's just a human thing to forget the beauty of a thing which is in front of you for a long time. 

I had always embraced the beauty of this place tough. It is just my type of place. It took my parents a lot of time to search for a place like this. But after a lot of thinking, they came to the conclusion of sending me to my aunt's house. It was the only place where I could live in peace as well as stay connected to my relatives at the same time.

One of the main reasons I decided to live in this place like this, 500 kilometres away from my family was because I wanted to live in solitude. The reason was that I was a psychic and I could not control my powers. Therefore I would hear the thoughts of every person around me loud and clear. 

When I first awakened my powers, my life just went straight to hell. I could hear the thoughts of every person around me. It was loud, way too much load for me to bear. So it was just not possible for me to go to school or any other crowded place any more. I stopped going outside but even staying inside my room didn't helped. I could still hear the thoughts of everyone outside and in other rooms. At times, I could almost feel my head bursting. It was more of a curse than a power.

When I first told my parents about this, they thought what any normal person would think and did what any normal parent would do under such condition. They decided to took me to a psychiatrist. But I learnt about their intentions before that, thanks to my psychic powers. And after that I ran off from the house, an idiotic decision even tough it helped me a lot, later on. They found me and brought me back one day later and after that incident, they decided to listen to me before taking any such decision. 

And once they decided to listen to me, it was't much of a problem for me to proof that I could read people's mind. But it was a hard for them to accept that. It is weird how the human mind work sometimes. You can't accept something is real because you believe it can't be real even tough the proof is right infront of you. 

My parents decided to keep this secret among themselves for the fear that I might be taken away by scientists and that I just might become a test subject for their experiments. They asked me to never tell other people about this power of mine. I wasn't dying to become a test subject and be experimented upon, either. So I decided that staying quiet was lot better idea.

After that, it was decided that I should be sent somewhere else to live cause I clearly couldn't stand the noise in Dehli, the capital of India. My father could not leave his stable business behind just like that . Tough my mom, like everyone else's mom wanted to come with me but I have two other smaller siblings and I thought that it would be more reasonable for her to stay with them instead of coming after me. So it was decided that I would be sent to live with a relative in a place where the population would be low, alone.

The answer came in the form of my uncle Birendra who lived in Pithoragarh. He was my father's elder brother and a fully knuckle-headed and greedy person. My aunt however was a genuinely good hearted person and thought of me as her own child. As lucky as I could be, my uncle was in army and came home only twice a year for a vacation of one month each. So it was quite clear that I would not have to listen to him ten months in the whole year. They have two little kids, a 7 year old girl and a 5 years old boy. And in the coming years, they were going to take place of my other two brothers.

So after a few days, I was living with my Aunt in my own private room downstairs. In return, my parents offered to give them ten thousand rupees per month. As good an offer it sounded to my uncle, my aunt simply refused to take that money. The reason- she thought of me as her own child. That's all. My parents gave her the money anyway.

The reason for all this hustle-bustle was only told to my aunt. She was asked to keep this as a secret from everyone. Telling uncle Brendra was her choice. But he didn't cared much about it anyway since the money was good enough to blind him. So he was never told.

Pithoragarh was a lot better than Delhi cause the population here was very low and even tough a little noise still exists, it was bearable. I did't thought about it before but now I had the chance to explore my powers. It was supposed to serve me afterall, not to become a burden on me. Or that's what I forced myself to believe.

But if I was supposed to use it someday then first I had to control. That was the plan anyway. If you desire to use a dragon for yourself then first you have to control it.

Easier said than done. It was harder than anything I have ever done before. One year passed, I turned 11 years old and I still had not learnt to control my powers. I didn't went to school or any other crowded place for the whole year. I was losing it. All hopes started to fade. I wondered if it will remain like this forever. If I was destined to live my whole life all alone. 

It can't be possible. I won't be able to survive in such a way, I said to myself. Therefore I kept trying harder and harder and harder. I would be confined to live my whole life all alone if I failed to control my powers. Therefore failing wasn't an option.

As life would have it. On the start of the second month of the second year I started to feel something. I couldn't totally explain what it was, but it was warm and it felt like I was in the middle of a tornado with warm air splashing against my body from every direction again and again. There wasn't any sort of pain tough. It was as if I was imagining every stroke of air that hit my body. Yet it was so real.

Soon enough after that I could see my aura around me. It was not of some sort of colour tough. Just what it would look like when small droplets of water would revolve around you in a rapid speed. It was insane. That explained the feeling of living inside a tornado. My aura was flowing everywhere around me. My guess was that it extended even up to fifty metres from my body and was in the form of a spherical dome continuously rotating.

After a few experiments, I confirmed that I could hear the thought of anyone inside that spherical dome shaped aura of mine. I still didn't knew how it worked tough. But I guessed that it didn't matter at that time. What matters most at that moment was that I had to learn to suppress my power or what I now conformed was my aura. I had to figure out a way to stop it cause it was the thing that forced me to hear every thought of other people.

"Hey big brother. Come on, it's about time." came a voice from behind breaking me from my thoughts. It was my little cousin Karan. It was not usual for him to come all the way up to call me to go to school but it was him afterall. He was unpredictable. "I knew you'd up here. What are you doing at this time?" 

"Just thinking about good old days." I lied. Horrible and hard old days would have been the truth.

"Isn't it beautiful Karan?" I then asked him looking at the beautiful hills and valley in front of me. It was an ideal place for anyone who wished to look at the whole Pithoragarh. I came here often. Way too often. It was my place. I had learnt everything about my powers right here. More often than not I would spend my whole day trying to figure out how my power worked. That was five years ago. Now I was in total control of my powers and was going to school like a normal kid. 

"What? What is so beautiful?" he asked searching for something special that he hasn't seen in all these years.

"I am talking about all of these mountains, trees, valleys."

"Oh come on. Please don't start again big brother."

"What? Don't you think they're beautiful."

"Yeah yeah yeah, I see everything." he said mockingly. "I see all these beautiful mountains covered with... with all these beautiful trees surrounding all these beautiful valleys and every other beauti...." he stopped mid sentence "Hey look brother, your girlfriend." he said as he pointed at a girl walking with her friends.

"How many times do I have to tell you Karan. She's not my girlfriend." I said with a sigh.

"Yeah yeah. As if I am going to believe you. I saw everything that day.You can't hide anything from me." he said with a cunning smile.

"Aaah. Come on Karan. How many times do I have to tell you. Just because I offered her my umbrella on a rainy day doesn't mean that she is my girlfriend." I said and looked at my watch. It was 7:15 already. "Ok Karan. Let's go now. We are late."

"Oookk." he said as if a small kid. Oh! wait, what am I saying. He is a small kid. Just because he has learnt words like girlfriend and god knows what else doesn't mean that he has grown up. He is still just a 10 years old kid. The first time I saw him, he was a 5 year old baby boy and I was in his shoes.

Our school is in the higher ground in the mountains. So it would be true if I said that we hike up to our school everyday. Ofcourse our school has provided bus facilities to us students. But I liked walking in the fresh air in the morning, therefore, everyday I would purposely miss my bus and then walk all the way to my school. 

Sure the 2 miles long walk would tire me out a little bit but I always thought that it was worth it. I like silence very much, I adored the beauty these mountains exhibited, I enjoyed the fresh morning breeze, I loved to play while on the way and most of all I loved freedom. And I wouldn't get any of these feelings had I reached at time and boarded on the bus like everyone else. 

People may say that I'm weird because my activities are a little different from what a call a normal human child. And many of my classmates do say that I'm different. But that's just normal for me. I am different from all of them afterall.

We were walking for ten minutes now. The whole way to our school was filled with grass. It was a short-cut. Vehicles didn't run in this path. Only children do.

"You are late again Prashant." shouted someone from behind. I don't need to think a sec to recognize the voice. It was my best and only true friend Kushal. He was one of the best people I have ever met. And the best thing about him was that he was not all talk. He always wish good for his friends. I know it. I read his mind at lot many times before first talking to him. And that was 3 years ago, when I joined this school. We have been close friends ever since. He is smart, intelligent, good at sports and everything else that I suck at. In short, he is my idol.

Before I could look back to greet Kushal. He pounced on me and I barely saved myself from falling in the bushes nearby. It was just like him. Full of energy and enthusiasm.

"Calm down man. What are you so excited about." I said laughing since I was also pleased to meet him.

"I know about a secret." he said.

It was our code. And whenever he said these words, I was supposed to read his mind.  He was the first and only person who came to know about my powers without my telling him. I didn't wanted him to tell others about this because it might get me in trouble if they believe me and it might get him in trouble if they don't.

But he still wanted me to use my powers when we were both having conversations. That way we can have more conversations with each other in lesser time. It was so because we think faster than can speak. And I can read minds as fast as we think, which a lot in a very less time. Likewise if he have to tell me about a movie then he would just ask me to read his mind while he think about the movie. Thus I would learn about the movie as much as he remembers.

The other benefit of having such conversations was that I understood his fears, his pain, his happiness and all other emotions in a better way. Thus it made us very close. He said that this way I can also practice my power regularly.

Right now I had to read his mind tough. I removed the barrier from my mind which helped me in times when I didn't wanted to hear other people's thoughts, which was pretty much... every time. There wasn't anyone close by, so the only thoughts that I could here were that of Karan and Kushal. Then I focused on those of Kushal.

"I understand now. So you went to Agra to see Taj Mahal this vacation and you were not very impressed because it turned out to be a little bit boring."

"Little. Oh come on." he said as we continued walking towards the school."You know how I felt there, don't you."

" ahahaha I am just joking buddy. But that's common sense. Who can enjoy going on a vacation with just their parents. But I'm impressed with the improvement you've done with Aliya. Seems like there's a little chance now that you won't die a virgin afterall."

"Hah. Talk for yourself. You know what...."He sighed. " I know about a secret."

He was now thinking that I really should start talking to girls. He was worried about me. He was worried because I had not made any other friend in the class besides him. He was worried about what would happen to me once school end and I have to really face the world.

"I know." I said. He was right afterall. I should make some friends. But whenever I try to make a new friend, I read his/her mind before that, and what I see is not always very pretty. 

We came out of the dirt road (more of a grass road), now the school was close.

"So...." I said

"What?" 

"I learnt a new trick during this vacation. I think that you'll really like this one."

"Really big brother?" yelled Karan with excitement."What is it? I want to see it too."

I totally forgot that Karan was with me too.

"I am really sorry Karan. This trick is not for small kids." I said. I seriously could not show my powers to Karan without risking the danger of letting everyone know about it. Being the loud-mouth and attention seeking person he was.

"What? Please brother. Please please please please please."

"Alright. I will show you the trick when we reach home." Maybe by the time we would reach home he would have already forgotten about it.

"Ok. Thank you big brother. You are the best brother in the whole world." And now I was regretting lying to him.

"Would you really show him your powers Prashant" whispered Kushal in my ears.

I looked at him in astonishment. "And here I was living in the wrong assumption  that you are a smart guy."

He looked at me with wide eyes for a few moments. "You are such a mean person." "However, I can't wait to see this new trick that you have learned in this vacation." he said with a crooked smile. For he knew that the fun was just beginning.

Reviews

[Akshay Rawal]

I liked the concept and the imtroduction- simple, not a word wasted, and relevant. One thing Iliked about the whole book( the setting) is that you have chosen it's
ethnicity you are aware of and this seems to be a shadow of your experiences. It wouldn't surprise me much if you have based the protagonist upon yourself. This makes your story honest and credible,though an occult fiction. The narrative is gripping and some lines are engaging as well like - .... he was a baby of five years and i was in his shoes. Go on and please don't quit writing this further, whatever the reviewers say. I see a lot of scope in this concept. I am waiting to be surprised.

[Su' Nacnetaf]

When the word "psychic" came out, I admit I was about to stop reading. Decided to give it a go nevertheless because I was curious about the next chapters as I saw they do have positive feedback and all. I'd say it's interesting how the relationship with Kushal goes. The story does seem to have potential for many things, amazement, intrigue, sadness, dispute, morality... there are so many twists that can be added that I'm anxious to know what will come next, thanks for sharing.