Chapter One

 

    Nerip stared into the calm waters of the lake, and somehow the face that stared back at him was not his. Of course, the reflection was like him, but there was something about it which, although unexplainable, made a voice inside his head say, ‘That’s not you!’ This bizarre occurrence, which seemed to defy any logic, would normally have been dismissed by Nerip himself as a worthless illusion, nothing more than the result of his mind being tricked. But in his current circumstances, he was forced to think harder.

    Presently Nerip stood by the side of a lake, which was mostly surrounded by a village �" an idyllic one indeed �" with simple wooden houses that turned back the clock by at least a few centuries. Everything else in the village �" the roads, the market, the carts, the docks at the lakeside �" bore the same mark of being unchanged by time. As if this was not bizarre enough, the village did not seem to have any inhabitants. Not even a dog or cat or chicken was in sight. The carts lay abandoned by both the people and the beasts that pulled them. The houses, complete with furniture and carpets, were empty of any visible dwellers. The market was full of stalls with shelves stacked neatly with a variety of objects, awaiting the arrival of salespeople and buyers.

    The strangeness of the situation, however, did not end there. Everything Nerip’s eyes could see in the village and around it did not look completely natural; everything had a tinge of artificiality. It was as if the things had been deliberately made to imitate reality, and were missing something which would make them real. The artificiality would not have mattered much if it had been present only in the man-made structures, but what about the sky, the scudding clouds, the lake and the very grass on which Nerip was standing? What had happened to change nature itself?

    The most disturbing piece in the overwhelmingly strange experience was this: Nerip could not even remember how he came to this place. One moment he was reclining languidly on his bed during the after-lunch lull in the afternoon, and the next moment he was standing by the lakeside looking at the ghostly village. In between the two moments there was a gaping, unfathomable blankness.

    As Nerip gazed into the waters of the lake, transfixed, his overpowering confusion began to give way to normalcy. His befuddled mind was starting to think instinctively. He realized that he would be better off exploring the place, rather than lamely waiting for someone to come and rescue him. With his mind made up, he turned away resolutely from the lake and set off down one of the village’s dirt roads.

    At a great distance on the other side of the lake, the setting sun was now a semicircle on the horizon. Nerip had been too preoccupied with his thoughts to notice that the sun, despite its faded light, was still as brilliantly golden as it would have been in the morning ……

 

*  *  *

 

Sunlight had faded out almost completely when Nerip stopped in his tracks to look ahead at the path in front of him. The dirt track ran almost parallel to the side of the lake, with rows of houses on one side. At intervals, smaller tracks separated from the main road and made their way into the village. Nerip decided not to go into the village right now. Instead, it would be wiser to see if there was an easy way out. The best way to do this would be to follow a route that encircled the village. The road Nerip was standing seemed to be such a route, and after a few seconds of thought, he started walking again.

    But he had barely walked for two minutes when he realized that the sun was out of sight, and darkness would swiftly engulf the whole area. Without light, there was no hope of finding anything. Nerip lay down beside the road, inhaling the fragrance �" also somewhat artificial �" of the green grass. Weariness washed over his body as if he had run a mile.

    Nerip was in that grey area between sleep and full consciousness when he became aware of a change. The very next instance he was wide awake, opening his eyes to the fullest extent, only to close them again immediately. There he was too much light. Gradually, he opened his eyes again, adjusting them to the brightness and starting to see properly. Morning had arrived, and had given a face-lift to all the things he had seen last evening. There was the lake, with its waters set in motion by a cool breeze and the movement of countless water fowls. The cottage-like houses looked much more welcoming than the previous day. But Nerip was resolved not to be distracted, because he must find his way out as soon as possible. So he stood up, yawned and stretched a little, and set off down the dirt road. It was then that he noticed something very odd �" so odd that it stupefied him for some time.

   The gleaming sun was positioned slightly above the horizon, the very same one which had held the setting sun the previous evening! How could that be possible? Did this sun set in the west and rise from the west as well? Or was that the east? Nerip thought that perhaps his memory had betrayed him, that this was not where he had seen the sunset. But there was a crystal clear image of the last twilight stamped on his mind. He could not just dismiss it as illusion.

    If it had not been for the strength of his willingness to get out, Nerip would have stood rooted to the spot, pondering over the insoluble mystery. But presently his senses came back on, and he vowed to block out everything that distracted him from his aim. Soon his legs were in motion once again.

    Further ahead, the path had a gradual rightward shift, keeping the village to the right and a line of tall trees to the left. Beyond the wall of trees was some open space, and then a dense forest of shorter trees. As the dirt track curved to the right, the forest continued parallel to it. Nerip hoped that the whole village was not bounded by the forest. He had never been comfortable in being among a great number of trees growing close together. This feeling about forests was due to a childhood experience that had been deeply unpleasant, if not downright frightening. On a family outing when he was six years old, Nerip was playing hide-and-seek with his parents in the jungle near their old country home. He had been a little too clever with his choice of hiding place, with the result that he had lost his way. He had been alone, screaming and crying, for what seemed an eternity until he was rescued by Dr. Saniv, a family friend who had accompanied them on the outing.  Nerip had refused to go anywhere near that forest until several years later and, now twenty years old, still found forests a little creepy.

    The arching dirt track became a dead straight one as Nerip trotted along. He let out a little sigh, because as far as he could see, the mass of trees continued almost uniformly along the road. A good deal of chirping was emanating from the trees, and as he tried to pinpoint their sources, a couple of birds flew out into his view. He did not know what birds they were, but the colour of their feathers, which was mostly yellow, was a little garish, as if an unskilled painter had smeared them with too much paint.

    The path began to curve again, and this time Nerip found himself on a zigzag course. Enormous trees and oddly-placed boulders forced the road to turn this way and that way incessantly. The zigzag path came to an end after a while, when the road abruptly turned right. Nerip walked along towards the right turn, wondering that form the path will take next, when �"

     He was standing at the lakeside, at a spot where he could remember that he had stood only the previous day.

    His sudden arrival in familiar territory took time to sink in. He looked ahead and saw the shops and houses he knew he had seen earlier. He realized that he must have gone around the whole village, and the journey could not have taken more than twenty minutes. Nerip scanned the sky. The sun was still shining fiercely (although he did not feel much heat) and had barely shifted its position since he saw it before starting his journey on foot. The sky itself was a brilliant shade of blue, although its colour, like that of the yellow birds, was also a little brighter than normal. No clouds were to be seen at all, which was rare since it was the rainy season. It felt good to just look at the sky and forget about everything else, even about his current predicament.

     As Nerip dropped his eyes back to the earth, he did the same with his thoughts. The problem of leaving the place had just gotten worse. He hadn’t come across a single path that led away from the village, which was surrounded on every side by the forest and the lake. That old feeling of discomfort sprang up inside his mind at the thought of venturing into the forest on his own.

    Finally Nerip came to terms with the fact that his only realistic chance of escape was to attempt to find a way through the forest. He turned around and retraced his steps back to the winding pathway.

 

*  *  *

 

The forest did not look as forbidding now as Nerip imagined it might have looked after sunset. There was something reassuring about the way the sun illuminated the tops of the trees and much of what was below. On one of the trees, sunlight fell upon thick masses of fur which, upon closer inspection, turned out to be sloth. Living up to their reputation as being the laziest members of the animal kingdom, the sloth were sitting or lying motionless, basking in the sunlight, although it was early morning and the temperature was moderate, neither high nor low. One of the animals began to move, slowly and laboriously like an old man, and disappeared into the higher branches which were screened from view by the foliage.

    Nerip left the dirt road and approached the forest, walking slower now. The urge to get back home subdued his discomfort, and he quickly increased his speed. Soon he was at the edge of the forest, and then within it, making his way straight forward. He hoped that this was the shortest and easiest path towards the other side of the forest, where perhaps there would be a road to lead him away. Walking through the forest was not particularly difficult. Despite the sizeable amount of undergrowth, there were still relatively clear spaces between the trees. Moreover, sunlight was pouring in from above making the area unexpectedly bright. All this seemed to foreclose the possibility of attacks by venomous snakes and their ilk, but Nerip still kept his eyes vigilant.

     After about half an hour, the forest began to thin. Nerip breathed a sigh of relief; he must now be nearing the edge. With luck, he could find a road and be on is way home. The bubble of hope inside him got bigger and bigger with every step he took, until �"

    He stopped dead in his tracks, so suddenly that he almost lost his balance.

    He was standing at the edge, open-mouthed, because in front of him lay not a road, but a gaping abyss. In every direction he looked, a pitch black nothingness stretched out beyond the forest, merging with the sky far away to form an unnatural horizon.

    Like a deranged man, Nerip ran along the edge of the forest, praying that he would find a way out of this nightmare. He tripped over the sprawling roots of the trees several times, but carried on until his legs ached. The darkness had followed the boundary of the forest all the way through, just failing to rise above the ground. Nerip refused to surrender. With the energy of a madman he ran on and on, and only stopped when he thought he must have gone all the way round. There could be only one conclusion: the pace, whatever it was, was bounded on every side by the endless abyss.

     Nerip knelt down, as if accepting defeat. He was a prisoner. He was, quite literally, in the middle of nowhere …

Reviews

[Reeti]

it's impressive how you turned an 'idyllic' place into one of a thrilling, deceptive one. You've explained how the sun, birds, grass and parts of the village have a different texture and color. I would like to read more of how there lies a spurious touch to the surrounding views in a little more depth. I am anticipating that you will mention more about the ill experiences of his childhood in the next chapter of your story relating to the forest. It might translate into something else in his adulthood.

So, his situation resembles him in an odd strait jacket with possibly no way out unless there's a preternatural intervention or a scientific discovery to help him.