Chapter One - The Mind Reader

It was dark. Peaceful and comfortable. I liked it there, but it hadn't always been the same.

As a kid, I was too scared of the dark, never slept with lights off because I was afraid that an arm with sharp, long fingers would stretch out from any of those ghastly shadows or those dense, tenebrous corners and drag me into their endless world of fear and trauma. I was always concerned about not drinking anything before I went to bed so I would not have to wake up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. And yet, it did not do any good. On many of those silent nights, I woke up thirsty, but the kitchen was much closer than the bathroom from my bedroom, so it went a little too good until I turned ten.

That year when the summer holidays were just about to start, my mother and my little brother decided to visit my mother's parents, leaving me, my father, and the feeling that it would be a little more lonely in the house. There was nothing to worry about in the daytime, but my fear would rise inversely proportional as the sun went down. As the darkness approached, I would turn ON every last light in the house, crawl into my bed, and wait for my father to come from work. His scolding about leaving the lights ON never bothered me, not more than the unknown sinister of the dark.

I was not sure why I feared the darksome so much. Maybe because it engulfs you. And you don't know where to look for monsters and gleaming yellow-red eyes. All you do is hear. You hear those voices your parents told you that it's just in your head, but a part of you knows it's real. Someone or something is calling out your name. Whispers; that you can't sleep with just having imagined them. Whispers; that can give you chills in mid-June or break a sweat on a freezing night in December, and sometimes, both.

One such torrid evening, I was in my bed with every light ON, waiting for my father. And with my bad luck, happened the last thing I ever wanted. Our whole block had a power cut! I froze in fear! It was not like something came running at me, so my reflexes could get time to analyze the situation and act in response. It was like it happened in yocto-seconds. It was as if someone had injected pounds of adrenaline into my bloodstream. My heart stopped. I was instantly sent to my worst nightmare; nigritude. I could feel every last cell of my body shaking in horror. It was the hottest week of the month, and here I was, shivering like a lamb. I couldn't see anything. It was uttermost black as if nothing else was there in the out-and-out universe except the bed I was sitting on. I waited...holding down my breath, for something creepy to happen, but no monster jumped me. Nothing crawled from under my bed, and no yellow-red evil eyes blinked. I had barely got hold of my senses when I heard it.

'Vijay!'

It was like a slow, dreamy female voice with no apparent source calling someone. I felt chills down my spine.

"It's in my head. It's in my head." I tried to calm myself down but shuddered when I heard it again.

'Viijaay....'

Whose voice was this, and who was it calling to? Who was this Vijay? Before I could even think of anything stupid and muster enough strength to do it, I felt something slipping on my skin. It was cold and porous. Once again, I heard it.

'Vijay!'

Then I realized that 'something' was the darkness, and it was all over me. I was covered in a dark, dense, dead, and cold substance.

"That voice! Is it...darkness? Is it my darkness??" I asked myself as I was bathing in the darkness.

Suddenly, I realized I was no longer shivering or scared of the dark anymore. I was feeling calm deep inside and out. I wondered if that was my fear itself being released. Do we all have our darkness inside us, which needs a perfect opportunity to sneak out? I didn't remember what happened next. All I knew for sure was that I was fast asleep in my bed before we had powers back and before my father came home.

All I remembered was that I had woken up the following morning with a loud buzzing aching my head as if a swarm of flies hovered around me. I looked for the source but didn't see any bees flying around. Hell, I didn't find a single bee or fly in my house the whole morning. Though I heard a few words echoing, sometimes with the sound of buzzing, whenever I crossed or went close to my father.

'LATE! OFFICE! BREAKFAST!'

I couldn't make anything out of it. When I left for school, the sound followed me everywhere I went. I realized it was in my head. There was no doubt about it having to do something with the previous night. I entered my classroom, and a whole river of words flooded my head.

'THERE HE IS!'

'HE'S SO CUTE!'

I didn't see any lips moving, just the blank faces, but I could still hear.

'DUMB ASS!'

'HERE'S THE SKINNY!'

I walked past everyone to the last bench and sat there expressionless but thinking. I couldn't tell what I felt more, surprise or shock. I could think clearly despite the loud buzzing and words floating around my head. It all made sense, the buzzing, those random words. I knew what I was doing unintentionally but had no goddamn idea how I was doing it. During the class, our Social-Science teacher seemed focused on the first civilization, the dawn of the modern world, to everybody else, but only I knew that she was worried about her ill husband at home. The English teacher was thinking about lunch. His stomach teemed with hunger three times during the class. There was this girl on my left, thinking I would turn and look at her once, and the boy beside me hadn't completed his homework and was afraid of the punishment. I couldn't concentrate on my classes that day. I sat on the last seat of my school bus on my way back home and thought about what was happening to me. This ability, was it a reward? A prize you get when you face your worst fear. I suffered through my nightmare and came out victorious. I was no longer afraid of the dark.

It took me a few weeks to get used to it and deal with the buzzing, but life became much easier later. I could answer all of my teacher's questions. I could know what people were going to say before they said it. I knew what they thought of me.

'YOU'RE SO SWEET!'

"Thanks for the compliment," I would say.

I would often say things that would surprise people, and sometimes I just enjoyed the scenario. "I know you just killed me in your mind."

I was walking and talking 'Lie Detector'. I optimized the level of fun and invented a mind game of my own. "Think of any number or word."

'FORTY-SEVEN! FORTY-SEVEN! FORTY-SEVEN'

"Forty-seven."

"What the—! How did you—?"

Life was fun. Five years passed, and I became popular with the name 'The Mind Reader'. I was dating the most beautiful girl in my high school. Everything was great, but things took a nasty turn. It happens with all of us just when we think everything is perfect and nothing can go wrong. When it's a beautiful sunny day. But suddenly, clouds gather around in the sky, and it starts to rain. When a defeated enemy returns to invade stronger than ever. My dreadful enemy, my worst nightmare, returned one night. I didn't have a clue why it only happened that very night. It was not like I had never slept in complete darkness in those five years or all alone in the house. It was not that we never had a power cut again.

It was almost midnight. I was asleep in my bedroom when I felt a presence. I woke up and opened my eyes wide in the blanket. The feeling that someone is in your bedroom is just uncomfortable, but it terrifies you when you are alone. I stayed there, not blinking, not even breathing. I thought that it was a burglar. I thought to let him get anything he wanted and leave. If he found out I was awake, it would be my end. So I acted as if I was in my dreamy world. I was waiting for him to leave when I heard that voice again for the first time in five years.

'Vijay!'

I jumped. So did my heart. I sat upright, sweating, breathing heavily, and terrified by what I had just heard. There was no one else in the room. Once again, I felt just the way I felt as a kid. The fear came back. I felt like somehow I time-travelled to five years ago, but not even I could've imagined what I heard next.

'Don't be scared! I'm not gonna hurt you.'

Despite what the voice had just said, I shivered down my spine. I don't know what gave me a voice to my words when I asked, "Who are you?"

'I'm yourself,' the voice replied.

"What does that even mean?" I asked in a trembling voice.

'Well—I'm a part of you.'

"You—you are in my head?"

'Indeed.'

What the hell was happening to me?

'Relax. We need to talk, but you need to rest right now. Go to sleep,' the voice tried to calm me down.

I was still shaking, but I gathered enough strength to reply, "How am I supposed to sleep with a freaking voice in my head?"

'If that's your issue, I'll be quiet while you sleep. I can make you calm down.'

"How?" I asked.

'Let's say I have control over your involuntary actions.'

I tried to ask, but somebody just flipped my lights out. I felt like I was drugged. I didn't wake up until I heard it again the following morning.

'Wake up! It's time. Get ready.' The voice instructed me like my mother, and I followed like an obedient son. We (Yes, We) went to a nearby park, I sat on the bench until noon, and we talked. I asked questions, and the voice in my head answered.

"So when I was forced to face my fear, something was triggered in my mind."

'Yes,' she said.

"Then what triggered you?"

'Nothing. I was always here, trying to talk to you, but you didn't listen. You couldn't hear me, I suppose.'

"So, how can I hear you now?"

'Your abilities are growing. You've been listening to people's thoughts. Now you are listening to your own thoughts.'

"I'm using my ability on myself," I realized.

It was creepy. Listening to my thoughts as another person. My very own mind, talking to me.

"So, who are you exactly?" I asked.

'I'm a part of your consciousness. Your subconscious.'

When I said it was creepy, it was an understatement. It sure went far beyond creepy. My subconscious had its own consciousness.

"You said last night that we needed to talk," I asked. "What is it?"

'It's about you.'

"What about me?"

'You have to stop reading people's minds. It's dangerous.'

"What?" I propelled. "Are you kidding? Stop doing the only thing I'm good at? You know that everything I have today, everything I am, is because of my ability! And you are saying that I should stop doing it!"

'Yes,' she replied.

"Why? Why now?" I asked

'Your mind is growing, and it is growing immensely fast. Soon you'll be able to get deeper into people's minds which, I am afraid, is very dangerous. You might get lost inside the loury meander forever, or even if you can ever get out somehow, you will not be the same person anymore,' she explained.

"You are not making any sense. Do you have any idea what would happen to me, to my life, if I stop doing it?" I inquired.

'Listen to me, Vijay. Minds are very complicated and dangerous. Your mind is complicated enough, let alone the others.'

"You listen to me, uh—I don't even know what to call you. You wouldn't be here telling me to stop in the first place had I not had this ability, so I am not even considering your advice, 'my subconscious'!" I cleared my intentions. "And why do you call me Vijay anyway?"

'Oh! You don't remember!'

"Remember what?" I asked. But before I received an answer, my cell phone tinkled. It was a text alert. I drew out my cell phone and looked at the screen; it was from Neha, my girlfriend. She wanted to talk to me. I replied, asking if she could come to the coffee shop two blocks away and received an affirmative text almost instantly. I started walking towards the coffee shop. Since I couldn't talk out loud without looking like an idiot, I asked inside my head. 'HEY! YOU THERE?'

I heard nothing.

'HEY, SUBCONSCIOUS!' I asked again, 'REMEMBER WHAT?'

'We'll talk about this later.'

This pissed me off.

"NO!" I, instead of thinking inside my head, bawled out loud, "WE'RE GONNA TALK ABOUT THIS N—" I walked past a little boy who jumped, looked at me scared, turned, and ran away from me.

"Okay," I sighed.

I should've been glad that I stalled the conversation because my thoughts coming alive and my subconscious talking to me might be the most perishing thing that had ever happened to me, but that was just the beginning, and things, really spooky, bizarre and uncanny things were about to start.