The Moth meets the Hell.

The drums sounded far and low, the flickering voice of a man singing the traditional song was weak as if singing was not what it wanted to do, he wanted to help the other person but it was dark, so dark far and wide, the darkness covered the whole atmosphere, he listened to the voice for a few minutes and then slowly took steps forward, as if in a daze, the voice was getting weaker and weaker by the second so the man fastened his pace, just as he was about to get closer, a hand held his shoulder, long nails digging into his skin as he felt a breeze of wind pass by his ear.

"What are you doing here, mortal?", the voice sounded in the wind, heavy and vengeful, making the man's heart stop for a moment, the surroundings went still, the man wanted to say something but nothing came out no matter how many times he opened his mouth.

"Who let you come in here", the voice rumbled in the wind once again and the man was held in air, the musty smell of alcohol making him want to throw up.

"Get rid of him", another voice sounded and before the man could react, with a sudden surge of power, the shadow dug it's fingers further and ..and.

"Fannah wake up", Yasmeen yelled from the first floor, making the boy wake up with a Jolt from his dream, still panting and in pain.

"Uh, coming Mama", Fannah answered in a low groggy voice, still recovering from his dream, he reached for his phone on the bedside table and found that it was already 09:30 in the morning, he quickly got up from his bed and took his clothes from the wardrobe to take a quick shower, before heading downstairs for breakfast.

"Fannah, you are getting late, your uncle has called multiple times already", Yasmeen scolded again, making the boy fasten his pace as he quickly got out of the washroom and sat in the kitchen for his daily dose of Noon chai and girda.

"Everyone is waiting for us there, I called you several times to wake you up, they are really mad at us for being late", Yasmeen said as she pulled open the lid of butter container and put it in front of her son.

"I am sorry, Mama I had a nightmare for the whole night, it was so scary and on top of that I even got sleep paralysis", Fannah explained to his mother in a soft calm voice as he took a sip of his tea.

"Hmm, I understand but you need to tell your aunt yourself why you didn't go there yesterday", his mom said as she softly patted her lovely son's head.

"Okay, mama, let's go, you are ready right?", he asked as he hurriedly took a few sips of his tea, took the girda in his hand to munch on.

"I am ready , let me wash the cup, and until then you go and get the car out of garage", his mother instructed.

"Okay, as my lovely mother says", Fannah answered and quickly went out, while checking his phone.

He took the car out of the garage and started waiting for his mother to come out, who he knew would atleast take fifteen minutes or so, before they could start out to their destination.

Once his mother came out of their cozy home, Fannah started the car without any delays, the journey was fun, the mother son duo talked for sometime about random things and when they ran out of the topics, fannah silently put on some sufi music for the rest of the journey, as he knew this is what his mother prefered to do in her alone time and with his mother frequently listening to the sufi music, he had to come to like it too, so here they were doing what best suited both of them, silently humming along the song while the car passed by several small localities, until it left the hectic srinagar life and roads full of traffic to reach the serenity of the paddy fields and apple orchards as they got closer to the heart of sopore.

"We are here mama", Fannah said, turning off the music.

"The wedding is already going on in full swing,let's get off", his mother replied in an excited tone and got off the car, before holding her sister-in-law in a tight hug.

"Why didn't you come last night did we do something wrong that hurt you?", his aunt asked worried.

"No, No, fannah was not at home, he arrived very late at night so I had to delay coming here", Yasmeen explained hastily to let the woman know she did not do anything wrong.

"Aunty, you know, mama is the last person you have to worry about here, don't put too much pressure on yourself", Fannah chimes in, smiling charmingly.

"Yes, I know that's why you are so early for you sister's wedding right, tomorrow is her Nikkah and you are coming now", his aunt complained as she kissed his forehead.

"Sorry, please forgive me and let's go inside",he asked with his hands joined.

"Okay, okay, who can stay mad at you for a long time, sumaira missed you so much", The woman continued as they went inside the bustling house, full of guests and family members, the sound of tumbakhnaer and tabla combined with women singing made everything else almost inaudible.

"Aunty, where is Sumaira, I want to see her", Fannah asked.

"She is in the 2nd left room upstairs but", his aunt wanted to tell him something but since the house was so noisy, Fannah didn't hear anything and went straight to the room, opening the door without knocking but as soon as he did, he regretted it.

The room was full of girls, his own cousins and some of sumaira's friends, who were chatting and laughing among themselves, as soon as the door opened and they saw Fannah,they came to a sudden halt, looking him up and down.

"Sorry", Fannah apologised immediately and shut the door before someone laughed loudly while the chatter broke again.

"Aha, Areeb, isn't that your husband?", someone asked, looking at the shocked girl in the corner, making her blush furiously.

"He is not", the girl answered with lowered eyes.

"Aunty was saying after my wedding they will talk about Fannah and you", Sumaira chimed in, looking at her mehndi a frown on her face.

"Ohoooo", and with that another chorus of laughter broke out, as everyone congratulated a tomato faced Areeb on getting her long time crush as her husband.

"Fannah, what are you doing here?", his cousin asked from the door of the hall as he saw him standing still in front of sumaira's room thinking about something.

Fannah looked in the direction of the voice and found Raid on the other side.

" I was looking for you", Fannah smiled and sprinted towards his cousin to give him a hug.

"Hmm, come on in, all the guys are inside we were waiting for you", Raid said, trying to drag the guy inside when another voice made them turn around.

" Asalamualaikum Fannah sahab long time no see", Arsalan called from the stairs dragging himself up one step after another

"And Raid come down first waza needs something so uncle was calling for you", He continued as he ascended the stairs.

"Hmm, I will go", Raid answered and let go of Fannah's arm before sprinting downstairs.

"Walaikum Assalam, what's wrong with you?", Fannah asked, looking at him.

"I was serving tea in women tent" Arsalan answered.

"Oh, okay let's go in", Fannah said as he put his arm around the tired boy and led her in the room where the boys were ready with their own music instruments, poets and singers sitting together making a comfortable yet joyous atmosphere, time seemed to quicken its pace but no one really cared and with them Fannah seemed to have forgotten the incident that took place before coming into this room and though time was passing so quickly Raid still had not come back.

"Is Raid cooking with the waza, why is he not back yet?", Arsalan asked and at this exact moment the door opened wide and Raid stood there with a smile, face full of sweat.

"Where were you?", Fannah asked, making a face.

"I went to get an important guest of this event", Raid answered.

"Is there someone more important then me?", Fannah asked with a smirk on his face.

"There is", Raid replied, and moved from the door threshold, letting Fannah see the guest of honour, as soon as Raid stepped to the side, Fannah froze and he felt like for a split second he had stopped breathing altogether,his eyes moving with every movement of the otherworldly being, his tongue that was ready to greet the newcomer felt that it could not conjure up any sentence to say that could please this being who was definitely from a measly place like this universe, this person,ah he didn't know what to think, his brain had shut down completely like saying.'goodbye bro, you are on your own today' to his heart. 

Things seemed to be moving in a blur, Raid said something to the person besides him and left while the person came in and sat in the corner, Fannah seemed to also think of something and got up from his place to sit besides this being, he bent to his side and lowered his head to meet the others eyes.

Finally after much thought he asked the ethereal being.

"Tohi kya chuw naaw?".