Transit- Prologue

‘There is a popular belief among anthropologists that you much immerse yourself in an unfamiliar world in order to truly understand your own.’ Ayaan stared at the line he had written on the page of his journal, reading it over and over. His meeting with Dr. Shetty hadn’t gone the way he hoped. He had been seeing the same disturbing images for too long now. A girl by the name of Trisha haunted his dreams, governed his every waking moment. They started in fragments at first. Kisses he took for granted; the passionate love they’d make in their lavish two bedroom apartment. He couldn’t understand it. He knew she wasn’t just a figment of his imagination. He knew her, had spoken to her, even sat with her for lunch a few times. But he couldn’t make any sense of why he kept seeing that one night over and over again. He remembered every detail clearly. Her big brown almond eyes, her delicate nose that crinkled with her shy smile. Her ivory skin that glowed and the way he felt every time he saw her face. He was convinced that their destinies were somehow connected and what he saw were fragments of events waiting to unfold; a secret finally making itself known. He tried to explain how he felt to Dr. Shetty but he’d always turn around and give him some psycho-babble bullshit about how all these nightmares were just the stress and anxiety of trying to fit in and adjust; that the pressure of finding his corner seemed to be manifesting itself in the form of these vivid nightmares. But Ayaan refused to believe him. He knew that there had to be something more to it.

He continued to write in his journal. ‘I know that the things I see in my head cannot be what Dr. Shetty says it is. I feel it. My gut has never betrayed me. There must be a way to find out. Maybe be if I consult a specialist, someone who analyses dreams. But what will I say?’ He let his thoughts trail to those flashes he saw every night. He had to come to the bottom of these unpleasant visions. Ayaan switched off the night light and tucked the journal under the mattress. He knew that the truth would reveal itself at one point in time. He was certain. Right now, it was already 1.07 a.m. and he had to be up early for his lectures. He stared at the ceiling a long while before he drifted into a restless slumber only to look upon Trisha’s face, wailing, as the shot fired at him pierced his heart with an implacable thirst for his blood …