Chapter # 32 what are you afraid of?
I was walking on the street, it was night, around 11 pm, and intermittently cars were passing by. It was a one-way road, and cars were coming from behind. Street lights were dimmed, many were not lit, the night was smoky and cold, headlights of Cars were making shadows sometimes on roads looked like some giant walking in front of me, and sometimes it appeared in the smoke.
To both sides, there were residential apartments when I heard a voice; “what you are afraid of?” voice was shrill, and I knew I had heard that voice before. I stopped and looked around; from very distance, one car was coming, I looked in front of me at the ground where I saw my shadow as big as a giant, and slowly it was becoming smaller, and the time came when it disappeared into me as the car passed by. Who said that- Ghosts? , apparently, I shrugged that thought and thought it was my hallucination. I started walking again now I was more careful as the thought of an unknown voice had already made me nervous. The hairs on my hands stood up. Coldness started gripping my legs, and my long shadow again started contracting in me. I heard the loud engine noise as it came nearer, I turned around, and it hit me and threw me up in the empty air. I saw my body hitting the ground while still up in the air. I heard again, “What are you afraid of?” As I was scared, I shouted, “Who are you?” I was still falling, but the ground seemed to be much further. “What are you afraid of?” I responded, “I am afraid now,” when a voice said, “You are scared of heights”- I will die. I cried; my eyes were covered with tears, and I was screaming. Voice said, “Stop crying- you are already dead if you don’t know what you are afraid of” with this, I hit the ground.
I opened my eyes, my cheek, and to a certain extent, my lips were touching the cold floor of my home. Did I fall off the bed? It was when I realised it was a dream. I was bleeding from the side of my upper lips and tooth.
(An extract from my writing: Story of our lives)
