Eesha ran, she jogged, she speed walked but she wasn't aware of anything. Her consciousness only flowed back into her when she was in a bus and her phone rang.
Her mother's name appeared on the broken screen. She didn't pick, she didn't want to at the same time badly wanted to. She stared as it rang and stopped. On the black screens she sees the image of burning inscense. About 15 cm of a short ruler. She blinked and the image disappeared.
Eesha looks behind her to see various eyes from the passengers stare back at her. The bus stopped abruptly, Eesha went forward hitting her head on the front seat.
"Mawo!" She exclaimed rubbing the spot.
"Chauffeur! What's wrong?" A woman with a bull ring sitting in the back asked.
The driver tries igniting the bus but it only jerks.
"E Don off" The driver hisses. There's groaning from the passengers.
"No vex, we go fix am" The conductor addresses opening the door. Eesha turns her head to her right out the window. Across the road, there's a woman in a top hat holding a cane having no qualms wearing a coat under the blazing sun. Her necklace shines for all to see.
That looks like. The woman raises her head and indeed it is, Lady Teeyah De Tara, Eesha's Aunty.
But how did she know I was coming. How did she know the bus will break down? Is it a coincidence?
Eesha attempts to get down from the bus but the conductor stops her.
"We go fix am" Eesha's nose scrunches from his cigarette smelling mouth.
Lady Teeyah turns around walking away, the conductor moves to the back. Eesha jumps out of the bus startling a car, it horns. The driver, the passengers, the conductors all yell. All except the woman with the bull nose ring.
Eesha's heart jumps, as she runs across the road like a crazed woman.
Her eyes remains on her Aunty's form although she's kept a good distance between them. Eesha follows but never catches up. When she reaches a neighborhood she fairly recognizes she then takes in the environment. A developing area with smooth roads, people move about their activities, the houses are of varying sizes, some new, most renovated.
Lady Teeyah enters into a compound with a short fence. The old red brick bungalow looking very odd amongst the beauty around.
•°
Eesha lays on the lumpy couch, eyes set on the smudge on the ceiling with mind trying to process everything.
There it is again. The intense feeling of De javu. It's hard to ignore. Too hard to ignore.
She shifts in the couch, her hand enters into the quilt, she brings out a porcupine spine.
Rather peculiar.
Her mind works to make something, to remember something... But what?
She whisks the spine around. Her eyes now concentrate on the smudge in the ceiling. It looked too familiar, too familiar to be comforting.
It looks like a spider.
Spider... spider...Spider!
Then it clicks. It all clicks, she jolts to a sitting position. It did not make sense but it made enough sense. The ticking clock reminded her- She made a deal with Tïme.
But some spirit wasn't too honest about the makings of the deal.
"You called..." She remembered what Yuri Gelma had said before now rather what he'll say the following day. She had no idea what she was doing but she had to do something.
She had to get her form back.
"Yuri, It's Eesha. I gave Time my form and I need to get it back". She writes in the air with the spine
The Do-over was all an illusion.
Eesha puts on her boots then dashes to her Aunt Teeyah's room. It's crowded with ignited candles. Lady Teeyah sits on the bed all dressed as if it's not the middle of the night. Her hand is rested on one cane the other is holding her pocket watch eyes set on it.
"Took you long enough"
"You knew"
"Figured, we don't have time"
"I know, and he has my form"
Lady Teeyah stands up then casually walks out of the room. The candles all at once off as she crosses the threshold.
She stands in front of the Grandfather clock. Her snake form unhooks from her hat, it travels to her shoulder, circles down her arms flows to her cane then stretches to the clock. A path appears between the snake motifs and Lady Teeyah's form fits in perfectly. All while she tells Eesha that...
"Everything that's happened is a loop. Because it's solely based on you no one can interfere, infact no one will notice unless you do. It's a repetition and you might have gone through this process several times already"
"If it's a loop can things change. Can things be different?"
The clock chimes, their shadows flow into it.
Eesha opens her eyes to see White walls. Lady Teeyah is already standing, the top half of her face painted. Her lips are as usual black while her cane is that of a snake.
"Think of a Merry-go-round, someone from outside does the pushing, that person determines how fast or how slow it goes. You're in this moving circle, you can choose to jump out if you wish because the one turning it doesn't want to stop. You jump out, you might get injured but you are out is the point.
That's how the loop works. When you are aware you might choose to get out that means getting your form. But when you realize and you do nothing then your soul will be taken."
Eesha is up on her feet dressed in the clothes she wore into the spirit realm before.
An inscense stick appears on top of them. It's below half of what it used to be.
"We-" An aura over comes the room. Long slim body dressed in casual fitted blue suit, a top hat with bones tied by a twine. He has his own cane with a skull on it. He is resting on the couch Eesha was on moments ago.
"I am here" His red eyes darts between the duo. "Teeyah De Tara, my love"
Eesha's eyebrows knit together.
"Tïme"
"You sound like you don't miss me"
"How can I, I spend most of my days staring at you" Tïme chuckles.
"Where's my form?" The irritation is laced in her tone.
"My form, you traded it to go the past"
"You Cheated!"
"No no, I did not. You are responsible for your circumstances. I'll admit I gave a little nudge here and there"
Eesha's fist curl. Lady Teeyah places her cane in front of her to stop her from moving forward.
"What do we have to do to get it back?"
"I did say terrible things will happen if she decides to change her mind." He gives Eesha a look. "Terrible things will happen".
A glass cup appears in Tïme's hand, he twirls the content then drinks it. There's a tug in Eesha's mind, a sensation that travels within her body.
Her form was around.
"Oh Tïme don't be boring. Here's a game. You create an obstacle course with her form at the finish line, she gets it within the hour she keeps it and we leave. She doesn't-"
"She doesn't" Tïme's eyes brighten. He claps in delight. "She'll remain here as my bride. Ahn Lady Teeyah you never dull."
Teeyah nods for her niece.
"You accept?" Tïme is behind her, boney fingers drum on her shoulder. She shivers. The scent of his smoke, intoxicating.
"I-I accept"
YOU ARE READING
Chasing Tïme
Short StoryIf you could go back in time, will you do it? There was a reason, Eesha Amaddin avoided her aunt's house. Apart from her being strange, it was precisely because she was crazy. But after a fight with her mother, Eesha follows a strange pull that ta...
