CONNECTED: A BEAUTIFUL DREAM?

CHAPTER 2 BEGINNING

Born in a middle class family, Ruby was the only child of her parents and they lived in an apartment in the tricity in Northern India. It was a beautiful apartment located in the middle of the city and was connected with newly developed roads which made it easier to travel. The area where she stayed was semi- urban and was still under construction. The apartment had a beautiful view of open fields of sunflowers from its north side and from the south side one could see the I.T. hub at a distance. The roads leading to her apartment were well connected with the airport and railway lines. Every kind of facility was available despite being located in a semi-urban area. Ruby lived on eighth floor in a multistoried apartment. It was a four room apartment with a well-built modular kitchen and verandas on both sides of the house.

Ruby being the only child of her parents was brought up with much love and care. Her parents worked hard and despite their financial conditions tried to fulfill her wishes and Ruby was grateful to have such parents. Her father worked as a senior marketing manager in a multinational corporation. He was fair toned, muscular built body, tall with a moustache with vibes of a serious, aggressive man in his early forty's but he was soft at heart and tried his best looking after the family.

Her mother on the other hand was a beautiful woman with slender figure, ivory toned, long black hair, in her middle thirty's who was well known for her short fictional stories that were intended to be for children and young adults. She was a well-known author and Ruby took after her mother to being a writer. As Ruby was not creative enough to enter the creative writing field she aimed for content writing and became successful in just a few years enough to be at a high position in her company.

All went well in the family until one day... everyone was busy with their daily routine and Ruby was still a student who was focused on her completing her studies and obtaining a degree. Her father and she had breakfast and were about to leave the house when they received a call from their relatives about a terrible news stating the demise of Ruby's beloved great-grandmother. The family was shocked after hearing the news and for a moment there was silence all around them, they were unable to think of a reason behind her sudden demise and asked the relatives again as to if they were sure about the same... a minute or so passed and they disconnected the call while still in a state of shock. The next thing they knew that they need to rush and without wasting any more time, they hurriedly packed their bags and left for her great-grandmother's house, which was situated in a small village named Daroli, located in Punjab, India.

On reaching they witnessed that the rituals for the purification of her soul and peaceful journey of her soul towards her afterlife were in full swing. The family decided to stay for four more days in order to help the other members of the family. It was on that first night after her demise that a strange dream happened to Ruby, it was a dream about ghosts and numerous killings, bloodshed, wildfire, people were screaming and running around asking for help and there was Ruby standing amidst all, covered in blood, blurry vision, terrified unable to move. The next day she decided to discuss about it with her parents and after hearing her they suggested her to rest and assured her that it was only her imagination and the consequences of the impact of the sudden death of her great-grandmother.

So, as suggested by her parents, Ruby rested well, tried to accept the reality about her great-grandmother's demise and sure enough her bad dreams were gone... or so she thought but they became worse. This time she was sure that whatever that was about to happen will not be simply a dream but will have a deep connection and it might change for life for good or bad... only time will tell. True to her fears she experienced a strange dream right after she along with her parents returned back home.

The night after the return escalated quickly with no strange incidents happening. Ruby felt that maybe she was thinking too much and decided to not take the matter seriously and go about with her daily life as it was. It was all good for a week and then a new week came and with it came quite a lot of surprises for Ruby. That night she experienced a whole new world of dreams in her dreams and the terrors associated with them.

Soon after she fell asleep her dream world began with a strange dream that Ruby felt like getting lost in, she was sucked in her dream and what she saw next terrified her... if you are thinking that there were some sort of killings then you are wrong, there were no killings but Ruby witnessed a death... her own death or as she assumed it to be... she was not killed by anyone or anything but she was vanishing... disappearing away gradually and unable to bear the sight of that dream she woke up in the middle of the night, sweating, heavy breathing, trying to find words, trying to speak but she could not utter even a single word, she was terrified. These strange events kept on happening to her one night after the other, continuously, same sequences, same people, same way of death.

Finally, Ruby hadenough... she gathered her courage and decided to talk to her parents but to hersurprise her incidents were not taken into consideration and instead was scoldedto stop making stories and to stop imagining things. Her parents were fed upwith her stories and told her that all these events were probably due to somesort of unexplained stress and tension and will fade away with time. Herparents decided to send her away to Mumbai for higher education and job so thatshe could get out of her imagination and could experience a change so as toforget about her dreams.