CONNECTED: A BEAUTIFUL DREAM?

CHAPTER 3 HORROR NIGHTS

On arriving in Mumbai, Ruby took admission in a reputed university for her Masters and after two years was offered a job with a good salary package through her campus placement. The salary she received was enough for her to afford a house at rent and decent food for survival... but she had to share the house with two more girls which was alright for her as long as she was at peace. On her first day of job which was the briefing day for new joiners, she met her best friend Ameena who lived in Mumbai with her family. They were together during their graduation years but Ameena had to move back to Mumbai due to some unforeseen family conditions.

Ruby and Ameena were elated to each other after a long time and after the briefing met in a park near their office and like every other person sat down to discuss and remember the times they spent together enjoying and living their life to its best. Ruby trusted Ameena more than anyone but of course after her parents and decided to discuss her strange dream with her. Ameena agreed and listened to her and as a rational individual her first thought was that Ruby was making up stories but to her surprise as Ruby proceeded with her story, it became more and more serious.

This morning, Ruby came rushing out of her house calling my name as she was late while I was lost in my thoughts, "that's strange, usually she is the one who is on time, what happened today... why is she late" and as she was still lost, Ruby came and tapped her shoulder to bring her back to the real world. On their way to office Ruby and Ameena discussed about strange events and Ameena said, "Well, something is definitely strange and it seems to me that it is just not a dream but it is something more serious than that. Ruby, calm down and explain me in detail what did you see... I mean about that strange dream that happened last night."

Ruby nodded a bit hesitant and started to narrate her story, "I thought that these dreams would stop eventually after my parents and I decided to move to Mumbai for my higher education but they... I mean the dreams came back. Ameena ... this dream has been haunting me for past few days", Ruby paused, she had a sad expression on her face as if she was feeling disturbed and lonely... after a moment of silence she said, "I wanted to speak about it but no one was there to hear me, I felt lonely and sad, it felt like Déjà vu, this dream... it kept on repeating itself, night after night... so much so that I once decided to consume sleeping pills to resolve my issues. I felt terrible." There was silence all around, not even a single sound and after sometime Ruby described her dream,

"It was a beautiful night, moon shone brightly in the sky and the stars formed an Aquarius constellation and I was enjoying the view until something weird happened, something was not right", Ruby said as she described the scene, moved her hands in a type of gesture, trying her best to explain herself, "the watch... wall clock, I looked at it and time... time was running...no, no... time was flying but not the usual speed, it was like a movie which was put on fast forward mode, the time ... it was hundred, maybe a thousand times fast from usual and the sky, it changed color rapidly, days and night went by in a second in front of my eyes, dawn, afternoon, dusk and it was on repeat, it was like...like..." Ruby trying to find words and continued, "It was like someone was flipping the pages of a book at a high speed... so much so that even the eyes cannot catch up." Ruby paused, terrified, her expression was turning sour as she proceeded with her experience. Ameena gave her some water to calm her down.

After a long pause Ruby continued, "this was just the beginning but what happened next was pure horror, I... I looked at myself and my arms had cuts, deep, dark, but no blood, it dried up, my blood dried up... I was sweating but not a drop was visible on my face, it felt like... like I was frozen in time and space, I stood there, the scenes running past me... I checked on myself again and noticed that I was losing flesh from my body every passing minute, I wanted to scream but was not able to, I tried... I panicked and rushed to my parents but... there they were all in good health watching television. I shouted, screamed, cried but they were not able to hear my voice as if I was trapped and controlled by someone or something. I was lost... I was dying... but was I really," asked Ruby to herself. She started crying as she remembered the events and described them to Ameena.

After a moment she continued, "I kicked in the air and cried asking for help and then I felt a sharp pain at the back of my head only to discover that I had fallen off from my bed and hit my head. The dream was over and I was speechless, terrified, trying to grasp the situation... I was really scared." Ruby stopped and looked at Ameena and called, "Ameena... Ameena," she was lost in the dream description, Ruby shook her and she came back to her senses. Ruby asked, "Ameena, tell me what should I do, are these dreams trying to tell me something that I am unable to understand or are they just my imagination?"

Ameena listened toher, thought for a while and said that it was a dream which should not be takenlightly and that she had never heard such a terrifying experience. Shesuggested Ruby to meet an Oneirologist, a person who specializes in thescientific study of dreams. Lucky enough Ruby knew just the person andimmediately took out her phone and called her sister Amara who was a certifiedspecialist in the study of dreams and booked an appointment with her.