The Hallucination.

3.When an extra heartbeat bet.

His masculine voice gave Sylvia a nervous, yet a reliable shrill. She stared at him for a couple of seconds and then, when she gained back her energized self, she stood erect and turned around to have a complete look at the stranger.
She tucked her hair behind her ears and slowly turned back, keeping the eye contact for the last. The rain had reduced to a soft drizzle, and the moon sprinkled it's allure as wide and deep as it could. His charisma lured the evening even more.
She stared at him while he brushed the rain droplets that had accumulated on his perfectly set hair. His wet eyelashes, and droplets rolling down his toned chin added to his looks which made Sylvia utterly speechless. She could see him move his lips and making finger movements, but she didn't know why, as the whole circumambient around her become mute, entirely mute.
No sooner did she start to admire each and every spec of his flawless existence when a wave of forced air made her eyes blink hard. She quivered her head in shock as she realised the stranger had been spinning his hand around her face to bring her back to the present scenario.
"Hello? Where are you, lady?" He said still waving his hand before her eyes.
"Uhmm, ac-actually I was thinking about something, I'm sorry." Sylvia said while she held his hand and gently put it down convincing him that she was attentive now.
"What? Like, are you kidding me? You did not hear a thing I said all this while?" He said with a slight tone of irritation in it.
"No." Sylvia said keeping it plain.
"Never mind, I asked, what was the matter with you? Why were you so horrified then?" He asked trying to get back to being kind again.
Sylvia was in a dilemma now, she couldn't decide if she could trust him or not. He was still a total stranger. But somewhere in her heart, a little piece of it, trusted him without a struggle. She felt a strange vibe of faith within her, she had been in rainy nights lit with moonlight, but she never felt this type of magic conquer her soul ever before. This magic was more elating than the angel's mysticism and more penetrating than black magic. Sometimes, it does happen to us right? The strangers appear like our soulmates more than the owned ones. They happen to us like the fresh English roses while we tumble across the dessert of known folks.
Sylvia was innocent, but she wasn't gullible. When it was about Celeste, she thought through her brain, but this time, she wanted to let her heart out free, to someone and to make decisions, fearless to betrayal and lies. Because sometimes, it's the horrid lies that weave our broken hearts with beautiful threads of wit.
So she broke the dilemma and without any hesitation, pointed towards the thing that had freaked her out.
"You just cannot be serious. Really? Is that the thing which made you so weak of fright?." The anonymous asked, but he seemed rather concerned than amused.
Both of them looked at it, one with fear and another with sheer confusion.
"Why? Why are you so afraid of the puddle?" He asked staring at her hands which became to vibrate.
"It scares me. It scares me a lot. What if, what if...!" Sylvia stammered as fear engulfed her courage again.
"Tell me, please."
"I fear that it will show me my reflection."
"So, What then?"
"I fear my reflection. What if it crawls over here and grabs hold of me and never let me go? What if my reflection is the worst thing ever made? What if the world in which it lives is bloody and unbelievably dangerous? No! I- I just don't want to even be near my reflection. I fear it the most. While people get obsessed with their own reflections, and make them their best friends, I just cannot hurt myself by trusting it." Sylvia said with moist eyes.
"Have you seen any doctor? Do you know this is a disorder?" He said while he wrinkled his eye brows and concentrated more in her body language and pupils.
" Is that what you believe? I never knew it, neither did I have people around me to figure that out." Sylvia said, now a bit more sentient.
"Your pupils didn't dilate, which means, everything that you feel is completely genuine, and your body language is sober and certain, which means, no sigh of hiding or pretension. " he said while he stared at the ground deeply in thought.
"You seem like a...." Sylvia left the rest of the words for him.
"Ahh, Yes, I am what you guessed. I am a psychologist. I've seen very rare cases of your kind. And severity of that disorder in you scares me." He said, looking straight into her eyes.
"Am I not alright? I mean- I mean what's wrong with me, I feel so scared, so insecure, oh Jesus, help me! " Sylvia cried.
The stranger came forward wanting to clasp her cheeks and calm her down, but then, he knew he had to behave himself, so he backed off , just stroking her shoulders.
"I can totally get you why the puddle freaked you. But why did you step out of home when you knew rain can frighten you?" He said.
" Oh my gosh! It totally crossed my mind! I had to buy medicines for my best friend who's sick. My apologies, I think I need to rush right now." Sylvia said as she clutched her jacket's pockets.
"Here, I had some paracetamols which I had in case my head ached in the rain, you can take it." He said while he handed a strip of tablets.
"This is a great help. Thank you so much." Sylvia said smiling as beautifully as she could.
"I wanna study you, do you care if I meet you some other day?"
"I would really care if you healed me."
"I will, and I won't hurt you, I promise. So, lunch at taco bell tomorrow?"
"Sure."
Sylvia ran towards Celeste's home while she heard the stranger call her again.
She turned and she could hear a faint voice asking -
"What's you name by the way?"
"Sylvia! And what is yours?" Sylvia screamed to make herself audible.
"Stegin! Stag , if you called me." He said while he shoved his palms inside his jersey's pockets and walked away.
"Sylvia." He said as he smiled his way back.
"Stag." Sylvia whispered to herself as she ran, jumping over all the puddles .