The Bridge

"Do you want to play hide & seek?"

"yesss"

"Come on then, I will hide and you have to find me."

Nodding my head I turned around..

I woke up with a jolt and looked around to see Nakul still sleeping peacefully.

It's been five days since I arrived here, five days since I have been constantly dreaming about him. He used to love playing Hide & Seek, although I wish I knew that it would be the last time I would see him. I woke up and headed towards the window, the moon was barely visible and all I could see under its light was silhouettes. The silhouettes that looked more comforting than the house I was in.

A week ago my parents died right here, they were here to visit my grandparents among the few families that lived here. I and Nakul stayed back, being twelve years older to him, I have practically been there for him most of the time.

My parents were always out visiting saints to know about what could have happened ten years back. On one such visit the saint advised them to conceive again and that is how Nakul was born.

A month ago my grandpa called my father to tell him that grandma was too sick and they should come to see her for the last time. That's when my parents decided to leave but a week ago we got a call from our grandparents to get back to Chhatrapur, my parents were dead.

All I could say was OK; locking myself in the bathroom I cried for an hour. When I told Nakul, he just sobbed for a while but was back to his normal self soon.

Soon we packed our bags and were here to cremate the bodies.

I was the first one to enter and what I saw made me cover my brother's eyes immediately. The person who was inside covered them without even looking anywhere and asked me to leave.

I went to grandpa's house and headed straight to my bedroom.

It was as if blood had been sucked out of their bodies, mouths wide open, the tongue missing, the eye sockets hollow.
I fell asleep with a shiver running down my spine at all times.

On questioning my grandparents, the only answer I got was,

"They chose their faith."

"What do you mean by that?? They were here to look after you and your health and now you tell me that they died and it was them who asked for it?"

Nakul came around and held my hand, that's when I noticed that I was shivering.

" Its better you are here now, you can see for yourself, they will show it to you."

"Wh.." they left the house and I was left to deal with my brother's questioning gaze.

"Let's go out and play something."

Nodding he came back with a big ball in his hands. I started walking ahead when he stopped me.

"You should hold my hands while walking, what if you get lost somewhere?"

I couldn't help but smile at that and held his hand, we stumbled across a bridge, it looked eerie yet inviting, I remember that it was the same bridge my father was working on before we left this town. We started playing and were having fun, that's when the ball drifted away and my brother went after it. I waited for a while but he did not come back, worried I went ahead to look for him only to see him holding a broken toy.

"Do you know that I am the only one to own this claw man toy? No other boy here owns it."

I immediately snatched it from his hand and knew the toy all too well. I decided to go back home, it wasn't the right place to be. We ate whatever my grandma had left for us and went to sleep.