Quaint Days

Unwanted Power?!

The epic moment as it was, I could barely understand what was happening! My mom who was barely forty-two was looking like eighty years old, yet her strength was like that of a twenty-five years old man. The more she looked frail and weak, the stronger she was. What sort of sorcery was this?
‎She was standing there, right in front of me. I was awestruck for a moment or two before she slapped me hard on my face and hugged me again, saying, "Don't go now, son, never leave me again!"
"Mom? Mom! What happened to you?" I asked, struggling with my lips to open cause my words were getting constricted.
"You're barely audible, son. Look how weak have you become! Don't you properly eat?" She was the most zealous and excited person on the planet, right now.
I saw her last when I left for the hotel in Daman. I didn't know whether I'll see her again, but now when I saw her back, she was a completely different person. "Mom, what happened to you? Please tell!"
"Nothing, son. These good men are making me stronger..."
"By making you older?"
"But I'm stronger, right? That's the point.
"How can you be blinded by their words?"
"These are good men, son! I'm here by choice. They never hurt me. They are making me stronger so that I can protect you from danger and fight bad people. That's it!"
"Then fight them, no?"
"I said 'bad people'! These are good men!"
"Uh!! You've been brainwashed!"

‎"It's nothing like that Samar! Nothing like that!" interrupted a sharp voice. This voice was quite familiar. I turned back to find Sharman looking at me with a broad smile on his face.
‎"What do you want now?" I asked Sharman, "Can't you just leave me with my mom for some time?"
‎"You'll have your whole life to spend with your mom. But don't you wanna know why all this? What all this is? Tell me! Don't you ?"
‎"I...uh...I wanna know but I don't believe you anymore. You've lied to me from the beginning of times. Every time I believe you and a whole different story is later unravelled. So, no, I don't trust you anymore!"
‎"But tell me, my friend, do you have any other option? If you're in, I'll tell you or else better luck searching for the secrets yourself! What say?"
‎"Go, Samar! You should!" My mom spoke from behind.
‎"Okay, but if this time you break my trust, I'll make sure I break down your bones!" I said while my mom was scared.
‎"This time I'll not give you any chance to not trust me," Sharman assured.

‎Sharman called me to walk beside him. He'll let me visit his place. We started from the jail where he explained me that he tested Xtrophine on me here. This was a memory eraser drug which made me feel like every simulated situation was real. This would have worked totally well unless a side effect like Dr.Raman wouldn't have popped up. He tried the drug 'Antiphilotic' on Veena who was Prakash's wife. She turned against her lover Prakash and fought against Prakash. The side effect was depression. She killed herself but Prakash started blaming Sharman for this and in vengeance made a plan to decapitate Sharman which he would have successfully accomplished if Sharman wouldn't have tried the 'Cerebropsyche' drug on himself which increased Sharman's smartness to a level which matched that of the smartest person alive. But, as every drug has a side effect and no drug is hundred percent safe, Sharman said, "You know, I wasn't a homosexual from the start. 'Cerebropsyche' made me. It made me the smartest person alive, but for a cost!"
‎Later, Prakash was assassinated and Sharman thought of increasing the drugs game. He injected 'Strengthine' in my already imprisoned mother to give her an extraordinarily strength but the cost was killing her skin cells and making her look old. I asked him, "When had you imprisoned my mother?"
‎He replied, "This all happened after we captured you. We then, started looking for all your contacts and people you love closely. We didn't find many people in your life. But then we came to know you don't live a very interesting life and that you're too boring to have many loved ones. We did manage to get two people."
‎"One of them was my mom. And you experimented your stupid science on her and made her believe that you all are good people."
‎"Uh, you've been mistaken there. That's two drugs. We started our first phase of hybrid drugs from her. We injected 'Strengthine' and also 'Opponon' in her. So, she became strong but she looked older and we even managed to change her mindset about us but the cost of which became a substantial decrease in her lifespan."
‎"What the fucking hell! You've lost it, your balls or what? How can you do this to her?" I held his collar up furiously and pushed him towards a cell door. A loud bang caused his men to come up to me and pull me backwards forcefully.
‎Sharman felt relieved as his calm breath suggested. Straightening his collar and wiping his shirt, he said, "For achieving something greater in life, you have to sacrifice something great too!"
‎He didn't know this, but this statement of his, pissed me more. "Shut up, you!" I said while trying my best to escape from the clutches of the heavily built men, but to no avail. "Leave me," I shouted.
‎"Leave him guys. He is our next experiment," he said while signalling his men to calm down.
‎I don't get this but why is he behind me and my family. I have to devise a plan to get my mom and myself out of here, even if it takes anything.
"You didn't ask who the second person is," Sharman pointed.
"Who is he?"
‎"Come, look here," he said while opening the door of another white-washed room. "This is your second loved one."
I stepped inside and saw a magnificent white spread all over just like the previous room. But this one had a black spot in one corner. I wondered where the second person was and also what that black spot was of! I asked Sharman, "Where is he? And what that black spot is of?"
‎Sharman said, "Patience!" And then he started pulling me to the corner where the black spot was located, quite awkwardly. I was wondering what that black spot was but as I came closer I began to realise that black spot was not a spot but a person instead!
‎The person was sitting in the corner on his knees while his head was bowed. The person appeared to have long hair like that of a girl. Sharman came nearer and commanded, "Stand up. Greet your loved one."
‎The person was supposedly my loved one.
‎The person stood up and I smelled some familiarity as he spoke in a distinguished female voice, "Hi, Samar!"
‎"Shanaya?" I asked, muddled.
‎She said, "Yes, it's wonderful to meet you again after so long!"
‎"I know. Same here! But...how? How all of this?"
‎"Some mysteries are better unexplained and untouched."
‎"But...," I held her hand and looked in her eyes. "But this mystery doesn't have to go untouched. Tell me who did this to you?"
‎She pointed out to me. A shocked me exclaimed, "What, me?!"
‎Sharman from the behind meddled, "Yes, you, Samar." He whispered, "Hybrid phase two!"
‎This made me realise that Sharman experimented the second hybrid drug on Shanaya. So, it was a mixture of 'Opponon' the mindset changer and some other drug. But which one?
‎I furiously turned back towards Sharman and punched him in his stomach and asked him, "What's the other drug which you gave her?"
‎He got pushed back and while his men started clutching me yet again, he signalled them to leave. "Look, you don't have to use violence again and again, okay? I'll tell you!"
‎"Fast!" I screeched.
‎"The other drug is called 'Shaponifane' and the victim gets the super cool ability to change its shape to any person it wants but the cost was a slight change in body pigments."
‎"The fairest girl I knew became the darkest!" Guess she got what she loved- the colour black.
‎"Sacrifices are made to maximize the benefits. Now look at her and you'll understand."
‎I looked at her and noticed myself?! Shanaya had transformed magically to me. I couldn't notice any difference. It was aptly done.
‎"But your choice in girls is really good, I must say. I mean you had a very beautiful crush, didn't he Shanaya?" I looked at Sharman to find that he was taking this shit to the next level but all I could do was nothing. I didn't have any superpowers like them. The only drug I got was a memory eraser. Not that I believe in the drugs game but having such superpowers is cool. And I looked back at Shanaya only to find her in her original Shanaya look. She could hide her 'now real-self' from her miragy looks thus creating an illusion but that's not what she is! She won't do this!
‎"Shanaya? Please come back to normal. This isn't your now real-‎self. And as much as I know you, you don't care about looks, right?" I said.
‎"I didn't use to care about looks but later did I realize this world doesn't judge people by their character but merely by their looks and the pigment they wear on their skin!" She explained.
‎"Very correctly pointed, project!", Sharman interrupted. "You should rest now. Bet you might be tired by today's excercise."

‎"Well, I am." She said.

‎"Samar, come," he pulled me and took me with him, outside. "So, this was your crush and the second loved one."

‎"What's your plan?" a curious and furious me asked.

‎"I'm gonna make a private army of trained soldiers who are gonna take down the existing government and then, I, Sharman will become the dictator of this beloved country, India! Hahahahaha!" he zealously expressed.

‎"That's it? I mean what will you do after that?"

‎"What do you mean by 'after that', huh?"

‎"I mean what next will you do? Would you take down the UN and then all other governments and make a borderless world with only one country existing? Or will you consider dominating some other planet?"

‎"Uh, I haven't thought of it but it seems to me that you're trying to plan something from that little brain of yours. You better not try!"

‎"I am not trying to cook a plan. Just want you to think clearly and set a proper goal or target! Isn't what I suggested even a bit intriguing?"

‎"I guess you're correct but..."

‎"But what?

‎"Uh, you're pretty much confusing me. I need to take rest now and think of a plan maybe and set higher goals maybe!"

‎"Yes, yes, you should."

‎He left for his room while his guards took me to the cell. Even after all of this, I couldn't understand what made these scientists turn into criminals. Was there a big excuse or something? And what if the opposite is also true? Criminals turning into scientists.

‎I was pushed hard inside the cell. This cell was rather small and damp. There was a barred window which was the only source of sunlight in the cell. It was night time, then, and I realized that there was no scope of light. Might as well this be used as an opportunity or something! Thinking, thinking, I couldn't control my sleep and thus I slept.

‎I woke up to see a white spot right in front of me. Wait, that wasn't it! White was all over! The whole room was white. I got panicked. I was apparently in an experiment lab. I tried to move but couldn't. Some hard steel chains constricted me. All my motor actions were futile! This appeared to be another of Shaman's experiment. I couldn't help but shout and scream till the officials in-charge came up to me.

‎Two strong men were approaching me with a medium-sized Sharman following them. Indeed the boss! "So, you woke up, huh?" he asked as if he didn't come to know yet.

‎I answered, "Apparently. Doesn't it seem to you?"

‎"You'll see something far more exciting now!"

‎"What? And why am I here? What sort of wizardry you're gonna perform on me, eh? Don't try to fucking frighten me, okay? I'm not coward."

‎"Patience is a virtue, my friend."

‎I didn't want to waste any more energy on that stupid scientist anymore. He makes me realize dumb men are far better than scholastic men. Atleast, they value life. Who knew science would turn into such a devastating creature who could devour everyone and anyone who it wishes to!

‎I was tied to a sloping bed. While, I was totally immobilized, they were about to inject some serum inside me. I shouted, "Noooooo!!!!"

‎Sharman said, "You were the one who made my vision clearer yesterday, remember? Now I wanna rule the entire mankind and for that, my friend, I have to start building a bigger and a better army. So, I'm here, injecting this invisibility drug on you. It will make you invisible when you wish!"

‎"Wow! Sounds good. Any hidden costs or terms and conditions in the scheme that I'm unaware of?" I satirically asked.

‎"Yes, let me complete. It comes to a small cost. It will make you impotent."

‎"Fuck! Are you kidding me? IMPOTENT?? Like 'impotent' impotent? And not important? I don't want to be impotent. I haven't dated yet. Why does this happen to me always? Please don't. Don't!"

‎"Hahaha! Sacrifice must be done for the power you'll receive! You are gonna remember this! You're going to fucking enjoy this as well!"

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