Walking down an empty street, bottle of a conspicuously brown liquid in hand was an all too familiar experience for Hari. Four years spent in college, he had become dry, and uninterested in everything but himself. The slow steady sound of the rain, the murmur of people walking, the squelch of wet shoes on granite pavement, the blinding lights of a city that never sleeps, the slow jazzy tune of an old Kishore Kumar song playing in the distance-none of these registered in Hari's mind. To him, they were just that, a jumble of noise that didn't mean anything. Instead his mind was clouded with thoughts of a long lost lover, drenched in the sweet, yet repulsive smell of alcohol.
They had been friends for the longest time. All the happy memories, suffocated his intoxicated brain. They were so happy, and life was so simple. Before long, he started looking at her differently. A simple smile would send a rush of Oxytocin to his brain. The way she looked at him, the way she giggled as sunlight drenched her face, it was the little things. That made him fall in love with her.
And she had returned his affections. It was the happiest he'd ever been. And the most regretful he'd ever be.
He took comfort in the numbing drone from the alcohol. The buzz was all too distracting, and he couldn't help but be distracted by it.
The lights from the half open shops dimmed gradually, as he ventured deeper into the dank alley.
How sweet she looked. How soft she was to touch, he thought, aimlessly pulling his arms up into the air.
His head had begun to hurt. He had forgotten where he was going, where he was, and why he was there. He kept walking, as the droning kept getting louder.
His mind didn't think of anything else anymore. Only his lover. She had taken over his thoughts, kidnapped his psyche. And he didn't care.
She had loved him like no other.
The wet tiles shone with a dim red light.
She told him, that he made her happy.
There was nothing to be seen in front, only pitch red darkness. The walls felt like they were closing in from both sides.
Why did she leave him.
The droning was unbearable.
The pain was unbearable. What had he done wrong.
He couldn't hear anything, the droning had escalated into something that was no longer sound.
Could he have been better? Could he have not lost her?
He couldn't see anything, everything was red. The dimensions of the walls surrounding him, and the pavement he was walking on had disappeared.
If only he had not overreacted about it.
About what, he couldn't remember. It didn't matter anymore
He began to be able to see something beyond the all encompassing red.
Would things have been different, if he had said sorry?
The "thing" in the distance started getting clearer.
Was he simply deceiving himself?
He stopped, almost in a trance, gawking at what was in front of him.
Within the red, and the smoke he saw a pulsating barbed mass. Tied together to the horrifyingly organic wires, was a human face, staring blankly at him, with unnatural vitality.
Oh so pretty, was the face.
Oh so soft it was to touch.
Hari creeped closer, hands involuntarily risen. He reached out to the face. As his cold nervous hands touched it, he began to weep. He had long lost his reason, he didn't question why he wept.
It began to speak.
But the droning.
He couldn't hear, but he knew it spoke
The droning.
He desperately tried to listen.
The droning
He couldn't. His helplessness drove him to insanity.
The droning.
He cried, because he knew it was his his fault.
Droning.
He broke down. He knew what he had lost.
Droning.
His brain could not identify his own existence anymore.
Droning
He didn't think.
Droning
He was no more.
Dro...
