Living in a Mirage

Prologue Two

"Do you realize that if you fall into a black hole, you will see the entire future of the Universe unfold in front of you in a matter of moments and you will emerge into another space-time created by the singularity of the black hole you just fell into?"

- Neil deGrasse Tyson

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Somewhere else... Where time didn't matter...

At first, it felt like every part of his body was drenched in pain, then the throbbing of his head took over, becoming the only thing he was aware of as if not only the pain he was feeling before but also his body ceased to exist.

And then slowly, out of nowhere, a strange kind numbness took over everything, giving him relief, a peace that drowned him; took him to a place where he no longer felt any kind of pain or uncertainty.

The strange numbness he was feeling give away its place to the darkness which wrapped itself around him like a blanket, cocooning him in its embrace.

As time passed, the darkness around him started to take shape, as it did, he found himself standing somewhere only darkness existed, as he could not see anything else. But that strangely didn't matter to him. The place he was stuck in, no amount of time mattered...

Before the feeling of darkness could overwhelm him, drive him insane with its nothingness, make it's home inside his being - there was all of sudden a shiny dot, far away, but one that made the pitch-black color that surrounded him, transform into a comforting dark shade - like the night sky. And then, the numbers of those shiny dots increased, taking over darkness, making him sigh with its brightness...

As he struggled to name those shiny dots, one name swam right in front of his eyes, shining more the brightest of dots.

"Nandini," he murmured, wondering, marveling.

He stood there, awestruck as more of the shiny dots, more Nandini-s, started to appear in the darkness.

He laughed, innocently, overwhelmed by the breathless sight.

He was in a happy place, now. With so many of Nandini-s around him, he was safe!

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PUNE 2015

"Okay, kiddo, now that we are good for a few hours, how about we read the book from where we left it?" The aged nurse whispered as she wrote down the names of the medicines that were now coursing through the body of the patient who was in a prolonged state of deep unconsciousness, 'medically induced coma' they called it in medical terms.

"So where was I? Oh, yes! At the stars, the shiny objects, such a mystery that our universe is, right?" she marveled looking down at the book to pick up from where she has left.

As she started to read out loud, the ICU which otherwise gave away only the noise of the several machines attached to an unconscious body rang in the elderly but pleasant voice of Purvi Desai, the head nurse of Pune hospital.

During her time as a junior nurse, she had seen the way others have treated the coma patient, so when she had become the head nurse, she made sure no patient was ever treated such a way, no matter what. While other nurses despite following her orders thought her to be crazy, Purvi didn't care. She just focused on making sure the people working under her didn't let the coma patient lay there, trapped in their own mind.

There was no proof that voices affected the coma patients, she knew the probability of the patient remembering anything was close to zero, but still, she could not bear the thought of the possibility of the coma patients being stuck in that state with no way out. A shiver ran down her spine whenever she thought of being trapped inside of an irresponsible body for such a long time. So she did what her heart told her to; reading out loud whichever book she was reading when on duty.

Turning her attention to the book she was holding, she opened it again, a book about the stars 'Constellations: A Field Guide To The Night Sky', a gift by her grandson after he found out that the grandmother of the future scientist didn't know anything about the stars. Purvi laughed out loud as she remembered how offended and horrified he had looked when she could not even name a star.

"So tell me, do you like stars as much as my grandson? Or do you think reading about them sounds a lot like a bedtime story? Am I boring you?" Purvi asked while smiling softly at the young man lying on the bed.

She wasn't expecting an answer, but still, she paused for a few seconds before she continued with the book she was reading; chimed in the description of the pictures of the stars the book had, asking questions in between.

As the chapter ended, she decided they could take a break for a few minutes, as she told that to her silent companion, her mind wandered to think him again. The patient who was a year or two older than her own granddaughter, something about his case was strange. Her decades-old experience told her so...

The first thing being the fact that only people who worked on the case were aware of it, the rest of the hospital knew nothing about it. That made the case extra special and was being treated as such by everyone. She, with everyone else who was working on this case, was handpicked by the rich trustee of the hospital.

The unusual interest of the trustee in such a common hit and run case was something she found odd. There were hundreds of such cases in a year, so why was this case so special? She couldn't understand why such secrecy was needed for a case that could be dealt with in a normal way. Not that she protested, rich ones always were weird to her, they have always left her confused with their 'Elite' thoughts.

Especially for this case, a team of best of the doctors from every department was selected, coordinated by the chief of medical staff himself, Dr. Prasad. And the first thing Doc. Prasad did was to make each one of them sign a contract which stopped them from talking about the case or the patient with anyone. And if anyone from the team did talk, they all were to suffer the consequences. Heavy consequences; which were not only going to cost them their jobs but also every penny that they had.

Personally, she thought that the contract as the only reason why the case wasn't being gossiped about as the other ones. In fact, even though they did have a few gossipers of the hospital in their team, the case was not known by anyone else but the people who were working on it. Such mystery and secrecy for a simple case of hit and run? Something sure was fishy!

The rich trustee of the hospital was abusing his power if she was to be asked. But she didn't dare to open her mouth; the reason was that she needed the money, badly. Her granddaughter was going to become a medical student soon, and her family needed as much as they could to send her to the best medical college in the country. With the money that was coming from this case, worth more than the money she would have earned in a year by working double shifts, this case was the only opportunity she had to help out her family. So no matter how suspicious everything related to the case and the patient seemed, to her it was the answer to her prayers.

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A/N:- Here it is; the start of the start of the "Past"...

I hope you are liking the story so far... :)

Let me know your thoughts by leaving behind a comment or two... :)

Thank you! :)

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