I totally agree with her logic, hope at least Aditi stay put with the same. I don’t understand much about these space and time travel theories. I never believed them to be true and today, I became one of the examples to prove them true. Hope, Professor will add some sense to my existence in this universe. I totally understand that Aditi and Meghana are afraid of me. Fear is natural. If I’m the same person. Will I turn out to be him, one day? Even the thought of it, sends a shiver to my spine.
‘I’m completely exhausted. It’s already 2 AM, first thing tomorrow we will go and meet professor.’ Meghana yawning.
‘But, how can we sleep? with his presence in the house. I don’t trust him.’ Aditi said,
‘I have an idea. But don’t judge me’ Meghana went inside the room.
She returned with the handcuffs, but not the one, that usually police officers carry with them. These are fluffy and pink in colour. I was totally uncomfortable with that thing on my hands. But that’s when I saw Aditi slipping a smile at Meghana. I love you Aditi. I’m the only person, maybe across all universes who is missing the same person, who is right in front of him.
Aditi left to sleep in the room. She looks weak and tired. I’m happy that she is okay. Didn’t even got a chance to ask her, how is she? Meghana bought a water bottle and some snacks, kept it at a distance, where I can reach them easily.
‘Thank you for everything Meghana.’ I smiled at her.
‘I’m giving a chance to you. I don’t know, somehow, I believe you. Hope you don’t ruin this.’
‘I will not.’ looking at her.
‘By the way, one last question.’ she has lots of questions.
‘Yes.’
‘How did you magically disappear from the room? I saw there was no way to escape.’
‘That’s interesting. Let me tell you the complete story about it. I was lost in deep thoughts and realised that I have no other way, looking at myself in the mirror above wash basin, palm moulded into fist forcefully punching the wall in anger adjacent to the mirror. But the brick wall, felt hallow and wooden. Curiously, slowed the force of my punch, observing the empty sound beneath the wall. Trying to remove the mirror, my fingers fidgeting around the edges. To my surprise gently slid to left, found a vent opening which was dark and hallow. I thought I could easily fit in and also managed to place the mirror back to its place.’
‘So, you did jump from there?’
‘Yes, I found myself out of the hotel into an old garbage bin, hurting my back badly. I understood that vent was closed by hotel staff.’
‘I know you also got hurt, there were blood marks near the basin. Recently there was a governance passed for hotels to remove garbage disposal connecting to rooms as they letting the garbage onto roads without proper bins. But many of them, just hid them rather removing the vents.’
‘I also left a note for police to think – that I disappeared magically forever; so, they will leave my case to rest. Something similar to how Rahim writes his diary, I used the diary page.’
‘What about the bombing? Where and when is it? What else you know about it?’
‘I’m not sure of that, it is remote controlled or time elapsed bomb as per the diary, it may be in auto- execute mode, if we fail to find it. It may go off’.
‘Then let’s inform police, maybe they can find it.’
‘As I said, I’m not sure of anything. It is just a diary which have his past information. He usually mentions every incident in the diary after he successfully finishes his job. Let’s not create panic around the city. What if the diary is all wrong and there isn’t any blast for real? If you inform the police, they will arrest me and interrogate about the blast which I don’t have answers for. But they will not believe me and will torture until I’m dead. It is not their fault, because the diary is written by Rahim Razak.’
‘Which is you?’
‘Yes!’ I affirmed.
‘Then what is the solution?’
‘Firstly, we need to find out the truth of this diary and my existence here.’
‘That Professor Acharya, can help us tomorrow.’
‘Yes, and need to find the hidden bombing location in it. Before it’s too late.’
‘Will find that too, tomorrow itself. I’m positive.’
Meghana left the room, leaving me to sleep for the night. She cleared all the empty bowls from the table, before she closed the door. I saw stack of books arranged in a peculiar fashion sort of a tiny library to the left. She switched off her laptop before going to sleep. She is an independent woman, living on her own. Helping others whenever possible. She could’ve easily turned me into the police and dusted her hands off. She is the only one who trusts my travel theory from another universe. She believes me. Hope she succeeds to prove her point. Even though whole world doesn’t believe. I just want Aditi to believe in me. I cannot let her down, even if she is from a different universe. I clearly don’t understand why we got swapped in the flight. Our lives have altered. Maybe I am destined to be here by this time. If this hasn’t happened Rahim Razak would have land here and have successfully taken thousands of innocent lives and destroyed everything.
Chapter VII
I could feel Aditi who held me tight from behind; warmth of her hands spread over my shirt, whispering into my ears ‘I’m always with you, though not physically, but somewhere within you’ As I turned around facing her to kiss, I could see her face in low lit lantern, nervously biting her lips, eyebrows high in the air. She stares right into my eyes ‘Save me, Rahim’ Without a warning, her eyes pop out in shock, spitting blood on my face. I lowered
