LABYRINTH : Continues

Bonjour friends,


Hope you liked my 2nd post because my this one is in continuation with 
LABYRINTH : A Short Fiction :P


http://ishikagupta99.blogspot.in/2014/06/labyrinth-short-fiction.html

CHAPTER 2 

Mr. Anderson was sitting upright on the bed, all drenched in sweat.

Childhood memories began to flash in front of his eyes. He remembered the words of his mother- “Andy, my son, you are gifted, you have a sixth sense, today you almost saved me.”

That day was Wednesday, he woke up at sharp 8.00 am, immediately ran downstairs, into the hall, pushed his mother, she fell down on the red carpet, about to yell at him. Moments later, the big, magnificent indoor chandelier on the roof detached from the hook and fell down on the floor with a loud noise.

That was precisely the fourth time when Andy’s dream came out to be true.

He wiped his sweat on his forehead from the handkerchief, grabbed his fully loaded gun and started to move towards the door.

He looked out from the magic eye; unexpectedly he saw figure of a man standing out. He thought probably the dream was a random one, thankfully. He cautiously opened the door, rotating the exactly similar golden knob.

Now, a man was standing in front of him, well suited, about 6 feet tall, white with a medium built.

The man was Mr. Smith.

Before Anderson could react, Smith pointed out a gun at him – “To every action there is a reaction, you destroyed my career, my dreams, now it is time for my revenge.”

“See you took me wrong, I think we need a talk.”- Anderson explained preparing himself for a defense.

“No time for a talk Mr. Anderson, get ready to get lost in LABYRINTH FOREVER!”

But before Smith could pull the trigger, Anderson caught hold of his forearm and gave a jerk with the help of his left knee to the hand holding the gun. Smith lost his control over the gun and it fell down on the white marble floor.

Now, it was Anderson pointing the gun at Smith. Smith started running, behind him was Anderson.

After a while Smith stopped, looking directly into the eyes of Anderson. He slowly slipped out a knife from his pocket – “Today, if I can’t kill you then, surely I will kill myself, can’t live my life in remorse with a black spot on my career.”

Anderson quickly moved to snatch away the knife from him, whereas Smith was cunningly busy in an attempt to caught hold of Anderson’s gun. A mid of all this a gun shot fired.

It was Smith who pulled the trigger but accidentally with the nozzle pointing himself.

That was the exact scene Anderson had dreamt of. He was confused, feeling lost.

Plethoras of thoughts began to revolve in his head – “How will I prove my innocence? Will this turn out to be exactly as I had dreamt of? Is this my last night? No, No, avoid the dead end, avoid the 14^th floor.”

As he was standing there murmuring to himself, he heard footsteps approaching.

Was that his future self following them, he thought and hid behind the wall adjacent to the staircase, to confirm.

He peeped out but was not able to see the person, only shadow. Simultaneously he was thinking – “Is it credible enough to believe that he time travelled to kill nobody, but himself.

Meanwhile, the shadow seemed to be approaching closer, he abruptly started running up the staircase to the 14^th FLOOR!

To be continued….

Sorry! have to save something for my next post :P 


PART 3:/http://ishikagupta99.blogspot.in/2014/07/labyrinth-final-journey.html/

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THANKS AND HAPPY READING, ADIEU.

ISHIKA GUPTA

LABYRINTH : A Short Fiction

|| Om Ganeshaye Namah ||

Bonjour Friends,
Hope you all are doing good.
First of all I would like to thank you all for your positive response, regarding my first post.
Your feedback has given me enough courage to write my 2nd post. (Please try to bear this one as well).

So, my this post is regarding a short story featuring a fictional character "Mr. Robert Anderson".

It's my first attempt to write anything like this, so, please feel free to suggest improvements if any.

CHAPTER 1

Mr. Anderson was going through a mixed feeling of being happy and sad, as he drove his car down the road.
Now, he was an Ex. Military official, today was his last day on duty.
On the day of his retirement he was wearing a beautiful black armani suit which accentuated his good physique.
Suddenly his car came to a halt with a screeching sound. "Probably some mechanical problem" - he thought, looking at his rolex watch. It was "11.00pm".

He pulled out and again inserted the key into the ignition and turn, but the car failed to restart. He repeated the process several times but, of no use.

He finally came out of his car and looked around for help.
It was then, he saw a large building in front of him named - "LABYRINTH HOTEL".

He though it would be better to spent the night at the hotel and then in the morning would leave after his car got serviced.

The hotel was located on the other side of the street. He locked his car, grabbed his black briefcase and started to move towards the hotel. After reaching the entrance, he  walked into the reception.
The reception was an enormously large hall with the walls painted in light blue colour and were decorated with the beautiful scenery.
The aura of the hotel did not appeal to him much for he being used to visit super luxurious resorts only, besides he owns several resorts in the country itself.
He proceeded towards the counter and got himself registered.
Receptionist handed over him the keys  - "13th floor sir, room no. 131" she said with a pleasing smile.
Mr. Anderson asked her -"This hotel seems to be empty, so, isn't any room vacant on the 1st or 2nd floor?"
she replied- "Sir, sorry for the inconvenience but all are floors are under renovation."
"No problem "- He said with a *sigh*.
He started moving towards the spiral, wooden staircase as the elevators were not operational due to the renovation work going on.
This hotel was the creepiest place he had ever seen.There was a peculiar smell of cement and paint all around. The stairs were worn out making a screeching sound with his every step, as if they were about to break at any moment.
Somehow he reached up, to his room, all tired and disgusted by the aura.
It was not a luxurious hotel, the room was not so large but had a dining table, a comfortable bed and a restroom. Thick, maroon curtains were hanging all around.
Mr. Anderson wanted to leave the place. But he told himself that he was being irrational, he had already paid for the room and everything would be fine.
As he was sitting on couch thinking about his last day on duty, he startled by an unexpected knock on the door.
He moved towards the door and slowly turned the golden knob to see who was there.
There was no one.
When he was wondering, he saw two men running down the corridor, where one of them was chasing the other with a pistol in his hand.
Mr. Anderson immediately went back to his briefcase, pulled out his gun, tightened his coat and started to run in the direction of the two men.

He was running and running and running, but the corridor did not seem to have an end (he thought to himself - " Truly the hotel is named LABYRINTH").

After running for about 5-7min. he heard the sound of a gun shot.
He immediately ran in that direction, being an ex military official, he was proceeding with caution in order to catch the criminal red handed.
After moving a few steps closer, he saw a faint shadow lying on the floor.
He proceeded closer.
He saw a man lying on his stomach on the floor, in the pool of blood.
The victim was a man in his late 30s may be, he thought. He tilted his body cautiously to see his face but immediately set back. 
He had recognized the person.
The victim was Smith, his colleague, who was suspended from the army a month back due the charges on him for betrayal, proved by none other than Mr. Anderson.
He felt a wave of shock, he never thought this is how the night will turn out to be for him.
He collected himself and started to think about the other person, probably the murderer. But, he did not knew in which direction to proceed.

As he was thinking, he suddenly saw a shadow peeping out, probably looking at him and immediately disappeared.
He ran in that direction and the shadow also kept running, both of them were running up the stairs. After a few minutes of chasing, shadow stopped, it was a dead end.

Mr. Anderson immediately shouted -"Stay there else I will fire!"
That shadow screamed in bewilderment - " No, No, Please, Don't shoot , It's me ah aaaaaaaa.........." and the man tripped and fell back from the 14th floor.
Mr. Anderson looked down from the spot, there was a large gallery down there on the 1st floor. 
He immediately started to run down the spiral, wooden staircase to the first floor. As he reached there he saw another body lying in a pool of blood. 
"Probably he is dead"- he thought to himself, standing at a distance.
He slowly, gathering up his courage started to move towards the body. (Though he was an ex army official and used to these sights, even worse, he felt his feet to be too heavy to lift this time).

Now, he was standing in front of the body.
The man lying dead down there had a nice physique. He was approximately of the same age as Mr. Anderson.
The man was wearing a black office suit, "probably armani", he thought.
He was feeling a very different sort of uneasiness as he never felt before.
He began to turn the man to check if he was still alive. As soon as he turned him, he screamed " NO, NO This Can't Be True !"

MY INDIA : Incredibly superstitious

|| Om Ganeshaye Namah ||

Bonjour friends :)
Hope you all are doing good.

This is my first blog ever , so, just try to keep on reading till either it ends or you :P

 

India and superstitions are too old friends now to be separated (atleast this is what I think).

From my early childhood days I have been listening to the sincere advice of my friends, relatives, parents, teachers and nearly from every other soul around me on how to keep ill omen away.

The Most hilarious of all (with a bit of mathematics ) :

Surprisingly enough ,once my friend told me to look at a SINGLE BLACK BIRD, and after I had done , she declared "Though looking at a single cuckoo is considered to be an ill omen , but since we two have seen it so , no problem as :

negative * negative = positive." 

 

Here I bring you the TOP 3 Famous DESI SUPERSTITIONS :

P.S. : Decipher any logic if you can and do let me know :P

 

1. NAZAR UTAARNA :

The most commonly used phrase ‘nazar utarna’ is a phrase in Hindi which literally translates into ‘getting rid of the effects of the evil eye.' Evil eye is believed to be able to cause damage to the person towards whom it turns. 

An effort to ward off the evil eye is putting a small spot of kajal on the forehead or behind the ear of the person prone to its side effects .

 

The logic :

behind this process of ‘nazar utarna’ is that doing so makes the person in question look ugly, and therefore unattractive to the ‘evil eye.’ 

 

P.S. : I am still wondering how a black dot can make you ugly and if at all then putting the dot behind the ear (out of the sight of evil eye) should be of no use then :P :P

 

2. BLACK CATS :

In INDIA it is believed to be an ill omen if a black cat crosses your path.

Now, a poor animal cannot just go anywhere and moreover how do we feel if the same cat immediately goes running to her home to pray for her well being, as a human(an ill omen) just crosses her path.

 

P.S. : Black is used to ward off evil eye and black cat is considered to be an ill omen , seemingly two extreme definitions of BLACK, why so?

3. JUMPING OVER THE LEGS :

The most Hilarious and the most believed superstition of my childhood days.

If someone jumps over or just skip your legs while you are sitting, spreading them out then you will not be able to grow physically (especially in terms of height) and will remain a dwarf for the rest of your life.

P.S. : Personally the most believed superstition of mine , as a child it is used to drive me crazy when someone just skip over my legs and compelled me to immediately shout to call that person back, to jump again from the opposite side, to nullify the effect ( I can see here as well the same logic of : NEGATIVE *NEGATIVE = POSITIVE)

*sigh* lots of mathematics involved....