Nightmares.

"I woke up panting. Hospital nylon sheets are drenched with my sweat. This is the 6th nightmare tonight. I can't remember the details of it but something is following me. Trees are everywhere around me. Darkness. Some woolly creatures are approaching me from behind. I'm running. There's someone with me. I can't remember the face but It's a girl" I told to Diya, as she changed the wet cloth over my forehead for like 29th time. No medicines are stopping my fever. My body is shivering. My tongue is twisting itself. I'm getting short span of fits now and then. Ganesh left in the evening but Diya stayed with me. I'm remembering them slowly. I fully remembered Ganesh. But Diya is still an unsolved mystery. She is feeling familiar but no clear memory of her is striking my mind. But she is taking care of me like a mother. She loves me. I can see it in her eyes and the way they fill up with tears every time I wake up screaming from a nightmare. She didn't sleep a minute. She sits beside me, kept staring at me, kept changing the wet cloth, kept brushing my hair. Her hand is in mine, all the time.

A name slipped out of her lips in a whisper when I told her about the girl in my dreams: Priya.

"Who is Priya?" I've asked her. This time, the name is stirring clumsy memories in my mind.

"Nobody" she said, recklessly, and put a thermometer in my mouth. I spit it out and asked her, "I think I know this place in my dreams. But I don't remember clearly. Do you know it".

"I know it" she said.

"Take me there, now" I told her.

"tomorrow" she said, holding my hand tighter.

"Now" I shouted this time, and snatched off the IV tube on my forearm. Blood streak down my arm. I stood up to leave. She agreed, she had no choice. I think there's something in that place that I want. My body is asking for it. I can feel it.

After an hour of journey in Diya's car we reached the place. It's like forest. My head is aching like hell. Lost memories taking their way back to my brain. But nothing's clear. Everything around us is dark except for the part in headlights.

"It's better we walk from here" I said. I don't know why I said that. It just came out of my mouth from nowhere.

"yeah, that way wolves can't here us" she said. Wolves? Are there wolves in the city?

I didn't ask her those questions, though.

After ten minutes of walk we reached a small cabin in middle of the woods. And that's when my headache became worse.

The room is a mess. Floor is full of charcoal streaks and scattered pieces of paper. I looked around and found jars full of colored powders. I don't remember what they are but my body ran towards them as if I'm pulled by a magnet. I took out the powder with my fingers and licked it. My shivering body stabilized. That anxiety in me started to cool down. Then my eyes flit at the smudge of charcoal on floor which resembled something like a star in a circle. The moment I realized that, a roller coaster of thoughts flooded me. I collapsed to floor, holding my head with both hands, as if it is going to burst out and I'm trying to keep it together. I closed my eyes. Then I got this terrible vision:

Thousands of dead horses with broken skulls, torn tails, ripped bodies and incomplete legs are running at me. Corps with knight's dented armors are riding them. In front of all of them, leading them to attack me, is a lean, long, old witch in torn black robe floating behind her, Mochi.

"What happened, Akhi" screamed Diya, running to me. I remembered a lot in fractions of a second, my nerves are bursting to process it.

"I went to Priya's world" I said, slowly, gathering the pieces of my forgotten memory.

"That's impossible," shouted Diya, "only witches can open portals. No one else can do that. Except Drake."

"I did it," I said, "I went into their world. Mochi's people captured me. They did something to me that I can't remember. Then I was kept in a prison. I broke out. I took Priya with me and came back to this world. But Mochi followed me with an enormous army of dead. I'm all used up. I fell unconscious the moment I came back to this world, to this room. I don't remember what happened then." I said. My headache starting to ail. I ate more of that powder. Now I remember what it is: Psychedelics.

"Stop it" said Diya, trying to grab the powder jar from my hand. I didn't give it to her. "I can't" I said. She was about to yell at me but then I told her, "I know I'm addicted to it and it is dangerous. But there's something more serious coming at us. That mochi swore to kill all my family and friends for disrupting her sacrifice ritual of Priya. I need to save my family. I need to find Priya. I can't do both at a time."

"Give up on Priya. Let's go and save your family" she said getting up and about to run to her car.

"But she's family, too" I said. She's walking away from me with her back towards me. I can't see her face. Just when I told her those words, she stopped, like a statue. I can feel her state. As if a heavy lump dropped in her heart, making it difficult to beat. She loves me so much, my words might be hurting her a lot. But I can't lie to her. This is the truth. I'm not Drake, I'm akhilesh. I don't love her, I love Priya. Of course, I like her but there's no point in comforting her with sweet lies.

She turned around, walked to me, knelt and said, "Okay. I will call Ganesh. He will help you find Priya, I will go and protect your family." Her eyes welled up with tears. Her voice is heavy as if something in her throat stopping her words. It's pain.

"But can you fight Mochi?" I've asked her. Mochi has a supernatural army. Nobody can stop her.

"I'm not alone. I've my clan. 7 different types of vampires blessed with different powers. We can stop her, maybe not permanently but for sometime."

Then she called Ganesh. He will be here in an hour. She said she will wait till then. But we don't have time. I forced her to leave. My family is at stake. I remained in the cabin. Thinking, sorting, clearing my clumsy mind with doses of psychedelics. Few minutes passed. Diya might have crossed the woods just now.

Then I heard a deep, long wolf cry!

That reminded me something: When I escaped the prison in Priya's world, Mochi made a deal with the werewolves. If they bring my beheaded body to her, they will have the word of protection from her. Which means she won't sacrifice werewolves again, ever, in her rituals. These werewolves have been used for sacrifices since ages. That's why they don't like witches. They hide from the witches and kill the witches when they are found alone. This deal means a lot to them, a lifetime of freedom forever. They'll do anything to rip my head off. And now, I think, they sensed my arrival.

I can hear steps of the wolves approaching the cabin. I'm weak, confused, tired and with multiple doses of sedating psychedelics in my blood. I didn't care to fight. I couldn't. These Psychedelics are messing my mind. My death is awaiting me from the other side of the door and I just sat here, licking the powder off my fingers like a crazy lunatic.

(To be continued...)