Beware Of Me!!!

I don’t shout at others except when I’m disturbed. But the problem is I’m always disturbed. Disturbed due to my keen hearing, disturbed due to my olfactory cortex controlled brain, which makes me ultra-sensitive to smell and to add to the worries, disturbed due to my ability to see super natural things. You might say that these are great powers and with these great powers comes great responsibilities.

But, trust me, because of these great powers, I have seen only great troubles. Whenever I use these powers and something I feel is abnormal, I will try to inform the people, but they would not listen. I will try to convey them, but they won’t try to understand. Ultimately, I will lose my patience, start shouting and end up mostly with these two outcomes. Either someone will come to arrest me or someone will pelt me with stones. Hence I decided to control my super powers and keep them in check. Thankfully I’m gifted with another beautiful trait that makes me favorite among other people, loyalty. This character in me makes others to be drawn towards me.

Before I continue, let me introduce myself. My name is Caesar and I’m a 4 year old orphan. Quite a strange name for our culture right? Even I thought so. But that was the name given to me, by the family that adopted me. The family which I was taken into, had an old couple and five sons. I was so happy for being adopted into such a big family with lot of people to talk with. Sorry, to bark with. Oh yeah!!! I forgot the most interesting part... Yes, I’m a dog. Now that will make things clear, I believe.

It had been two years since I was taken into the family and I must admit that those two years were the happiest in my life and what reasons can be there to say otherwise. I was loved by all and treated like one among their family. They played fetch with me for the longer part of the day and trained me to listen to their commands and interpret it. I became so attached with their family, that I started understanding them.

But how much ever I try, one thing has always remained an enigma to me. Whenever I stare at the corner and bark at nothing visible, they used to think that I’m barking at something that doesn’t belong here, a spirit or ghost perhaps. For heaven’s sake why can’t they think that I’m barking because I have heard a distant noise or smelt a piece of meat? This behavior of humans made me believe that humans are fools. I kept on believing it until that fateful day; fateful night, in fact.

The clock ticked at 11.30PM night and everyone in my family was asleep. But, somehow I couldn’t sleep as I was disturbed by something abnormal rather paranormal I would say. I was lying near the window and that was when I found that dusty figure inside our compound. Immediately I started barking and went up to my dad and brought him down. I was astonished to see that he reacted as if nothing was there and admonished me for disturbing him from his sleep. But surely I felt his presence there and then once the lights were switched off, I once again saw that dusty figure hovering above the plants in our front garden. A cold chill went through my spine. I was too stunned to react but within seconds, he disappeared.

For the larger part of the next hour, I waited near the window, for I refused to accept the most obvious truth and instead thought that the dusty figure was some intruder, planning for a robbery. That is when the sound started coming near the foyer area of our house. I started listening intently and then the realization dawned on me. It was the sound of a man crying in despair. Immediately I rose and went to the foyer area only to see that there is nothing present there. But the noise of the cry kept on emanating.

Immediately I climbed up the stairs and went to dad’s room. He was deep in his sleep, but I knew I had to wake him up. Somehow I convinced him and brought him down to the foyer area and asked him to open the door. Seeing me so disturbed, he immediately opened the door. There in front of our house, sat the dusty figure, eyes blood shot like it has never been slept for months, the sound of his cry reverberating in my mind. But again, my dad could not see a thing or hear its cry.

That’s when the truth hit me. “Damn!! I had been a fool all along.” I came back to reality only to find the dusty figure had again disappeared. My dad was at the edge of his temper and went to close the door. He stopped midway, for I believe, he too had realized something. Something terrible that his face started sweating profusely and his body started trembling in horror. But at the same time, I calmed down since the dusty figure was no longer there. We both relaxed a bit and he chided me once again as he went to his room.

I came back to my place and lied down laughing within myself about the things I imagined. Sleep was slowly creeping on into me. But at the same time I found that something else was also creeping on me. I was restless as both panic and anxiety started getting the better of me and I did my best to keep my eyes totally shut. But after a point, I couldn’t hold it and opened my eyes. That’s when I found that all the horrors in the world had transpired against me, for I was able to see the dusty figure completely engulfing me. Within minutes, I was completely covered by the dusty figure and when I became aware of my surroundings, a cold hearted laugh, denoting that a revenge is imminent, was heard in the confines of my head!!!

I don’t know where that laugh came from. But one thing was clear to me. I was conscious though only just, for I felt like my mind was being controlled by something so powerful and cruel. My mind wanted to go helter-skelter but something controlled my mind and it stayed calm. I wanted to bark and wake everyone up, but no sound came from my voice box. And that’s when I noticed something unusual. In the window glass pane, I was no longer seeing my own reflection, instead I was seeing the dusty figure in my place.

And then something profound happened, something that I did not know I could do. I know for sure that I don’t have the ability to reason out things. But on that night I did infer a few things from what had happened. Firstly, I was able to deduce that I was haunted by the dusty figure. Now why would a ghost haunt a dog in the first place? This thought made me laugh uncontrollably. “Hey!!! Wait a minute!! How come I am able to formulate these thoughts?” Never heard of a dog having the ability to think, but now it’s happening to me.  And that’s when he spoke to me, to my brain rather.

“Don’t confuse yourself too much my boy!! You are able to get these thoughts because it is I who creates them in the first place. And I am just using your brain as a medium to formulate them. Hence the thoughts that you are getting is just a reflection of my thoughts. Simply put, you are thinking, but actually not thinking. Do you get it?”

“Is this what you call as simply put? You confused me completely. But let me worry about it later, I have lot many things in front to ponder now. First of them, who are you? What do you want from me?”

“My name is James Bond”

“Aahaan!! Is that the best name you could get for yourself??”

“Trust me, that’s my name. Dammit!! This name is creating problems to me even after my death”

“Whatever.. What is that you want from me?”

“I want to use yourself as a medium to finish my business in this mortal world and that’s why I have haunted you.”

“But why me? There are so many people in this world who are much more capable than me. Why did you choose me?”

“Because I believe that, it will be best, if I use you as medium to finish my job.”

“What is that job exactly that you are talking about?”

“Oh! It’s just the same usual ghost story, to find and kill a guy.”

“Whaaaatttt?” I was too stunned to react. “No way will I do this”

“Oh yes you will. But listen to my story once please. Your heart will melt after hearing it”

“What? Are you going to reveal a flashback? A flashback in which the guy came into your life and killed you.”

“Wow! How did you know?”

“This is one of the mainstream flashbacks in cinemas that even we dogs are fed up with these types of stories. So don’t get me bored with your stereotypical storyline.”

“Good god! I should have used humans as medium. Even they would not have questioned me this much. Ok, let me get straight to the point. Accept this task or else.”

“Or else what?”

“I can always leave you and haunt anyone in the house. I think you would have also seen these kinds of emotional blackmails in movies.” James bond said with a wry smile.

“My options are locked now. I have no other way out. Ok, I will help you. What do you want me to do?”

“Sleep now. Tomorrow morning we will leave this house and then we will find our way.”

I actually would not have slept given the circumstances, but he did something which made to sleep right away. I woke up the next morning and left the home without letting anyone know. I started searching for the guy in the morning traversing through the busiest parts of the city. I was able to see that this person who haunted me was a reckless guy who didn’t obey any of the traffic signals. He would have easily made me to get trampled under a bus or lorry twice or thrice, but due to nature’s grace, I survived.

We searched for him till the evening and couldn’t find him. I was almost starving and was at the edge of my consciousness. Suddenly, he started shouting.

“There he is! That black colour guy.”

There crossing the junction was a couple of guys, one in black complexion and other in whitish complexion followed by a cat. I immediately started running towards them and crossed the junction with them. The guy I followed took a right turn and entered into a street. I followed him closely and turned right, but he stopped me midway and said, “No, not this way, the other way."

“What? The guy you mentioned took a right turn and we are going correctly.”

“No, that’s not the guy. The one whom I mentioned has taken a left. Hurry up or we might miss him.”

I immediately stepped back, turned left and entered into a lonely lane. All I could see in that lane was a poor little cat and no one else.

“There he is! Near the drainage canal.”

“There is no one except a cat and I don’t think you are referring to that one.”

“Oh yes, I am”

“Excuse me?”

“He is the one, he is the reason for my death.”

“Be serious man, that’s a poor cat. How can he be a reason for your death?”

“I will tell you. I used to go to office in bike using this way only. On that day I was going late so I was really in a hurry that I forgot to wear my helmet. I was at the very same junction when this cat crossed my way. I have heard that cat crossing our way is considered to be a bad omen and if it happens, we should wait for a while and then only proceed. But since I was late, I didn’t have the time to wait. I ignored the bad omen and went and as a result I died in an accident. I would have been alive if the cat had not passed in my way. Hence I would have to kill him.”

“Are you serious? Is this the so called reason for you to come back as a ghost and take revenge? For this only, you made me to roam all around from morning without food and water?”

“No time for questions, will you help me or not?”

“Do you even realize how much shameful it is for me to come with you to avenge an innocent cat?”

“You are testing my patience. I don’t have any time to waste.”

“I have to tell this. You have wasted my entire day, entire energy idiot. If you want to know why he crossed in your way, just go near him and look for yourself.”

He was confused but immediately obliged and left me. His spirit went near the cat and looked at the cat. There at the corner of the drainage, the cat was feeding itself with the rats that it hunted down a couple of minutes before.

He came to my body and then I explained him.

“Cat crossing your way doesn’t mean that it’s a bad omen. It’s a poor superstition. All it means is that the cat is going in search of its food.”

“No, but how else I could have died. There was no reason for me to die otherwise?”

“Oh yes, there is. I think I know the reason for your death from your behavior with me. You said that you were late on that day and you forgot to take your helmet, right?”

“Yes.”

“I swear that you drove rashly and in the end met with an accident. Since you didn’t wear a helmet, you got head injury and died before even being taken to the hospital. Now say, whose mistake it is?”

He was confused for a while and then realization dawned on him. He felt so bad for his mistake and then accepted his fate. He left my body and left the mortal world feeling content that there is no one but him to blame for his death. I should have gone back to my home, but I didn’t. I think it’s because I got addicted to a little bit of human tendency. A tendency of freedom, a tendency of wanting to do, what I wish to do.

That’s not something wrong to feel about, for that has helped in the development of the society. We need not worry even if the losses are high, for nature knows how to prevent those losses and bring in balance.

A cataclysmic event perhaps would be enough. Fare thee well!!!

                                                                             – THE END