Real illusions!

Dear reader, she is a normal girl, just like you. She has a loving family, and a good job. But, every now and then she has these visions. Unrelated and inexplicable, they knock at the recesses of her consciousness at the most improbable of times… Like when she would be running her hands through her daughter’s hair, she would suddenly see herself standing on a bus stop; when she would be checking mails on her phone, she will experience herself wandering the tree-lined terrains of some hill station. She didn’t know if they were memories buried deep down the numerous tunnels of her mind, or they were vivid dreams, too real hallucinations, or they were premonitions alerting her about the future. The one thing that was omnipresent in all these dreams was a face…His face. It was always there…Always on the periphery, always out-of-focus. When she dreamt about the meandering by lanes of an unseen seemingly small town, he was the guy who pushed passed her; in the vision of her exploring a run-down library, he was the one on the balcony running away; when she saw herself sitting by a lake, he would be standing on the opposite end. Whenever she had a vision, she would focus on that face trying to place it. Is he a friend, a relative, a passing acquaintance? However hard she tried, she could never see him properly. As abruptly as the visions came, they disappeared as suddenly. There was never enough time to figure out who the man really was.

Dear reader, this unknown mysterious stranger from her supposed imagination was pushing past her carefully guarded grasp of reality and looming over her every day existence. She was slowly losing her mind. She couldn’t share her predicament with anyone because she knew that they would think her mad. She couldn’t risk her sanity, or whatever of it was left. That enigmatic shadow of a man was always on her mind. Whenever she went out, she would stare at passing men to see if he was one of them. You can imagine her paranoia, reader, can you not? The constant looking over her shoulders was taking a toll on her nerves. Till one day, she thought she had found him.

Do you know who he was, dear reader? Neither do I because he slipped away by a fraction of a second. I know what you are thinking. No, it was not me. It couldn’t be me. Why, you ask? Because I am the one who sees this girl with these extraordinary visions in my peculiar visions. You understand, don’t you? I see her every time I close my eyes, and I see her when I open them. She is a face, an angelic face, like no other I have ever seen. She is always there… hovering in my dreams, in my fantasies, in my reality. I am the one who is obsessed with finding this girl who is ruling my imagination, for that is what you think she is, right? My imagination?! Wrong! She is real and she is out there and she needs my help… she needs to find that man, and I need to find her…Because when she finds him, she will be at peace. And when she will be at peace, I will be too. It makes sense, doesn’t it? Reader, think about it for a minute, please…Tell me it makes sense?! You must, you have to…

*Knock*Knock*

“Time for your medication, Nakul… Open the door!”

Don’t go anywhere dear reader, I will be back.