[#20] Him vs Her
A tale told by Mohit Mamoria
The story begins at The Haveli:
Both looked at each other. Both of them held a candle each — Saafiya had the one with the switch and Shreyansh had the other. She said, “Let’s travel using yours because it is easier to use mine and we can use it to return. What do you think?”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Both let out a heavy breath; they were ready. Both the candles started glowing as they sensed someone with a purpose in their vicinity. The faint glow on top of the candles changed its color from blue to purple to red to orange to yellow to green and back to blue. Saafiya looked up at Shreyansh.
“Shrey, you don’t really have to do it. I’ll understand if you don’t want to be a part of this.”
Shreyansh gulped down his spit. He was unsure but he said, “I am with you, Saafi. I’ve always been. I’ll always be.”
She smiled. He smiled back. The time to set time right had arrived. They held each others hand and with the other hand, Shreyansh touched the firefly-like glow on top of his candle. They both got sucked inside the candle and his candle laid stray on the driver’s seat.
Everything around them changed their shapes and sizes. Things grew, then shrank, then grew bigger, then shrank smaller. Things got hazy. Within moments, they were stuck at the center of a blinding darkness. Nothing could be seen in any direction. Time was dark, they didn’t know.
“What shall we do now, Saafi?” Shreyansh broke the silence.
“Put all our thoughts thinking about the time to where we want to go to”, Saafiya spoke her mind.
“And to where it should be, Saafi? Shall we both do it? What if we both do and then end up at different times?”
“Shhhh. Let me think. Keep holding my hand. I will think”, she said and kept her candle inside her pocket.
She focused her entire energy into visualising a person with her father’s face in his toddler years. She thought of a baby playing with his parents who would resemble a much younger version of her grandparents. The darkness around them started taking shape.
She saw their surroundings turning into what looked like a backyard. The vision was foggy but she could see a young couple bent over a cradle. Baby’s cackles could be heard. Shreyansh whispered to himself, “It’s working!”
He said it out loud, “It’s working, Saafi!”
Saafiya kept her thoughts focused on Wes’s toddler years. Through the foggy vision, both could see the young couple. While they were observing the couple, the couple turned around and began walking towards them.
The wife screamed, “What is this?”
The husband said, “A light. So bright! Protect your eyes, honey.”
The wife screamed, “Honey, let’s go inside. What is this? I am afraid. LET’S GO INSIDE.”
The couple turned around, took the baby from the cradle and went inside the house. The misty vision cleared and both of them found themselves standing in a lush backyard. It had vines curled all over the wall and fence. It had trees that bore fruits that none of them had seen before. They both ran towards the house and peeked inside through the window.
Shreyansh’s eyes fell on the blue digits that were illuminated in the air inside the living room. He understood what those digits meant. He told Saafiya, “We are in the year 2080.”
Saafiya looked at him with curious eyes. He pointed towards the bright blue digits that he saw in the living room.
“Yes, right”, she said.
“It doesn’t matter what year we are in. Let’s do what we have to do and head back home.”
“Shrey…?”
“Yes, Saafi.”
“They are my grandparents. That couple. They are my grandparents. My Momo. I cannot kill their baby. The baby has done nothing wrong. He is even yet to learn to speak properly.”
Saafiya looked perplexed. Her grip on the candle inside her pocket tightened. For a moment, she was disillusioned. She told Shreyansh, “Let’s go back and think of protecting dad instead.”
“Saafi… get back to senses. We don’t even know where you father is in our time. We were there only a few minutes ago. We haven’t come here to go back, Saafi. What needs to be done will be done.”
“Look at my grandmother’s face, Shrey”, she said with an ache building up in her heart.
“Your grandmother herself wanted us to do it, Saafi. We are doing it for her sake. Your grandfather traveled back in time to do it. We need to do it, Saafi.”
Suddenly, a bright light flashed among them. The source seemed to be Saafiya’s pocket. Both of them were wrapped in a bright white blanket of Candlelight. They heard voices.
“Kill Wes, dear angel”, her grandmother’s voice said.
“Kill the baby”, Ramu’s voice was heard saying.
Saafiya and Shreyansh kept turning around on their spots to see the owner of the voices. They couldn’t see anyone; not even each other.
Saafiya stated, “I cannot do it. He is just a baby. In my grandmother’s arms.”
“I traveled back in past to fix the future, Saafiya. I failed. You’ll need to do it”, a voice said that Saafiya had not heard in a very long time. It was her grandfather’s voice.
Her eyes got teary. She stayed silent. Shreyansh spoke, “Saafi, that’s the only way to do it. Please do it. If you won’t, I will.”
Every voice got tangled with each other. The entangled voices echoed in her ears.
“Kill the baby… I traveled back in past… Kill Wes… The baby… Need to do it… I failed… Dear angel… The baby…”
She shut her eyes tight and covered her ears with both her hands. She let out a scream. Her head felt lighter. Voices were gone. Echoes were gone. Bright light was gone. She opened her eyes slowly. She found herself standing in the backyard with Shreyansh. Her heart had turned into stone.
“Let’s do it, Shrey!”
They both went around the house to reach for the main entrance. They broke the door and barged in. The wife let out a high pitched scream. Saafiya went ahead and snatched the baby from her arms. The husband yelled at them.
To everyone’s shock, an army of armed men marched in through the main door. The leader cried, “HAND OVER OUR RULER TO US! STAY AWAY FROM BABY.”
Shreyansh uttered to Saafiya in a whisper, “I think Wes has sent an army to his past to save himself.”
Saafiya nodded. “Keep holding my hand.”
She had toddler Wes in one arm, which was also held by Shreyansh, and her other hand was in her pocket, trying to switch on the candle. Before anyone could understand what had happened, Saafiya, Shreyansh and toddler Wes were sucked inside the candle — into the darkness, called Time. They hid themselves in the time where it would take someone years to find them.
Once inside, stone-hearted Saafiya handed the baby to Shreyansh to do the job. Shreyansh held the baby’s neck in a position to break it. He felt weaker against the cackling baby but he was still emotionless — he had to be. He closed his eyes and focused all his energy in his arms. He broke the neck. The baby was silent. Wes was dead. And with the baby, Saafiya, too was evaporated into the thin air.
The baby never got to grow into Wes, the Timeless Ruler. The grandfather never traveled back in time to fix the future. Saafiya’s father was never born. So did Saafiya. Killing Wes meant erasing her own existence too.
Shreyansh was thrown back to his time. He found himself jolted awake by the sensation of falling, just as he was drifting off to sleep in his comfortable bed.
“Oh, it felt like I was falling off my bed. Haha”, he said to himself, forgetting everything he had been just through.
Time has its own way to set itself right.
THE END
The story ends. We’ll be back with a new story soon. Follow Random Tales to stay updated. (Want to write on Random Tales? Here’s how to do it.)
—
If you like this story, please hit the ❤️ below to recommend it and help others find it!
