Termino.

Promissio

Hiro slowly came to his senses. He was lying face down on a hard, damp and smooth surface that seemed to be swaying ever-so-slightly. The smell of salt hit him, and he felt the unwelcome sensation of seasickness in his stomach. He lifted his head and grabbed the wooden railing, hoisting himself up on what he now knew was the deck of a deserted ship.

Source

The ship sailed steadily towards the shore and showed no signs of slowing down. When it finally hit land, the impact threw him forward and sent him sliding across the wet deck…but Hiro knew where he was going.

The ship finally ground to a halt; he slammed into the railing on the front deck. Hiro scrambled up, grabbed the rope ladder on the side and hurried down. He jumped, using his hands to break the fall.

Hiro knew where he was.

He looked inland towards a modern city, and its familiar skyline greeted him. He saw the battered wallet lying in the sand a short distance away and scampered towards it, and found the tiny mirror. He scratched his head as he looked at it.

The surface was clouded in mist.

And then, the words appeared.

One last chance.

As Hiro blinked, the writing was gone, and his reflection stared back at him.

He found the same three photos of himself — one of him having a meal with a lady and two children; laughing with a group of people as he proudly showed off a trophy, and standing in the white church in another. His wife and kids, he now knew. He pulled out his driving license, and read his name.

Hiro Inayashi.

The pain he knew would come coursed through his head and he fell to his knees. He thought he could hear voices around him but the beach was as empty as the ship had been.

Hiro’s eyes watered as he blinked away the pain. Digging further, he found a sealed, opaque silver package, which he now knew was filled with the antidote to the gas. He put everything back into the wallet and slipped it back into his pocket.

He reached into his other pocket, pulling out the keypad phone. Its battery was dead. Hiro knew what he must do next. He put it back and staggered towards the road he could see in the distance.

When Hiro reached the street, most of the buildings had their lights on, and the nearest traffic light was working too. He looked up and down the empty road, remembering the crows perched on lampposts in unsettling silence. They turned their heads at the sound of him walking on the footpath.

And then the ringing came. He picked up the phone.

“Hello?”

The long pause. Then the familiar voice. His voice.

“Hiro.”

Knowing what he would hear on the other end of the line, Hiro answered “Yes?”

“I’m not in the best position here. I don’t know what you’re going to go through…but if you see the missing kid…save him.”

Hiro breathed a sigh of relief. He had gotten another chance.

What would come next, Hiro didn’t know. But he would try his best. He pulled the package out of his pocket and threw it onto the beach.

It was time to find the lost kid again.

This piece of work was concocted, experimented and realized by Akshaya Subramanian, Rohinee Phatak, Ashwin Shekhar, D Rohit, K Shreyas Mahesh, Naman Karn, isha jha, Yin Rav, G.s. AviNash, Akash Mani, Daniel Sujay R, Vedanjali Polaki, Antony Terence and Abhishek Ramachandran.

Stay tuned for more intriguing pieces of work from Team Content for Festember!