I met a mysterious man.

Sometimes I fooled myself and hid my troubles from my friends and family, thinking everything would be fine if I just endured it on my own, but that was my stupidity. One has to share their worries with the people they care about because it is the way to maintain emotional balance. If one burdens itself, it will eventually become a burden for those he cares about the most. The same goes for me. 

I went home the other day, making my friends worried in the school, finding excuses to hide what I had been through and what I had experienced, but that led me to trouble. The next day, with my mind full of questions and all mixed up, walking on the deserted path I had secretly discovered for such circumstances when I wanted to escape from reality. It was such a strange coincidence that the path led straight to my high school. It was a deserted path in the deserted forest. No one else but me only had known the secret. The forest was not dangerous but mysteriously soothing, the first ray of sunlight on the green, shaggy trees, sweet chirping of the birds, and the weightless cold wind gently touching the leave tips of shaggy and shady trees, and its soothing effect on my skin relaxed me to the core. I got up early that day just to feel and relax in that forest. I sat under the banyan tree that I had named “Qalb Alghaba” (Heart of the Forest) since it was the strongest and biggest of all trees present. It felt like I was out of the world. Calm and the purest peace surrounding me, a soothing and healing blanket of unconsciousness that purifies one’s soul, it felt as I was in the air with wings floating beside the clouds. All of my worries, heart-aching pains, and confusion had flown into dust with the magic of that place.

When I felt refreshed, I walked toward my school. It was a concise way through from there. I set up my mind to hide the truth from my friends since I felt better. I thought, “Since I’m better now, so I’ll just forget about the abnormal things happening to me. From now on, it’s just a nightmare I should never bring up. I believe everything will be positive from now on.” I felt a new soul in me like there was someone who was encouraging me, secretly, giving me a boost to fight, to start anew, a sensation that I had never felt before. As I entered my classroom, the bell rang. Morning recess was over. I took my seat and noticed my friends, Susan and Jasmine ignoring me. I greeted them with a hello, but there was no response. I said to myself, “What? No response. Am I talking to a wall? I greeted them with a smile, but they ignored me... Are they angry with me? I will talk to them during recess since it’s class time now and exams are coming soon, so I should just focus on studies and help them out with it.” 

I attended the class attentively and forgot about the chaos that happened the previous day. During the lunch break, I tried to approach my friends, but none of them paid attention to me. It made me anxious, and I grabbed their arms and said, “Just listen! All I am doing is trying to explain what happened. You both don’t have to be like this.” I was trying to explain to them the previous incident with an excuse or a lie but they opened my eyes and said with an angry and painful face, “Just leave us be and we’ll leave you be. You don’t have to worry about us and we won’t worry about you. Just who are you? We don’t know you anymore, Miss Ashma.” Then they both left, and that’s when I realized that I had hurt them. I knew that I was wrong, but still, I didn’t want to tell the truth. It was out of the frying pan into the fire. After the lunch break during class, I wanted to make up and apologize to them but didn’t dare to do so. In the meantime, I encountered strange happenings again. I heard whispers, “You are going to die. I will kill you.” As I heard whispers, I shivered and my feet froze to the ground. Both of my friends noticed and looked worried but said nothing. I tried to get myself together, but in vain. I excused myself from the class because I didn’t want anyone to notice my trembling. I went to the washroom and washed my face. I calmed myself and walked for my classroom, but a repulsive force dragged me to the storeroom and the door, as well as the windows, became locked itself. I felt scared and heard horrific noises. My entire body was trembling, and I began to cry as loud as I could. I knocked on the door again and again that my hands felt to be paralyzed, but no one listened. No one listened like there was no sound produced. As the sun was going down and darkness was about to spread, panic gripped my heart. I doubted my mental condition. On the other hand, no one noticed me missing like I was erased from their memories. I spent the entire afternoon with recurring whispers and sounds in the empty school But in the evening, all the whispers and sounds disappeared. The darkness spread everywhere and the bright moon showed its face. I had cried so much that my tear ducts were dry. I felt so weak and I was about to lose hope that I heard someone. It was a distant voice coming from the window which was locked. I ran and looked through it and found someone in the hood, completely covered and disguised. He shouted, “Ashma, can you hear me? Don’t worry, I am coming to save you.” In the blink of an eye, he was standing right behind me and said, “I’m here. Everything will be alright.” I was too weak to respond and I fainted right away so I didn’t recognize the pitch of the voice.

Slowly, I opened my eyes and found myself, in the tent, in my secret forest. There were some herbal medicines kept beside me. I was feeling a lot better and calm. I got up and, in the meantime, the person in the hood arrived and said, “I see you’re awake now. There was a slight poison in the air of the storeroom, plus, you wept a bucket of tears which made you too weak. If I was a bit late, you would’ve died.” From the voice, I assumed that he was a young boy but when he took off his hood, I realized that he was the boy who saved me on that rainy day. I was so happy to see him but also confused. I replied, “Thank you for saving me but who are you and how did you know that I was there. In addition to that, how did you know about my secret forest?” He replied with a smile, “So many questions together?” His smile was so beautiful that it caught my eyes and I said, “I’m sorry but I am anxious to know.” He replied, “Are you worried about the strange things going around you?” I looked stunned and asked him, “How did you know?” He replied with a serious expression, “How did I know is not important. The fact is I know everything about you and going around you. As for my identity, I can’t reveal it now but you have to trust me for I can help you with this mess.” I said, “Why should I trust someone whom I don’t know, and who can’t tell me about himself?” He replied with great confidence, “Because you have no choice.”

I took the risk to believe him, thinking that if he can help me deal with the situation then there is no harm. I told him, “Fine, I will believe you but now I have to go home because they will be worried.” I was about to go home but he said, “They won’t be worried.” I asked him, “Why? Why won’t they be worried? How can you say that with such great confidence?” He replied, “Because I erased you from everyone’s memory for the time being. I will edit their memories tomorrow to accompany you everywhere.” I was so shocked to hear him saying that. My mind went blank and I couldn't grasp what he meant. I asked, “Erased? Edit? What are you talking about? Just who are you exactly?” He replied, “ You don’t need to know unnecessary things. All you need to do is to obey me and I will help you. If you don’t do as I say, I will never restore their memories of you and you will be a nameless person for them forever.” Hearing him say that I came to realise that the man standing in front of me is no ordinary man and it also  made me realise why nobody listened to me while I was in the store room. Subconsciously, it slipped my mouth, "No wonder I felt erased." I immediately put my hands on my mouth to shut it. He proudly grinned, "You are a keen observer even in critical situations, although subconsciously, but you are great." Seeing such a side of him scared me for a moment because he had a mysterious aura to read anyone and I thought that he could be more than dangerous but I chose to believe him anyway since he was the only one who could help me.

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