Humzaad...

“I may be a fictional character to the whole world, but I’m very much real to you... because I’m you!”

The conference room is dimly lit, but the ambience is not at all sombre. Everyone is looking happy. As if they’ve accomplished a feat. Everyone is busy talking to each other. Though it cannot be judged what are they talking about, but the indistinct chatter is quite evident in this conference room. The only person who is not involved in any talks or gossips is Yuri, who is sipping his favourite coffee while looking out from the window, watching the Tagus River. From his body language, it seems that either he is not interested in this meeting, or his favourite pastime is watching the Tagus River.

Suddenly the big monitor screen in the conference room starts blinking and soon a silhouette image of a man appears. There’s a pin-drop silence in the room. For the first few seconds, the man on the screen does not speak anything, as if giving time to everyone to settle down. Everyone takes their seat, except for Yuri, who is still standing by the window, though his attention is on the screen.

The silence of the conference room is disturbed when the door suddenly opens, and a beautiful woman enters along with two young men. She is holding a wooden tray on which few packets are placed. Everyone is looking at her with confused looks. Soon, these two men start placing the packets on the desk in front of each member. While the men are busy placing the packets in front of everyone, the lady decides to give the packet to Yuri, who is still standing by the window. However, before she can move towards Yuri, the man in the screen starts speaking, in his deep baritone voice.

“Please take your seat Yuri... Hilda, place the packet on the table”

Hilda looks at Yuri, places the packet on the table and leaves the conference room. The two men follow her.

Yuri keeps standing for a while, then takes his seat. He looks at the packet, it has his name written on it. He picks the packet to have a close look but is interrupted with the voice from the screen.

“Before I begin, please be informed that the packet placed in front of you guys is the prototype of the weapon we are going to use for the Global Peace Summit... now, please open the packets.”

Yuri is first to open the packet. Now he is looking as if he is enjoying the meeting. Everyone is looking at Yuri, wondering what is inside the packet.

To everyone’s surprise, there’s a pen and a diary inside the packet, with ‘Global Peace Summit - 2020’ embossed on it. Yuri carefully examines both but couldn’t find anything suspicious. He looks towards the screen, as if trying to ask, ‘What the hell is this?’

“What the hell is this... and where the hell are you???”

This is the eighteenth voice message to Elham, and to Ira’s annoyance, Elham has not responded even once.

“Better find a good reason for your absence or I’m going to kill you for this.”

There goes the nineteenth voice message to Elham, after which Ira throws her cellphone in her purse, as if it is her phone’s fault that Elham is not responding to her messages. Her light pink-coloured cheeks are turned red in anger. She was expecting Elham waiting for her at the airport. She had also planned a romantic dinner with him. But all her plans have gone kaput.

After waiting for Elham at the airport for almost an hour, Ira finally decides to book a cab and leave. Though she is angry with Elham, she is also worried for him as he was sounding depressed the previous night.

“I wonder where Elham is?”

Ira says to herself while waiting for the cab.

Meanwhile, Elham wakes up to find the mess all around him. For a few seconds, he’s not in his senses. He is amused to find the pieces of lemon lying on the floor. On the other side, he finds the parchment and instantly remembers everything. The flashes from his rendezvous with that mystic to his meditation appear in his mind. He looks at his watch which is showing 11:17 pm. Elham is taken aback to realise that he has been unconscious throughout the day.

Elham decides to check his phone, but he gets alarmed to see someone sitting on his recliner. He slyly looks around to check for more people but doesn’t find anyone else apart from that man.

Without making any noise, Elham picks his nun-chucks, and slowly moves towards the recliner. With his nun-chucks in one hand, he uses his second hand to switch on the lights. With a click, the lights are on... and Elham gets the shock of his life.

“Ah... so you are up... how’re you feeling now? Come, let’s have some coffee!”

Elham is petrified as the man has an uncanny resemblance to him.

“wh..who... who are you...?”

The man smiles at Elham, which scares him more.

“I’m the one you were waiting for... I’m the one you’ve summoned... I’m none... but YOU!”

Elham almost faints, but this man quickly holds Elham and places him on the recliner. He offers Elham a glass of water, and Elham reluctantly takes it. After having a sip of water, Elham tries to get up, but the man pushes him back to the recliner.

“Am I dreaming... or... or this is some kind of trick of that mystic...?

Elham still can’t believe as the man looks exactly like him. Even he sounds the same!!!

“This ain’t any trick Elham...”

Before Elham can say anything, the man continues -

“... don’t you remember the mystic’s words... If courage of Lion is what you desire… You’ll have to befriend the blazing fire…!”

Elham is confused and is trying to figure out what exactly is happening with him. But he soon comes back to his senses when this man says in a stern tone-

“I’m that blazing fire!!!”

This scares Elham like anything... the man continues again -

“but fear not... you’ve befriended me!”

That man then tells Elham that he is nothing but his own thoughts, his conscience, his alter ego, which has now been personified, thanks to the incomplete meditation.

Elham thinks for a while and then says -

“So, you are my Humzaad”

“I’m your what?”

“Humzaad”

“and what is that”

“Oh... Sorry, it’s a term for Alter Ego in Urdu. My father used to talk a lot about it.”

“In that case, it’s a good name. You can call me Humzaad”

“But are you real... I mean I’m not dreaming, right?”

“I may be a fictional character to the whole world, but I’m very much real to you... because I’m you!”

Elham is still perplexed as well as astonished as he finds it hard to believe that the tales his father used to tell him in his childhood are now coming to life.

“Now come on... we’ve got some work to do, before Ira arrives”

Elham is startled as he had completely forgotten about Ira’s arrival. Before he can think further, he sees Humzaad going towards the door.

“Where are you going?”

“We are going.”

“Where... to the airport...? It’s too late for that”

“Not to the airport.”

“Then?”

“To get our brown leather messenger bag!”

Next Chapter...

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