In a small room, a young boy of about twelve years of age is lying on his bed, he wriggles on the bed like a snake, holding his stomach. His body continuously writhing because of the pain. A woman casually enters the room overhearing the moans, she thought maybe her son had fallen asleep and was having a nightmare, that is why she didn't pay much attention in the beginning but when the moans didn't stop she rushed in. Finding her son in his current state she was extremely startled.

"Atharv! Is your stomach paining again dear?", She hurries to his side and puts her hand on his forehead.

The child doesn’t respond. He was clearly in pain but was not willing to admit to it. He was sort of embarrassed about it.

"Son, but I had especially been giving you more Tiffin…don’t worry I’ll just make something right now. You should have told me if you had not eaten. Give me five minutes."

She rushes to the kitchen and checks the rice pot. There was hardly any rice just a bit of leftover here and there. She sighs then hurriedly scrapes the rice out, putting it on a paper plate. She takes out a jar and scoops the pickle out, putting it in the rice. Then taking a potato after boiling it, she smashes the boiled potato in the rice. She rushes outside her flat to the flight of stairs downstairs. Leaning from the balcony alongside the staircase she plucks two leaves from the plant on the balcony. Rushing inside she uses a mortar to grind the pudhina (Holy Basil) leaves and sprinkles the remnants in a glass of water. Hurriedly rushing to the room she pulls her son up, helping him sit properly on the bed.

"Should I feed you?"

Atharv doesn’t say anything just looks down embarrassed.

His mother then mixes the rice well with her hands and feeds him."Keep drinking this", handing him the glass. "This will help with indigestion."

Atharv nods and pours the drink down his throat, making a weird expression after he gulps it down.

"Son, if there is something going on you can tell me. Why don't you eat? This has been happening for quite some time. I put in a lot of effort to make you that tiffin early in the morning." His mother asks smiling bitterly.

Atharv nods lightly looking down at his feet, chewing his food, and burping in intervals.

His mother gets up with the plate and glass to leave.

"Th….ank you"

"You don’t need to thank me for feeding you. It’s my responsibility"

***

In the school classroom, the students are casually strolling around and chatting noisily. It is the 'break-hour', while the majority of the students enjoy the meal their parents packed for them a few prefer going about and spending time with their friends. A twelve-year-old Atharv is seated at his table. He is surrounded by three boys who are much taller than him and look considerably elder to him. He’s looking at his feet with his head bowed down while the other boys stand tall over him.

"Give it up fast you idiot, why are you making us wait today!"

Atharv looks up at the boy ordering him around.

"Woah, being brave, are we?", the other boy smacks Atharv on the face with his palm.

Shaken, Atharv again starts looking at his feet.

The boy who had been ordering Atharv around pulls his hair, "Give it or regret it!"

Atharv looks around but he did not meet anybody's gaze. Most of them didn't care and were preoccupied with themselves while others purposely avoided that gaze. Helpless Atharv then puts his hand forward which he was holding behind his back tightly wrapped around the Tiffin. One of the boys snatches it from him.

The third boy who was quiet all this time speaks, "We’ll return the box when we’re done."

Taking the box, the boys leave the room joking and poking fun at each other.

Atharv sits in his place motionless, still looking at his feet. He feels a tap on his lifeless shoulders and finally picks his head up.

"Why do they come after you every day?" One of his classmates who was about his age was standing right behind him.

Atharv had noticed him many times in class but they had never spoken to each other, perplexed with what had just transpired he doesn’t say anything just again lowers his eyes.

His classmate raises his eyebrows surprised by Atharv's unresponsive and lifeless caricature, he puts his tiffin box on Atharv’s table, it was a small box with little food in it. "I know it’s not enough for both of us but I guarantee it’s damn tasty, Quality over quantity right."

"Are you.... sure? I can...really have .....this?"

"Couldn’t have been surer, I’m Om, what’s your name?"

***

In the same little room and the same creaky bed, a young lad lay on his back but this time instead of a twelve-year-old is a nineteen-year-old young man. He is woken up from his dream when he hears his mother calling for him. It is the same loving woman just a bit older but her eyes carry the same concern as they did that day, seven years ago.

"Atharv, Atharv wake up!"

Atharv seeing his mother flustered rubs his eyes and is on alert.

"What happened Mumma?"

"Atharv, what happened in college yesterday? There are some people here, they look like they're from the military. They are saying you seriously injured some students. Son...did you hurt someone.......again?"

Atharv doesn't reply he holds his mother's hand tightly and assures her with a smile. Then holding his mother’s hand he walks out of the room with his mother and finds three men waiting for him in the hall. While two were dressed in a normal army attire the third person wore a dignified and elegant military jacket. Atharv couldn’t understand why the military would take interest in him.

"I am Parav Jaspal, commander of the second division east 'Aegis Batallion' Dhilli. Are you Atharv Arya?" The tallest and most well dressed of the three speaks in a fashionable tone. He looks at Atharv curiously, as if trying to figure something out.

Atharv hesitatingly answers, "Yes."

Snorting Parav continues to speak, "You have been sentenced to death for assaulting and causing serious permanent damage to three prospective first tiers."

Story By: Four Eighty One

(The Story, Characters, and Art are all original pieces of work, kindly refrain from using them without permission)

Chapter 7: The Fourth Sighting releases next Friday