"Demon"

"Demon"

A cute baby voice woke up Aditya. He felt that he had slept for a very long time. Aditya felt a small soft hand touching his face which jolted him awake as he sat upright. But the scene which appeared before him assured Aditya that he was dreaming.

This was how Aditya would have expected his dream world to be, spherical bodies made of myriad bodies were moving in front of him as he was suspended in space which was like a dark void. Aditya would have thought that he was ejected by someone into space had he not seen that these spherical bodies were unlike planets.

They felt as if they were condensed forms of colourful energy. Speaking of colours, Aditya finally knew what is meant by 'Myriad colours'. Every colour you could imagine was present in this world. This world was not static but in motion as all the spheres moved in some predetermined path.

Fiery red energy balls, emerald, purple, sapphire, brilliant orange, you ask for it, it was as if they were flames but Aditya did not feel any heat.

But the main shock came when he saw that these spheres did not maintain their spherical shape but some of them transformed into colourful waves which felt like fog to Aditya, these waves moved like the wind in the distant sky.

He was bewildered when he saw that these colourful fog was again condensing into small spheres which grew in size with time. It was a cyclical process, spheres to fog, fog to spheres. Aditya tried to inhale some fog, surprisingly Aditya felt that he could inhale the fog, the fog felt cool and greatly soothed his anxious mind. He felt stronger when he inhaled the fog which encouraged him to continue this process until…

"Demon, what are you doing?" a curious baby face of a five-year-old male boy appeared before Aditya which almost scared the hell out of Aditya. A rare high pitch shriek was surprisingly produced by Aditya in his fright.

Wasn't this supposed to be a colourful dream? Who is this baby ghost? It was no wonder Aditya was scared as anyone would be scared at looking at the cutest baby face you have seen, except that the lower half of his body was just plain colourful smoke.

The funny part was that a baby shriek of a higher pitch followed Aditya's scream as that 'baby ghost' disappeared in front of Aditya and appeared at a distance with fear apparent on its adorable face.

Aditya had to agree that the baby was cute even in his fright with its round adorable face, big eyes, chubby cheeks. The innocence and purity which showed in the boy's eyes made Aditya forget his fear for a moment and calm down. He could also feel that the 'baby ghost' was also frightened of him which emboldened him a little.

"Hey kid, come here." Aditya beckoned with his hand, he had basically determined that this was a dream, so he didn't care much about his safety.

The 'Baby ghost' slightly recovered from its fear as he looked back and forth as if he was searching for something, he turned and asked Aditya, "What is a kid?"

It was Aditya's turn to be dumbfounded, "What is a kid?" he did not know how to respond. He recovered his composure and said, "what I meant was you, you come here first." Aditya felt that this 'baby ghost' was not harmful and dangerous anymore.

The 'baby ghost' looked like it possessed the curiosity and the courage of a kid as well, he had already forgotten that he had been scared of Aditya right now and so he came near Aditya.

Aditya took a close look at the baby ghost, only now did he find out the skin of the kid also possessed the same illusory kind of feeling as those spheres of energy rotating and revolving around him.

Aditya suddenly felt pity for the kid as he thought this 'baby ghost' was lonely in this big world with no one to accompany him.

"Is there anyone else present here with you?" Aditya asked the kid with a tone as kindly as he could manage. The kid also seemed to relax around Aditya as he nodded.

Aditya was shocked as he looked around to find another father or mother ghost but didn't find any, so he turned towards the kid as he asked cautiously, "Where are the other ones?" he was not sure that the other inhabitants might be as friendly as this 'baby ghost'.

The kid looked a little puzzled as he blinked his wide eyes and replied innocently, "Demon, aren't you here present with me?"

Aditya rolled his eyes as he said, "I meant that other than you and me, wait what did you call me just now?"

"Demon"

"Why am I a demon?" Aditya asked bewilderingly.

The baby ghost looked at the shocked face of Aditya as he replied, "because you absorbed my energy."

Aditya was puzzled as he asked, "I absorbed your energy?"

the cute kid nodded with a wronged feeling on his face. Aditya racked his brains when had he absorbed this kids energy, he remembered that he had inhaled a little of the colourful fog when he woke up. So, he put an apologetic expression as he said, "I didn't know when I woke up that the colourful fog was your energy, also I only inhaled a little, I won't do so again, sorry."

the 'baby ghost' shook his head again as he said, "I was not talking about that, you having being absorbing my energy for two weeks, you did not stop even when I pleaded you. Although I thought that you couldn't hear my words at that time"

Aditya's mind exploded when he heard these words, he was absorbing these kid's energy from two weeks, wait, isn't it the exact time he had started sleeping for 14 hrs a day, was it a coincidence? Wait, a more urgent question sprang in his mind.

"Isn't this a dream?" Aditya asked aloud though he was not sure what answer to expect.

The kid tilted his head a little as he asked curiously, "What is a dream?"

Aditya rolled his eyes when he heard the kid ask back, how could he know the exact nature of a dream, maybe Anupama who studies psychology would be able to answer accurately or that beautiful elder sister Hamsa who performed his sleep test (polysomnography) could answer even better. He racked his brain before answering vaguely," You know, when we sleep, you end up in some places without knowing how you came there, its just a figment of our imagination."

the kid held his small chin with his delicate hand like a great thinker before replying, "Your body is really sleeping, so you can reckon this as a dream but this is not your imagination because I know that I am real."

Aditya doubted the 'baby ghost's words as he thought, what kind of a dream character would admit that he was just a figment of your imagination? No one of course. So he kept this question aside for another question.

"Who are you?"

"Who am I?" the kid once again repeated his 'great thinker's pose as he thought for sometime before replying with a counter question, "Who are you?"

"Me? Am Aditya"

then the kid also replied, "I am also Aditya."

Aditya was irritated when he heard this, he said angrily. "I am Aditya, you are not Aditya."

the kid showed fear at Aditya's irritation as he asked, "Then who am I?"

"How would I know who are you?"

"Then I am Aditya."

"..."

Aditya skipped to his next question, "what is your age?" he did not want to ask harsh questions like. "What are you? How were you formed? Are you alive or a ghost?"

After a round of counter questions which made Aditya feel like he was in an Advanced Physics exam like what is age? What is a 'year'? What is 'time'? How do you experience Time? The baby ghost replied, "I don't know my age."

The kid's counter questions were really starting to tick Aditya off but his answers were the least satisfying which made Aditya give up talking altogether. He sat calmly observing his surroundings and hoping that it was a dream and that it would end quickly.

But the baby ghost looked like he was not done with Aditya yet as he asked like a curious kitten, "What is your Age?"

"16 years"

"Oh, Why did you absorb my energy previously?"

"I didn't know that it was your energy." Aditya didn't care what he was answering as long he could stop the kid from asking more questions. He directly admitted that he was guilty.

"Okay, please don't absorb any more of my energy okay, I have a very important reason to live, I can't afford to lose my energy otherwise I would disappear."

Aditya was interested as he asked, "What is that important reason?" just when he thought the conversation was going somewhere, the answer put Aditya back in his place.

"I forgot, but I know it is a very important reason, like a very very important reason." came an innocent reply.

"you are called Aditya right?"

"Yes, my friends call me Adi."

"Who are friends?"

"..."

the kid looked dissatisfied with Aditya's silence as he pouted and folded his hands which raised the scale of cuteness to unimaginable levels which could melt even the most hardcore cold-blooded military personnel let alone small teenager like Aditya. He couldn't hold back his smile when he looked at this endearing kid. When the baby ghost saw that Aditya was smiling, he immediately asked

"So who is a friend?"

"Friend is someone who feels happy when he is with you and will share both your joy and sorrow."

"I feel happy when I am with you, I have also shared my energy with you, does that make me your friend?"

Aditya thought back when he felt this kid was lonely and pitiful, he nodded and replied, "yup."

The baby ghost felt elated when he heard this reply, he hovered all over this 'dreamworld' and revolved around Aditya as he shouted excitedly, "I have a friend yippie."

Aditya smiled when he saw the pure happiness radiating from this kid, he also felt a strange intimacy with this kid, which baffled him.

The kid appeared before Aditya animatedly as he asked, "Your friends call you Adi, so will you also call me Adi as my name is also Aditya?"

Aditya touched his head when he heard this baby ghost repeating that his name is also Aditya, he thought for a while and said, "As I am called Adi, I will call you 'Tya', so together we could be called Aditya." As long as this baby ghost was not called with the same name as his, he felt it was fine. He didn't think much into it as anyway it was just a dream.

The baby ghost 'Tya' liked its name very much as he once again danced around the world. While watching this scene of the dream world, Aditya felt his body becoming more and blurrier. He took it as waking up from his dream world. He felt that it was a pity he could not meet again such an adorable kid who asked the most irritating questions. He smiled as he vanished. It was such a weird dream.

"Aditya is fine, his vital signs are all stable, as you have heard the attending physician's words, why are you sitting here instead of going back to your dormitories." A mature female's voice could be heard berating someone.

Aditya heard Bhadra speak up, "We will only go when we see Adi wake up, please don't mind us, if you could allow us to stay here overnight, I will have my father donate ₹ 200,000 (around $3000) for upgrading the school clinic."

Aditya smiled bitterly inside when he heard Bhadra's words, though usually, Bhadra did not put up a facade of the 'rich young master', he was still very much the part of the high level of society in his characteristics that tried to solve most of the problems with money and surprisingly they worked actually.

"Young Master Bhadra, you don't have to do it, but it is very kind of you to think about our school clinic. You can stay here and if there is any problem, feel free to wake me up, I suggest you rest in the couch as it is already late." the voice drifted away as the sounds of closing the door was heard.

"You haven't lost the habit of burning your father's money." the teasing sound of Jatin was heard.

"It's much better than spending on call girls…." before Bhadra could continue he was shocked to see Aditya wide awake and looking at them.

"Adi"

"Adi"

"How are you? Are you feeling hurt somewhere?"

"Nurse, come here immediately, Adi's awake."

these two fellows were very poor in being cool-headed in such situations but the messier they sounded, the warmer Aditya's heart became as he smiled at them.

He thought back to 'Tya' of the dream world as he thought if he could show his friends now to him to explain how friends care for each other.

"Adi, are they your friends?" a cute voice of child spoke in Aditya's mind.

"Yes." Aditya thought instinctively until

"What the..."