Dark.

Everything is dark.

Why is everything dark?

I try to open my eyes. Nope, nothing. Still daAre they open or are they still closed?

I try to touch my eyes. Ara? Where are my hands? I can’t feel my hands. Speaking of which, I can’t feel my legs too. In fact, I can’t feel any part of my body. Ok ok, calm down. Take a few deep breaths. Am I even breathing? Hard to tell when I can’t feel my body. Anyway, let’s calm down and think back.

Yeah, me and my best friend Mike came into this cave to kill a pyro-kinetic. We already killed a pyro-kinetic a while back with rather ease. So we were quite confident in our skills. Things were going rather well too. But… well we… faced a bit more… problem than we thought we would. And we kind of got into a bad position, and….

Ah shit, who am I kidding? Fine I admit it. We got too much full of ourselves after the easy win with the bandit boss. So we underestimated them. And we got our asses handed over to us. If not for the dumbest of luck, I am sure even right now, we would have to endure endless torture. I managed to kill them, yes. But at the price of our own life.

Well no point in thinking negatively. I should learn from my mistakes and move forward, assuming I get a chance to live again, that is. For now, I guess I should find out where I am.

What is this place? I am sure that my body has become virus food long ago. According to some light novel I read back in my world, there are many possibilities as to where I am. Let’s see.

One, I am in some kind of place between our world and heaven. God will take a liking to me and make me his champion.

Two, I will be intercepted by some devil god or demon lord or some evil guy or some sexy-beautiful-curvy-big breasted woman who will grant me three wishes in exchange for my soul.

Three, I am in some kind of void. I will be summoned from this void and live a new life.

Four, I will be reincarnated in a new world with all my memories intact. I may not necessarily be human.

Five, I have not left the mortal world. I am wandering as some spirit or ghost if you will.

If it’s option five, there should be some kind of force or something which is binding me to this world. But I do not feel anything.

If it’s option four, there should be something to indicate I am inside my new mother’s womb or my egg. But there’s nothing here, so am I still not in that phase to be able to feel? Does that mean I still have to spend one or two month before I am able to feel anything?

If it’s option three, then there’s nothing I can do. I will just have to wait until I am summoned.

If it’s either option two or option one, I have to be careful. People like god or devil always likes to have a bit of fun. But whatever option it is, right now, my only option is to wait.

[(Waiting)…]

[(Waiting more)…]

[(Waiting some more)…]

[(And again waiting more)…]

What am I even doing? I don’t even know how much longer I have to wait in this dark, eerie place. I have no idea how long I have been here now. One minute? One hour? One day, who knows? I can feel my patience losing with time. I have no idea how long I can stay sane in this quiet place. I HAVE TO, find my way out of this place, the sooner the better.

“(Suit voice) analysis complete.”

[WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!]

THAT SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Imagine you are in a quiet place. You are straining your ears to pick up even a tiniest of sound. Right then, someone sneaks up you and yells in your ears.

“(Suit voice) host brain activity is within normal parameters. Shutting down ‘cut the hard line’ protocol.”

There, I can feel a change. I can feel my body bit by bit, first head, then neck, torso, arms, legs. I frail around a bit before I can control my limbs. They feel a tad bit weird. But nothing more than that. I scramble to stand on my feet and check my surroundings.

I am on solid land, beside the pond. My legs are still submerged in that pond water. Weird. I scramble to my feet and look around to confirm if I am in heaven.

Nah that was me expecting more than I should. I am still in that cave. I can see two dead bodies lying at some distance. Where is Mike? If I remember right, he also fell into the pond.

I go into the pond and start searching for any clue. The pond is not much big, so it took only 10 minutes before I am finished. But I found nothing. And it dawned on me. The cold, hard truth of reality.

MY BEST FRIEND IS DEAD.

But more than my friend, he was my brother. I remember a very distant memory. I almost forgot about it. It is a memory of our 18th birthday.

(Flashback start)

-----------------------------------------------------------

“““Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Kaushik, happy birthday to you.”””

Mom, dad, Mike and some of my neighbors sang in chorus and I blew on the candles on the cake. They clapped together. I cut a piece of cake and feed them. In turn, they cut a piece and feed me. We followed the same pattern for Mike. All in all, the whole day we enjoyed ourselves.

It’s evening now. All the neighbors had returned to their home. Right now, me and Mike are sitting on a couch, mom and dad sitting on another couch facing us. I can see mom is trembling ever so slightly and biting her lower lip. Dad spoke in his utmost serious tone.

“Kaushik.”

[Yes dad.]

“Mike”

~ Here. ~

“I have an important matter to discuss. As of today, you are of age and we decided to let you know about this.”

~ [Yes?] ~

I can feel my heart pumping faster. Dad took a deep breath before speaking.

“You two are not our biological son.”

I have a lump in my throat.

[What do you mean by that?]

“You mother…. (inhaling deeply) your mother can’t get pregnant.”

Mother looked like she is on the verge of tears now. Dad held her close to him and kept petting her head.

[If mom didn’t give birth to us, then….]

“You know a man who often talks with us over the phone?”

[(Nodding in confirmation.)]

“He found you two left alone road side. He contacted us after he found out your mother’s condition and proposed that we take care of you. We agreed.”

[So we are brothers but not blood related to you?]

“We ran a DNA test on both of you. Apparently, even you two are not blood related.”

[Ok ok slow down. Why are you telling us all this?]

Mom looked down while shaking and desperately holding back her tears. Dad hugged her tightly and spoke.

“We decided that… we will tell you everything and let you choose whether…. (closing his eyes and taking several deep breaths) … whether you want to be with us or prefer to stay on your own.”

Mom closed her eyes tightly. I can see tears are forming on her eyes.

~ Ok let me summarize everything. Mom can’t conceive. So nowhere in near future we are getting any sibling. We ourselves are adopted children. We are not even brothers. Now that we are of age, we can choose to stay with you or we can stay alone. Does that summarize everything? ~

Mom couldn’t hold back anymore. She started sobbing while hiding her face in dad’s chest. Dad answered Mike with great difficulty.

“………… Yes.”

~ Have you lost your mind? ~

“Eh?”

Dad stared at us dumbfounded. Mom kept sobbing.

~ Seriously, I don’t understand how you brain works. ~

[How did you come to the conclusion that we will leave you?]

~ You are my dad. ~

[And you are my mom.]

~ No matter what. ~

[This fact won’t change.]

~ We are not blood related. ~

[Even so, what’s the problem?]

~ We will become sworn brothers. ~

[And you will be our irreplaceable parents.]

~ [Nishishishi (Smug chuckle, with a wide grin plastered on the face, hands behind head).] ~

Somewhere in the middle of our performance, mom had stopped crying and stared at us. After she understood our decision, she started crying uncontrollably.

I took my mother’s maiden surname and became Kaushik Roy. Mike decided to take father’s surname and stayed as Michael Smith. We exchanged our brother’s vow over a cup of alcohol. But since it would be weird calling each other brother as we have different surname, we decided to call each other friend. Mom and dad happily agreed.

-----------------------------------------------------------

(Flashback end)

At this point, I am wailing on top of my lungs.

Not anymore I will see my best friend and my brother. Not any more I will hear his jokes. Not anymore he will be there to watch my back.

I cried until I can’t cry anymore. It’s my fault that he is dead. I am supposed to be thoughtful one among us. How could get I so full of myself after a win and underestimate my opponent? Because of me, I lost my most precious family.

I know. This is a punishment. Yeah, that’s right. This is divine punishment. I am alive while my brother is dead. May be this is god’s way of letting me suffer.

Someone entered the cave. I turn to look at the figure. I can’t make out the face. The figure has a knife. I close my eyes. If he is here to kill me, so be it.

~ Hey buddy, how are you feeling? ~

[…]

‘Can’t be.’

My eyes shot open in an instant and I scramble to my feet as fast as I could. I stared at the figure which is holding some dead rabbits.

Mike stood there, stark naked.

I pinch my cheeks with all my strength. A sharp pain assaulted my brain. I shot forward towards him and hold him by his shoulder. I traced his face with my finger, to make sure I am not looking at an illusion.

[Mike? You are Mike right?]

~ Of course I am Mike. Your one and only best friend cum brother. ~

[You are alive?]

~ Yeah, I don’t know how but… ~

I didn’t let him finish. I pulled him into a tight hug and started to cry again. Mike got surprised at first. But then dropped the rabbits and proceeded to rub my back.

~ Hush..hush my boy, it’s okay. Everything’s okay. I am alive and well. ~

I continued to cry for at least five more minutes.

[I thought I lost you.]

~ I am not that easy to kill. We are the invincible duo, remember? ~

I took several deep breaths to calm down.

[Yeah you’re right. Thanks for reminding me.]

~ Anytime. But Roy? ~

[Yes?]

~ Could you stop hugging me? Your dick is touching mine and it kind of feels bad. ~

[Huh?]

I immediately let go of Mike and look down. Like Mike, I am also stark naked.

[Where’s my suit? Speaking of which, where’s your suit?]

~ Sit down first. We have a lot to discuss. ~