Prologue

…

Hic! Burp!!

I felt a cold moist sensation near my arm. Quite cold. My eyes were closed. I tried to hear the noises around me. The faint chirping of birds, the low honking of vehicles and a cold sensation on my body. Dawn? Most likely. Nevermind, I am good. I tried to drift back to the land of dreams.

Slap!! Slap!!

A rough palm gave me two tight slap on my cheeks. I opened my eyes with a jerk. A bearded ascetic draped in saffron shawl was holding my collar.

"Fucking bastard!! Couldn't find a better place to die?" He snarled, kicking the upturned bottle of booze from my hand.

"Huh!!?"

"Go put some water on your face!"

He kicked my butt. I fell on the river beside me with a loud splash. I frantically swung my arm trying to swim.

"Help!!" Guurg!! Glerg!!

"Fucking dick! Use your legs."

Legs? I suddenly noticed that the water barely reached my knees. I stood up a little embarrassed and looked around.

I am currently standing on a concrete slab. The concrete steps were leading from the road a little above to the riverbank. The bearded man who pulled me up was bathing in the river.

"High tide?" I asked. The place where I was sleeping was already half covered with water.

"Yes. Your sorry ass would have reached Yama's doorstep within a couple of minutes."

I see. I sighed a little and sat down.

"Remove your clothes. You will catch a cold." He threw a soiled towel at me.

"Keep it with you." He took a long dip after saying that and went on chanting some prayers.

I removed my wet clothes and let them dry on the steps. I sat on the steps wearing the towel, recalling my previous actions.

Last night I got dumped during the college leaving party. I just tried to lessen my sorrows with a bottle of booze. In midway I ran outside and came to the riverbank. I fell asleep while crying. I really don't blame anyone, it was my fault on failing to notice that I was a backup.

Hic!

I mean, what now? I counted too many chickens before they hatched. It's not like my life is finished. I can very well get a job and live a peaceful life. Go on a blind date and get married. Raise a family, grow old and die. Life is quite easy once you see it properly.

Nevertheless, a void seemed to have opened since last night and it keeps on growing bigger. It is sucking up my feelings both happiness and sadness. My short circuited feelings gave me a deficit of ambition and my will to live.

The monk got up from the river. He touched my head. His wet hand ruffled my hair.

"There is always a next life for you ignorant assholes. Just don't let the devil grab you before that."

…

After ten years, a famous hotel on a hill station. Two men were chatting in the hotel lobby. One of them, the owner of the lodge, was wearing a vest and jeans whereas the other one, a tourist, was wearing a thick coat along with a muffler covering half of his head.

"It was quite enjoyable to find visitors from my home district once in a while! So Mr Jawed, what brought you here? You don't seem like a regular tourist, do you?" The man in the vests said.

"Hahaha … you are correct! My wife's brother teaches in the high school here. He has been quite ill since last month, so we came to visit him."

"Oh, I see! Good! Good!

Are you enjoying your stay here?"

"Yeah… but it feels too cold. You seem to have lived here too long to feel cold!

Were you born here?"

"No, of course not! I came here 10 years ago. First I started as a manager of my friend's hotel. In the course of years, I bought it from him and changed my address to this place."

"Wow! Don't a bachelor like you feel lonely here?"

The owner smiled sarcastically as he stared at the painting on the wall. A dead rotten deer beside a beautiful lake. He bought it at an auction for a high price. His employees were a bit shocked by his weird taste. Naturally!

"I was 25 back then, a fresh graduate from university X. I have had a weak heart since my birth, the doctor told me not to get married. The girl I loved, left the day after I told her about my condition.

My family and friends would treat me like some fragile showpiece. I was tired of the constricting atmosphere so I called my friend and told me to make the manager of some hotel his dad owned in a hill station." He paused.

"What!?? You became a manager in some shoddy hotel after passing from University X??!"

"Well … no matter what my qualifications are, a healthy body is required for a well paying job. The doctor told me to avoid the commotion and trouble of city life. Anyway, he told me I won't live past my forties."

"Oh! …"

" … "

"What about your parents?"

"They gave up all hopes. They were happy to see me living peacefully in this sleepy town. Good for them!

They have placed their faith on my sister and their grandkids. I feel satisfied to see them happy. I need nothing more."

"Good! So, how is your health?"

"Deteriorating. Slowly. Nevertheless deteriorating.

Have a good day Mr Jawed! I am going for a little walk near the waterfalls."

He quickly left the hesitant middle-aged man and went out.

"Have a safe trip!" Mr Jawed shouted from a distance.

'Hmph! 'Safe trip', my ass.'

He walked through the winding sloppy mountainous path passing through the slums. The shacks were occupied mostly by drivers, hotel employees or shop owners. The rush of the tourists is pretty good so the indigenous mob from the surrounding poor region would gather in the town to earn some morsels. Their broken wooden homes really made him pity them.

He came across one specific yard. An old man was holed up near the door. He was squatting on the ground with an old mothy shawl round him, bathing in the morning sun with his eyes closed. A little boy was playing with a puffed up chicken. The kid had lost his father last winter, his mother works as a dishwasher in the nearby cafe. The pay was enough to keep the three of them alive. Barely.

He called the boy.

"How is your grandpa doing?"

"Good. He coughed last night, now he is okay."

"I see … "

He quickly stuffed 2000 credit notes in his hand and turned. He walked to the next turn. 

"Your grandfather's medicine. Buy them."

"Huh!"

He didn't stay long. After all, dirty rumours don't take long to spread. The reason he paid the surmount sum was that the deceased man used to work as the valet in his hotel. His godforsaken heart was still not grabbed by the devil.

He reached the main road. The paved desolate path leads to the waterfall. Half a mile path.

"Hello there Mr Shaws!" A young woman greeted him. She jogged along with him.

"Fine as ever, I see!"

"Not as much as you!"

"Your heart is walking its last mile, huh?!

You would hit the bucket within a month at most." She said glancing at his face once.

"That's rude, Ms. Thur!" He sighed, he could already feel a pin stabbing within his heart. Deep within his heart, he liked this tactless woman. The only person who never gave a damn about anything.

The woman has been living in the two roomed apartment on the roof of the hotel since the last ten years. She is quite mysterious, she didn't seem to have a job or associates still she would pay her rent in time. She would roam around the surrounding hills most of the time and disappear in the thin air sometimes.

She seemed to be in her twenties from her well shaped body and turgid jade-like pale skin with a soft glossy face. Though her ID tells that she is in her mid thirties. Coincidentally, she is the same age as him. Also they had somewhat of a subtle kinship. Many thought them to be friends with benefits, though all those were rumours.

Whenever he saw her, he suspected her to be a vampire. How else could he explain the situation?

"Waterfall?" He asked.

"No, the lake." She replied and increased her pace. The lake is a mile further to the waterfall. You would have to keep moving along the brook along a rocky path. It was taxing for his weak heart so he would turn back from the falls.

The girl disappeared behind the cedars.

He slowly walked to his destination. He could feel the pin within his heart going deeper. The pain increased. The erratic throbbing made him realize that his life was at its edge. Nevertheless he moved forward.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

He sat down on the road. His vision was already blurring and his arms turned cold. No! He won't die here.

Suddenly he noticed a grassy road leading to a small mound above. A childish urge gripped him. He started to crawl through the path.

'I will definitely reach the peak before dying!'

He crawled through the stones and twigs. He bruised his arms and his pants tore from the jarred edge of the rocks. Nevertheless, he persevered. Ultimately he reached the open place.

Oofff!! He sighed as he took a look of the mountain side town below him.

'Today I will leave this damned place forever. The town, this country, this planet… Not that anybody will care. It's somewhat good I guess!'

His head fell.

??!! What is this?!!!!

He head lay on something soft. It was someone's warm lap.

"Ms. Thur?!" How could the woman come here so fast? Impossible! Has she come to suck his blood?

"You are as stubborn as ever! You would even roll in your grave!"

"Why? … Are you a vampire?"

The girl seemed offended.

"What?!! I have been taking care of you for 10 fucking years and you take me for a pawn of the devil?"

"Who are yo... u?"

"Someone special!"

She kissed him on his lips. A warm strawberry smell filled his mouth as he tried to lick his lips. Sweet! So sweet!

"Now you can't say that you took my first kiss! Hahaha … I won!!" She giggled like a child.

'Is she fucking insane? Shouldn't she call for help or drag him back to the hotel?'

"Well then, do you have any regrets?"

Huh! Regret?

"I died a virgin!??" He said, with a pained face. Though his face was already twisted from pain beforehand.

"Pfft… you will always be a closet pervert! Old habits die hard."

Everything turned black with that word. Death?

Not bad! Not bad!