2 Chapter 1: I killed an Old Man and got a New Assistant

Blood seeped from the wound around the old man, who was stabbed in his ribs by Ram accidentally.

"You," the old man said, looking at Ram, not with horrified look like any sane man would at the moment one discovered that he had been stabbed accidentally. But he was looking at Ram as if he were his savior. "You stabbed me," the old man said, clutching at the knife that stabbed him.

Ram was horrified. His hands were shaking so horribly that he felt as if he were the one being stabbed, instead the other way round.

The old man grinned. "Thank you," the old man said. "You are much better choice than the one who attacked me," he said.

Ram stepped back from the old man, waving his hands as if by doing so would make the old man disappear from him. He wished that he had the power to reverse time, go to exact moment when he stabbed the old man so that he could avoid doing the same the second time.

"You have not gotten the power yet. More over, the power doesn't work that way," the old man said.

Ram stared at the crazy old man, wishing that he hadn't stepped out of the house to do grocery shopping. He wished that he hadn't opened the the knife in the middle of night, where he were surrounded by cameras all around.

If — no, when the the police watch this recording of him waving his hand when the old man appeared out of nowhere so that it looked like he had stabbed the old man with a knife. They are going to arrest him for sure. He had many dreams that he had yet to accomplish. If he were arrested, then …

No…

The old man gasped, clutching the knife. He closed his eyes and muttered something under his breath and the blood that was seeping out of the wound seemed to slow down as he stared at it, not like the old man stopped bleeding, but it was bleeding slowly. "I don't have much time. I have to pass it on to you. You will get to know everything once the transfer was complete," the old man said, beckoning him to come closer.

Ram froze.

The old man sighed. "You wish to do this the hard way. Don't blame me for this. You were the one who stabbed me, now killing me. You have to take responsibility for that now," he said.

Ram started. No, he hadn't killed him. The stabbing part was accident. Purely accident. If he could save the old man from dying, then the police would not arrest him. Yes, he had to save the old man now.

He took a step, then the next one and soon, he was by the old man's side, placing his hands on the old man's neck and lifting him up.

The old man grabbed Ram's hand, clutched them tighter, moved his head closer so that it touched Ram's. Soon, Ram felt a blinding white light in his vision, a searing hotness along his hands, followed by the ticking of clock.

Tick.

Tock.

Tick.

Tock.

He felt the some shadow on the white light, flickering so fast that he couldn't understand what it was, but he was sure it was an image, or several images.

Before he could ponder on what that might be, blackness consumed Ram's vision and he lost consciousness.

***

When Ram regained his consciousness, he opened his eyes to see whiteness everywhere. At first, he thought that he had gone blind. But he realized if that were the case, then his vision should be filled with blackness.

Right now, everywhere he looked was filled with white, as if he were inside a very, very large and vast white room. The room was so large and vast that no matter in which direction he looked, all he could see was endless whiteness. Like the way you would see when you were in the middle of a desert.

Unlike being in desert though, he felt pleasant to be inside this vast white room. It looked familiar, but Ram was sure that he was seeing this room for the first time in his life.

It was then that Ram realized few moments before he had lost consciousness.

He had killed an old man, crazy one at that. He looked relieved as he saw the blood that spilled out of the wound that Ram had accidentally caused.

And there was something else. It felt like his mind was filled with endless…

Argh!!!

Just trying to remember what had happened after that resulted in a severe case of headache, so much so that Ram was willing to do anything to make it go away.

Amidst the severe pain, he remembered seeing a symbol, one that resembled an infinite symbol.

The more he focused on that symbol, the more his headache intensified.

Ram clutched his temples, massaged them hoping his headache would disappear. When it didn't, he decided to stop focusing on the symbol and other things for the time being.

Suddenly, his headache disappeared.

He glanced at his surrounding to see that he was still inside the endless white room.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" Ram asked.

"Welcome, my master," answered a sweet female voice.

Ram looked around himself to see that he was all alone. Then where did the sweet female voice come from? Had he gone insane? Was all this his imagination? There were several questions that he want answers for, but he thought it would be wise if he start with basics. "Who are you?" he asked.

The sweet voice chuckled for a moment. "Who am I? I am you assistant, master. The transfer of knowledge should've already happened right? How come you don't recognize who I am?" she asked.

Ram grumbled. He remembered the old man asking him to help him complete the transfer. But Ram froze at that time. He said something about a hard way. "The transfer hadn't been entirely smooth and voluntary," Ram said.

"If that was the case, that explains why you are looking at everything around you the way you are. Don't worry, the information that you wanted to know has been sealed. Once you unlock new levels, the memories of your transfer will return," the sweet voice said.

It seemed something like a game. And Ram hated games more than anything else. "Can't you do something about it? I hate playing games the most," Ram said.

The sweet voice chuckled. "The transfer has already been done. All you could do was follow through it," she said.

Ram shook his head. "Isn't there any other way?" he asked.

"Of course there is. If you transfer your powers to others, you could be rid of this whole things," she said.

Ram was very eager. "What should I do?" he asked.

"Slow down, my master. Do you even know what transferring the power to others means?" she asked.

Ram shook his head.

The sweet voice sighed. "I should've known. Let me make it clear to you. If you were to go ahead with the transfer of your powers, you would die by the time the transfer was complete. Is that something that you wished to do?" she asked.

"NO!" Ram shouted.

"Well then, now that's settled. Why don't we start with something basic?" she asked.

"Like what?"

"Like you naming me, instead of thinking of me as a sweet voice?"

"You are able to hear what I am thinking?" Ram asked.

"Yeah."

"Who are you really?"

"As I have already said, I am your assistant. Since you have chosen the hard way of transferring the memories and powers, you would have to work hard to unlock them."

"What should I do then?" Ram asked.

"It's simple. Once you complete certain tasks, treat them as an adventures, your memories and powers would be unlocked. If you were even lucky, you could get surprises, like evolving of an existing power into something else and even discover new ones," she said.

Ram didn't know what his powers were based on to begin with. It seemed like too good to be true. But he had to face the reality. The first step towards this adventure was by naming his assistant.

"What are my powers based on?" he asked.

"Time."

Ram gasped. He had the power related to time? Now that he remembered it, he felt that the old man's bleeding has looked weird. Like it had somehow slowed down. Is it one of his powers? To slow down his time? Is the reverse also possible? Like speed up his time during boring times?

Ram was more exited the more he thought about that.

He wanted to learn more about his powers as soon as possible.

But first, he had to name his assistant. Since she was female, he decided to name her after his favorite Celebrity. Emily Roxane. He liked watching her movies and now that he thought about it, he thought the sweet voice sounded just like Emily Roxane.

"Emily Roxane. Em, to be exact. What do you think?" he asked.

"Em. I like it more than my original," Em said.

"You had another name?"

"It doesn't matter. It is within your power to change my name as and when you wished. For the time being, I will go by the name of Em. It's nice to meet you, my master," Em said.

Ram grinned. "Now that's settled, where are we?" he asked.

Em chuckled. "You are the curious one aren't you? Don't you know curiosity killed the cat?" she asked.

"I don't mind it. It's just a quote, tell me. Where are we?" he asked.

"Your Mind. We are inside your mind."