The Mighty Fall

It was 6 hours now that my mom and dad were at the hospital and there was no news about my mom. In an hour I was going to turn 13. Uncle Jin was trying his best to cheer me up but I couldn't help but feel lonely, betrayed and scared. I didn't wish to step ahead into another day fearing what if today was the last day we spent together as one family.

The phone rang the fourteenth time now. And now I was tired of running to the phone hoping it was dad but finding out its not him. "Oh! You should stay with her tonight. Tae, I don't want to say this right now but I guess divorce is not the right decision.", I heard Uncle Jin say. I jumped out of the couch and ran to him. He hung up before I could talk to dad. "What happened uncle Jin? How is mom?", I asked. "She is up now. Doctors don't know the reason behind her fainting yet but they will be running some tests on her tomorrow. She is weak so your dad will stay with her tonight.", he said. I felt a little better knowing she was up now. I smiled a little at him and went back to my couch.

"Just 15 minutes to go my little monster!", Uncle Jungkook entered the room all excited. Everyone knew I loved my birthdays, but this time it was all different. I was far from feeling even a tiny bit of happiness. I just smiled at him. Suddenly I realised we had no cake, how am I supposed to blow the candle. "Uncle Jk.", I called him. "Yes, my little monster.", he answered. "It's almost time, where is my cake?", I asked. "We thought you might not be in the mood of cutting a cake today, so we didn't order one.", uncle Jin said. I was panicking now. What if I miss the last chance of saving my parent's marriage? What if because of me they actually get divorced?

"I have it all under control my little princess.", I heard Uncle Jimin as her entered the room with a beautiful purple unicorn cake. "What is a birthday without a cake.", he said keeping the cake on the table in front of my couch. It was a beautiful cake. "I love you, Uncle Jimin. You saved my day.", I said giving him a tight hug and he chuckled. "Its just 5 more minutes left. Let me put the candles.", Uncle Hope said and he opened the box of the candles. "Uncle Hope, not these I have a special one.", saying this I ran to the bed and brought the pink candle. "Is this the one you found in the garden?", Uncle Jin asked. I nodded and placed the candle on my cake. "Just one?", uncle Jk asked. I smiled and nodded. He shrugged his shoulders accepting my decision. "3, 2 and 1. Happy birthday little monster.", they all screamed and started clapping. I smiled at them. "Now make a wish and blow the candle.", Uncle Jin said. I remembered what the old lady said- 'choose your words wisely'.

I closed my eyes and joined my hands and I said in a very low voice, "I wish my mom and dad know how much they love each other and always stay together." And then I blew the candle. Everyone started to clap and Uncle Hope gave me the knife to cut the cake. I was about to cut the cake when the sound of them clapping and talking went away and I was surrounded by silence. I looked around to see everyone was frozen in their position. I was scared. I was about to go to Uncle Jin when I saw my feet freeze. I couldn't move. The last thing I remember seeing was the old lady smiling at me with love and pride.

Taehyung's POV-

All I could see was darkness, complete darkness. It was just a minute back when I was at the hospital facing a blinding flash of light. I remember holding Aish's hand when my eyes met that blinding light and with the flash gone, I was swallowed into complete darkness. I was scared. I moved my hand around to feel the things around me and I felt something warm. It was a hand. "Tae?", I heard Aish. I was much more relieved now. She was here by my side and she was safe. "Yes babe, it's me.", I replied holding her hand tightly. "What is happening? Where are we?", she asked and I could sense fear in her voice. "We will be fine. Don't worry.", I just didn't say this but I could feel that we will be fine once we go back from this place.

We were sitting there holding hands, waiting for we don't know what. Suddenly the place around us was filled with light. It took us some time to adjust to the light. We were in a room. It was a small room with a single bed, a study in the front wall with a bookshelf on its left. On the right of the bed and study table, there were three almirahs. On the wall at our left, there was a photo frame in the shape of a tree. "What in the world is happening?", Aish said. She had tears in her eyes. "You know this place?", I asked helping her to get off the bed. "This is my house. My house before we shifted to the other house. This is the place where I spent 23 years of my life.", she said tearing up. She went ahead to touch the bookshelf, but what happened next was something that scared us to the core. Her hand went through the shelf and we both gasped. To say we were scared would be an understatement. I tried picking up a glass from the table and the same happened to me. "Are we dead?", Aish asked. "I have no idea what is going on.", I replied.

We were still getting over this shock when the brown sliding door opened and a girl entered the room. Not just any girl, it was Aisha. We both stood there mortified. She walked right past us and opened the shelf and picked a book and sat on the bed to read. "Is that me?", Aish asked still in shock. "It is definitely you.", I said even more shocked. "That is me when I was 20.", Aish said. "What? How do you know?", I asked. She pointed at the calendar which said, '22nd July 2000'. We both looked at each other confused, scared and still a bit excited.

"I am sad.", she said. "How do you know?", I asked trying to figure out the expressions of the young Aisha sitting in front of me. "I am reading the message in a bottle. I always read it when I am sad.", she said. Then the girl in front of us closed the book kept it aside and cried her heart out. I wanted to comfort her. She was my Aisha after all. Then she picked up her phone and opened YouTube. The second song was Boys with Luv, our hit song in 2020. "Wait, its 2020, which means its lockdown because of the pandemic.", Aisha said. "Yes, you are right.", I replied remembering that awful pandemic. "I listened to your song for the first time in 2020. I saw you for the first time in 2020.", she said. I could see her eyes getting all hopeful. "So, you think you know why we are here?", I asked still confused. "I guess I do, but we need to wait a little more to be more certain as to why we are here.", she replied. We both silently sat on the floor and watched young Aisha watch her first ever BTS music video. Then she went on the search and typed, 'Names of BTS members' and clicked on search. For an hour we watched her trying to memorize the names of the members of my band. "I am embarrassed now for doing this all.", Aisha said. "I find this all very cute.", I said laughing. She punched me lightly on the shoulder.

I saw young Aisha smiling at the phone. I peeked a little to see she was smiling at one of my pictures from run BTS episode. Before I could tease my Aisha more there was again a blinding light and we were again swallowed into the darkness unaware of what was coming next.