Chapter 3 - illusion or reality

Vicky heard a feeble voice as he lay on the ground, it was aunt Lily calling his name, telling him to wake up. Slowly slowly the voice began to get louder and he regained his consciousness.

Vicky slowly opened his eyes and saw aunt Lily beside his bed looking deeply concerned about him.

"Where am I," asked Vicky

"at your home" replied aunt lily

Then Vicky looked around in agitation, he was still struggling to decode what just happened. It was his room completely messed up, window glass broken, the chair near study table was at room's door with one of its leg broken.

"who did this" Vicky asked

"Don't know my child whether it was you or some power that made you do it, what I remember is, I heard your voice screaming, I and Dave ran towards your room to see if everything is ok, but we found your body shaking on the bed and also you have injured yourself with scratches on your arms and legs," said Lily

"After some time your body normalized, then uncle Dave did dressing of your wounds," said Lily.

"Now where is he," asked Vicky.

"He has gone to a medical store for buying a few medicines for you" Lily answered.

As Vicky got somewhat mentally stable, he started recalling what just he went through. All the nightmares just rolled Infront of his eyes. At first, he thought he should share this with his aunt but then he paused for a moment and thought until and unless he figure out what was actually happening, he will not share his experience with his aunt.

"I will get a hot chocolate milk for you, you will feel better," said aunt Lily.

Aunt Lily then went outside the room and closed the door, allowing Vicky to rest.

Vicky took a look at his wound beside his stomach, he felt the pain with the same depth as he experienced in the forest.

Vicky thought every minute of that horrifying situation was real, this can't be an illusion. Somewhere from inside, he knew that everything was real and he was not dreaming.

looking at his messy room it looked like Vicky might be suffering from some psychological disorder because of which Vicky's subconscious mind creates a horrifying scenario and his body starts acting in the real world.

Maybe that would be the reason why the chair was laying at the door of the room. He thought that he was holding the wooden piece to charge on shadow creature and in actuality he held a wooden chair near the study table.

But then another question rises how did he manage to hurt himself? There was no sharp knife or any other pointed object in his room rather than a ballpoint pen.

So Vicky had a lot of questions in his mind, what were that town and that house? who was that woman he saw? what happened to that child? Why the creature didn't kill him when he fainted? etc.

In the meanwhile, uncle entered the room with a few tablets in his hand.

"How you feeling my child" asked uncle, Dave.

"better" Vicky replied.

"Here are some tablets for you," said Uncle Dave.

"what are these for," asked Vicky.

"one antacid, one paracetamol, and last of body ache" answered uncle, Dave.

"Here, take them you will feel better by evening," said Uncle Dave.

Vicky swallowed those tablets with a sip of water.

"Take rest, I will be back in the evening," said Uncle Dave.

These unanswered questions never let any person sleep and the same happened with Vicky. Whenever he tried to sleep that horrifying face of the creature appeared.

So he got up from bed and decided to go downstairs. He noticed that he was not able to walk properly, he was faltering. He remembered after getting thrown out of the window he crawled up to a pole to take its support in the nightmare.

Now he jumped to a conclusion that what he experienced wasn't a dream but it was more than that. The only way to find out about this was to talk to aunt Lily about his childhood and parents.

Earlier also he had a few visions but those were normal and perfectly seemed like dreams, but this was much more impactful, and also this happened for the first time that he injured himself.

So he went downstairs, aunt Lily was just heading towards his room to serve him hot chocolate milk. It was that moment when she saw Vicky coming down.

"Why did you bother coming down, I was about to reach your room," said aunt Lily.

"It's ok aunty. I was feeling suffocated in that room, so why not go downstairs and spend some time with you" said Vicky.

" well that's a good idea dear," said aunt Lily.

Then they both went up to the dining table, pulled the respective chairs, and sat at it.

"Aunty may I ask you something," said Vicky.

"sure" aunt Lily replied.

"From which orphanage did you and uncle adopt me," Vicky asked.

Aunt Lily ill at ease answered "We adapted you from Mercymerry orphanage at that time dear"

Although Lily's facial expressions didn't support her statement.

So Vicky thought of asking for the address of the orphanage but then he thought asking the address would pursue his aunt and he didn't believe her. So he thought of investigating on his own.

Without wasting a minute he went outside the house.

While leaving his aunt asked where he was going and just to satisfy the question, he answered " to get some fresh air".

He went to the government's administration wing where all the track records of institutions ran under government supervision or the private ones were kept.

He enquired about Mercymerry orphanage and after waiting half n hour he came to know no such orphanage ever existed.

He was shocked and thought why his aunt lied to him.

what could be the reason? Do all visuals have to do something with me or with my childhood?

what secret they were hiding?