Burn (Part 3)

It was a different kind of dream. In fact, it didn't even feel like a dream.
 

I found myself in a kind of vast space filled with clouds and stars. A soft melody played in the distance.
 

"Welcome," said a voice. It was the same feminine voice that appeared in my other dreams.

I turned around, only to see nobody there!

"Who are you? WHERE are you?," I asked.

"I'm right here," came the voice again, this time to my right.

But turning, once more I saw nobody.

Frustrated, I demanded once more where she was. Imagine my fury when I only heard tinkling giggles in response! When the speaker finally got a hold of herself again, she told me, "I'm right here, next to you. I always am."
 

And to my left I finally saw her- a little girl of about the ripe age of ten or eleven! She had beautiful long black hair braided down her back till her waist, a white beaded skirt and matching top, large eyes enhanced with long lashes, and an absolutely radiant smile on her honey complexioned, youthful face. But it was her pupils that were the highlight of her appearance- dark as the night skit and filled with stars. Indeed, one could see the entire universe in them, for they reflected space!

I stared at her for a moment.
 

"Who... are you?"

"You already know."

"...Ishara?"

She simply nodded.

"Is this a dream?"

"No, I've transported your soul to the spirit world for a little while. We don't have much time, so listen carefully to what I have to tell you." Ishara's face turned serious.

 

"For the last few years," she said, "I've been communicating with you through dreams. Ever since you found my writing on the cave walls, I've been with you. So I know what has been happening in the world now. But there's been a grave mistake- I shouldn't have written that on the walls! You shouldn't have known the world was going to end, you shouldn't be trying to save yourselves, and you shouldn't try to escape! All of this... all of it is a recipe for catastrophe."

I gaped at her. She continued.

"Listen, when I wrote those inscriptions, against the wishes of my entire clan, disobeying everyone, ... I thought I was helping you all in the future. But it shouldn't be like that. What's meant to happen should happen. Trying to change fate is going to bring nothing but trouble. I realized this only later."

 

"But the Bhavishyas used their prophetic eyes to avoid danger right? How is that not changing fate?"

"We saw ourselves avoiding danger. Simple as that. Even then, if we saw one of our own dying somehow, we would not try to stop their death or help them. We were kind of cruel in that way. The only thing we did was not tell the person who was supposed to die. Look, some have tried to change fate, but they have gotten things ten times worse in return! My own father... my own father was supposed to die in a hunt. Somehow he got to know this and he tried to prevent it, but... instead of a quick death by a bear, he caught a strange disease that tortured him for weeks before he succumbed to eternal slumber. Changing fate will prove ill. You mustn't try to escape destiny. But, if you want, then I guess there's no stopping you. If YOU decide it's okay to risk changing fate to save trillions of lives, then I shall not stop you."

I nodded silently. By now I was convinced I should somehow try to stop everyone from leaving earth on the space ships.

"But how do I stop everyone? It's impossible!"

A smile played across Ishara's lips. "Leave that to me. This is my fault, and as a spirit I can do what I can to fix things."

I nodded, a bit relieved.

 

"There's one more thing I wanted to tell you," Ishara started. "The day the Bhavishyas were supposed to drown in the Brahmaputra river, not all of us died. One of us was captured."

A moment of silence.

"And the person who was captured was my older brother. King Sadhaka's soldiers captured him from the river and then King Sadhaka forced him to marry his daughter. My dear brother died shortly afterwards, but not after King Sadhaka tricked him into getting drunk and then impregnating his daughter. So the Bhavishya line still lives... and you are it's progeny."

I was shocked! "Then you're my..."

"Ancestor, yes."

"But I don't have the eyes!"

"Oh the eyes died out ages ago. In fact, my brother never passed on his eyes. So somehow the Bhavishya clan really did die out."

"oh..." It was unbelievable! Really!

 

Ishara said that she was always with me, that she was always guiding me to the caves and then she was the voice in my dreams and everything. I felt myself grow weak in the knees. This was all too incredible to be true!

"Our time is up. We will have to part for now... But I think you will know what to do."

"Goodbye... Ishara."

Ishara smiled. "It's not really goodbye though. I'm always with you!"

 

And once more I awoke on the cold, hard cave floor, Ishara's tinkling laughter still resonating in my ears.

 

***

 

Ten minutes to take off. I was on the spaceships with my husband and stared out into the world. In three days, the asteroid will hit the planet that was home to millions of millions of creatures and life forms. A planet, I felt, we all could have appreciated much more.

Only I knew that the ships wouldn't take off.

 

Ishara kept her word. I could smell it before I heard it. The fuel tanks of the ships and warehouses had all been set on fire. The explosion rocked the entire spaceship, sending everyone into panic. They all tried to run off the spaceship, but the doors were jammed. We were stuck inside, doomed to die, and somehow I knew TH same had happened in the other spaceships as well.

 

I wasn't afraid. This was destiny, this was fate.

 

The fire spread fast, causing consecutive explosions that lit up like fireworks and filled the air with chemical-laden smoke. My ears were assaulted with screams of terror and the mayhem around me as panic seized people ran around in circles until they banged into one another and gave up, crying. They slowly found their loved ones again, joining together in prayer and spending their last few moments together.

 

The fire blazed bright as the morning sun as it entered the vicinity. The flames licked my charring flesh, relishing the taste of skin and greedily racing up my body for more. But I was not afraid.

 

This was what had to be done. This was my choice. I decided to let Ishara make sure we don't take off. And she's ensured our death as well.

 

I turned to my family and spent my last few minutes gazing into their eyes. How I love them so much! I felt a bit guilty for causing their death. But... it has to be this way.

Everyone and everything is on these ships. All the shops are burning and every living creature is dying.

 

I closed my eyes as my breath became shorter and my eyes watered. A final thought crossed my mind.

 

That apocalyptic asteroid will be hitting a dead planet. 

 

***

 

And with that, Burn is complete!