Five Days: an adventure (A Fantasy Adventure) Read online

  Five days

  An Adventure

  KRISHNA

  Copyright © Krishnakant Pareek 2017

  All rights reserved.

  Krishnakant Pareek asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of author’s imagination or used factiously and any resemblance to any actual person living or dead, events and locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of author.

  Five days

  An Adventure

  Does it matter to have a long life to live a life?

  Is it compulsory to pass days in misery, if one’s going to die in five days?

  Death is evil or good?

  I would never have found answers to these questions if I hadn’t had this adventure …

  Derek

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  EPILOGUE

  3 Characters – 3 Editions

  About Author

  Don’t stop reading …

  One More Thing …

  CHAPTER ONE

  You Have Only Five Days To Live

  Derek was pacing in his room wearing a look of depression as though his death sentence was on its ways to his house in Oxford.

  And he was probably right, too. Just last morning, when he woke up to attend his first day of the second year in college, he vomited blood and fell unconscious in the bathroom.

  He remembered nothing besides his parents hoisting him … snapping the car’s door close … his mother’s gentle pats on his head … a doctor gaping anxiously at him.

  Then finally, after what looked like a week, he woke up and found himself lying in his bed.

  He was feeling very weak, even hoisting himself wasn’t looking easier than lifting a car. What had suddenly happened? It couldn’t be some new disease … he only had a nice party in McDonald’s, that couldn’t strike him to complete helplessness.

  He stopped thinking as soon as his eyes saw his mother, also known as Mrs Frank, rushing toward him, she gently patted him on the face to deliver some relief to her son.

  When he asked her what had happened to him, her eyes shined with tears but she wiped them furiously and said. ‘Nothing … you were sick. The doctor tested you and your reports will be here tomorrow … th – then I will be able to tell you.’

  He nodded lazily. Not having the strength to ask anything more.

  He had his dinner in the room next to the staircase. And as he entered he found that the atmosphere wasn’t cheerful at all: his father was eating so fast as if he wanted to make a world record. And his mother had hardly eaten anything. She was coughing in between which he strongly believed were to hide her sobs.

  When he asked them – ‘Is everything okay?’

  They said. ‘Better than ever, why do you ask?’

  ‘Nothing,’ he said, not convinced at all.

  They ate in the air of complete discomfort and when he got up to go to bed, Mr Frank said behind him. ‘Don’t go to college tomorrow – no it’s nothing – um –your friends have decided to visit you.’

  ‘My friends? But they didn’t tell me,’ he said, frowning.

  ‘I felt you all must have some happy moments, isn’t it?’ he laughed loudly asking Mrs Frank to join him too – Derek could tell it was fake.

  ‘But they can meet me in the evening … why spoil classes?’

  ‘You’re young … you should bunk classes, have done myself on countless occasions.’

  He wasn’t sure if he heard him right but Mr Frank repeated and he nodded automatically.

  He couldn’t sleep all night wondering if his parents were hiding something … but why would they? But his father was a man who’d never allow him to miss classes even when he was in Kindergarten. Then why suddenly …

  He got up after several failed attempts to drown in sleep and his hand reached for his phone, lying on the table beside his bed. Bright patches of moonlight were everywhere in the room, he would usually get astonished of that coolness but that day, they weren’t enough to distract him a bit.

  He searched for Anna, muttering to himself.

  When he found her name; he called her praying – She’s not sleeping … she is not sleeping …

  She was a very health-conscious person and usually slept before ten.

  But that wasn’t the only thing Derek was annoyed of; her sight was as rear as a panther; she was expelled from three institutions for the same reason and now, as she told him, ran a library on the outskirts of the city.

  He had never seen her house, never her car; he sometimes doubted if she was really his friend or someone very-very shy.

  She also happened to be the best Nuclear Physics learner and he was suspicious that she had already studied enough to get her PhD degree in first year itself! But she, for no reasons, dropped out after a year. He wondered she wasn’t able to pay her fees but next moment he’d think of the jewel, she had worn on his parents’ wedding anniversary – it was worth more than $100,000, his uncle told him.

  He suddenly stopped searching for her name, looked thoughtfully in his front and went to the bookshelf, leaving his bed disturbed. He pulled out a crimson red hardcover book –

  Power Of Flashes

  He also happened to have come across her book, three weeks ago when she was hurrying to her house like any other day. He had it with a thought of returning it to her next day.

  But she never came to college afterwards and he also failed to overlook his curiosity to peer inside her book.

  And when he opened it, it was like any other ordinary book – had cream pages, usual cover, £9.99 price tag and had successfully bored Derek to death – with nothing strange to observe (he was disappointed).

  But even in his super-lazy state he couldn’t overlook page 200 –

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Power Of Colours

  Even if we have been through extraordinary elements of magic in this basic book, one could easily judge the strengths of different sorcerers.

  How?

  Flashes produced by any weapon possess differentiable and varying colours which also depict the strength and power of the caster.

  Here is the ranking according to colours –

  Colour

  Strength (pts)

  Legends

  Red

  10

  Emperor Lewis (1750 – 1803)

  Orange

  9

  Emperor Cook (1789 – 1819)

  Yellow

  8

  Emperor Haddin (1800 – 1901)

  Green

  7

  Gwarllow (1918 – present)

  Blue

  6

  Emperor Leo (1860 – 1920)

  Indigo

  5

  Emperor Kristoff (1920 – 2000)

  Violet

  4

  Emperor Christin (1955 – present)

  Aurisca (1952 – present)

  As the table shows strength of a particular clan decreases with the generation but this fact might not be acceptable to the people who battled the weakest emperor Christin.

  He is one of
the greatest emperor Sana has seen yet.

  There are also exceptions in the table as Gwarllow (missing) and Aurisca have secured their positions beside the royal chains.

  NOTE – There are many colour exceptions as seen by the experts, i.e. White (seen by Professor Bernard in the Main town of Sana in 2015) which can be more stronger than red and Black (Observed by Emperor Christin in Aurisca’s sword).

  And …

  He lost the courage to turn to page number 201 as a bunch of information had attacked him again – in his five years of super boring history classes he never read about these emperors. And what the hell were flashes doing there?

  After all the first phone with flash was launched in 2003 and this list had people aged up to 267 years.

  She was one of the strangest person he had ever met and this book was one of her toy, he told himself and grabbed his phone back.

  But when things like care, positivity and compassion arrived, she was on the top of all. Never had he felt lonely when she was around and probably that was why he called her at once –

  The phone rang and to his surprise, she answered.

  ‘Derek?’

  ‘You aren’t sleeping?’ he said throwing himself in his bed.

  ‘I can’t answer while I am sleeping, you know that.’

  ‘Yeah I know that …’ he said awkwardly, playing with his fingers.

  There was silence, Derek didn’t know how to start his question but his mind helped him with some suggestions –

  Hey, Anna, I was wondering if you know what happened to me last day because my parents, who’re living next to me, are acting as though I am some special agent from an enemy country.

  But that wouldn’t be cheerful at all, he knew that.

  ‘Derek?’ said Anna. ‘Are you there?’

  ‘Ye – yeah,’ he said with a start. ‘I am here.’

  ‘What is it?’

  Derek stacked the phone to his ear and then said … ‘Nothing.’

  He knew Anna would be thinking he was drunk.

  ‘I am not drunk,’ he said.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Nothing.’

  Very good!

  ‘If you have called … I wanted to tell you – I am coming to you tomorrow with the two chimpanzees.’

  ‘Chimpanzees?’

  ‘Dan and Rick.’

  ‘Oh yeah, Father told me.’

  ‘That’s great, isn’t it? We’ll have a hangout after ages. I’ve selected best venues—’

  ‘Yeah, but you know why is my father asking me to miss my classes?’

  ‘He made you miss your class?’

  ‘Yup.’

  Now, Anna was silent – this was because of the fact she was marshalling reasons to make him comfortable.

  ‘I don’t know … may be you’re young and he wanted you to enjoy?’

  ‘That’s not like him … he is hiding something.’

  ‘Hiding?’

  ‘Probably.’

  ‘I should’ve realised it when he called me to join you tomorrow.’

  ‘He called you?’ said Derek, frowning.

  ‘Yes and he was a little bit – er – emotional.’

  ‘Emotional?’ his father and emotions were something he couldn’t take together and if he did he would be laughing like a madman.

  ‘Hmm … no matter, we’ll find out but – is everything okay?’ said Anna.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Very well then, I think we should sleep or I might hear you shrieking in pain if your father wakes up, good night.’

  ‘Night.’

  He kept the phone, still in the ocean of thoughts. Why would his father call Anna? And why the hell they were overreacting? May it have nothing to do with his party.

  ‘Derek!’ he heard someone calling and pulling him out of his flashback. Moonlight was replaced by sun rays blazing into his room along with the signs of existence of life on the front road.

  He got up from the bed and glanced out of the window to survey the street. It was as ordinary as one would anticipate to have in Oxford: bungalows built on both sides of the main street, holding gardens before them. But in Derek’s garden walk, there were three figure beaming at him – the trio was waiting for him under the mercy of furious sun.

  Rick – a plump, fair boy with long hair, wearing his t-shirt and denim; beside him was Daniel – a tall boy with a well-managed beard and hair, resembling Derek in a great proportion.

  And Anna – a tall and beautiful girl with long jet black hair. She was so attractive that Derek’s suspicions would often overrule his hormonal desires.

  ‘You okay?’ she asked, grinning.

  ‘Apparently.’

  ‘Open the door, Derry,’ said Daniel. ‘I am dying out here, it’s too hot.’

  He smiled softly and spun around … but a familiar sensation of sickness was conquering his mind again. He felt as though air was being sucked out of him and next moment, he found himself breathing heavily like his lungs had been squeezed out of him, it was one of those things he never wanted to experience. Never.

  He hurried to the bathroom, his face white. Walls, doors, tables – nothing was bothering him. He just wanted a place to throw away his dejections.

  ‘What happened, son – oh my god! – Steve come here, quickly!’ he heard his mother’s shrieks.

  He felt as though the water was washing him from everywhere, everything was wet and then … he fell unconscious.

  * * *

  ‘This is second time … oh my god, why my son!’ someone was sobbing.

  ‘What did the doctor say?’

  ‘He hasn’t got long …’

  ‘You should’ve called us earlier, Mrs Frank.’

  ‘I know …’

  ‘Don’t worry, dear. Everything will be fine.’

  Derek opened his eyes slowly, everything was as slow as a snail. His head was aching horribly as if it would just blow up by even a single thought, popped there.

  Anna realised him awake before anyone and went to sit beside.

  ‘You okay?’ she said anxiously, getting everyone’s attention.

  ‘No,’ mumbled Derek, pressing his face against his hands.

  Mrs Frank burst into tears. Mr Frank put a comforting arm around her.

  ‘What happened?’ he asked, lying still in – what he just realised – couch.

  No one said anything. He could only hear his mother sobbing in a corner and his father shushing her.

  ‘Anna?’ he looked back at her.

  ‘Um – it’s as – er – your medical reports have arrived … and …’

  ‘It isn’t serious?’

  ‘It’s normal … but the doctor says he doesn’t know what’s going on with you but – you’ll – um – die in five days,’ she added quickly as though the words were burning coal and she couldn’t keep them inside her throat.

  Derek laid quiet and threw a wooden expression at her while saying. ‘What’s the date on the calendar?’

  ‘What?’ said Anna as though Derek had cracked up.

  ‘Date?’

  She looked at others – they were frowning no less than her – she checked the date on her phone. ‘It’s second of August.’

  ‘See, it’s not April fool.’

  She looked sentimentally at him. ‘I am not joking … you have been suffering from a disease that’s too complicated for any machine to detect for more than twenty years. Now, this disease is showing its colours. Vomiting blood, weakness, sudden headaches and hallucinations are all …’

  Derek saw the seriousness in her eyes. She had never been so rigid; but she had gone mad, he was a kid, he couldn’t die just like that.

  ‘… it’s as though your body doesn’t want to live …’

  He looked at others, they were nothing different – sad and disconsolate – they were barking! They were out of their minds!

  ‘… something strange is happening …’

  He finally, with a single ray of hope gaped at his parents
; his mother was in his father’s arms and for an unknown reason he thought they didn’t want to look at him.

  He felt as though his heart wanted to tear his chest and run away somewhere far, somewhere away from all of them, somewhere alone.

  ‘… it’s never—’

  ‘How?’ he said, firmly.

  ‘Doctors don’t know—’

  ‘Then how the hell you know that?!’

  ‘Please,’ she said with moist eyes. ‘your body’s cells have been, sort of, destroying each other … your immune system has become very weak … they don’t know why …’

  A piece of paper was dancing on the table by the winds coming through garden window.

  He picked it up absent-mindedly and saw a hospital’s symbol, some complex terms (he overlooked them because he didn’t want to feel worse) and at last, there was something written in a human’s writing. It was messy – it must be his family doctor.

  Derek rolled over and sofa sagged slightly under his weight. He didn’t want to listen her explaining nor wanted to shout at her … he glanced at the ceiling, urging to run into a store room and stay there forever.

  But then it came to him, forever for him meant – five days.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Anna’s Secret

  ‘Where are you going, son?’ said Mr Frank, anxiously.

  Derek was wearing his sneakers at the front door. Three of his mates stayed with him all afternoon and it was literally annoying him. Why were they there? Watching him in misery? Waiting him to close his eyes forever? Why couldn’t they just run away to their houses? Was that so difficult to do?

  But somewhere in his heart he also knew they cared for him and that was stopping them from going away. But his mind was too miserable to get that.

  After an hour when Daniel was trying to cheer him up, he pretended to sleep … heard what he wanted to – his friends bidding goodbye to his parents … but it was still his mother who clenched his hand firmly. He knew she’d not let him go.