Sea of Blood 2

It was early morning now. The rising sun was floating above The Titania, bathing it in much needed warm rays of light. Edwards glanced towards the sun. The red ball of light reminded him of the red eyes he had seen in the water yesterday night. They had appeared right next to Mr. Toobak’s body, peering from inside the water. They had appeared only for a brief instant, before they disappeared into the watery depths along with Mr. Toobak’s body, sending chills down Edwards’ spine.

Word of Mr. Toobak’s sudden disappearance had spread fast among the crew, causing panic. The entire night had been spent in calming everyone down, and getting everyone back to their jobs. Edwards was tired already, but he knew the day was going to be a long one. He still needed to have a chat with Alain. After, the disappearance of Mr. Toobak’s body, Edwards had quickly dragged Alain to the Captain’s Cabin. He bound his hands and feet and tied a rag of cloth to his mouth. Leaving the man tied to the bed in that condition, Edwards had gone forth to inform the senior crew about the events. However, he had left Alain’s part out of the story, fearing that it would contribute to the panic. However, now that the morale of the crew had been stabilized, Edwards decided he needed to have a talk with Alain, a long talk. Edwards made his way to his cabin. He entered and locked the door behind him. He turned towards Alain who was still tied to the bed. Alain looked back at him with his red eyes, which in Edwards’ opinion, looked a lot more red now. He removed the rag of cloth. Alain coughed. The rag had dried his mouth, very visibly. Edwards poured some water into Alain’s mouth and sat in front of him, fixing his stern gaze upon the pale man.

“I need answers; now. Tell me what were you doing there at night? And more importantly, what happened to Mr. Toobak? “

Alain held Captain Edwards’ gaze.

“Well, Captain Edwards. Looks like I have got to tell a whole tale to you. Let me start at the beginning “

Edwards nodded.

‘Many thousands of years ago, there existed a prosperous Island kingdom- the kingdom of Veluise. King Veluise II ruled his lands with an iron-fist. Without an heir for almost thirty years, the king was overjoyed when his wife, Queen Melvina gave birth to a child. The king was happy that he was blessed with a boy, the heir to the great kingdom. They named him Mer.  However, the king’s joy was to be short-lived.  When the prince was fourteen, an unknown disease started spreading in the kingdom. The people affected would show certain symptoms- red eyes and pale skin. They would soon find it difficult to breathe and succumb to the disease. People noted that this disease spread through contact or any exchange of fluid, making it highly dangerous. Soon, an epidemic broke out and as the death toll went on the rise, the hands of fear gripped the kingdom all the more tighter. Fearing for his people, the King decided to take extreme measures. He decreed that any person found to be affected by this disease would be tossed into the sea, fated to drown. Almost a year later, Prince Mer while on a hunting trip, came into contact with an affected person. And inevitably, he too started showing symptoms of the disease. His eyes reddened and he began growing paler by the day. The prince was bound in chains and was kept confined to his room. Being a man of his word, and fearing for the royal family, the king decided that the prince should be thrown into the sea, just like all the other diseased people. The King’s orders were swiftly followed.  On a full moon night, the Royal Guard took the prince to the edge of kingdom that overlooked the great sea. The teenage prince was then thrown into the sea. The king himself saw the prince drown under the pale glow of the moon. He had sent his heir to a watery grave.

Or so he thought. ‘

Regret

It was early evening. The usual sounds of children playing, rung in Sundar Society. It was a normal day with nothing out of place. Little kids were playing around , running here and there , happy and oblivious to the cruelty of the real world. Six-year-old Ananya was playing with seven-year-old Nisha. They were having a nice time counting the number of windows their building had. Their gaze shifted to the sixth floor. A boy was standing on the edge of his open window. No sooner had they registered him as Harsh, did they see him fall out of the window. Their gaze followed the body all of the six floors to the pavement where it landed with a soft thud, bounced and then lay motionless. The girls stood there rooted to their spots not a syllable left their open mouths. After about a minute had passed, a loud  scream was heard in the society. The body of Harsh was soon noticed by everyone else.

Ananya  barely ate dinner that night. As soon as the scream had rung out, people had begun rushing out of their homes and noticed the reason for the scream. The high pitched voice had belonged to Mrs. Saxena the mother of little Harsh. She had seen her little boy fall out the window and had run down to the body of her son and broken down completely next to it in an uncontrollable flow of tears. A throng of people had now gathered around the body and soon all the kids were rushed off to their homes. Ananya had never seen any death before. The shock had affected her as it was expected for a little girl to be. Ananya’s  mom had tried talking her out of the shock, but she still hadn’t recovered.

The next day, the police came around. The death was an accident but they had to complete the formality of an investigation. The police questioned Mr. and Mrs. Saxena. Mr. Saxena hadn’t been home so he couldn’t tell the police much. But he held onto his wife, who in between loud sobs and sniffs narrated the incident to the cops. The police decided to ask the little kids who had been playing in the society on the previous day. Leaving Ananya and Nisha , none of the other kids had actually seen the boy falling. Nisha had only cried on being asked questions by the police so they decided to pay Ananya a visit before closing the case. The cops were received by Ananya’s mom ; who told them that Ananya was still in a state of shock and that she would not say much. Ananya came out of her room holding her mother’s hand.

The cops asked-

‘Ananya , please tell us what you saw yesterday. ‘

 Ananya’s grip became tighter on her mother’s hand.

The cops continued-

‘Don’t be afraid of us. We won’t hurt you. See, I have a chocolate for you.’

Ananya looked at the chocolate. She looked at her mom , who nodded. Ananya extended one hand to take the chocolate , with her other hand still holding on to her mother’s hand. After she finished the chocolate , the police asked her  –

‘Nice chocolate no? Now please tell us what you saw that evening?’

Ananya blinked and replied in a meek voice-

‘I saw Harsh falling out of the window and a pair of hands going in.’

 

 

Harsh was autistic.