the Contract in blood

Long long time ago, actually forty three thousand two hundred seconds back, give or take seven thousand two hundred, there was a chat! Yes. A chat. An interesting and very deep-in-meaning chat from which ensued a story. The chat was between two characters of my story. One was called Mad-eye. Nobody knows his true name. The other was called Chrno. Thats not his true name either. His true name is Aeon. Chrno is the name of his "pal", whom he liked. Whom he killed! This story is narrated by Aeon. BITI, for your reference is a place from where you graduate to heaven. Aeon dropped out. Nobody knows whether he voluntarily dropped out or if he could no longer cope up. But who cares? The story...
............... Mad-eye: Sorry, I keep missing you. Exams here.
7:25 PM Chrno: naa... May be I am getting more enigmatic :P

Mad-eye: hehe. How have you been?

7:26 PM chrno: hmmm... Hearty might be the right word.

Happy to be physically out of the BITI :)

Mad-eye: why??

Nice place.

chrno: The boy was eating filth there.

Yea. Good place alright!

Nice ambiance and all,

7:27 PM but food is rotting.

Mad-eye: chee

chrno: And I will tell u what...

That air in BITI.. or something .. there is something that sucks on ur life force.

7:28 PM Mad-eye: haha

chrno: na Really...

Mad-eye: :) Chrno! what happened to you?

chrno: Ever wondered why there are so many crows?

They are more like vultures waiting on the road side in deserts

waiting for u to fall dead.

Mad-eye: I thought you liked crows!

7:29 PM chrno: I like a raven. I like one Raven. Crows are a different species. Same family/genus whatever. But entirely different species. Besides even among ravens I like only my Raven. They are all not the same. They are more like humans. In fact, they are more than humans. They have character.

7:31 PM Mad-eye: How can you distinguish? They all look the same to me chrno: You have to have a bond. More like a contract written in blood. When you make one, you will know which of them is the Raven you bonded with. Although you still can't make out individuals from the the group of others. Besides you don't need to.

Mad-eye: So what are the rules of the contract?7:32 PM chrno: I dunno! 'Cause mine was ... umm... 7:33 PM chrno: natural Mad-eye: Oh?chrno: You know those times when my wrist was cut and I was choking on two cakes of rat poison. Half the blood gone and the rest half blue from poison, eyes dilate. I was at the verge. Of hallucination. Hallucination that comes before death. But I was conscious still. And then something happened. I did not remember what, for sometime. I must have been hallucinating then. I forgot. When I opened my eyes, I was lying down. White bed, white walls, white clothes, white bandage on my wrist with a tiny red smudge. There were people all around. Some were sitting on bed. Some standing by the bed post. All of them were moaning though! "Why did you do it?". 'Why did I do what?', I wondered. All of them familiar faces. Almost all. There was one girl, though, whom I did not recognise. She was sitting beside me on the bed. Hands on my hand. My eyes met hers. She smiled. 'Do I know her? Who is she?'; I wanted to ask. I looked at everybody else. May be she is somebody's friend. Just came along, perhaps. But nobody said anything. They were all still asking the same question: "Why?". They were acting as if she was not there. And then somebody's hand passed right through her. I knew for sure then. Nobody saw her. nobody heard her. Nobody felt her. Nobody but me. Her hands were warm. 'Were not ghosts supposed to be cold? Was she a ghost? How am I seeing her? Did I die?' But everybody was talking to me. Though I was not answering and they did not want any answer. There was no answer anyway.

Then the nurse came along and drove everyone away. "Shoo". But this girl stayed. She was smiling. Her hands still cupping mine. Her eyes watching me. Watching over me. I had never seen such gentle eyes. And they were red. Light red. Very artificial. But thats probably because I've never seen red human eyes. And then I asked her, "Are you a ghost?". She looked at me. Kept staring at me. For long. 'Must be ghost. She probably can't hear me', I thought. Then her look turned into a searching glance. And then there was a ring of laughter. Such a cheerful ringing laugh. I've never seen her laugh like that again. I felt stupid.

"My name is Raven", she said, "Azureth Maternum Raven". She touched my forehead and I sank into sleep.

Later, when we walked together after getting discharged from the hospital, I asked her if she thought I was stupid to have thought of her as a ghost. She smiled and said, "You don't remember, do you?

18 minutes

7:51 PM Mad-eye: So...... What was it?

chrno: Hmm.. Now thats the interesting story. Story of my contract.But you got exam tomorrow and I don't think you can afford to sit and listen to the story.
7:52 PM Mad-eye: Unfortunately , thats true.
chrno: Worry not, my dear Mad-eye! I will put it up on Jade's blog.
Mad-eye: I am grateful for your consideration, chrno chan. I will be sure to thank Jade.
7:53 PM chrno: :) nja na Mad-eye kun.
Mad-eye: ja na.
So here is the story...........
"You don't remember, do you?"
I looked up at her, puzzled. She is tall. Must be six feet. But she does not look like a giant. With her long hair, that 'grim+sad+serene+strong' look on her face, long fingers and graceful steps, the only thing you will notice about her is that she is beautiful. I have been told by some that they also feel scared. But I don't. She is like my angel. She is my angel!
"Remember what?". I wanted to ask what her age was. She turned and smiled as if she knew what I was thinking.
After a long silent while, I said, "I'm waiting".
She smiled and walked ahead of me. "I thought you would remember. I wanted to ask how you reached there".
"Reach where?"
"The Eternity"
"hm?"
"The land where a moment stretched on and on. Where the time does not move. Where the same things keep happening over and over".
"Is that where you lived?"
She turned towards me. Swiftly. Her eyes were deep red now. True colour. The smile is gone. But she is even more beautiful now.
'Oh Boy! Did I make her mad!', I thought.
"No", she said.
A breeze brushed past us, bringing with it the fragrance of 'arali poove'. We reached the road along a lake and it was cloudy. Dark clouds. Darkness wrought with anger and pain.
"Thats where I was put", she continued.
"By whom?"
"My mother"
"Why?"
"I must have annoyed her. She was punishing me".
'Boy! Talk about being lucky. You should know how my mother punishes me', I thought.
"I do", she said! I was astonished.
"You can.... read my mind?"
"Hear your thoughts. Yes. You can hear mine too. For that matter anybody's"
Disbelief. But I tried.
"I can't"
'That's because I was not thinking anything', she thought.
"We can talk through mind?", I yelled. And immediately flushed feeling stupid. She was amused. But she did not laugh. She no longer laughed.
"Of course"
'Wow', I whispered in my mind.
She continued,"Your mom locks you up in space. My mother locked me up in time. Only she did not know some demons got trapped with me. Magic always gets distorted around me".
"Demons?", I whispered. Somethings coming back to my mind. She peered into me.

The revelation came down upon me, like tiles falling over, from the roof.

.............to be continued...

Aeon.