SHORT STORY

                                          "THE TOWN OF DEAD"

I shouldn’t have left the group, but now it’s too late to regret. I was sure that someone was coming to me; most of the people call him Death. I’m not afraid of dying, but I have to understand what life is before I die. Under present circumstances, I don’t think I’ve much time for that.

I felt my whole life was meaningless, but now when I’ve purpose to live, I’m short of life. Questions were popping up like popcorns in my tiny mind. I couldn’t take a single step after that, so I just stopped walking and stood still for a while on the street. I can’t quite recall what happened after that. Next thing I remember is I was somewhere in the town, which I haven’t seen in my whole life.

It was a mysterious town indeed. When I arrived, all doors in the town were closed and lights shut down, which makes me think it was a midnight. That town was very modern and unique in many ways; I could figure it out even in the dark. The town had a lot of small raw houses, all made of glass. Each raw of houses contained another raw of houses on it. I had never seen that kind of structural arrangement before. Each house had a different name written on it, I didn’t know what it meant. As the houses were made of glass, I tried to look inside. To my surprise, there was no sign of life anywhere. All houses were packed with weird furniture.

I kept strolling on that land in search of life while death was quietly following me. Suddenly I stopped, because in one house there were people. Some men and women were standing in there. I went nearer to take a closer look. They all were wearing attractive clothes. But they seemed emotionless and none of them was moving, not a bit. As I moved forward, I saw more people who had frozen for eternity. I felt that death had already passed from there and it might not return for a while, a false relief for a moment.

Isn’t it funny? To find the meaning of life I accidently came to town of dead. I had more questions in mind then: where am I? Who are these people? Are they dead? But answers don’t come that handy, one has to search for them, one has to explore and even die finding them. Though the town was deserted, I could feel that it was lively a little while ago. I could smell fragrance; smell of freshly cooked food at some places. I wasn’t there accidently; I was there for a purpose.

Night was about to end soon and so the darkness. I saw sunrays entering through the glass walls. I expected all those men to return to life as sunrays embraced them, but it didn’t happen. I almost forgot about death by that time. That weird place didn’t even matter to me. Nature was confronting me that even I’m smallest part of it; I am the one who matters. The town looked brighter in the morning. I could see entrance gate far away. From the entrance, I saw few people approaching; that made me thrilled and also frightened at the same time. In a short time, there were people like fish in the ocean.

With each footstep of them I was going one step closer to death. I was running, crawling so to say. Suddenly I saw a staircase; I couldn’t even see other end of it. I started climbing it without a second thought, it was an automatic ladder. At the end of the ladder, someone crushed me with his feet. The last thing I saw was my death.

If you haven’t figured it out already, I’m not a human being like you. But still I’m blessed with humanity. I’m tiny creature crawling on the street that you crush every day. Even today, I don’t know what that place where I died was. Only thing I know is whenever people like you walk over us, you’re killing small part of nature, small part of you.

Same place can play different role for different livings. Someone thinks it is a mall full of mannequins, for someone it’s The Town of Dead.

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