"I died..I...I Died", I keep repeating it.

  "Ahaan, is she becoming like me?", Ave asks, moving his hand in front of my eyes, checking if I am zoning out.

  "What?", Ahaan stares at Ave perplexedly.

  "I mean, is she having a panic attack?" Ave says, still waving his hand in front of my eyes.

  "I hope not. What is she saying?" Ahaan enquires.

  "She is repeating I died. Can't she see that she is alive?"

  My eyes stay fixed on the floor, hands trembling. Ahaan and Ave stand on either side of me.

  "She will get out of it. Don’t worry", he reassures.

  "It is your fault to begin with", Ave turns towards Ahaan with a slight expression of anger.

  "What did I do? I was just helping her remember."

  "You literally said to her on her face that she died. Who does that? And now she is spaced out.", Ave argues, still looking at me, with concerned eyes.

  Ahaan makes a tsk sound and moves toward me.

  "It was a bit shocking for her, so the reaction is natural.” He says to Ave.

  Then he lowers himself to his knees in front of me, meeting my level as I sit on the chair.

  “Ashnah, get yourself together. You are here with us, alive. You just died in your dream.” Ahaan looks at me, my mind still in delusion.

  “What does your brain remember? Tell me", he asks.

  I look at him with teary eyes. "I saw my accident. It was painful. The truck ran over me. It was in speed. I was thrown into the air by it and then I was tossed in the street again. My head hurt, my back hurt, everything hurt. My eyes were in a state of bare unconsciousness. I tried to call for help but my mouth needed more energy to produce sound. I struggled for a bit but then I gave up and my breathing stopped." The soft snuffles turn into loud cries.

  Ahaan drops to his knees. He hesitates for a moment, then slowly wraps an arm around me, holding me there until the crying eases. One arm stays firm around me while his other hand pats my back in slow, soothing motions. Every word he speaks accompanies warmth. Ave stands beside me, his touch even softer as he pats my hair, careful and quiet.

  "You have to remember that it was just a dream. It didn't end up being real. You made it happen. You are alive. That dream does not matter now. You changed your destiny. You are free now.", Ave continues while consoling me.

  I lift my head up away from Ahaan and wipe my tears.

  "But I do not know how I got saved that day. If I had forgotten the dream of that day then it means I was subconsciously following my dream. So, it should have ended the same way. But then what changed it?", I get up from the chair, take the writing pad again, and start writing.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  I pass it to Ahaan. Ahaan gets to his feet and slowly steps away from me. He moves into another direction, seemly avoiding my note.

  Ave takes it from my hand and reads it. "You said that you saw me passing and crossing the road. So, you must know what happened next."

  I look at Ahaan. He opens his mouth as if to speak, then closes it again. The words stay trapped, and his silence weighs more than anything he could have said.

  "Ahaan, what happened that day? Did you see a truck coming towards her?", Ave shakes Ahaan to answer.

  "It is not important what happened that day but let's just focus on what's here today. She is alive, so now we should think of what we can do next.", he sounds restless and then he turns towards me.

  "Now that you have remembered your dream. You know why you're not having dreams anymore. Yes, you are dead to the world. If I put it right, your last dream was your death so it is not able to produce more dreams as for it you are no longer alive."

  "But she is not dead, she is alive here standing with us so why is her system not producing more dreams? Her brain is alive and functioning, her whole body is functioning. Why did just her dreams stop coming when all other parts are functioning as they should?”, Ave argues again.

  Though he blurts it out breathlessly, he does have a point.

  "It must have something to do with that day", Ave continues.

  "It is not.", Ahaan interrupts.

  I can see that he is clearly avoiding talking about that truck incident. But remembering that day puts a stain on my mind too so I should let it go and not push him. Anyhow, I am not the kind of pushy person. I never ask someone more than what they are willing to tell and I always respect the silence. I am never impatient and so I let it go with Ahaan too.

  "When do you say someone is dead? It's silly but I am trying to figure out here something", Ave asks.

  "To the world, a person is dead if others cannot see them. She is basically a ghost to the world. The world has considered her dead so they have forgotten about her. It is not important to find a dead body to be considered dead.

  She is like a missing person. We don't know what happens to a person who dies. Maybe they are wandering in familiar places, screaming at the living people to see them, asking them to re-remember them. Which is what she is doing right now", Ahaan continues, glancing at me as if checking my reaction.

  No one speaks after his explanation. The hurt settles in. Ave looks teary-eyed too. He must be thinking about Tristan. What if Tristan is also somewhere screaming at the world to see him?

  In this room, on one side, a dead person lives with the pain of being forgotten by the world, and on the other, someone lives crushed by the weight of the one he has lost. It is always those who are left behind that suffer.

  “Am I the one that they call the Disturber?” The words leave my mouth, distant and alien to me even when I speak them.

  “But then shouldn’t I be the Disturber too?”, Ave points to me and then to himself, turning to Ahaan again for an explanation.

  “You both basically fit the definition of the classic Disturber. A Disturber is the one who changes their written destiny. What is written should happen and you should not fight against it. If you fight it and change it, you disturb the balance of the world and there are consequences of it. The authorities are there to prevent the havoc in the country. You are fighting and trying to act against what is written but she has already changed it.” Ahaan sums it up.

  “We are a happy country and in a happy country, people like us should not exist. What have I done?”, I sit down dropping my head in my arms.

  "But still, why have the dreams stopped?", Ave asks again.

  "I also don't seem to figure it out. And you are right, if her system is working, they should also be coming.", Ahaan sits down on a chair. "I never really get how it works anyway. The people around me used to tell me that it was not always so. Someone said it was long ago, but before people didn't get these dreams and their whole life was spent worrying. Some called it a blessing, some a curse but nobody knows when it started.", Ahaan speaks reminiscing his memories.

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