The Inked Hourglass

CHAPTER NINE:  I leave for the hospital akin those 10 days I have been doing. In the last six years of me knowing Achilles, yesterday was the first day I saw him without any bandages. I had succeeded in bringing my Achilles back into life. I was so glad about it. While walking on the road, I saw a bookstall and decided to buy Achilles a new book. Something he will like more. After surfing through the books for several minutes, I lay my hands on a book related to Greek mythology. His favourite. I buy it without any second thought. I didn’t walk to the hospital; I flew to the hospital. I flew in Achilles’s love.  On reaching the hospital, I search for Achilles but don’t find him in the store room. That was strange. I asked a nurse about him so she told me that Achilles had gone to the closed cafeteria wing a few mins ago. I go there. I directly go to the terrace because I know Achilles would be there only. As I walked along the rugged coastal path, the wind whispered through my ...

CHAPTER SEVEN:  “What happened, Achilles? All good? You haven’t been talking much since a few days.?” Dom asked Achilles when he came along me and Natalia to meet him at the hospital post college.  The question was asked by Dom but has been roaming in mind also for long days. It was only 2 days since he got discharged but it didn’t matter. He was just discharged from one ward to another. But the spark was kind of missing from him. And instead of the number of bandages reducing from his body, they had increased. Why were bandages around his right wrist and arm area? No needles were loaded there. Why is his whole head covered in a bunch of bundles? Has anything happened?  Once Dom and Natalia left after meeting him, I decided to stay back and talk to him.  “You didn’t leave with them?”  “Umm, no. I…actually. I want to spend some time with you.”  I try to go and kiss him on the neck but he pulls away, and looks onto the other side. He has never done so. I try...