In a remote town in India, with Gulmohar embellishing the asphalt and mild weather breezing the atmosphere, was a small colony. In that colony lived a family of four, a loving couple and two loving/hating siblings, Sahil and Arohi.

"Nope. I am not going on a bus even if the world comes to an end," said Sahil, a child about ten years old in an adamant tone.

"Sahil. Don't be so stubborn. What's so wrong with it? It's economical," his mother said.

"Because I hate it. Can you assure me that there will not be a man who stinks as if he never bathed in his life or a woman who had bathed too much with perfumes."

"Sweetheart. That's not always the case."

"But it is. Most of the time. You want me to go on an agonizing three hours journey, and that on a bus."

"Honey! I know it gets overcrowded sometimes. But once for me."

"Why don't you take the family car?" Sahil's father suggested.

"…"

"Let's hire a cab. Shall we?" Sahil's mother rested the case and ignored her husband.

"Wait! What's wrong with my car?"

Sahil and his Mom quickly went out of their home and called for a cab.

Arohi behind was left giggling whole-heartedly, while his father looked at her, confused. He looks at his bright and sunny yellow Alto car, still confused.

Leaving behind his Dad and older sister, Sahil and Mom got on the road, their destination a hospital where a relative got admitted. While on the roadway, enjoying the peace of the journey, Sahil looked past the backward moving tall trees, Palash flowers colouring the mid-sky with a tinge of orange and festiveness.

After three hours on the road, Sahil and his Mom reached the hospital. It was gloomy and dark as it always is. The smell of sanitizers, the green curtains, dismal people could make a regular person feel dolorous.

Sahil was reluctant to go inside. He always hated hospitals. He looked at the crowded hospital and back at his mother. He agreed to this hospital visit despite the agonizing three hours on the road because he fell prey to his mother's emotional appeal. He had to leave behind his restraints and had to be a good child, but his feet were not very obedient. He was ready to back into the cab when his Mom dragged him with her.

Sahil's Mom went to fill formalities for visiting the patient while Sahil sat in the lobby. A man was sitting beside him with a stoic face. It was unfocused rather than expressionless. Suddenly a woman dripping with blood ran into the hospital panicking. She was in desperate need of attendance, but the atmosphere in the hospital was the usual calm. The woman cried and eventually succumbed to death. Nobody moved a finger. It was only a moment the woman had died that another person was having a stroke.

And the hospital was still calm.

Sahil hated the hospitals. He had to put his discomfort behind and ignore everything happening in front of his eyes. He glanced at the person sitting beside him. He did not have a shadow, so did the girl that died and the person who had a stroke. Those incidents were not visible to other's eyes only he could.

Sahil was boring holes in his shoes with his gaze when his Mom came back. The hospital visit was not yet over as they had still to meet their relative.

Sahil was calculating the time he had to spend in this dreadful place in his mind. He was gauging how long he could maintain his facade until he blows up.

"Honey. Are you alright? I promise we will leave as soon as possible. Okay," his mother reassured him after noticing his discomfort.

Sahil nodded his head and walked along with his Mom.

They did not leave the hospital any sooner as history proves that if two women sit together then 'as soon as possible' possibly cannot be possible. Sahil had read the patient's chart over ten times, paced the room countless times, even visited washroom plenty times, even then it was not yet time to return. He was in short bored out of his wits. He left the room getting tired from hearing the not so interesting 'interesting' gossip of the two women.

The passageway, as Sahil expected, was filled with invisible people. He had to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea. Which was worst?

He chose to ignore the daunting presences around him and moved to the balcony at the end of the hallway. All the time, he was keeping his eyes down, avoiding contact with those around them. Even if something went through him, he didn't bat his eyes. He was mentally patting his back for building his tolerance level to such heights.

He paused as his eyes went to the balcony at the far end of the lobby. The doors were slightly ajar. He spotted a girl about his age in a patient's uniform standing over the railings of the balcony.

"Sigh! Another spirit, repeating the vicious cycle of their suicide. I did not see anything."

Sahil turned around not wanting to get involved with it. He had turned only halfway. His feet not leaving their spot.

"Sahil go back. Don't get included in this. You cannot do anything about it. Even if you find it pitiful, she is already dead. No. Don't do it."

Sahil sighed as his discouragement didn't seem to work. He turned and went towards the balcony.

The girl was still standing on the railings. Her clothes were fluttering in the air. Her long hair, reaching below her shoulders, was swaying and doing a mad dance in the air, contrary to the turmoil she was feeling. Her eyes were wet and red. There were traces of her tears on her cheeks that dried from the wind.

Sahil slowly went near her and stood beside her.

"It's useless," Sahil spoke in the air without looking at the girl.

The girl looked down and saw him. She ignored him and looked back at the horizon.

"Even if you jump to your death, you won't find your happiness. That place is much more gloomy than you expect."

The girl scoffed, "You are speaking as if you have been there."

"What makes you think it is not what I said?"

"…"

"There are two possibilities. You jump from here, die and the end. Nothing happens. Your sufferings end. Or you are thrown to another life with maybe more shitty parents, family and everything you hate. Even if you deny it, it can happen. There is a certainty that your next life will suck too."

"Probably." The girl climbed down from the railings, "So, what do you suppose I do with my present shitty life."

"Endure. Fight back. Fight till you feel like you cannot do it anymore."

"Endure? You have no idea what I am going through."

"Yeah. I don't. I will never know it probably. I am not wearing your shoes nor that I want to. What I mean is I cann_,"

Sahil could not finish his sentence as his eyes fell on the shadow below his feet. There was not only one shadow but two. There were two shadows; a boy and a girl, a shadow of a person.

"You are not a ghost!"

Sahil shrieked and ran away. He thought he was talking to a ghost, but it was an actual living breathing person. He ran as fast as he could.

The girl behind was baffled. She followed the strange boy, who was once giving her advice and the next moment running away. Sahil ran very fast, and she lost track of him very soon.

She went back to her ward, thinking about the advice she got. Life was unjust. She had to fight back, had to endure.

"Mom. I need to tell you something," the girl said to her mother waiting inside her ward.

Tears welled up her eyes as she crumbled into the arms of her mother. She was sobbing. Her mother was terrified of her daughter's strange behaviour.

When Sahil came back running, his mother was ready to leave.

"Where did you run off to?" inquired his mother.

"Just here and there."

The mother and son duo bid farewell to their relative. As they got out, they heard some commotions coming from nearby wards. A woman was crying out aloud.

"How could you? You bas#$%d to your daughter. Get away from us," the crying woman said and threw some bottles on a man in the lobby.

"It's not true. Aayna is lying. Trust me. Aayna, don't speak nonsense," the man replied.

There was a crowd gathering near the fighting couple. Sahil's mother pulled him away and left the gathering crowd behind.

"It's not good to listen to other's family matters. Let's leave."

Sahil looked back at the commotion. He too did not want to get involved in that commotion, but his gut feeling said that he was the one who ignited it.