Tunnel 9

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Lisa walked into her bedroom. After a strenuous double shift, her eyelids were shutting down with drowsiness. She dropped over her bed and started staring at the stars through the glass window of her ceiling.

“Heavy noise is a kind of silence. After too much of anything, we get used to it. Our senses go numb and things around us go subtle. Without a direction, I have been living in this new place with four years of silence. Though there were many inner callings, nothing lasted long just like a distorted song. The same old routine continues on loop. I guess there is something else out there with a different form and a different tone that will break this heavy silence.”

Thinking about her life she dozed off.

After few minutes a subtle racket arose around her. Gradually the volume increased. Her phone rang and alarmed her. She calmly woke up and saw her phone; there were several missed calls and messages. She ignored them and stepped outside to check what was happening.

People were running rampant. Families nearby packed their bag and drove away. Teenagers broke into stores and took supplies. Everyone was evacuated from the area. They signaled Lisa to run away.

But, she stood there still and observed them calmly. Neither panic nor fear, nothing affected her. She stood there till the entire crowd vanished. With curiosity, she opened the TV and checked the news. The headlines said a giant meteor is going to hit the city. Soon after few seconds, the power was gone. The temperature rose. She saw the sky again from the ceiling window, it turned red. A huge streak of light and a heavy mass passed through and hit the nearby ground.

Lisa was enjoying this. She was fascinated by the miracle happening in front. She was thrilled and hoping more to happen. Maybe, this was something that going to break the silence in her life and make it more interesting.

She quickly picked her car keys and drove towards the impact area. Once she arrived, she saw a huge tunnel in front of her. It was formed by the meteor attack. It was as huge as a crater. Everything was covered with ash. Lisa was anticipating many things. Maybe it could be a piece of mars or moon, maybe it could be a fragment of a dying star, a space pod from another dimension or it could even be an alien. She couldn’t resist her curiosity. She stepped down and started walking. Every layer of inner feelings like inhibition, insecurity, and confusion broke as she walked into the tunnel.

It was hard, still she walked in. This was something she was waiting for a long time. Something unusual and something alien was happening in her life. The more close she moved the more thrilling and different was the experience became.  She came to an open space and found another tunnel. This repeated for several times. She kept walking into each and every space she found. Finally, she came to a dead end and found a huge pit. It was pointless and the last layer of inner feeling started to react. It was fear. She can go back or she can jump in and check what is inside the hole.

She summoned up her courage and jumped inside. The last layer fear was broke. A gust of wind passed her face and she hit the bottom with the crash.

The hit was heavy and she finally opened her eyes with pain. Her vision was disoriented and it was completely blurred. He strained to focus and found the same old ceiling window. It was all a dream. She quickly took her phone, there were no notifications. She checked the TV, the headlines was about some new pop song.

Lisa laughed to herself and dozed off to sleep with silence. 

Ashwin Muralidharan