Blue

There's alot in this world that we will never truly understand.

Our imagination will always be beyond the reach of our ability to rationalize . We still believe that a some ethereal being controls the universe around us and rewards good behavior while damning those who do wrong in the next life. But there is nothing stopping the bombs and the killing and the raping we see around us right now.Justice is deferred till its convenient for the Big Man. 

Yet we constantly strive to find the logic in the wonder around us. The magic that has faded away,what was once so pure in our youth,replaced by science and sleight of hand.

But there is still strangeness in the world around us,little pockets of wonder that some stumble upon,every now and then.

Thing is, not all of it is good. Sometimes,things hidden in the dark are supposed to stay that way.

Maybe thats what happened to me.

In the cold,rolling hills of Ooty.

I was young,not more than 7 or 8,yet I remember all of it,just like it was yesterday.

Driving down a narrow road,a remnant of the Raj. It was strange there,a distant silence was all around us. We all fell quiet of our own accord.The mist gathered around us in a tight embrace,holding us closer to its chilly bosom.

The trees seemed darker here,gathered along the sides of the road,flanking us in a form of macabre guard of honor. What started off as late afternoon fell quickly into twilight,the orange warmth of the sun replaced by the blue tinge of nothing. 

Its not the pitch dark we should fear. Darkness can be driven away by light and the Moon constantly stands watch over us,through even the darkest cloud. Twilight is where evil breeds,when our worlds share a moment with the worlds beyond the Veil.

Soon,but not soon enough.We were out of it.We were leaving the trees behind.The mist started to clear. A tinkle of laughter,and conversation resumed. A shadow of a smile crept across my face. What had I been so afraid of?

I stole a glance back,on my knees on the backseat,peering through the rear window.

And the image burned into my memory.

From every tree,every branch.

They were everywhere.

Hanging,swaying in the dead wind.

Eyes rolled into heads,only the whites on their petrified faces.

Sagging flesh,grey and blue.

Mouths wide open.And inside,only darkness.

A hundred? Maybe more.

Men,women and children,hung by the neck.

Keeping an eternal watch over the road.

My father later told me that there had been a small uprising in the area once,the tiny ones you never really heard about back then. It clearly had been dealt with.

I stumbled on something that day.I found something in the dark. I opened a door. I wonder if ever closed it that day.I wonder if I brought something back. I wonder if when I looked back,I reached through the Veil and touched on something old,something ancient.

Maybe...

Even as I write this down,she tells me to stop.She tells me I've said enough.She reaches over my shoulder and drags my hands away. Her touch is cold.

Her hair floats in the stillness around her. Fatigue overcomes me. She tells me I shouldn't have written all of this down. That I've said too much. That the dark belongs to them,not to us. I've angered her.I can see it in her eyes. She tells me what to do.

She tells me she loves me.

I can barely keep myself awake.

 She says I'll be with her soon.

 I cant wait.