From the Other Side, with Love

In separation, people find pain. Some experience loneliness. I found love.

It has been four hours since Daksh and Amaira filed for divorce much to their families disapproval.

The sun was just starting to set over the city of Kaland.

As traffic lay waste to the streets of the city, Amaira could not bear to spend time anymore than necessary with Daksh in the car. After a few seconds of intent staring, they both wished they weren't in each other's company.

"I will walk to my sister’s place", Amaira said in an irritated tone, and got off before Daksh could reply. Usually one would admire a city like this, full of life. But today wasn't the day for that. The two of them were exhausted after just completing a hearing where strangers asked them questions they'd never heard before.

Kaland was a magical place both metaphorically and physically. It was the closest to the border between Purgatory and Heaven.

I don't want to get too technical here—I'll just tell you how it is: The world we all knew went through an apocalyptic event.

The event, they called it the Maiden Engulfing. When it was over, it led to the boundaries of Heaven and Hell merging with the Earth.

This created a strange space called Purgatory—a land that connected Heaven and Earth. Kaland was a city on earth that lay very close to the Purgatory.

People in Kaland were familiar with mystical matters relating to death and afterlife.

Daksh himself had seen a few souls departing to afterlife from Kaland. He also received messages time to time from his ancestors who had reached their eternal resting place after they died.

Souls and humans were able to communicate because the border between these places was fluid.

Kaland was a place for curiosity seekers following the apocalypse as well as residents rebuilding their lives here.

Waiting in the car by himself, Daksh switched off the engine.

There was nothing to see out the window but lines of cars and trucks waiting for the signal to turn.

He returned home alone. It was for the better. The living room wall was full of photos, no, memories of them gathering dust. His lips formed a smile.

For a fortnight the only thing that occupied his thoughts — where they had gone wrong, what they could have done to avoid this fate.

The evening went quietly, he assumed Amaira decided to stay at her sister’s place for the night. As he lay in his bed, Daksh remembered how he had quietly listened to his uncle talk about how humans dreamt.

We stopped dreaming once the Engulfing happened. Completely stopped, there was not a single account of someone dreaming post the apocalypse.

His uncle survived the apocalypse but died of a heart attack while writing letters.

Daksh closed his eyes thinking of his uncle, to his surprise, he saw an image of huge sandstone gates.

The Gates of Kriya! The passage to the Purgatory.

He had never seen this place before…Daksh realized that his uncle had shown him drawings of these enormous gates before—he remembered them clearly now because they were so incredible and strange looking: gates guarded by anchors that seemed to be made out of gold or silver or something similar to both at once.

The scene shifted into a house, with a Divan and pictures of a couple on the wall. His home. It was very real, and now he understood why humans loved dreaming.

A human form walked into the room and sat on the sofa.

It was Amaira, Daksh realised in panic.

She was sitting on the sofa in front of him, looking at him with those eyes that seemed to look through him and see everything. He couldn't move. She was just sitting there, looking at him with those eyes and not saying anything,

“Daksh” she spoke.

"Why are you here?"

"I'm not here." Amaira replied. But it was her in flesh and blood, freckled face, black-haired.

“I’m in the Purgatory. Help me!”

The scene shifted again. The living room was gone. This time he was outside on the streets. He turned around and ran back towards the entrance of the house, but it was too late. The door was locked from inside and he couldn't get in. He tried opening the door, but it didn't budge.

Why was she in the Purgatory? She was not dying, she was not a soul roaming unattached. She was human. A woman who had been deported by mistake. The laws of Purgatory were clear. Any soul would be there for ten days before being erased from earth.

Unless he brings her back in ten days she would be on her way to afterlife.

“I will come. I promise” the only thing he could say before the dream vanished.