Ashraf entered an under-construction building. It has been this way for a year, for the contractor swindled the hard earned money of the people and disappeared.
Ashraf hastened his pace upstairs as though he had been eager to arrive at the terrace for years as if a thirsty person was told by someone that there's plenty of water up there.
He was out of breath after reaching his destination, twenty floors up from the ground level. One could tell that he was either someone with either high stamina or this is just a part of his routine. After wiping the few beads of sweat on his forehead with his left hand , he marched towards the edge. He stepped on to the pavement and threw his hands in the vertically opposite direction after closing his eyes. Clad in a white shirt with dust and a few yellow stains, he looked like a bird who was about to dive in the sky for the first time after its mother trained him for some days.
But unlike the bird, Ashraf wasn't expressing any signs of fright or to be precise he wasn't showing any expressions. His face was blank. Also, he wasn't moving an inch as though he had been petrified. After moments of high tension among the surrounding birds who were wondering if humans are coming to urbanize skies too, a faint smile filled with compassion decorated his face. He lifted his eyelids to unveil his brown eyes filled with water but not enough to form a tear, he sat down on the pavement.
He didn't seem to worry about a mishap with his expressionless expression conveying as though he could even walk on air."Still not ready." Ashraf murmured with a tinge of disappointment in his voice but the faint smile persisted. A gust of air struck his face as if one was greeting its friend; it made his hair flutter and then draped on his forehead. He immediately combed his hair with his left hand on which he had an analogue watch on which has stopped working since long ago. But his eyes were constantly gazing in the sky as though overlooking the entire city.
After a few moments, footsteps reverberated in the direction of stairs leading up, and soon another young man seemingly in his twenties entered the battlefield of air. Ashraf didn't budge or pivot as if it was also a part of his routine. "What is your name if I may ask?" asked the young man. It seemed like that question wasn't enough to attract Ashraf's attention, so he answered without moving any body part except his lips."Sure. It's Ashraf."
"Do you not want to ask my name?" Receiving no reply from Ashraf, the young man added, "It's Anant."
"Anant,..." Ashraf mumbled and then added, "I would never want that" in an unserious tone not similar to his previous ones.
"Don't want to ask what I meant when I said that?" Ashraf turned his face towards Anant and asked him in a friendly manner as though they had been friends since childhood.
"Do you think I can't comprehend such a simple cue?" Anant replied and reciprocated Ashraf's manners.
"It's impudent to reply with a question to a question or at least that's why my parents told me."
"Then start by answering my next question." Said Anant and then added,"Why do you keep coming here everyday?"
Ashraf hit his initial sitting position and expressions again and replied as if talking to himself,
"You know what, I was acrophobic. I used to panic whenever I was at a platform as low as ten meters. I couldn't dare to look down as it felt like an abyss and if I looked inside it then the abyss would look inside of me too. And then it will learn about my vulnerabilities and will force me to side with darkness. Intriguing prologue, isn't it?" Ashraf smirked at void and then continued,
"But now I can walk on this pavement- which is two bricks wide, of this building-which is tens of meters high, like I am walking on the sidewalk. How do you think such a reform took place inside of me?" Questioned Ashraf but then continued without waiting for an answer,
"It is because, earlier, I was afraid of death and now I want death. There is no fear inside of me as of this moment. Even if one were to ask me if I will be frightened by God's rage, my answer would be negative. Fear is one of the inherent human emotions installed to survive as long as possible. To conclude, I deleted my survival instinct resulting in losing the emotion 'fear' which made me feel acrophobic."
Ashraf then looked in Anant's direction and said
"It's your turn to answer now."
"Don't be so hasty. You haven't answered my question yet." Anant smirked as he teased him.
"You caught me, hehehe!" After exclaiming this, Ashraf assumed his 'original' form,
"I don't exactly remember when was the first time I camei came up hereher for it all just feels like a whole long day ever since i arrived here the first time. But let's say it has been a few months, and I'm sure I must've expended all my energy climbing up for the first time since you can see I am just a lanky and weak fellow. Yes, i am very weak , that's the reason i decided to come up here. I wanted to end all of it, i wanted to erase my every trace, i was so scared of this world at that time(i still am) and i had nobody by my side or rather should i say i prefer only my company. Candidly speaking i was panicked so much after the air brushed against me earlier in the 'day' that it took me so long to gather up the courage to walk near this curb. You shouldn't be surprised since i then still had that emotion 'fear'. But after some 'practice' , i managed to overcome it and some 'time' before when i first stood on this curb and looked in the eyes of the abyss , i achieved what i wanted to, without suiciding. I realised then that 'to die' doesn't necessarily mean medical death, the day when you abandon all your humane emotions (for me the last emotion was fear) and create a pact with the abyss, you will experience death."
"What was it you wanted to achieve through suicide?"
Anant interrupted and then hastily added, "It's part of the first answer too. without it your answer will be incomplete."
Ashraf didn't object and replied,
"Well, there's something you need to know in order to understand the next part. So don't mind me telling you that ever since I was a teenager, I wanted to end everything. To achieve eternal peace is my dream and for that, I started choking myself with a towel and it was then, when I experienced for the first time what I wanted to achieve. It was getting lost forever in the void, to lurk in the darkness becoming one with it, to attain eternal peace. But sadly, that effiect only lasted for a few seconds since i couldn't choke myself for long, for i am a weak person. I might not have succeeded in achieving that sensation for long , but I could repeat the same process again and again after an interval. I got addicted to that, I got addicted to peace, but it wasn't eternal. And I concluded then that I could only achieve it through death, but to my surprise there was another way, which I already mentioned.
And now why do I keep coming here everyday? It's because I visited the grave of my last human emotion 'fear'. I subconsciously gain this faint smile whenever I visit its grave. Also, the abyss is most conspicuous (for me) from here. Also I have these liquids in my eyes to empathize with my human self who also died here. But lately i'm realising that i might have been wrong, losing humane emotions doesn't mean that you won't ever gain them. You can attain them again without you knowing and even against your will. I don't want that risk. Hence, I will soon shift to the first method which has the highest efficacy."
"Now tell me why you keep coming here since the last few weeks?" Asked Ashraf with a warm and friendly tone unlike the tone he was using a moment before.
"Well, first of all , let me clear up the misunderstanding. I haven't started coming here for the last few weeks but I've been visiting this place ever since it was abandoned. It's just a few weeks ago when I came here I happened to see you. It was the first time i saw someone up here and after that i kept coming here at the same time believing that you won't change your schedule and you didn't. And hence the correct question will be 'why i started coming every day here at the same time as you
since the last few weeks?'.
So the answer is simple, it's because of you. I wanted to observe you and study that unique expression of yours. It kinda spellbound me, it got me inquisitive and hence I kept coming here at the same time as you. I wanted to discover the meaning behind that expression of yours, you had tears in your eyes but weren't crying, you had a faint smile but wasn't elated, you looked like you wanted to jump down and it felt like you had already taken that leap a long time. Also you had that pensive look but you claim you weren't thinking anything, your mind was blank. Ah man,I can't express myself, I'm at a loss of words. That's right, that's why I wanted to observe you until I got my answer. So to conclude, I'm just a curious soul."Anant's visage was gleaming with hope and belief that he would surely get his answer. His deep blue eyes had that hope in them and his striking smile had that confidence.
"Hey don't tell you are gonna be unfair with me, are you?" Ashraf looked in his eyes with a smirk on his face.
"Yeah, yeah I understand what you mean. So the thing is, you know about that contractor right?” Anant looked at Ashraf maybe expecting an answer or to check if he was paying attention, but he saw Ashraf in his ‘original’ form and sighed then continued,
“ I know you do, so I'm his son and ever since he disappeared into thin air, i oftenly come here and I don't know why. He not only swindled others but me too, I'm a victim of his greed too. I've been persecuted ever since he left. So does this explain? I bet it does.” Said Anant pointing his eyes towards the sky as if he was reading off the clouds.
Ashraf, after a few moments,hissed and asserted without any movement,
“There's no point in lying to the dead, is there?”
Anant’s countenance contorted and he looked at Ashraf with squinted eyes and promptly said,
“What do you mean?” but Ashraf remained silent.
Seeing no response from Ashraf, he clicked his tongue and added,
“Yeah, yeah, I guess you really are dead for now to see through my lies so easily. So how did you do it? Using some kinda black magic used by souls or something.
Anyways, I don't know if you know the truth or not, so I will say it myself.”
“Aren't you worried about me leaking your secrets?”
“Don't worry, the dead can't speak either, can he?” This question was aimed at what Ashraf said earlier.
Anant continued,
“It's not the contractor who swindled the people and ran off, it was actually me who took advantage of the fact that my Father believed me more than he believed himself. I discreetly killed him and buried him, so that I could take all the money and put all the blame on him. I don't know why I used to come here but for the past few weeks, I'm coming here for you.”
“Are you happy?”
“I would say negative.”
“Have you lost all of your emotions too?”
“No, I still have ‘madness’ in me and don't want to lose it.”
“I see. While I wanted to forsake my last humane emotion as soon as possible, you decided to use your last emotion as a weapon.”
After some back and forth questions and responses, they both fell silent for minutes as though they were communicating through telepathy.
“Hey, remember you earlier said that losing all the humane emotions doesn't mean that they won't return, in fact they can return without you knowing and even without your permission.
I guess you are right with your hypothesis. I am beginning to feel that two emotions are coming back to me, in fact one of them has already made his comeback. It's ‘curiosity’. And the other one must be reigniting in you too, if I'm not wrong.”
Ashraf said with a much warm and friendlier smile,
“Yes, you're correct. It seems I should soon follow through the procedure to attain eternal peace or I will be resurrected.”
In fact, if I cease coming here then take it as I am already resurrected.”
“I see. Then if I stop coming here then take it as I was caught by the public and they beat me to death, ruthlessly.”
“You want to live?”
“I must say, affirmative.”
“Why?”
“I'm driven by madness.”
“Understood.”
After this interaction, another session of silence entered the battlefield which lasted for about an hour.
“I'm taking my leave.” Said Anant and turned his back to Ashraf’s back. When he pivoted, his long, black and frizzy hair reaching his shoulders, sailed in the sky as if a ship sailing through waters.
“Be careful.” Said Ashraf looking at Anant's back.
“Well you've nearly quenched my curiosity with all the explanations you gave. But it would have been good to interact with you for a longer time and that's why I don't want to say it. But…” Anant paused for a while and then added with a wide smile and eyes closed, looking at Ashraf,
“You should really hurry.”
Saying this, Anant left and once again Ashraf was all alone. He assumed his ‘original’ form again and sat still for about an hour.
He then stood up and spread his wings again while standing on the curb and closed his eyes. Then a crow came to rest on his left shoulder and it turned its beak towards his ear as if it was whispering something. Ashraf then shrugged and the crow, for some reason, didn't spread his wings and fell down. He still didn't close his eyes and it seemed like there was no crow diving down, no crow sat on his shoulder and no crow whispered something in his ears. He was unbothered.
He soon opened his eyes and collected his hands back and then directed his vision towards the ‘abyss’ which he had a pact with and kept on looking in it until he tried to take a step like he was sure that he could walk in the air. But then he stopped midway.
“I'm hesitant? Resurrection huh. It seems like ‘The alternative for death could never replace death.’” He said to himself with a smirk and then closed his eyes, which were laid with tears and with an agonizing smile- this expression was the exact opposite of the one he was wearing for most of the time, he marched towards the abyss as if a meteorite was coming down.

The ‘long day’ met its end when Ashraf fulfilled his dream of finding peace, though eternal.