Barter

It was very dark on that late, post-midnight hour. Ominously dark. The place seemed familiar. Though she couldn't see it in that blackness of the moonless night, yet she knew the area. It was the university campus. 

Walking briskly down the slope she was breathless, her heart pounding wildly in her chest. Her stomach churning with fear. It was cold yet she could feel the beads of sweat trickling down her face. 

'He is around, and he knows all these paths too well.' The thought made her racing heart panic even more. 

Now beginning to jog, she turned her head again to catch a glimpse, and yet again her sight couldn't find him. Only the terrorizing feeling of his proximity, just that devastating sense of closeness, was what she could sense.

She did not know him. She was sure. It was like a movie opening on a scene of a girl running from something and the viewer does not get to know who that thing is till the interval. The problem, however, was that in this case she was the girl who was running away, as well as the viewer who did not know the predator. 

All she knew was that she was running away from someone she was fearful of doing her harm. Any harm.

She moved down the curve in the path and wondered if she could find the cafeteria door open. The thought of escape was like a breath of fresh air, she felt her spirits renewed. Just then she spotted a big Pepsi truck parked beside the curving foot path. It was pitch dark inside the truck cabin, she noticed as she ran past. 

As she reached the front bumper, the driver's door flung open at her back. She heard the sound and her heart froze instantly, her feet stoned in her tracks. He had finally found her! The thought rose in her mind and sunk in the pits of her guts like a stone falling in an abyss. She felt her legs going numb with fear.  

"Why are you troubled when you have not done anything wrong", she heard. And could not understand a word. She stayed like that. Frozen. 

"Fleeing is for those who do things wrong," she heard. Again unsure if she was understanding what was being said.  "And those who do things wrong, flee because they know that they are going to be paid in equal measures. Its always a barter." 

Silence followed. 

Her racing heart began to slow down, blood seemed to begin finding way in her limbs again. It was not him, at least! She turned around, slowly. The cabin door closed again. She squinted her eyes but the dark wouldn't allow her a glimpse of her speaker. She inched closer. Not too close though. She was still in a state of disbelief.

" Relax", the voice echoed from the dark inside the truck cabin. And she sensed that the talker had smiled while saying so. Her panic slightly eased a bit more. 

"And don't worry, he can return to this path only when he has served the sentence. Remember, its a barter. Always."

Suddenly she heard a sound, that of the Calling to the prayer, the morning prayer. Her eyes shot open. Her heart pounding in her ears. Her face wet with sweat. It was dark. But it was her bed. She moved her hand over the sheets, just to be sure. And her frenzied heart found a cosy comfort in the sound of the Call. 

It was a dream. After all.

She got up and helped herself with a gulp of water. And moved to the windows and drew the curtains aside. The sky was still dark, the morning was yet to arrive. 

But she had known one thing: Its a barter. Always.