An interview with Michael Dallas (2)

‘Mr Dallas.’, my voice came down to a whisper. ‘The man you said..’

‘Yeah..?’

‘Is the K in the word knife, a mirror image and in a bright red?’, I asked with a shiver. Michael was stunned to hear what I was asked.


Part VI

‘How..’, he was searching for words with his eyes widely open.

‘How did you know?’, he asked with a stammer.

The colour drained off my face as I was frightened to the core. ‘I can see him outside the cafe’, I blurted out.

‘How would it be possible..?’, asked a pale Michael.

‘I don’t understand’, I said with the shiver clearly frightened.

‘Are you trying to play me?’, asked Michael.

‘What..! No..!’

‘Are you trying to scare me?! Is this some kind of game you are playing with me?!’, he asked.

‘No damn it..! Why should I?!! For the love of God..! I promise you, I can see this guy..!’, I pressed nervously but without raising my voice.

‘Whatever..! I am getting out of here you weirdo’, he strongly said and stood from his seat.

‘No..! No..! Wait a minute..! I am serious..!’, I pleaded but Michael was already moving.

As in unison, I could see the guy in the green dress check the silvery thing he had in his hand. Through the next window pane I could clearly see what it was. It was a gun.

He moved towards the café entrance and I felt weak at my knees. Something really bad was going to happen, my instincts told me.

Intuitively I ran towards Michael. The man moved into the café with his weapon directly aimed at Michael Dallas.

The next few seconds was the slowest of my entire life.

A schizophrenic with illusions..

The illusions becoming a reality..

A gunman dressed in green..

And a loaded gun clearly aimed..

All I had was the time to throw myself at Michael in dire straits to save him.

Then, there was a soft click. It was from the gun, certainly fitted with a silencer. And just a second later, there was a loud thud. This was the sound of us hitting the floor. The next couple of seconds were filled with a deafening silence.


Part VII

Had the bullet hit Michael..?

Was he dead..?

Where was the gun man..?

Was he going to shoot again..?

There were too many questions in that one second.

I was above Michael and he was not moving. I turned around to see the gunman who was moving towards us with the raised gun, surely with a lot of shots left. With an unknown force, to stay alive and to save Michael, I kicked the near by chair towards the gunman.

I kicked it with such a force that it slid so quickly and hit the gunman. He was taken by surprise with the sudden hit and he fell down with the gun flying in the opposite direction. Just then, I saw Michael move.

‘Are you alright?’, I asked.

Michael nodded, not able to find words. He was clearly in shock.

I got to my knees to see the gunman. He was recovering from the impact and was getting up. I helped Michael up on to his legs and could feel his shiver through his thick suit.

My first thought was that we could run out of the café before the gunman could get to his weapon. But, there came a surprise just as we took a step towards the door.

To the horror of both of us, someone came into the café wearing a red shirt and blue jean. Just as he set foot into the door, he swung his right hand from behind with another gun pointed at Michael.

Frightened to death, I stopped running and pulled Michael by his collar. We jumped on the table behind the pillar, where we were sitting a few minutes back.

‘Damn it..! Who the hell was that..?’, I shouted.

‘That’s the second guy..! From my illusions..!’, cried Michael.

I peeked around the pillar to see what was happening. Both the gunmen were taking calculated steps towards the pillar. They looked like professional killers. In the next few seconds, they were going to shoot.

My mind was filled with nothing but fear, the fear of death. My heart was pounding faster and harder that I feared it would come to an abrupt stop any second.

I took a deep breath to clear my mind. I had to save Michael from whoever these guys were. And I had to stay alive.

I looked up at the lights in the café. There was one soft yellow bulb glowing in the middle of the café, one bulb at the entrance. Just then, I decided on what I was going to do next.


Part VIII

There were just going to be three to four seconds before the gunmen reached the pillar from both sides.

I took the cup and saucer from which Michael was drinking his tea, took a deep breath and threw them at the bulb at the centre of the café. Though one of them missed, the next one hit the bull’s eye. The rear half of the café went dark.

I pushed Michael to the floor and I ducked really low.

‘Crawl low to the rear end of the café. We’ll try running out of the rear door’, I whispered to him.

Slowly, we moved without making much noise. We could still hear the footsteps of those gun men. And then, a shot was fired.

It was completely in the opposite direction as to where we were. They were just getting us to move, or were just firing at will.

Then there was another shot, this time it landed on the table just at my right. I gripped tight Michael so that both of us didn’t finch. We slowly continued to crawl.

As we were moving, I could hear one of the gunmen pouring something on a near by table. From the faint smell, I thought it should be alcohol. By then, we had crawled to the rear wall of the café.

From what I had noticed when I entered the café, the rear door was to the right of where we were now. I grazed the wall slowly to reach the door. I sensed the handle and tried to open the door, but the door did not budge.

And then, something totally unexpected happened.

First it looked and sounded like a flicker of a match stick and then the next moment, the spark lit the alcohol poured on the table and the whole café shone ablaze.

I was shocked and turned to Michael who was even more shocked. We could see the two of them and one of them threw a big smile and I could see what his lips said.

‘Gotcha..!’, he smiled.


Part IX


They were going to take a shot any of the next few seconds and out of an animal instinct, Michael threw himself at the door with immense force and as some sort of magic, the lock broke and the door opened and at the same time, they opened fire.

I ducked down to dodge the bullets and I crawled through the door to where Michael was. To our surprise, the door did not lead us out of the café but a dark passage and only God knew where it was going to take us.

But, that was the only possible way out. We could not see through the darkness and I flicked on my mobile on. Though not so efficient, at least we could see where we were placing our steps. And that was going to be one of the scariest of places I had ever been in my life. We moved into the darkness hopeful to find a way to escape from the killers.

We were careful with every step we took. The fear of what waited ahead and the fear of the killers behind us filled me to a level that I might choke any minute.

The darkness was so dense and it was impossible for us to move fast. I started frantically searching the wall to see any switch at the same time moving with Michael close behind me. After close to twenty steps into the darkness, I found what I searched for. In the middle of the dusty and creepy spider webs, I found a sole switch.

I switched it on without even giving it a second thought. A light came to life at the end of what seemed to be an endless corridor. At least now we had an idea of where we were heading. There was a door at the end.

Michael was the first to run down the corridor and I closely followed him watching over my shoulder for someone to burst in anytime. We reached the door at the end and with lots of hopes opened it expecting it to take us out.

But, to our bewilderment, the door led us to a stair case spiralling itself to the upper floors. The maze we had taken looked as if taking a new turn instead of taking us out. I had a very bad feeling about this. I didn’t know if we were supposed to take the stairs.

I looked at Michael who was looking at me with the same questions that I had in mind. He seemed, for some reason, to look at me for help and answers. But, I was equally helpless and was stranded with all that had happened in the last few minutes.

‘What do we do now?’, he asked taking endless number of short breaths.


Part X

‘I don’t know. For Christ’s sake, who are those guys?’, I shouted back.

‘I don’t know.. I.. I.. I don’t understand a thing’, he panted.

I could feel some movement at the far end of the corridor and before I could realise, a shot ripped right between us and hit the stair case with a loud thud. And without even hesitating for a second, we ran up the stairs ready to face anything up there.

The stair case spiralled up to three to four floors and all the time, we could hear someone running two floors below us. Thankfully, no one was shooting at us. We reached the top of the stairs which led us into a small room with a ladder up the wall.

We stood in the room breathing heavily after running all the way up the stairs. I had totally drained out all my energy and Michael was looked as if he would faint any minute.

But the thing that was really getting my nerves was that I didn’t understand any of the events here. There were only questions left in my mind and no answers what so ever. I needed answers and I needed them now. And, I decided what to do next.
‘Stay behind me’, I commanded Michael.

‘What are you gonna do?’, he shouted.

‘Do as I say! Stay behind me and breath slowly..!’

I leaned over the edge of the stairs I could see the gunman with the red shirt coming up. He was at the least one storey below up and had close to twenty stairs to cover. I held my breath.

His footsteps were slowly creeping up. He should be closer by ten stairs now, I calculated. We were hiding in the darkness hoping he would not hear us breathing hard.

The next few seconds were filled with silence and darkness, except for the footsteps coming up towards us. I could see a very faint shadow around the entrance. Certainly, it was the killer. Slowly, he came up to the last stair with his gun in position. He slowly stepped in and moved his gun to the right, exactly as I was hoping for.

I sprang out of the shadow with all the force and energy I could gather. I slammed my foot into his chest with all the might. And that was it.


Part XI

He was caught off guard and fell off balance to his back, over the small railings on the stairs. There was no turning back. He went flying all the way to the ground which was four stories below. It took a while for the soft moaning of pain to end but he was dead or unconscious faster than I expected.

The second set of footsteps had stopped. I was hoping to hear it fade away moving down to his partner. But, there was complete silence.

I turned to Michael. He was dumbstruck with what I had done.

‘You killed him’, he said in a muffled tone but I didn’t respond. I was stunned to hear something else.

The second gun man was moving up, in a much faster pace than previously. And then, I heard a noise behind me which made the hair on my neck raise again. It was loud click. It was the recoil of a gun.

To the shock of my life, it came from right behind me. I turned around very slowly.


Part XII


It was Michael Dallas, standing behind me. He had a gun in his hand and it was pointed right at me.

‘What are you doing..?’, I asked in a muffled tone.

‘Who are you?’, he asked me.

‘What..?! Who the hell are you..?! And how in the world do you have a gun with you?!’, I scrambled for words in fear.

‘What the hell have me brought me into?!’, shouted Michael.

‘I don’t understand a thing that is happening here..!’, I shot back. ‘This seems to be a nightmare and I feel like being right in the middle of it..!’

‘The men in my illusions have suddenly come alive..! But, how in the world is it possible?!’, he asked.

‘You tell me that..! You said you have been having schizophrenic illusions for eight years but now you tell me those men are true.?!’, I demanded from a safe distance from his gun.

‘You come in to my life out of nowhere and now the terrible world of my dreams is right in front of me..! Who are you with..?! What are you trying to do with me?!’, he cried.

This was going nowhere, I understood. Neither of us knew what was happening and how. But one thing was for sure, there were two men with guns. One was obviously a killer and the other a schizophrenic with illusions that turned real. Who was going up dead, it was left to God.

Before I could wait for Dallas to finish or begin to argue, I realised we had forgotten something else. The footsteps of the killer had gone completely silent.

My mind was racing with the possible options. Either he had gone away or he had reached the top of the stairs and was right behind us. I left Michael continue his blabbering questions and turned around. The timing was really bad.


Part XIII

I was looking at the tip of a gun and the edge of the finger that was about to pull the trigger. And then, there was a silent shot.

Whether the bullet moved very slowly or I was not able to comprehend what was happening, I did not know. But everything was moving slow exactly like the slo-mo used in lot of the recent movies.

Whether I was imagining this or it was absolutely real, I did not know but I could see the bullet right through every inch of its movement from the gun till it reached the forehead of Michael Dallas.

I watched it till the end. How softly it pierced the man’s skull and how softly he fell dead. It was like watching a petal falling down from the tip of a flower. The man was dead.

Watching someone die sometimes makes people faint, some scream in fear and some freeze. I fell into the third category. I froze with overwhelming fear. My brain was unable to process the horror. Michael Dallas, whoever he was and whatever was happening here, was dead. He was shot in the head. He was murdered.

I heard something fall with a crash behind me which brought me back to reality. I turned around to see what it was. It was the sound of the empty clip that the killer dropped from the gun and I could see he had reloaded the next a fresh new clip.

This time, the gun was pointed at me.


Part XVI

A shot was fired at my chest and I stood still waiting for the bullet to hit me. I was waiting and waiting and waiting. But nothing happened for the whole of the next minute. Things remained absolutely still.

And just as the bullet reached my chest, the room went absolutely bright. The lights were so bright that it sent a shock through my eyes. I had to throw myself down to cover my eyes.

I slowly moved my arm out of my face and opened my eyes. I had to do it very slowly to adapt to the sudden brightness. The room was bizarrely white with the walls and doors matching the brightness.

The stair case through which I had reached this place was gone and so was the ladder that was leading to the top of the building.

I turned down to see the body of Michael Dallas who had fallen dead just a few seconds back. He was nowhere to be seen in the white room. I turned to the other direction to see the killer.


Part XV

There was a man standing exactly where the killer had stood when he shot me. He looked nothing like a killer. He was tiny man with silvery grey hair and a neatly trimmed beard. He was dressed in white.

I tried to move towards him but I, for some reason, could not move. I bent down to see what was stopping me.

I was sitting on a soft custom moulded white chair with my legs strapped floor. The man was standing a few feet away from watching me intensely with a very blank face.

‘Where am I?’, I asked with my voice really faint. The man did not reply.

‘Who are you? And what kind of a place is this?’, I questioned but the man did not answer me.

‘Just as expected’, he smiled and walked slowly to me. A card pinned to his chest read, ‘Psychiatrist – Schizophrenic Ward’

‘What were you expecting?’, I asked. ‘What the hell is happening here’. And what he replied was something I would never be able to comprehend.

‘You, Mr Dallas, have just come out of an intense Schizophrenic episode and my treatment is working as expected’, he said in a monotonous tone and walked out of the room.

What he said might be take ages for me to comprehend. Certainly, ages for me to comprehend.

If what he said was for real, I.. was.. Michael Dallas.. and this was one of my Schizophrenic episodes.


____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________




NB: Dedicated to the millions of Schizophrenics around the world. The story’s ending is inspired by ‘Identity’ starring John Cusack and Ray Liotta, a gripping psychological thriller which kept me engaged till the very end.