Mere Three Seconds -2

PART TWO

She remembered the beauteous view that her eyes had captured as she kept gazing at the far away horizon that gleamed with the fierce hues of orange and yellow along with a tinge of vibrant blue sneaking behind those towering and daunting skyscrapers. She remembered the frivolous curve that tugged at the corners of her lips when she couldn't help but think about rushing back to the warmth and safety of her duvets, and away from all the commotion that kept buzzing around her. She remembered flinching slightly as the sudden screeching of tires broke her trance of thoughts while she saw the signal finally turning red. She remembered those steady steps that her feet had walked all the way from crossing the street to picking a quicker pace to tread along the pavement. She remembered, looking behind those shoulders of hers twice only to see anything but unusual or unsettling. And there, she remembered what she had failed to see that day - the faint silhouette of someone who trailed closely behind her.

She remembered, that one gentle tap that she had felt on her shoulder and also those frowns that had consequently bloomed all over her once smooth forehead. She remembered halting in her steps and debating whether to turn around or not only to realize it was too late to avert her face away now. She remembered, that clammy palm wrapping itself around her face and gaining a firm hold on the yelps that awaited to break out of her mouth. She remembered, that very clammy palm digging its brittle nails on her skin before mightily shoving her on the pavement. And there she remembered once again - those droplets of rancour that had leapt out of the bottle only to be splashed over the side of her face.

She remembered the faintly visible features of the person who had his hands draped around the bottle of venom and the numbness that had taken over her mind the instant she had deciphered that face of his. And how could she not remember the way her own palms were fixated on that blazing side of her face? How could she not remember the way those eyes of hers remained adamantly closed as the world came to an abrupt halt and enveloping her with a dense blanket of stillness? How could she not remember that very stillness that annihilated every ray of light that had been visible to her all this while? And there, she could live those three mere seconds of that day that had seemed to pass by cruelly before the horrendous aftermath of those lethal drops occurred only to devour the very core of her being along with her flesh. And there, she lived those three mere seconds once again that ended up with her identity being taken away by just a single acidulous splash.

The ticking of the clock beside her bed broke her gaze from the closed window that held the view of nothing but prevailing darkness. She let out the held back puffs of air as beads of sweat were sprawled across her forehead. And yet again, she couldn't help but succumb to the flashbacks that kept whirling in the numbed nooks of her mind. She couldn't help but tumble back to the day that held those three seconds - the very three seconds that were all to make her lose her faith in humanity. She couldn't help but recall those seconds within which shrieks and shrills broke out of her mouth, leaving her throat narrowed and parched while people from all walks of life continued to rush past her and not towards her at all. She couldn't help but recall the way she kept writhing and wrenching right on that pavement with a pain that kept entrenching in every bone that her body had while a herd of countless foreign faces began to circle her yet none lending her a hand. She couldn't help but recall the embers that blared upon the flesh of her face while the eyes of innumerous beings stared at her and none attempting to salvage her from those venomous flames that kept eating her away.