The Magical Potion

Was it a dream? I can't tell. But I could swear…

Her eyes were blood red and there were tears all over her face.

"Why are you crying?" I asked her. And then my eyes fell on her right hand which was holding a knife. And like a pro, that knife was slicing through the skin of something in quick motions –tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk- repeatedly until it finally halted. She twisted her neck to look at me. There was a smile on her face and satisfaction of finishing up the job. I looked at the chopped little pieces of onion lying on the marble platform. But I didn't see the knife anywhere on the platform. She turned around to face me. I looked at her face again. Eyes were still red, face all wet. She raised her hand and brought it to her face to wipe the tears. There it was- The knife.

It was still in her hand. And as my eyes fell on the blade, my heart skipped a couple of breaths. The blade was all soaked in red, and from its tip that red color was dripping on the floor first in tiny drops, then those droplets joined together to form a continuous stream of liquid. "Is it blood?" I thought to myself. And then the stream of blood grew wider and wider in volume, and I could feel the blood soaking my foot toes and slowly rising up to ankles and moving further up. "There's a kind of thickness in the blood," I thought to myself. I followed that stream of blood, emanating from the tip of that blade to the floor, but couldn't see even a tiny droplet of it on the floor. I looked at my legs only to find them as dry as ever. "Where's all the damn blood?" I thought to myself. Then my eyes fell upon the boy sitting cross-legged on the floor.

"What are you doing here on the floor, boy?" I asked him. He turned his face upwards to look at me. Dark brown hairs combed properly; pink lips parted in a smile. I saw the gap in his mouth because of the three missing teeth. For some reason, his eyes were offensively brown. "That's strange!" I thought to myself, and for some reason, it reminded me of the cat. I moved closer to the boy and the space around me expanded. He was holding a white funnel in his hand with its narrow end inserted inside the transparent plastic jar. And through the open end of the funnel, a stream of some red-colored liquid was flowing inside the container which was only partially empty. "The blood??" A thought escaped my mind. The stream of blood was flowing continuously inside that transparent jar but the jar was at the same level- partially empty. "Where is all the blood going?" As the thought crossed my mind, I noticed a tap on the other side of the jar. And the tap was open. She filled three glasses of juice and closed it. Then she placed a bowl below that same tap, turned it on, and a red viscous jam type liquid dropped inside the bowl.

"Darling, let's have breakfast." A distant sound came floating to my ears, but I could swear I didn't see her mouth open. She passed me one of the glasses of that red liquid and another to the boy who was now sitting next to me on the dining table. I could feel the softness of cushion behind my back and felt at home. I took a deep breath, held the glass of juice in my hand, brought it up and close to my lips and took a sip. "Ummmmmm…. So yummm darling," I heard myself saying, "What kind of magical potion is this??" She didn't respond. Instead, she kept on greasing those toasted bread with that red viscous jam type liquid with a knife.

"The knife??" my heart pounded as it remembered something forgotten. It was the same knife I had seen before somewhere…. but where?? I stressed my nerves harder to remember. I had seen that knife somewhere… perhaps in a dream... or perhaps in a distant reality.

Someone was laughing. The faint sounds of hiccups and giggles were coming from a distance. I looked for the source. And then the sound grew louder and louder, it pierced through my eyes and deafened my ears, and it never stopped then- HAHAHAHAHHAHAHHHAAAAAHHHAAHAAHAAAAHAHAHAHHEEEHEHEHEHEHUHUHUHHHEEIOOOHHAAAAAAAAAAHAHHHAHHAAAHHHHHAAAAAAAA- 

and louder and louder it went until it exploded through my heart, bursting everything along with it, including myself... and in a flick, everything vanished. There was no sound anywhere except the sound of hot air going in through my nostrils and coming out.

Sssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…

 Someone shushed. And there was silence once again for quite a long time.

"Darling… y'all right?" I opened my eyes hearing her voice. She was sitting by my side and her lips were parted in a smile. Through her parted lips I saw the gap in her mouth. "Three missing teeth…" The words were trying to find a correlation when I thought of the boy. The boy was sitting quietly on the dining table next to me. He was munching on a piece of jam-toast now, nom-nom-nom-nom-mmmm-nom-nom...

"Everything is fine…" my mind consoled me with these words. I took another deep breath but forgot to let it out when I noticed something peculiar about the boy again. "Those brown eyes…" It reminded me of someone. He looked at me and passed an enigmatic smile.

"You have got eyes of my cat!" I told him and smiled back. I raised the glass again to take another sip and almost instantly splashed it out of the mouth. "What the hell is that bloody filth?" I demanded. The boy stopped munching. He narrowed his eyes like a cat and gave me a piercing look. "And who the hell is that bloody boy?" I thought to myself. And then I remembered, "I don't have any boy."

As if someone put a fire below her seat, she shot up in the air just as quickly and turned to look at me. Her eyes were blood red, boiling in wrath. There were no tears now. Tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk-tk-tk-tkk-tuk-tuk-tuk- her right hand was moving in apt motions of someone slicing or chopping through something into fine pieces cut in an artistic precision.

I looked over the platform to find the onions. There were no onions this time, and not even the knife. I turned my face to look at her. But she wasn't there anymore. And then I remembered that I lived all alone. I took a deep breath and dropped my shoulders loose as I exhaled. All the sounds of chopping and cutting vanished when my eyes fell upon the cat on the platform. The cat was looking at me. I noticed her brown eyes… and the blood all around her body on the platform…

The next morning I woke up with a mild headache. 

Was it a dream? I can't tell. But I couldn't find my cat anywhere ever since that night.

Was it a coincidence? I don't know. But ever since that darn whatever thing happened- my cat's missing.

Can you find it for me?

I will let you have a sip of that magical potion.