“Neil wake up..oh boy you sleep really tight! Now it's time for you to wake up.” I hear faint whispers of my name as I slowly get my consciousness back. I hear the voice and I recognise it as nothing I've heard before. I slowly open my eyes and I feel someone supporting my head slowly making me sit. I feel that someone pulls out a pipe like something from my mouth.

When I open my eyes, I find myself in a hospital room. The sound of the medical devices working perfectly. White everywhere. When my vision gets clear, I see a man, dressed in white, blue scarf around his neck and his face adorned with white long beard and he's smiling at me. “Who are you?” I asks, struggling to put in my words.

“If to tell you straightforward, An auditor. An auditor sent to take the arithmetic of your life. Chitragupta if you know the other name of mine. Doesn't matter at all, you can call me Peter.” He continues to say as he pulls out a lot of medical devices out of my body. I feel no pain at all and it feels strange. I stare into his blue eyes for so long before I ask in a shrill breath, “Am I dead?” His eyes bore into mine and he laughs. "Do you want to be dead?”

“Haven't you heard that before you die you see the past of you like a movie? I've come here with two tickets for that matter.” The man or err.. Peter pulls out the tube from my hand that was connected to the oxygen can.

“You are still confused aren't you?” Peter laughs again, “Anyways, nice to meet you,” He pulls out his hand for me to hold. But I hesitate. It was too much for me to gulp. Am I going to die? “Aye loosen up gentleman.” He laughs and shakes my hand.

“We have a long journey before I decide whether I should open the doors of heaven for you. So.. let us start.” He says again and pulls out the thick bandage from my head. There was no injury at all.

I shudders. What is happening to me?

“Arey come.. I'm not going to eat you.” Peter laughs again and opens the door. I stand on my own feet to my surprise and walk towards the door. As we step outside I see a nurse coming into the same room and checking my body lying there.

Peter takes me to the place, the road where I got accident. My Jeep was broken and people were trying to take it out. I suddenly had a vague memory of myself flying in the air and dropping to the ground painfully. Peter shakes me out of it. I looks at where Peter is focusing. A young man roughly twenty two years was driving the bike a little too speedily. “A minute more left.” Peter says as he looks at the guy. A minute less and I hear a loud crash and Peter laughing. “Aight brother you tell me, there are 365 days in a year. An average normal 60 year old gets 21,900 days. Half of that time is night, he must be asleep. The rest 10, 950. An an average human being does whatever he wants in this amount of time. Isn't ironic?" Peter says as if he's making a joke out of humans.

“Not a joke. Those who sleeps in the afternoon will get less amount to live. You have to live till 15 under your parents and after 50 - 55, you live under your kids. The thirty, thirty five years in between, that is 11,680 days. Thats what it is in the pockets of humans. Which implies that you guys are not that enticing things. A snap and poof! You're gone..”

I walk over to the place my car crashed. It was marked in white and few drops of blood was there, dried. “Nobody is bothered about this place where you laid, whimpering and hoping for your life. A day after and there is only dried blood. Let a rain to downpour and it will be cleansed off. This is life. But your death will leave a memory on atleast a few people's lives. You have to know what that is.” I was still confused but the polite, determined smile on his face was telling something.

“Your show is beginning.” Peter smiles and guides the way. A few moments after, I am standing on a hill top, surrounded by clouds, watching the chaos on earth. It felt surreal. “This is the beginning of your movie, Neil Khanna.”

I looks at where he is pointing. I see my dad holding a newborn in his hand, mom smiling with tears in her eyes, Bebe and Dadu there, wiping unshed tears and smiling ear to ear. This is my beginning. I see a lot of things I had no memory off. Dad teaching me how to walk. Mom running behind me to eat. Bebe telling me stories. Dadu playing hide and seek with me. Dadu's death. My teen years where I desperately wanted a sibling because it felt too lonely.

I smile with my eyes full. A lot of forgotten memory that just refilled me. “That was the first chapter of your life,” I look at the next side and I see myself grown. And then Juhi. Her death. My mourning.

“You get these chapters in fast forward because that was not exactly your purpose for living Neil. You were made for her.” Peter smiles and in the next, I saw myself training as a policeman. Hugging mom and Dad out of happiness because I finally got selected. My first training. And atleast having that IPS badge on me.

It all made sense now.

You were made for her. I was already given to take this job because that's what led me to her. Case 123.

Her eyes. Her eyes were infront of me next. “Your life starts now. This chapter of your life should have been the most important one. You were to start your own family with her. You had a lot of promises made to her. But you know where it all went wrong? You read your book backwards. ” Peter's smile caught me off guard. I didn't want to watch it again because he was right, I let the previous chapter of my life interfere with my present. And there, thats where it went wrong. All wrong.

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I wrote this yesterday to give you all a double update but I forgot to publish. So here it is. And also, inline comments are really encouraging. Please do try to drop comments. Thank you and enjoy reading!🥰