A Twisted Tale in Winter

"I don't know where to begin", I finally said after a few minutes of awkward silence.

"That's ok. Don't stress out. Just sit back and relax. You can take all the time you need. We're just talking here like friends.", said my doctor with an assuring smile.

But it wasn't enough for me. I was restless. It's been seven days since I had a proper sleep. I needed to hear something more convincing. Maybe the doctor recognized my dilemma too, he smiled. "How about if I tell you what I already know, maybe you can fill in the rest.

Huh?

I was genuinely confused. I just met him like 5 mins ago. I barely even said a word till now. How did he even know anything about me? But I was curious.

"So, you're Arvind Sharma, age 27, a freelance photographer working here in Shimla..."

Oh, so he just meant to read out my profile. I couldn't believe he gave such a dramatic build-up for that. I was a little annoyed, but he wasn't finished.

" ...whose happy normal life took a weird turn due to something that happened a week ago, an accident perhaps. It's been giving you nightmares and sleepless nights ever since.", said Dr. Mishra with a smile.

WTF!

I was literally out of words. I stared at him in utter disbelief. How in hell!

"Ha, don't look at me like I did some witchcraft. I just observed", he said, "You see the very first thing I did when you walked into this room today was to go through your social media pages. And I saw a confident and carefree individual who took too much pride in his appearance.

But the man who walked into my office today wore wrinkled clothes with messy hair and an ungroomed face. The dark circles around your eyes say you've been staying up at night.

Being a photographer, you regularly update your social media pages with your photographs, but your last post was seven days ago. Something must've happened a week ago that turned your whole life upside down.

Lastly, with that band-aid on your forehead and the still mildly visible bruising on your wrist, an accident wasn't a hard guess at all."

Damn! They had told me that he was good. But this was extraordinary. I was impressed.

"I'm good at what I do Arvind. You can trust me with whatever you're going through.", assured Dr. Mishra. "So an accident, was it ?"

"Yes.", I replied.

"Now don't stop at that. You're doing really well.", he encouraged me. "Go ahead."

"I... I don't...", I was still struggling to put it all out before him. My mind was a mess.

"He...He's following me. He has been following me ever since.", I didn't realize it then, but I was sweating profusely. My whole body was shivering. "I don't know what he wants. It wasn't even my fault. He knows it too. But ...but... He won't just leave me alone"

"Hey Arvind...Relax my man! It's all right.", Dr. Mishra offered me a glass of cold water which I refused. Even though things i said hardly made sense, Dr. Mishra tried his best to understand. "Arvind, if someone's blackmailing you about the accident, there are many things we can do. You don't need to worry so much. I've some good connections in the police department. I'm sure I can get you ..."

"What the hell are you talking about? You don't understand anything. None of you ever will." I was screaming. "It wasn't my fault. The roads were slippery and... and... that deer! it came onto me out of nowhere. I had to slam my breaks. What other option did I have? And how was I supposed to know? I... I'll... I don't..."

It felt like something snapped inside my head. I forced my eyes to open, but everything went blurry. I tried to stand up, but I felt lightheaded. I tried to grab onto whatever that was near me to stop myself from collapsing on the ground.

A sense of fear and panic enveloped me, as everything around me went cold. I didn't fall on the floor. I felt ice-cold-snow beneath me. I was lying on the side of that road, just like seven days ago. But this time around, he came near me. Even with the blear in my eyes, I could see him staring at me.

"What do you need from me? I didn't kill you that day. I didn't. It was an accident. I'm sorry...I couldn't do anything..."

That's the last thing I remember, before I blacked out.