I hope you're doing well. It has been a long time since we last saw each other, yet it feels like it was only yesterday that we first met. Time is a weird thing; scientists say that it's relative, but I think it's just a trick our minds play on us.

You lived in a sprawling house - With a beautiful little balcony.

Over the years, Shehreen often found herself looking towards her Nani when in confusion or distress. With Shehreen's Dad's untimely demise and her Mom's demanding work schedule, much of Shehreen's childhood passed in the company of her Nani.

Where are you taking me, oh Lord of the universe?

Perhaps it was forever scrunched into a few moments, or a few moments stretched to infinity; which one was true I didn't know, neither did it matter, all that mattered was now, or at least what seemed like the present – the vast endlessness laid out in front of me.

“Meow,” I protested. But my tiny squeal of protest came to no avail as Anika handed me to a sullen-looking, lanky boy whose eyes were as tiny as my paws but certainly not as cute.

She looked on confused. She did not know what she was looking at, but she could tell that her eyes were not playing tricks on her. This was not the real world. But she questioned herself how she got here.

Tonight I shall tell you, the story of that time

Entire life pans out in front of me

It is the Dark Diamond that is glossy, glaring and stiff but very disguised. It wants to grab the whole ecstasy of the world. This diamond is very devious, sometimes deleterious.

Aryan woke up to another terrible day. It was terrible before it even began, because it was an obvious inevitability. Life was terrible, and I was Aryan. Or maybe Aryan was me, and torturing me with his life; I couldn't tell the difference.

I was not meant to tell a story —Your story or mine,

As the scrawny 9-year-old told me all about how he played in the hay in his beloved village, he clutched on to my finger like he had known me forever. Brishti, his little sister, tepidly scampered closely behind us as the three of us marched on towards the hospital.

As the wooden doors swung closed behind us I peered up at the patrons. Forkrul was right after all, it was packed in here.

Pearls scattered on the floor, pictures are taped, My walls are painted blue, my nails are red.

My eyes fly open, and I bolt up, my heart still racing. It takes me more than a moment to realise that it had been just a dream. Just. A. Dream.

His breath is the first thing to stir the stale air here in eons. As he lays down on the dusty bench he tries to envision what this place once represented: a sea of expectation and hope.

You can see it in these eyes, I am here no more, Just a hollow vessel lingering, that a soul once bore.

The window itself of the shop is beautiful. Lined by a sliver of golden, the stunning wide glass pane reflects me back.

This was going to be quick. She knew it; it had to be.