BLURRED LINES

Vikram dealt with the night life of his city daily. As a hardworking engineer, the only joy he knew was drinking with his friends. He had to meet them at a pub few streets away from his house. He usually went back home after a few drinks, but today his friend Ajay got a promotion at his job so he was forced to drink some more. Later that night before leaving Ajay gave everyone some cigarettes saying, "This is not your everyday cigarette boys, it has magical properties...don't smoke them all tonight." and laughed loud enough for everyone in the pub to hear him. All of his friends gave it back to him saying he was crazy, except Vikram. He kept two in his pocket and walked away saying goodbye to his friends. Ajay later called him and said, "seriously mate, don't smoke it all! "

It was 2 a.m. in the morning. He kept thinking about that cigarette, what would happen if he smoked it. He took out the matchbox and lit the cigarette. He looked at it for a second before smoking. Nothing felt different for a while, but then it hit him. His head felt like it was floating in the water, his body was like jelly and all his bones felt weak at once and he fell down like a puppet without the strings. But it was the best feeling in the world. All the streetlights were swirling and mixing with each other like they were alive, the street was like waves at the beach. He picked himself up and started walking. The blinking neon lights appeared to him as incandescent birds dancing around colouring the dark night sky with pink and blue lines. This time he sat down in a park and smoked the second cigarette completely. He passed out for a minute but then woke up and started walking. Everything in front of him was blurred and bright. He wasn't feeling so well now, maybe Ajay was right. His head started aching, the car honks were like a bee's sting in his ears. He started to see weird things before him like a man with the head of a cat, ten-foot-tall woman with a snake head riding a unicycle and a group of small four-inch people with mouse heads repairing a tiny car.
He started freaking out and rushed to his house. He slept for a while hoping that the effects of the drug will wear off by morning. A call from his boss woke him up. It was 11 a.m. in the morning. Afraid that he might lose his job, he rushed out his house without even changing his clothes. He opened the door only to find that everything was same as last night. There were people with animal heads. He could not move for a while, then he ran towards the mirror in his house. He had the head of an owl.

Still believing the effects of the drugs would wear off, he went to his office where he was fired by his
boar headed boss. He knew the solution to this weird drug was with Ajay. He called Ajay only to be more confused by him saying, "What are you smoking mate, we haven't met since last month and me getting a promotion in this dead end job, forget about it ! It was nice meeting you man, don't do drugs." Vikram went to his home and cried his lungs out. He couldn't understand which life was real. Has he been an owl his whole life and the human face was a dream or vice-versa? He was stuck between two realities, a blurred line in existence, never to know the truth.