The Gift - 6 - Moment of Truth

They ate their dinner in silence and the keyboard on the table just sat there like some animal shamed into silence. There was an animalistic glow about the keyboard and all that Razvik wanted to do was tap on its keys and write something amazing and disastrous with it. He didn't do any of that. Had Wazif not been present at the table, he might have risked a tap on the keyboard. Elina might have stopped him, but he was ready to take her on if it meant that he'd be able to spend time with the keyboard. 

He was lost in these thoughts when he realized that the other two had stopped eating and they were looking at him.

"Did you really say all that, buddy?" Wazif had a half-eaten chicken bone in his hand and now it was pointed at Razvik like it was some kind of accusatory finger. 

"No offense people, but this keyboard just looks too tempting."

"You want to type on it?" Elina asked.

"I sure as fuck do. You heard me thinking out loud."

Elina nodded as she put a piece of chicken back on her plate and wiped her hands with a table cloth.

"Fair enough. It's your gift and we are nobody to hold you back."

She got up from the table. "I'll hook up the keyboard to a screen."

"Fuck yeah!" Razvik raised his hand to Wazif but the big man still shooting him angry glances and Razvik had to make his high five into a half-hearted air pump gesture. 

Elina set up a screen on one of the walls of the hut and connected the keyboard to the screen. The screen blacked out and a blinking green cursor appeared on the screen. Razvik had a grin on his face and his fingers felt like they were going to tear off from his hands and start writing on the keyboard by themselves. 

"All yours," Elina motioned him towards the keyboard and Razvik didn't need to be told twice.

He placed his fingers on the home keys and his mind went blank. He had been looking forward to this but now when the moment of truth was in front of him, he didn't know what to type. He felt a cold circle of steel, the unmistakable shape of a gun barrel, press in the back of his neck. 

"Better start typing," Elina said, "or I'll paint the screen with your brains."

---

One or two more.

The Gift - 5 - This Guy is Different

The hut was small but somehow it had ample space for a table with three chairs around it. The black man was busy at the pot, cooking the chicken he had chopped into small pieces. He told Razvik to set up the table for three. There were plates and spoons in a cupboard at the back wall and Razvik busied himself with setting up the table as he kept thinking about the girl from the market.

Elina. That was her name. As beautiful as she was. While they prepared, the black man, Wazif, told Razvik about Elina. How she was tasked with taking care of all those who came to get their gifts. There had been people before, but they all got lost in the forest. Razvik was the first one to reach the hut. And I followed only my sense of direction, thought Razvik.

There was sound of footsteps near the door of the hut and Elina walked in, silhouetted by the sun behind her, framing her hair in a golden halo. She had a package in her hand. It was the keyboard that Razvik had left somewhere back in the room.

She put the keyboard on the table where plates were arranged for dinner. She pulled a chair, sat down and held her face in her hands.

"Is everything okay?" Wazif asked her.

"This," she pointed at the keyboard, "and him, she pointed at Razvik, "are everything that is wrong."

"This guy is different, Wazif. He is not like anyone who's come through before."

"I told him that already," Wazif said as he brought a cooking pot to the table and started filling the plates with cooked chicken.

The keyboard sat in the middle of the table, unattended. The three sat around it and ate. They'd deal with the keyboard later. Razvik knew there were important things in life, but he was hungry and food never tasted any better than in this weird place.

------------

It ends in next part.

Been fighting a funky state of mind. But i'll finish this story before i blow my fuse.

The Gift - 4 - Jungle Lunch

Razvik opened his eyes in a new and strange place. 

He was lying on his back, staring up at the sky, with trees flanking the sides of his vision. He got up on his elbows and looked around. It was a forest, for sure. The grass was green and wet under his hands and the wetness was soaking into his clothes. He got up to his feet and looked around like a lost dog. He had never in his life seen a forest so lush and wide. The trees were so green that it hurt his eyes to look at them for more than a few seconds. He saw something move in foliage.

"Hey, who's there?"

It seemed too much of a repeat of what he had said in the room where the girl had given him the keyboard. He knew he had grappled with some kind of mystical shit and he had no right to be where he was right now, but here he was. Out of his wits and out of his understanding. He didn't want to do anything with whatever this was, but he had no choice. He shouldn't have pressed that key on the keyboard.

He chose a direction at random and started walking. There must be a way out of this forest. There were random chirps of birds that he couldn't have recognized even if he had any interest in bird watching. He came up to a small block of black stone that was too big to avoid. He walked over it and kept walking. The forest kept talking at him with the forest voices and everything that it had to throw at the man. Razvik didn't mind. The hut loomed in view ahead of him. It was a simple hut. Clean walls topped by a thatched roof made from sticks and stones. There was no door to knock on the hut, just a bead curtain that jingles and jangles in the jungle air. He pushed it aside and walked in.

The black man from the market was sitting there. He had a bloody meat cleaver in his hand. The black man raised the cleaver up in the air, a stray ray of sunlight made a dancing dervish pattern on the dirty steel, and he brought it down with a solid thwack that separated another piece of meat from whatever he was cutting.

He looked up from his table and saw Razvik frozen in his step. He was not sure whether to run the fuck away from here or walk in and say hi.

The black man looked at him and his face erupted into a grin that looked like an alien worm on his face.

"Razvik! Brother!"

His voice was surprisingly gentle and cultured for someone who looked like a prison escapee.

"Hi," Razvik managed to croak out.

"I've been waiting for you," he said as he put down the bloody cleaver and wiped his hands on his blood stained apron. 

"Come in, come in. I was just cleaning the chicken for lunch. Elina is also coming."

Razvik's heart skipped a beat.

---

I have no idea where this is going, but i am going to find out!

The Gift - 3 - The Room With The Girl

Razvik felt like he was choking. Even though he was not. 

The bag on his head only added to his feeling of claustrophobia. 

He was being carried. Through the hustle and bustle of the market. Then, the sounds of the market drifted away and there was only sporadic sounds of the market, as if somewhere far away. Someone slammed him down in a chair and put his hands on a table in front of him. 

Then, silence.

The bag was lifted from his head and the brightness of the room hurt his eyes. He winced and put his hands up to shield his eyes. There was someone standing in the doorway, silhouetted by the light coming from outside. 

"Hello?" Razvik called out.

And the girl from the shopping market walked in. She was wearing an office skirt and a coat and the sight of her made Razvik forget all his fear and pain for that time.

"Hi," she said as she walked towards him, like an angel from the doors of heaven. He felt himself falling and rising in love once again.

She had a package in her hand.

"You dropped this in the market."

"What is this? And what happened in the market there? Those guys, who were they?"

"Look," she bent down and looked into his eyes, "I really don't have the time to explain this. Just open the packet and get cracking and you might get to see me again. I have to go now."

There were loud sounds beyond the room and the girl looked up and with concern writ large on her face. 

"I have to go,Razvik. Open the package. Do what it says."

"But, wait, I've to get back to my office!"

"There is no office, dude. Not anymore. Open the package."

Her voice drifted off as she ran towards the door and slammed it shut on her way out.

Razvik was left in the room with the package. He started to tear open the paper that covered it. He tore the paper off the box and opened it. The keyboard slid out of the box like something alive.

A small screen popped up from the top of the keyboard. 

"Press any key" flashed on the screen.

Razvik pressed ESC.

And the world around him exploded.

-------------

More more more

The Gift - 2 - Love In The Market

"I want to fuck you."

The words tumbled out of his mouth before his mind could reign them in. He stood in a minor shock, waiting for her to slap him. She put a hand on her mouth and started to giggle.

"I'm so sorry. Oh god, i am so fucking sorry," Razvik mumbled, color rose in his cheeks and the words he spoke were a mumbled mess.

"It's okay," she smiled back at him, "I've heard worse than that. Happens to everyone who sees me for the first time."

He smiled at her stupidly, there was something about her that was making him lose all reason and thought, like getting drunk through his eyes. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. There was something about a keyboard and the apps on his phone. 

The gift!

"Ah, um, i am here for a gift...I got an email...GPS...stuff. Would you like go with me to my house and ..."

He bit his tongue before he could speak further. She giggled again. The sound was like wind chimes tinkling on the first day of summer. He was so hard in love. He wanted to love her so badly that no one would love her like that again. His vision blurred and his words slurred. This was bad. This was good. Like a shot of expensive whisky. He had never felt like this before.

She disappeared from his vision, going behind a curtain and his vision cleared at once. The sounds of the market that he had not noticed before came back to him. The smells and sights and colors and chaos, attacked his senses. He had to get out of this place. He looked for the door where he had come in from, but there were so many people everywhere, dressed in as colorful and outlandish clothes as possible. He felt like he was in a kaleidoscopic dream.

"Hey! I am talking to you, boy!" The rough voice was calling out to him and it belonged to an even rougher man. The black man stood easily a foot and half above Razvik's height. He had a ring through his right nostril and a chain went up from the ring and ended through his ear.

"This is for you," he growled and slammed a package on the table in front of him.

Razvik picked up the package and looked up at the monstrous man. "There was a girl here, I was talking to her just now."

"My sister," the black man snarled.

"Bye." Razvik managed to squeak out and moved into the crowd of people around him. He started to walk in the general direction  of where he thought the exit to the market was, but he was back the same table, with the black man glaring down at him. 

The people started to notice him. He was dressed differently and he was carrying a shiny package under his arm. They started to move away from him. He looked around desperately for the exit, but everything was the same in all directions.

Then someone put a bag over his head and his world became black.

--

Might have typos, but right now, i want to know what happens next.