The Carved

When there opened an art museum near my home, visiting every week became a routine. Among any piece of art, sculptures of human figures have always fascinated me. Envisioning them coming to life, I used to stare at them for hours. Rather than understanding the message that sculptor tried to convey, I gazed in their delicately carved eyes in hope of seeing them blink. But "Science and Logic" the biggest enemies of my supernatural fantasies never made it possible. Regardless how accurately they were made, still remained lifeless. I didn't possess any talent for making them. It was just amusing to look at something so human-like but nothing human-like at the same time.

This was all about my life till I was 19, I lived loving sculptures. But not even in my wildest imaginations had I ever thought that I would actually become one.

I will start telling my story but first I gotta end somebody else's.

Year 2001, My hometown "Willsden" is located in the south of Tohana province. Its quiet and clean environment makes it an ideal place to reside in. At the very center of this town, stands the statue of Queen Saha, the only Queen who ever got to rule the country following the demise of the king. She has her arms opened and looking up heavenwards, wearing a gorgeous gown with a beautiful neckline. Color of the gown can't be tell as from its head to toe, the statue is gray. But having even the most tiniest details carved, it looked as exquisite as if the queen herself was standing there. Under the moonlight, the beauty of this statue vanquishes that of the moon itself. But whether it's this statue or the moon, there's something that their beauty alone cannot buy them...Life.

A chilly and foggy winter dawn, nothing is clearly visible except a faint light that is seen coming towards it, slowly getting brighter and brighter...a truck. A middle-aged man, dozing off sitting on the driver seat, probably returning after working overnight.

The truck comes rushing towards the statue, and dashes against it. The forever motionless statue shook and cracks started developing all over it. After standing there for centuries, it collapsed and crumbled. The man driving the truck, gets off. Every single bone one has in the body could break, such a loud collision it was but the man feels surprisingly fine.

He takes a deep breath and looks at the statue, "Oh God! what have I done?"

Out of nowhere, a cry in a meek voice was heard by him..."Is anybody here?." After looking around for a bit, he caught the sight of an infant lying between the broken pieces of the statue.

A baby boy, barely the size of his hand. "Since when is he here? I hope he's not hurt."

Frightened him, sees a car coming from the "other side". "Help needed here!" he cries.

The car was heading towards him, one moment everything around him was blurry and another he was blinded by a dazzling light. The headlights of the car were exceptionally bright, shiny black was its color and "Ride In Peace" the number plate said. The car with a squealing noise of brakes stopped in front of him. The driver sticks his head out of the window. "Get in," he says.

"There's a baby lying there, I will get him"

The man turns back to help but something else takes his attention away...His own body lying inside the truck, his head was bleeding, neck was snapped backwards. There was no way that someone in that condition could be alive.

"Get in! we are getting late," The driver asked the man again.

The man having no words to say, with an absolutely blank face, got in. Sitting inside the car, a rush of memories came and overwhelmed him. Thinking about his lifetime for one last time, a tear rolled down his cheek, fell down from the chin and vanished into thin air. The first day of the college where he met the love of his life, the day he got married with her, the first time his daughter called him "Dad" and other memories that made him want to live a little longer.

What are we waiting for? let's go," The man asks the driver.

"We are waiting for...Oh! There she comes."

Out of the window, the man sees a woman walking towards the car from the place where the statue once stood. She is the Queen, colour of her beautiful dress is violet by the way. She gets in and the car departed for their last journey to the afterlife. And a few seconds later it disappeared into the fog.

By the time the sun broke over the horizon, all that could be seen on the empty road was a dead man lying in a truck, a new-born baby that nobody knows where has come from and scattered pieces of a statue.

Year 1712,

In the centre of the town, people gathered summoning the most dexterous sculptor of the Kingdom,

"The Queen wasn't even eighteen when the king passed away."

"Her hand was asked in marriage from the royals of neighbouring kingdom but she embraced the life of a widow in such a young age."

"Not just that, despite her being the only queen to ever ascend the throne, our country has never been this prosperous."

"Our Queen is great, we want you to carve her on the rock that is only found near the holy 'Agile River'. I've heard that rock glows gorgeously when the moonlight falls on it."

Being hailed by her people, Queen Saha was the greatest of all time.

"A statue of a Queen? She is only incharge until the prince is not the right age to rule." Said the old witch Zeniya, secret admirer of the late king envied her.

"Are you here? Give me a sign."

Every grimoire that was stacked in the case trembled at the spell she recited to call the dead king.

Heap of salt that was placed in the front was blowed to particles by the storm that came rushing in from the broken glass of the window.

"You're here, my lord!"

Footprints appeared on the floor, the soul was leading the witch to somewhere. She trailed the path of those prints, it took her passing through the forest and crossing the river by the wooden bridge in a cave deep inside the forest.

"My lord! Where is this place? What did you lead me here for?" The witch asked the invisible.

Looking for the answer, taking a close look at every tree, Zeniya caught the sight of a man walking on the bridge back and forth. She went closer. The man flashed a smile looking at someone coming out of the bushes. She came running into his brace.

"Queen! With her lover. Bwahahah!" Zeniya cackled.

Seeing the Queen with her lover, the old witch blinded by vengeance was determined to deteriorate her life. Next day, the witch started to spread the words about the Queen's affair.

The people who once were devoted to their queen, were now one by one turning against her.

"What a disgrace on the name of our late king, she has to be punished!"

The little prince who was next in line to ascend the throne was crowned. The Queen was exiled to a deserted island and her lover was executed. The Queen was later forgiven for her father was a man with power and influence. The witch who wanted the Queen to be punished was again vengeful.

After knowing about the execution of her love, the grief-stricken queen did not want to live any longer and went to the wooden bridge where she met him for the last time. She was wanting to end her life to reunite with her lover in the heavens. But their fate had decided something else for them.

The full moon shone brightly in the night sky. The sound that the insects made were making it probably the most beautiful night the queen had ever seen. But without the love of her life, nature's beauty made her even more sad. When she was about jump off the bridge, the old witch showed up with a mirror covered by a black cloth

"Death is a luxury for you, you deserve to live while longing and grieving like I did," Said the evil witch and pulled the cloth off the mirror.

The mirror reflected the light of the full moon and the queen looked at her reflection for a moment...she was turning into stone, her soft and delicate skin was changing into gray hard stone that was shining as the moonlight was falling on it. Before turning into the stone completely she looked up towards the moon and closed her eyes, in that very position she remained until the transition was completed.

The statue of the Queen became talk of the town when nobody knew where the real queen disappeared to?

"Who could have made this?"

"This looks astonishing,"

"Does anyone know where the queen actually is?"

The Sculptor who was asked to make the statue claimed that it was made by him. The Queen remained as the part of people's gossips and a girl who loved remained as a body of stone standing at the centre of the town. Some people also say that the Queen sees and listens to things happening around her. She has witnessed everything the town has gone through for centuries. Even in the modern times the queen awaits to be freed by the curse of the witch to be able to die and reunite with her love and find peace.

In 2001, when she was finally freed from the curse, without even knowing that she has left behind a token of love, her child with whom she was pregnant with before she was cursed. A child who literally has "A heart of stone". The child who was in the womb of his mother for centuries because of the spell casted by the witch, all this time later was born with magic in his touch.

___________

"Please tell our viewers, have you really seen it with your own eyes?" The journalist asked.

"Yes, with my own eyes I saw a man walking just fine but after he bumped into a guy, he turned into a statue."

Willsden had these speculative rumours all around. Only statues of people were found leaving no trace of the real self. Amid this all happening, In the year 2021, our hero turned 19.

From a little baby to a tall and good looking guy named Ray Wilson. Finding him as a new born lying beside the broken statue and the dead body of her husband 'Ms Gem Wilson,' the wife of the man died in the accident took him in and raised as her own child. But Ray never behaved like other kids of his age. Aloof demeanor and a mysterious aura always prevented him from getting along with other boys and girls of his age group.

    Him being different made him a part of other kids everyday gossips,

    "He is cute but, ignoring someone wishing a 'good day' is so rude of him."

    "His adoptive sister is missing for last 3 years, do you think it has something to do with him?"

    "He gives out a creepy vibe."

    Having no friends to hang out with, after the college he would take bus straight to home. Sitting by the window, plugging earphones in and his eyes closed the whole time. 10 minutes it took to reach the neighborhood he lives in. Getting off the bus, a walking distance of 5 minutes and he gets home where he lives with his adoptive mother and sister who mysteriously went missing 3 years ago.

    "Ray, wanna catch a movie together." Says Jeff,

His neighbour and the only friend he has, atleast that's what Jeff considers him to be "a friend," but Ray being Ray,

     "Sorry, I am busy."

Jeff, the obese young boy with many insecurities regarding his looks, attracts the people's ridicule and mockery. Ray treated him different which made the lonely Jeff believe that he was his friend. He tries to get closer to Ray only for him to turn him down everytime.

Whenever Ms Wilson hears the clicking of the doorknob, she rushes out thinking her missing daughter is finally home.

   "Its me, mom," says Ray with a sigh.

   "Of course I know it's you, how was your day?"

    Ray would spend most of his time alone in the dark basement beneath the out garage. Opens a door out to a pitch dark corridor, turns the phone's flash light on descending the stairs. The old staircase squeakes on every single step he takes. Comes down in a dark room with a faint bulb lit, sits on a chair probably a century old which creaked as he sat.

    With a pen he writes in the journal he keeps "Today was no different, will tomorrow come with a hope?" and closes the journal with a thud. In a corner of that room where the light didn't reach, holding the flash in his hands, he approached. There he had three human figured statues placed. From a middle school girl to a man in his 60s, the statues had every wrinkle and hair strand distinctively carved.

    "Are you guys doing fine here? I will change this flickering light bulb by tomorrow," He says looking at lifeless statues.

    After spending his evening there talking with them and pondering deep in his thoughts, he comes back upstairs to have dinner about which he is not picky at all,

    "uhh eww! Dear, it has no salt in it and you finished it already?" Ms Wilson says tasting the food.

    "It was fine, thanks," he goes back to the basement with leftover food and leaves it there...But for whom?

_______

"I am sorry that you had to leave your home, but I promise this town will never let you miss the city life." Grandma said.

"If not for you, we would've gone homeless."

After living all my life in city, a town with relatively less population and pollution sounds good. Following the death of our parents in an accident, grandma brought me and my brother all the way to Willsden.

I didn't introduce myself, right? I am Liv Mathews. I live in the same neighborhood and attend the same college as Ray. And soon our fates are going to get tangled with each other.

"It's okay! I will manage on my own. I am not a child," I insisted.

"You don't know anyone here, let me introduce you to someone. It's your first day in college." Grandmothers are impossible to win against.

"Excuse me!" She asked a guy who had me falling for his looks already.

"Hello!" He greeted her.

"You're the son of Gem, right. She is my granddaughter, new to this town. Please introduce her to your friends. She was always an outcast for her personality."

"I was never an outcast."

While walking together through the locker corridors, I asked his name.

"My name...Ray Wilson,"

Told him mine, although he didn't ask,

"Liv Mathews,"

Asked his major,

"I am sorry, but I am an outcast myself. I didn't want to sound rude when aunty requested...So, you should find someone else to show you around, Sorry."

He has a knack for turning down people over nothing. "Being a loner suits you," I mumbled.

A phone call I recieved made me delighted and equally tensed, My twelve year old brother Ian was going to have the heart transplant surgery we were waiting for almost five years now. My brother born with a heart condition and after the untimely death of our parents, his condition worsened. Him having difficulty breathing for a last few weeks is an alarming symptom. Further delay in the transplant can be life threatening.

"Sorry to inform but we can't proceed to the transplant, the donor's heart is too big for the patient." The doctor said.

Faking an "everything's fine" smile on our dejected faces, we went inside the ward he was admitted in.

"After the surgery you won't stop me from playing soccer with my friends, right?" He said it with such innocence that our eyes brimmed with tears.

"I won't," I said and preventing the overflow of tears from my eyes in front of him, I walked outside the hospital towards the main road.

A busy road, from a bicycle to a truck everything passes by with a whoosh. Of course there is a traffic signal, changing its color every minute. But what if when the singal is red and I, instead of staying behind decides to cross it anyways. Yes, It's a stupid idea, so a car comes rushing and runs over me. Will Ian be able to get a heart if I die?

"This may be the only way he can live a life that he always wanted."

All I could see was my brother lying there in need of a heart. Right now thinking about that moment, I realise how foolish was. I don't want to love anybody more than my life, It only makes you pathetic.

Taking a step further towards the road, I was determined to meet uncle grim reaper that day...but then a hand grabbing my arm pulls me away and dragged me from the busy road to a quite and lonely street. My phone dropped from my hands.

"Are you in your sane mind?" He said with a crease stick on his forehead. I looked at him, he had this intense look on his face and his eyes so deep that after taking a glance once I couldn't stop looking at them.

And then taking a step away from me, He looked at my body from head to toe. His lips muttered the words, "Damn, not again!"

The next moment I checked myself, my body was slowly turning into stone.

First, I felt numbness in my feet. I couldn't move them, then slowly it reached till my waist. My hands tried to reach the guy but before they could, they froze in that very position. By the time I could ask him "whats going on?" I couldn't move my mouth but I could still see and hear things around me.

"I am sorry" the guy said as if he was aware that what just happened to me has something to do with him, as if it was not his first time. I was scared, tried to run but could not even move, I tried to shout but couldn't even move my lips. Just stood there with my hands in trying to reach him position.

He picked up my phone from the ground and put it in his pocket. He took his jacket off and covered my face with it. I couldn't see anything from then. He carried me in his arms and took me to the hospital parking lot, while I didn't have any choice other than getting "carried away".