There was a purple haze veiling the room and one inhalation of the substance made Mina's mind blur. She stepped around the half-naked bodies, not quite sure what to make of them. She was only looking for one person, and she hoped hard that he would know what she needed to do. She dodged a large copper bowl of spilled fruit. She could see someone, a man, in the dark, sitting up. A tall, ornate hookah sat to the right of him. He was smoking it slowly, a trail of thick smoke exiting his nostrils. That had to be him. She could picture it now: "This is what you must do, Mina. Here is some money and a map. I will give you all the support you need." She quickened her pace, barely noticing the neck she almost tripped over. She mumbled an apology. "I missed you, my friend. Things have not been the same here..." Optimism bloomed, the first positive emotion since she had initially set out on this godforsaken task.
As she neared, the clouds parted outside, allowing bright, white sun to filter in from a high window. A lacework pattern lit up a dark face and murky green eyes blinked at her. "Kalidas," Mina exhaled. She smiled nervously, taking him in and waiting for him to reply. Two thick black eyebrows rose subtly and those heavy-lidded eyes blinked again. Mina pushed back her hair and smiled again. There was a woman playing a violin lazily at Kalidas' left. She stopped when he lifted his hand. "Can I help you?" he asked, his voice low and gravelly, as though he had just woken up from a deep sleep. Mina watched his face, searching for some sort of recognition in his part. But all she could see was a cobwebbed stare on that handsome face. Those eyes were the color of the dregs of a pond and they were drugged to apathy.
"What happened to you?" she asked, horrified. This was not the same person from her childhood. A vision passed behind her eyes, a glimpse of a memory--it was them playing by a lake, near the ruins of an old, algae-covered temple in the hot summer sun. Kalidas looking back at her, his face bright, before jumping into the cold water. Mina blinked.
"Do I know you?" She flinched at these words. She had been dreading them.
"It's me, Mina. I'm back. I'm here to help you...and I was hoping you could help me, too," she babbled. His expression didn't change.