Arshi OS (or) Adni OS : YOU ARE MINE ......

You are MINE ...

Hi. Are you coming here (or) should I come there?

Chandni read the message and smiled. So, this is what he did !!

Chandni lived alone in an high rise apartment in Mumbai. Her parents were dead and she dint have many friends. She was working for a call centre and returned home at odd times. That left her sleeping at a time when the whole world was awake and running; and working at a time when the whole world slept peacefully.

Recently she broke up with her boyfriend. Arnav was very possessive about her but sometimes manhandled her too. He knew she had nowhere else to go. When it came to lovemaking he was the best, but when he turned physically abusive, it was too much to handle. The bruises would take days to vanish. One fine day she called it quits. He hurt her further by saying that he was only using her for 'pleasure'.

She felt all the more heartbroken, lonely and sad after that. Life seemed to have come to a standstill. She cried bitterly on many nights.

Her favourite timepass is to watch her opposite building apartments. In Mumbai, where there is so much of space constraints, the buildings were constructed so close to each other, that you can actually watch the movements of others in the opposite buildings.

There are so many apartments on each floor that you can actually feel like you are watching a movie or surfing a TV channel !! You get to watch live performances and live audiences - each, very different from one another...

So, an old widow enjoy Valentine's Day all by herself; Father next floor brings in a new girlfriend and sends his kindergarten son inside to study; 5 bachelors are enjoying cricket on V-Day; college pairs in the parking lot and stairs of each floor kissing and hugging each other with lots of bouquets and heart-shaped balloons; a newly married couple making it out without bothering to close the curtains; middle-aged couples fighting as usual; Mother feeding a baby; and a handsome boy waving at me... WHAT?

Chandni looked up from her binocular. Did he just wave at ME? She looked again into the binocular.

He was drinking a hot cup of coffee or something. He raised his cup from the saucer as if to raise a toast for her, smiled and then took a sip. He sure looked very handsome in his pyjamas and his ruffled hair. She smiled back awkwardly, having got caught peeping into others' privacy.

He gestured something and she dint understand. He wrote on a paper and held it out closer to the window. He knew that she was holding a binocular. It read "Happy Valentine's Day". She smiled back mouthing "Thank You". He smiled again.

That's how it started. Initially it was just courtesy smiles. A few days of such exchange and warming up, one day he gestured "call" with this right hand. I pointed to my mobile and waved my hand that I don't know his number. Ping. I received a message from an unknown number, which was not spammed. The incoming message read "Hi, Advay here".

Oh, he got my number from my security... Smart! I replied "Hi".

His messages were very decent, unlike Arnav's slangs / abbreviations / dirty / abusive words. Messages turned into courtesy calls and then long calls of discussing deep personal things. Unlike Arnav, Advay never insisted on meeting me, but I could sense his possessiveness and jealousy, rather a spark of anger whenever I spoke to guys from my office - especially my boss Pratam. He would simply reply "You are MINE; only MINE... Nobody can have a right on you". When I laughed, the message came "I like it when I make you laugh... and it makes you look good".

Advay always had this effect on me. To avoid feeling lonely, I always slept with my lights on. He would suggest to put the lights off and behave normal like others. His message would say "Imagine I am watching over you". I would imagine that he is an Angel sitting next to me, holding my hand or sitting in a corner of the room watching over me. At times, when I cant get sleep at night, suddenly he would message "I know you are awake. Talk to me".

It was as if he was my soulmate and understood everything I felt. He replied "You're my soulmate and I will follow you even in the afterlife". I smiled.

One day, I came home crying when I received his call. My curtains were closed... Then how did he know I was crying? He was always telepathic.

"Whats wrong?" His words were always short, but laced with care. He had a deep, husky voice that would put anybody in instant comfort. I told him that Pratam tried to touch me inappropriately when he called me to his cabin to speak about my promotion. He said - "I will take care".

I cried bitterly.. why should this happen only to me? I felt all alone. He messaged "imagine I am right there beside you, stroking your hair to sleep". He didn't say "imagine hugging you, kissing you" etc. Sure enough, I felt better after reading it. I imagined that someone is stroking my hair lovingly. It was a cold chill night and I slept peacefully, warm inside .

From next day, Pratam kept his distance from me... even scared of me... I couldn't hold my curiosity. I asked Advay to tell me EXACTLY what he did. That's when he sent me that message that you read in the 1st line. I laughed holding my stomach after such a long time... God, is Advay even capable of scaring someone?!?!

The incident got me really closer to him. I started respecting him even more. Today is Valentine's Day. He has invited me to his apartment for Lunch today. When I hesitated, he mockingly threatened me "Are you coming here (or) should I come there?".
Its been a year since I first saw him. Obviously, I had to accept. Let me also see how my future home is... I smiled to myself.

I went to his building, pressed the elevator button, and reached his apartment. The door opened and he gave me a warm smile saying "Welcome". He looked more handsome upclose. The room smelt of flowers and he had an overdose of cologne on him. I couldn't withstand his brown eyes staring and melting me up... I couldn't concentrate on anything other than him. We spent the afternoon sharing our likes, dislikes, ambitions, insecurities and a lot many things under the sky. Love and marriage included. He said "I will follow you even in the afterlife".

Very cute. I smiled shyly. I left an hour after Lunch, having done "everything". Suddenly, life had a meaning and a purpose.

I came out of the elevator and was walking out of the building when the security's voice stopped me. He had gone for lunch, when I came in. He asked me to enter the apartment number I had been to, in the ledger. He looked shockingly at me when I wrote "1303". He asked "Which Apartment?". I repeated.

He looked shocked and I looked puzzled. He said that the apartment has been locked for many months now.

"There must be a mistake... I just had lunch with him... and he opened the apartment from inside. See..." I tried to show him the selfies taken by us and realized that only I am there in all the pictures. He was not sure whether I have gone mad or I have really visited the apartment. He took me again to Apartment 1303 for confirmation. There was a lock on that door and it sure looked rusted.

The security opened the door and we walked in. A stench filled the air. We covered our nose. There's a noose hanging from the fan, spider webs hanging on all doors and windows of all rooms (a sign that they haven't been open for months), an aluminium carton of some stale food not eaten for months and rats feeding on them, a sofa-cum-bed with the sponge pulled out by rats, clothes strewn everywhere with dust on them...

BUT I HAD BEEN HERE A FEW MINUTES BEFORE...AND I... HE... I tried to recollect things I had seen in the apartment and I couldn't...

"The owner Advay was a man of few words. He kept to himself mostly. They say that he was in love with a girl and he stalked her. Initially she also liked him and they were like thick friends or whatever. Then, suddenly she started distancing herself. When she didn't reciprocate his feelings, he just killed her and killed himself too. Weird guy" - He said while locking the apartment.

Shocked by the turn of events, I reached my apartment and tried to recollect all events from the time I saw him. My heartbeats were pitching like richter scale 5.

Did he say "Sadness and Loneliness" attracts ghosts???... Was I not in that stage when he first saw? He was in the opposite building apartment and he knew I was crying even when the curtains were CLOSED... He had a husky voice - Was it comforting voice or spooky? Now, in the aftermath, it sounded spooky.

In the aftermath, everything seems to fall in place... he was stalking me, he was sitting in my room in the nights, he had been watching me everyday and every night, he had indeed touched my hair, he had threatened Pratam with his paranormal haunting and SMS... Oh, the messages ?

Thankfully, his number is from the same telecom industry I am working for. I immediately contacted my friend and asked her to send me all details of Advay's number. She said "Are you crazy? This number has not been touched since 1.8 years. No communication has initiated from this number either by calls or by SMS..."

I dropped the mobile in shock. No wonder Pratam looked scared ... Even he would have checked out the number details.

I gasped in horror when the mobile alarmed "Call from Advay".

Should I pick up or should I not? He never misbehaved with me; never spoke in obscene or abusive language. But he did stalk me... But he did threaten me to come to his apartment... Will he be a Casper or will he be a haunting Freddy Crooger?

He called me soulmate... he spoke about living in the afterlife... Will he kill me too if I distance myself like his girlfriend??? Will he collect my soul at any cost? She panicked and breathing became rapid and heavy.

With hands and heart highly palpitating, she held her heart in the mouth when she picked up the call and shakingly said "Hello"...

The other end said huskily "Are you coming here (or) should I come there?"

[The End]

(AUTHOR'S NOTE : Hi, This is a One Shot Story. Please do share how you felt about this Techno-Romance-Thriller in the Comments section below. If you liked it, please do Vote for it. Thanks.)

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