She tried to walk as fast as she could, but her stilettos were slowing her down. On one side, the cold wind of the night was freezing her up while on the other, the blood rushing up her neck and face provided some warmth.
Khushi Gupta glanced at her wrist watch and realized that it was already past midnight and cursed herself for refusing to be dropped home by her friend from the late night party she had been to. Instead, she had tried to act smart and taken a cab home. But alas, it had broken down in the middle of nowhere and with no other vehicle in sight, she was forced to walk home, all alone, amidst the eerie darkness surrounding her.
There was a deathly silence prevailing all around her and not a single living soul was to be scene in the vicinity. The only sounds that interrupted the dark silent night was the occasionally hissing of a crawler or the croaking of the frogs.
And to add to it, it was lunar eclipse tonight and the moon had turned blood red, giving the night an even more eerie appearance.
Khushi clutched her purse tightly to her chest and started running forward. Something was wrong around her and she felt a strange uneasy feeling building up inside her.
And suddenly, she heard it, the breaking of a twig behind her and the soft noise was enough to send shivers down her spine. She stopped right in her tracks to turn around, her pulse increasing enormously as she slowly turned around to see who was behind her.
"Who's there?" she whispered, stammering a bit, her breathing getting heavier as each second passed, the beads of sweat trickling down her smooth back. But she couldn't find anyone, or atleast, she didn't see anyone.
Not having any sort of weapon with her, she did the only thing possible to defend herself.
Run.
She removed her stilettos and holding them in her hand, she started running barefoot as fast as possible, not bothered about the tiny stones that pricked her feet. She was scared, alone and defenseless and she was in no mood to die tonight.
But as she began to run, along with her heavy breathing, she heard another set of breathing matching her rhythm right behind her ears and acknowledging its existence, she screamed out with horror, turning back to look at the person behind her.
However, once again she was greeted with no one.
And then she realized that the place where she had ended up didn't have a single source of light. It was pitch black all around her.
Hey Devi Maiyya! Where had she reached?
She couldn't even make out her surroundings. It was completely empty. No trees, no houses, no walls, nothing. As if she had landed on a barren land.
Immediately, she took out her phone from her purse to guide her path with its faint light from the display screen. But to her bad luck, it was switched off after running out of battery.
And then, all of a sudden, she felt something crawl up her leg and she screamed out loudly and furiously stamping her leg, brushing away whatever was on it, she once again began to run, only to collide with something and fall down flat on her face.
"Ow!" she yelped as her head banged something hard, some stone, a marble cold stone to be precise and looking up she realized that she was lying on top of a tombstone.
Terror gripped her entire body as she stood up and realized that she was standing amidst a sea of tombs, the houses of the dead and all of a sudden, she felt a hand crawling on her back.
"Noo….!!!" She screamed out loudly and began to run as fast as she could, not having even an ounce of courage to see whose hand it was. How had she ended up at a graveyard? She had no answer but right now, all that she knew was that she had to run out of it.
She ran and ran, but at the same time, heard a couple of footsteps also following her. The cold chilly wind blew over her face, tickling the sides of her ears and freezing the tears that were now rolling down her terrified eyes.
But the more she ran, the more she went deeper into the graveyard, finding no way out of it.
And then, she collided into some hard thing, a hard chest to be specific and she stood petrified at the spot, her chest heaving with fright, while her eyes blurred with tears. For a second, the eyes that stared right into hers glistened red. But as he bent forward towards her face, they turned molten brown.
"Arnav?" she held his arms, sighing with relief at the sight of one familiar face. She wasn't very close to him, but she had seen him occasionally in her college. He was her senior, but there was something about him that made him stand apart from everyone. He was always silent and reserved and hardly spoke to anyone. But Khushi couldn't deny that his same mysterious persona had drawn her towards him, instilling a kind of infatuation for him.
"I'm lost. I don't know how to get out of this place. Some one is following me." She gasped, leaning forward to hug him.
But suddenly, the warm hands that were holding her, turned freezing cold and alarmed at the rapid change, she looked up at his eyes and found the same molten brown eyes turning blood red.
"You shouldn't have been running away from me. This is your house." He whispered with ghastly eyes and an evil grin and she screamed out closing her eyes, terrified, as his face turned monstrous.
Khushi woke up with a sudden startle, her arms and legs turned cold and pale while sweat pooled under her arms. For a second, she didn't recognize where she was. But soon, the purple walls of her bedroom came in focus and she realized she was in her room at her house. Glancing at the clock on the bedside table, she realized that it was 7 am and that it had only been a nightmare.
But it had felt so real and ghastly and his monstrous face was still printed in her mind.
"It was just a bad dream Khushi." She consoled herself and stepped out of her bed, getting ready to go to her college.
Reaching her college, she realized that it was early and hence, decided to go and submit her college assignment at the chemistry lab in the meantime. There was still an hour for the classes to commence and thus, she could hardly see anyone roaming around in the campus. Walking towards the lab, she suddenly found someone leaning at the door, his back facing her.
"Excuse me." She said, to push open the door and he instantly turned around to face her.
"Arnav?" she gasped, inhaling a huge rush of air, as the image of her nightmare flashed in front of her eyes.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't notice you." He apologized and moved aside to let her open the door.
Khushi glanced at his face nervously and observed that he was silently gazing at her.
"I've seen you glancing at me many times before. Do I interest you?" he spoke in a husky low voice, leaning back on the door once again.
Khushi felt the colour rushing rapidly on her cheeks feeling trapped with his question. Embarrassed at not knowing how to respond, she silently smiled and walked into the lab. Suddenly, she found her arm being yanked from behind and soon found herself landing flat on his chest.
"Well, I find you interesting." He whispered in her ears, tucking the strand of hair lying on her face, behind it, while he grazed his lips at the corner of her jaw, sending shivers down her spine. Khushi closed her eyes with pleasure and excitement, her pulse increasing rapidly at the proximity. But when she opened her eyes to turn around and face him, he was gone. There was absolutely no sign of him anywhere in the room.
Khushi felt her heart stop for a second but realized that she must have closed her eyes for too long and he had freaked out and ran out of the room.
Smilingly, she placed the project on the table and walked out of the lab back to her class.
She was still reminiscing about her earlier encounter when she bumped into her friend Payal at the entrance of her class. Looking up, she noticed a pale stricken face of her friend, as she struggled to say something.
"Payal, what happened? Why are you panicking?" Khushi asked worriedly, holding her friend's shoulder.
"Khushi, don't you know what happened?" Payal managed to ask between her panting.
"What happened?" Khushi began panicking wondering what was wrong.
"Come with me." And saying so, Payal held Khushi's hands and pulled her along the corridor to the other end of the campus.
As Khushi ran along with her, she noticed that they were approaching the boy's hostel and soon, she observed a large crowd assembled at the entrance of the hostel. Both the girls made their way amidst the crowd to reach the centre where all eyes were focused on. She could hear hushed voices as everyone was busy whispering around her. Khushi tried to peep what they were looking at, but her sight was blocked.
"What happened?" she asked a boy standing beside her, curious at what was going on.
"He committed suicide or someone murdered him. I don't know. But they found his body in the morning over here and by the looks of it, he fell down from the terrace." The boy replied, pointing at the terrace located five floors above the hostel.
Khushi clutched her mouth in horror hearing the news. "Who is it?" she asked and without waiting for a reply, she somehow pushed herself into the crowd and reached the centre, only to find the blood drain entirely from her face.
There in front of her, lay Arnav Singh Raizada, sprawled on the floor, as blood pooled all around his body, his eyes lay open in a ghastly manner while his lips curved up in an eerie smile.
No, this can't be happening. It was not possible. Hadn't she just seen Arnav at the lab right now? No, that was definitely Arnav. But as she looked at the body once again, the truth slowly seeped into her veins.
This was Arnav. He was dead, lying in front of her.
"Looks like he died between 2-3 am." She heard one of the police who was investigating the dead body announce to his senior.
And Khushi felt the floor beneath her spin as his ghastly monstrous eyes from her nightmare came before her eyes. Before she knew it, she lost her balance and collapsed on the ground beside him, her head hitting the hard floor and she heard people's footsteps rushing to hold her.
But her eyes were focused on only one sight as everything else blurred in the background. And there, as she looked at the terrace of the hostel, she found someone walking at the edge, balancing holding his hands out in the air and the closer she focused on his face, she found the same molten brown eyes staring at her as Arnav's lips curved into a ghastly smile and waved at her. And his face was the last thing she saw before darkness crept on her eyes and her heart stopped beating.
Anupamaa
