Chapter 1: Jai Devi Maya
"Nahiii...please, please...mujhe chod do..." A quivering girl sat in the corner, with her hands folded in front of her, begging for forgiveness. "Please...jaane do...pleasee" she begged, sweat beads forming across her face as the masked figure inched closer to her. The figure ignored her pleas and stepped closer, the girl stepped back, moving herself until she was trapped in a corner, with nowhere to go.
The masked figure simply smiled, leaned in and whispered in her ear
"Game Over" he said.
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"Nahiii!!!"
With a sudden start, she woke up. Sweat beads ran down her forehead as her hazy eyes began to focus on the darkness. She grabbed the bed sheet with her one hand while her other was clutching over her beating heart, begging it to slow down.
Once her eyes became accustomed to her surroundings, she slowly calmed down repeating,
"It was a dream. Just a dream". Wiping the sweat off her brows, she tried to locate her phone. Turning it on, she noticed the time and let out a slight gasp"4:30 a.m it blared.
She silently groaned and flipping the sheets over, she got up and walked over to the window. Pulling the curtains aside, she unlatched and opened the window frame, letting the fresh air of the night be a cool welcome for her.
Leaning against the frame, she looked up at the dark sky, quietly taking in the billions of little lights that shined down upon her.
"Mama..." She whispered.
Tears flooded down her cheeks as she sent out a silent prayer of help.
"It's haunting me..."
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Turning and Twisting, he struggled with the sheets as the same memories repeated over and over in his head.
Blood. Darkness. Screams. Each minute becoming more and more intense as the memories flooded his dreams.
"Nahiii" His eyes shot open and he got up from his bed. Drenched in sweat and anguish, he opened his door and ran down the stairs.
Reaching the front, he pushed the wide mahogany doors open and ran.
He ran and ran until he could feel his throat closing up, begging for a gasp of air. Finally coming to a stop, his body collapsed as he fell on the grassy dirt-field road. He closed his eyes, as tears threatened to leak.
"No!" he shouted. "No... JUST STOP!" He hit the ground with anguish and pulled up his knees to his chest, biting his lip to stop the silent cry from escaping.
He looked up at the sky just then and closed his eyes.
"Mama..." He whispered.
"It's haunting me..."
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"You can't be serious" She picked up the folder she had in her hand and threw it across the floor in anger. "This is what you call quality work?! What is this bull crap? This is what you expect to be presented at RP Creations?
"But ma'am..." came the shaky voice.
"WHAT M'AAM? THIS IS ABSOLUTE SHIT! IS This why we hired you?!" her voice was raising by the minute, and her anger knew no bounds today.
"Aisha ma'am, I'm s-oo-rrr...rry..."
"SORRY MY FOOT...YOU WAIT" "
A gentle hand rested on her shoulder, stopping her from saying anymore.
Before she even turned around, Aisha knew who it was. She sighed as the anger she had built up was slowly dissipating as the hand gently nudged her to calm down.
"Khushi. Not today. This is unacceptable yaar. Look at this crap!" Aisha whined, turning around to face her friend.
Dressed in a white sundress, with straight black hair and delicate silver earrings dangling off her ears, the women who stood before her looked nothing less than an angel-- Khushi Kumari Gupta.
With an amused smile, and a glint of mischief in her eyes, she faced her headstrong friend and squeezed her shoulders in reassurance.
"Ash, calm down baba. You're scaring the intern!" she calmly replied
"Intern?! Who the hell hired this imbecile! He can't even put together a simple managing report!" She huffed, her once forgotten anger rising again to the surface.
Aisha pointed a finger at the intern, who by now was standing quivering at his spot, and spat out "I can't believe we let idiots like him work at our place! All the work is ruined, and we needed to have this report approved today, or we can't continue on with our project line!"
Khushi looked between the intern and her friend, and couldn't help but let out a small giggle from erupting. It was quite a sight to behold"an angry fuming Aisha, and an intern who looked like he had seen a ghost!
"Khush! You are laughing? Here I am frustrated as to how we are going to make up this loss, and you're finding this funny?" Aisha looked at her friend in disbelief. Her friend has totally gone mental she thought.
Once Khushi's laughter had died down, she smiled and said, "Ash, it's just a report, it's fixable. But your intern" nodding in his direction, "He looks like he'll need extensive therapy to get him back to-normal after your outbursts! Poor guy looks like he's seen the dead!"
Aisha suddenly looked up to see the intern frozen at its spot and the corners of her lips rose in a smirk. He does seem to be a little pale she thought.
"Oh come on Ash, you've punished the poor guy enough!" Khushi said, and picking up the file she handed it back to the guy and motioned for him to leave.
Upon getting the signal, the intern wasted no time and mumbled a quick sorry before he fled the scene and ran out the doors as fast as his feet could carry him, before mumbling a quick "Jai Devi Maya" on his way out.
At that moment, both the girls looked at each other and simultaneously said "Jai Devi Maya!!" and erupted in a fit of laughter.
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