A stormy night
There was a potent urge within me to run away, as I lit the candle for the third time. I closed my eyes to get rid of the whole eerie feeling. The dim glow of the candle was aided by occasional lightning that filtered in through the broken tinted glass of the window. The trees in the neighborhood almost kissed the ground as the wind blew past them. The whole atmosphere seemed nefarious enough to gulp the whole town at one go. The wind rampaged through the nearby houses which seemed too fragile to withstand the wind. The faint silhouette of the houses consoled me with the existence of life. The mountains far away seemed like apparitions posing threat to the houses .As I searched for my purse in the room I realized it was almost six hours I was stuck in that unknown town near Jalpaiguri.
We were in a group of four on our way to Jalpaiguri. I was the only girl in the cab. We were all in a cheerful mood listening to songs, when I noticed our cab came to a halt with a jerk. Our driver called a person standing nearby with a lantern asking what was the problem ahead in the road. With a local accent he informed us that there has been a land slide ahead and it hasn’t been cleared yet. I noticed it was drizzling. After waiting for two more hours we thought of spending the night in a nearby modest hotel. As I was the only girl I got a separate room for myself. I was quite excited about the tour and prayed that the rain would soon stop.
The storm became ferocious with each passing hour. The Gods seemed too angry with the mortals by sending such deadly heralds to warn us. My skin crawled next time the candle went out. I groped for more candles in the darkness. A faint sound suddenly drew my attention towards it. There was a rhythmic knock coming from the back door of my room. The knock soon turned into loud bangs. My voice materialized as I asked for the name of the person. But there was only the bang that continued. I couldn’t fathom the situation as I wasn’t expecting anyone at those unearthly hours. Nor was I in a situation to help any trespasser who lost his way to his room in this old hotel. As the lightning broke apart the sky I located my position in my room. With my heart pounding loudly, I stood there rooted to the ground. I tried to shed off the evil thoughts like flickers of dust on my shirt. It was then I realized that the loud banging had stopped. The scene I saw next was not what I expected. With another milky white lightning, that ripped open the breasts of heaven, I visualized myself in the mirror along with somebody else!
I could not feel my knees and I was too weak to respond. All those tedious years of learning the laws of gravitation seemed fake, as I felt myself no longer under the attraction of gravity. My heart leaped a few beats, my legs gathered momentum and I ran in the void in front of me. As I groped for the door handle I felt my throat was dry and I tried to scream at the top of my voice only to hear a squeak. I banged the door and opened it somehow running out through the dark empty corridor and out in the rain. I was fully drenched and I realized I was sobbing loudly. I was engulfed in darkness, and I felt everything becoming blurred. With a flash of lightening blinding my eyes, I lost consciousness.
When I woke up I could see a few vague eager faces staring at me. I realized they were my friends except one. Harsh, pulled the man in front and told me that he was the manager of the hotel. He came back to my room to return my purse which I left in the reception hall. The weather outside had calmed down by then. It had become cool and pleasant.
I was apparently embarrassed of my behavior. The man’s repeated apologizes for his visit at the odd hour added to my embarrassment. I was told that we’ll leave soon. But there was still no current as the storm had torn all the wires. I got up from my bed quickly and dressed up in the candle light. As I glanced at my watch I found that it was four o’ clock in the morning. My luggage was packed. I had a bite of a sandwich and felt I wasn’t hungry. I saw Hash standing with the manager near our cab. As I turned around to close the front door behind me I realized something was wrong…terribly wrong!
With all the windows and doors closed, I noticed that the candle was no longer glowing and there was a similar rhythmic knock at the back door!
There was a potent urge within me to run away, as I lit the candle for the third time. I closed my eyes to get rid of the whole eerie feeling. The dim glow of the candle was aided by occasional lightning that filtered in through the broken tinted glass of the window. The trees in the neighborhood almost kissed the ground as the wind blew past them. The whole atmosphere seemed nefarious enough to gulp the whole town at one go. The wind rampaged through the nearby houses which seemed too fragile to withstand the wind. The faint silhouette of the houses consoled me with the existence of life. The mountains far away seemed like apparitions posing threat to the houses .As I searched for my purse in the room I realized it was almost six hours I was stuck in that unknown town near Jalpaiguri.
We were in a group of four on our way to Jalpaiguri. I was the only girl in the cab. We were all in a cheerful mood listening to songs, when I noticed our cab came to a halt with a jerk. Our driver called a person standing nearby with a lantern asking what was the problem ahead in the road. With a local accent he informed us that there has been a land slide ahead and it hasn’t been cleared yet. I noticed it was drizzling. After waiting for two more hours we thought of spending the night in a nearby modest hotel. As I was the only girl I got a separate room for myself. I was quite excited about the tour and prayed that the rain would soon stop.
The storm became ferocious with each passing hour. The Gods seemed too angry with the mortals by sending such deadly heralds to warn us. My skin crawled next time the candle went out. I groped for more candles in the darkness. A faint sound suddenly drew my attention towards it. There was a rhythmic knock coming from the back door of my room. The knock soon turned into loud bangs. My voice materialized as I asked for the name of the person. But there was only the bang that continued. I couldn’t fathom the situation as I wasn’t expecting anyone at those unearthly hours. Nor was I in a situation to help any trespasser who lost his way to his room in this old hotel. As the lightning broke apart the sky I located my position in my room. With my heart pounding loudly, I stood there rooted to the ground. I tried to shed off the evil thoughts like flickers of dust on my shirt. It was then I realized that the loud banging had stopped. The scene I saw next was not what I expected. With another milky white lightning, that ripped open the breasts of heaven, I visualized myself in the mirror along with somebody else!
I could not feel my knees and I was too weak to respond. All those tedious years of learning the laws of gravitation seemed fake, as I felt myself no longer under the attraction of gravity. My heart leaped a few beats, my legs gathered momentum and I ran in the void in front of me. As I groped for the door handle I felt my throat was dry and I tried to scream at the top of my voice only to hear a squeak. I banged the door and opened it somehow running out through the dark empty corridor and out in the rain. I was fully drenched and I realized I was sobbing loudly. I was engulfed in darkness, and I felt everything becoming blurred. With a flash of lightening blinding my eyes, I lost consciousness.
When I woke up I could see a few vague eager faces staring at me. I realized they were my friends except one. Harsh, pulled the man in front and told me that he was the manager of the hotel. He came back to my room to return my purse which I left in the reception hall. The weather outside had calmed down by then. It had become cool and pleasant.
I was apparently embarrassed of my behavior. The man’s repeated apologizes for his visit at the odd hour added to my embarrassment. I was told that we’ll leave soon. But there was still no current as the storm had torn all the wires. I got up from my bed quickly and dressed up in the candle light. As I glanced at my watch I found that it was four o’ clock in the morning. My luggage was packed. I had a bite of a sandwich and felt I wasn’t hungry. I saw Hash standing with the manager near our cab. As I turned around to close the front door behind me I realized something was wrong…terribly wrong!
With all the windows and doors closed, I noticed that the candle was no longer glowing and there was a similar rhythmic knock at the back door!
