Previously on "That Night" - here...
It shakes your roots when something you always believed, becomes questionable. You don't understand what is right and what isn't. You start doubting everything around. You then have two options - try and find the answers so that you can re-establish your belief / make amends to what you believed. Or forget everything and move on.
After a bad day in office and a horrific incident riding back home, all I needed was a good night or let's say early morning sleep. It was 10 AM when I opened my eyes after a brief nap. Although too tired to even get out of the bed, I had to be in office soon so I dragged myself, still half asleep, shaken from that moment-of-madness, I got ready for work. I didn't speak a word about what happened last night to my wife even though she sensed something was bugging me real bad. Thinking it may just be the workload, she didn't question further and I was out on bikes within an hour.
I could have taken the main Road, but 'what can happen in broad daylight? let's just be calm and face it', so I acknowledged my thoughts. There was nothing wrong with the place where I had seen that figure, it just looked lively with usual morning traffic. Yet, it did creep me out a little, as I passed through that portion of the road where I had that 'unusual encounter'. After about half a km or so, just before the barren land ends, I saw many vehicles and people outside a house. There was no special occasion, not that I knew of any, so I was curious. I slowed down and it didn't take me too long to understand why they were gathered there. The sad faces, white dress, and the body language said it all.
As I was about to cross the house, a strange feeling crept inside me. I parked my bike like the many others and Slowly Walked inside the mourning house. I didn't recognize any faces there and I certainly can't explain what made me go inside that place. Anyway, I reached the living room and there was it was, the deceased person's body surrounded by presumably the family members weeping and paying their last rights. And then the lightning struck inside my head - it was the lady from the previous night, the same ghost lady or whatever she was, through which or whom the stone I threw just passed through! It felt as if the ground underneath was shaking as I stood there, dumbstruck, looking at the dead body and her photo while my brain started to relive the whole drama from the previous night. 'There could be no possible explanation other than the fact that you saw her departed soul in the middle of the road last night'. I was scared... like hell... but running away now would only draw attention and certainly not the best of times. So, I gathered all the courage and slowly walked out of that house. 'Such a young age!' I heard people talk. 'She was all fine till yesterday and it seems they had late dinner and were watching a movie until midnight before going to bed. And then they found her body this morning in her room. Nobody knows what happened! Such a pity!!'
| Image courtesy: http://in5d.com/ |
As I rode back on my bike towards my office, hundreds of questions filled my brain. I couldn't stand there further to get more answers. 'The more you uncover the more you get involved'. After all, there was no proof that the woman I saw is this person or her ghost. For all I know, I was really tired and my brain wanted some sleep and this could just be some weird coincidence. Yes, it wasn't some sort of dream or hallucination, but can I live with the 'coincidence' alternative? I was a firm believer of no after-life shit until that point of time, but now, well, uncertain.
