…around midnight on her birthday…
She was busy reading her novel. Though she wasn’t too interested in novels, she wanted to complete this one. Not just because he had presented it to her, she found it interesting as well. The silence and calm surrounding with the mild sound of the waves hitting the shores of Elliot’s beach was really soothing. Occasionally she glanced at her mobile and the clock, as if curious and waiting for the mobile to ring.
It was the first of March, a Saturday. The time was 23:55 hrs and she was alone at her PG. All her other room mates had gone home for the weekend. In another five minutes, the world was going to declare that she was older by one year. Yeah, it was her birthday on the second of March. ‘This is gonna be the quietest birthday since my school days, I suppose’, she was thinking with a smile across her lips. The digital clock by her side read 23:59, when the mobile sprang to life with the Back Street Boys singing ‘Quit playing games with my heart.. My heart.. My heart..’ and the smile on her lips got wider. It was a call from him. :-)
‘Hey dudette, what’s up?’ he asked. He had moved to the
‘Nothing special, just reading the novel that you gave me before you left’ she said.
‘Oh yeah, the novel I gave. It was some, eh - some true story, right? I forgot the first word, what was it?’
‘It’s called Communion – A True Story. Hope it’s only the name of the book you forgot and not the person you gave it to.’ She said with a pinch of sarcasm.
He caught the slight change in tone and bounced back on the defense, ‘Come on yaar, wont forget you till my heart beats for the last time. 
’ He meant it and she knew it. They let the silence fill the space and hearts for a few seconds. She knew that he was her One and so did he.
‘Here Goes..! Five.. Four.. Three.. Two.. One..! Hhhhh Aaaaa Ppppp Ppppp Yyyyy Bbbbb Iiiii Rrrrr Ttttt Hhhhh Ddddd Aaaaa Yyyyy..!!!’ He was at the peak of his energy when he wished. She felt that her digital clock held its breath at 00:00:00 for bit of a moment just for her to cherish. It was the quietest alright, but certainly the most romantic birthday she had had in life. :-)
‘Wow..! You don’t know how I feel now..! :-) THANK YOU..! THANK YOU SO MUCH..!’ she said.
She heard him say something but the line was flickering. She repeated ‘Hello’ but there was no response. She looked into the mobile; it flicked ‘BATTERY EMPTY’ a couple of times and went dead. The smile on her face vanished as well. She got restless and searched for the charger. She wasn’t able to find one. ‘Come on, I see it every now and then and when I need it, it’s missing’ she was getting frustrated. She found one and plugged it in. The mobile said ‘CHARGING’ and blipped to life. She kept it close to her waiting for his call.
She picked up her novel again, deciding to kill time. She was sure he would call her back. She had reached an important twist in the novel. The novel was about an alien invasion to earth where they kidnap human beings for research. It was absolutely a chilling experience and she felt as if some tiny creatures mentioned in the novel were moving in her room. She liked the feel of goose bumps while reading and in movies. As if the appointment was fixed, the power went off. The phone said ‘NOT CHARGING’ and went dead again.
The darkness took a bit of time to settle in. The fan in the room slowly, very slowly, came to a stop. The happiness had completely vanished from her face. ‘Not today’ she thought. She badly wanted to talk with him through the night. :-( She waited, waited and waited but no luck. She yawned repeatedly and was falling asleep.
But, something was not allowing her to sleep. She couldn’t grab clearly what it was. Some slight noise was disturbing her. CLINK… CLINK… CLINK... It was very slight in the beginning, but, was slowly gaining. CLINK… CLINK… CLINK…. The noise was striking her ears and not letting her sleep. She could hear it clearly now. CLINK… CLINK… CLINK…. She slowly opened her eyes. She had lost her sleep now. She sat up on her bed. Her eyes were adapting to the darkness. She sat there for a few seconds concentrating on the noise. It was the only noise she could hear. CLINK… CLINK… CLINK…
She got down from her bed and carefully moved out of her room. She knew that her PG rooms, as usual, were not clean. She had to look through the darkness and avoid placing her feet on the things that were scattered around. She took a second to locate where the noise was coming from. She felt as if she was playing the blindman’s buff. She was placing the trust on her ears to locate the noise. The noise was coming from the farther end of the kitchen. She was not used to being in the kitchen and was trying to guess where the noise was coming from. It should be the tap, she thought. She moved slowly and carefully into the kitchen and to the corner from where the noise was coming. Her guess was right. It was the water dripping from the tap striking the vessels. The maid had left the vessels there to be cleaned in the morning. She felt relieved for sometime after she closed the tap tight.
The silence was back as it was a few minutes before. She could hear the kitchen clock ticking second after second. She slowly moved out of the kitchen to the dining hall as carefully as before. She had a bad feeling about this. A very bad feeling, as if someone was behind her. As if someone was standing right behind her. She stood there for a couple of seconds and then slowly turned back. There was nothing behind her but the empty stretch of the kitchen. ‘It happens when you are alone’ she told herself and reassured that everything was fine.
When she was about to take a step forward, something fell from the dining table right next to her feet and rolled a couple of times. Her heart was pounding faster than the times she had ever known. Her breathing was heavy. The moon light was the only source of light in the room. She slowly bent down to see what had fallen near her feet. It was one of the knives from the cutlery set on the dining table. When the knife had fallen, it had laid a trail of some glittering liquid while it rolled. She moved her focus on the liquid. The moonlight was exactly in line with the trail. The glare showed it was surely red in color.
‘BLOOD..!’ that was what came to her mind immediately. How could it be..?! How could it be..?! How could there be BLOOD?! Her hands were shivering. She decided to touch it. She had a serious problem with blood. She was scared of blood and she perspired whenever she saw blood. But still, her hands moved on instincts and touched it. What was this? That was not blood. She moved her fingers to smell what it was. ‘Oh My God..! Cool..! Oh My God, its not blood. It’s the tomato sauce in the dining table bowl.’ She felt herself to be stupid about the whole thing. She just sat there for a second and almost laughed aloud about what had just happened.
Though she was alright for a few seconds, she felt there was a logic missing in the sequence. She thought hard to locate what it was. She seemed to have got it in a flash. How had the knife fallen from the dining table? It was a heavy knife and it could not have fallen down by itself, could it? How did the knife fall down then? She slowly gained stability on her feet. She moved towards the table. When she had taken a few steps, something sprang from below the table. Something..! A shadow..! It sprang and swiftly moved into her bed room. She was breathless. She was stunned. She was not able to move..!
‘Who is it..?’ she shouted. She grabbed the knife in her hand. There was no answer.
‘WHO IS IT..!’ she shouted again. There was still no answer. She decided to move in. She held her breath and composed herself. She decided to face it.
‘Who is it? Come out this second..!’ she said again as a warning. She moved into her room. Whatever it was, she was ready to face it with the knife in her hand.
‘Who the HELL is it?’ she shouted when she took the next step. She heard something move on her left. She moved into the room in flash when she heard it.
‘Meeaaoww..’ She froze there for a second. ‘Meeaaoww..’ a bit more frightened this time. The cat moved in from the darkness and jumped to the window. She could see it in the moon light. She could not believe what it was. She was too creative to confuse the sauce for blood and now the helpless cat for something horrible.
She sat down on her bed chewing her lips thinking about what had happened. She smiled to herself. ‘Avoid horror movies and novels for sometime’ she said loud. ‘I could easily be a writer for thrillers’ she smiled at her own thought. She laid her head on the pillow and felt relaxed. Her heartbeat had slowed down and the perspiration was disappearing. She started laughing at her stupidity. She had almost forgotten the whole thing. It was her birthday. :-) She could not believe that, around midnight on her birthday, she was acting as if she was in the middle of a horror movie. :-) She slowly dozed off.
It would not have been more than two minutes since she had dozed off, when there was a TAK… TAK… TAK…
She opened her eyes. It’s just a continuation of the day she thought. It was around midnight and no one was going to knock the door at this time. But she was sure she heard a knock on the door. Like the previous times, she was sure it was just her imagination and there was going to be nothing. She decided, anyway, to check it. She moved fast towards the door. She did not forget to take the knife with her. She was not worried about stamping on the things that were left on the floor. She reached the door and tried to see through the door’s magic eye. There was no power and it was around midnight. She was not even able to see within her room and no wonder she could see anything outside through the magic eye. She decided to open the door.
Slowly, she unhooked the lock and turned the knob once. She gave it a second. Did she really have to open the door? She thought about it. She turned the knob again and opened the door slowly, very slowly. Like a child playing hide and seek, she slowly and hesitantly moved her head out of the door to see if there was anyone. There was nobody out there in the dark. She felt relieved and confused at the same time. ‘I am not going to stay alone again. If everyone else is going home, I am going home too..!’ she decided and closed the door.
She hardly would have taken two steps when there was a stronger
TAK… TAK… TAK…
‘I am going insane’ she thought. ‘I just saw that there was nobody out there and again I hear someone knocking the door. I am going crazy’ she was saying when she heard a much stronger
TAK… TAK… TAK…
She moved fast and opened the door. She came out of her house with a bang. There was nothing. She was feeling irritated and she shouted with the knife in her hands, ‘Come out you cowards..!’ Something was going wrong with this. When her eyes were seriously searching, she heard it. She heard it right behind her. She heard the hard breathing. She felt the hot breath on her shoulders. Her heart was pounding. There was perspiration allover her body. She felt as if her knees had lost their strength. She was pale with fear. She turned around to see what it was.
Around midnight on her birthday, they had come for her.
Be Safe when you are alone. You never know what might be there in the dark. Be Safe..!
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Note: A sincere tribute to one of my favorite authors, Ray Bradbury
2 comments:
Very scary...u mean aliens came to wish her b'day...?
just an open ending. :-) :-) it could be any one. :-) Aliens, Friends, neighbours. :-) :-) could be anyone.
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