A Stroll On Inverted Feet

Encounter Part 3

A silent yet very dark night.
Dark in the sense that actually one could not see what lay ahead on the road.
A narrow cemented road, cold breeze blowing its way in the usual run, kissing and teasing the green leaves on the trees at the sides of the road, with just the husky rustling of leaves as the only sound echoing on the long road.
Why, how, when,till where don't ask but I was trailing the path of this road at midnight, precise time I myself am unaware!
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Me and Laila, my bestie since my many days of college had decided to embark upon a road journey. We were IIM graduates. It was vacation time and as every year we had decided to treat ourselves with a trip, this time to the North.

It had just been two days that we had been here. All seemed well just like a perfect outing of friends, until that night...

We had our dinner in our resort. Simple food, just some fish,salad,broccoli and some brown rice with curd. Typical low calorie, low fat food, the he most prominent choice for any two young, fresh college graduates!

As is known by most of you, the suburbs in northern areas of India are full of presumptions about all sorts of scary stuff from ghosts, to spirits to what not.

Especially, tourists or more precisely enthusiasts like us are always fascinated by stuff like this. Of course, we do not believe such stuff and discard it like rubbish, until...
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Lights went off, after dinner and there was not much to do within the four walls. So we decided to venture out, typical dark night ice cream sight! We went out in search of a parlour.We did find one. Chocolate for me and blueberry for Laila, I quickly hurried in to get them for the two of us. Parlour was quite deserted not much of public actually!
I returned with two cups just to find Laila missing!
Frantically I began searching her crying out her name aloud, in hopes that at least one of my call, she may revert! I tried her number too but to no avail.
Network problem, or battery issues, I had no idea but I couldn't even hear a dial tone! In hopes of getting some help from the ice cream parlour, I rushed back....
I couldn't even see the guy who packed my cups...
" Hello! I need help. Anybody there...Hello..! "

My voice echoed several times, but was not fortunate enough to catch the company of replies.
I moved around the counter, the desk and towards the inside kitchen, the only sound of my footsteps followed me back!

Dejected, I came out of the parlour. No vehicles, nobody around, just me! Besides the dark deceitful night also snatched away my shadow my only solace.

Suddenly I felt strong vibrations rambling through my body.
It was my mobile ringing.

Laila, was calling. Heaving a sigh of relief, I picked up.

" Its me! I ...."
Holy shit! It was my battery that ditched me.

Silence struck me like thunder, numerous things running up and down within me. Small streams of sweat, began drooling down my forehead. A small yet soft hand, firmly grabbed my shoulder from behind.
Almost screaming, I turned around to face a middle aged woman in a plain saree.

" ke hoya chori, You seem to be in problem "

" Yes I need to make a call my battery is dead, can I use your phone?"

"Sorry, I don't have my phone right now. I was walking on the other side of the street, saw you here and came to ask"

"Have you seen any girl around? She was standing here. Where did she go?" I asked.

" No, I did not see anybody. "

For a second, I felt a strong chill run down my spine.
Somebody was crying I could hear those sounds. The sounds began stirring up volume, almost like scary, nightmarish cries.
Began looking here and there, locating its source.

I could trace, a small hut kind of a thing from the corner of my eye, something which I probably missed to see in the beginning

" I think behen ji, the sounds are coming from theerr"
Pointing my finger in that direction, I just turned around but didn't find the lady there.

Counting almost double the heart beats per second, I somehow began moving in that direction hoping I could find trace of Laila.

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With kinky feet and almost half of my life soaked up already I went inside the hut, its door was not locked. I pushed it open. It was dark inside but fully silent, no cries, no voices.

"Hello, anybody there...????"
I moved through the interiors of the hut. Completely dark, yet a very peculiar smell of something that I couldn't make out filled up the space.

Bang....

Something from the ceiling dropped right in front of me. Horrified I shouted aloud but nobody came.

Balancing myself I stepped ahead but stumbled upon the thing that fell off from the ceiling and came face to face with it just to see...

A dead Laila lying cold ahead of me. My mind was still not ready to overcome from the shock of what it had seen that's when I felt some other footsteps coming closer towards me from behind humming some tune.
My heartbeats paced up, sweat trembling from my temples.With eyeballs almost on the verge of popping out from my eyes, I turned around but couldn't see anything.
The humming tune was coming close. The gap was lowering.

" I hate those who intrude my privacy, chori! " came an anger filled whisper close to my ear.

As some prickling sensation infuriated my hormone balance, I looked down and could see its sharp claws piercing my stomach.

And all went dark.

A/n: I hope you enjoyed reading. This story is especially dedicated to a friend of mine who had shared such an experience with me some time ago.
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