The Selfie

11:00 a.m - 11/8/11

Diana, Ankit and Prithvi were waiting at McDonald's for Rudy. They had planned to meet up for brunch, not because they missed each other and wanted a reunion but because Rudy had something to tell them. He wanted to talk to them about certain occurrences.

Prithvi was massaging her left arm; it was still hurting from the accident. Ankit was texting somebody and Diana was making a few calls since she wanted a header on the Atisha case. Sadly, nothing turned up. A voice called out to them and they all looked up to see Rudy walk towards them. They smiled at him and opened their mouths to ask him questions but he held up his hand for silence. "Before you say anything.. I want to pee. Ankit, hold my stuff, my pockets are not deep enough." He said, handing Ankit his phone and handkerchief. Ankit made a face. "I'm not sure I want to hold your handkerchief." He said, holding the cloth up by one end to prove his point. Rudy rolled his eyes. "I haven't used it yet, don't be an idiot." He said, and went to the washrooms.

Once he came back, he took back his stuff and looked at his friends. "Okay, start." He said grinning.

"How did the interview go?" Prithvi asked.
"Why did you call us?" Ankit asked at the same time, while Diana asked him, "What do you want to eat?"

"Interview went well, I got the job! But I need to shift to Mumbai in a month's time. But I need to keep going back and forth  this month to look for accommodation and stuff."

"Why not just stay with Ramu Kaka?"

Rudy made a face. "Frankly speaking, I can't put up with him. So thanks, but no thanks." The others laughed. "And Diana, I'll have a Big Mac, thanks."
He laced his fingers together and looked at his friends with a serious expression. "As to why I called you guys.... Well, apart from the fact that I missed you guys, there's this thing that happened. I was just checking my messages and there was the usual nonsense, and separate messages from you and you." Rudy said, pointing at Ankit and Diana when he said the last words. "So I checked those messages and replied and was about to start packing when I got another message, except this time it was from Atisha. I freaked because I remembered that you had told me that the number was deactivated. I remembered how Prithvi got a call. As I was recalling all of this, I got another message, this time from an unknown number." He said looking at his friends one by one.

"What did it say?" Ankit asked.

"See for yourself." Rudy said. He unlocked the phone and gave it to Ankit. "And that's not all." Rudy continued as Ankit searched for his message inbox. "I took a screenshot of both messages and sent them to Diana. But when I spoke to her later, she said she never got them. So I sent it to her again and well... She didn't get it again."
"Rudy, I can't find the messages. Open it and give it to me."

Rudy took the phone and started searching for the messages. He panicked.

The messages weren't there!

Rudy searched once more, thinking he overlooked them by chance. But no. The messages weren't there for real.

"Guys, I swear, it happened."

The others pursed their lips, and it was clear from their expressions that they were unwilling to believe him. Finally, Diana responded. "You said you sent the screenshots to me. So maybe you could go to my chat and look at the pic?"

"Oh yes!" Rudy exclaimed and looked for Diana's chat in his phone. He found it and opened it. But to his great surprise, they weren't there either! The messages that he had sent were there but no screenshots. "Check in your gallery. You saved the screenshots after all." Prithvi said. Rudy went to his gallery, and from his expression, you could see that he was desperately trying to find the picture and therefore prove himself. But to his dismay, the screenshots weren't there either. "I don't get it." He whispered, shaking his head.

Nobody said anything. Prithvi was silently thinking her own thoughts, Ankit and Diana were searching for signs of lies on Rudy's face, because they had a hard time believing him and Rudy...
He was confused as hell. He couldn't understand. It was bad enough that he got a message from a dead friend. Now it was even worse because he couldn't prove it to his friends, and they were the only ones who actually believed him. He could now understand how Prithvi felt initially. And he fully sympathized.

"Guys, you have to believe me. I am not kidding about this. I may pull pranks, but this is a sick joke, that's one thing I don't do, and you know that." He looked pleadingly at his friends. "Guys. Diana? Ankit?" When they didn't respond, he turned to Prithvi with a vulnerability that you would never find in him. "Prithvi?" He whispered, pleading with his eyes.

Prithvi seemed to hesitate. Then she remembered that she too, had faced this before. And she knew how it felt. She also knew somewhere, deep down, that Rudy was saying the truth. "I believe you." She said finally. Then she turned to the other two. "Guys, you believed me. And what happened to me was truly unbelievable. You guys gave had your own share of experiences too. Its high time you finally just accept it."

Diana looked at Prithvi in confusion. "Accept what exactly?" She asked.

"That she's back. Not in the human form. She's just... Back."

There was a dead silence at their table. Finally Diana let out a forced chuckle. "Whoa, take it easy. What the heck do you mean; she's back? Look, as much as I love horror movies and as much as this occult stuff intrigues me, it's not real. Do you hear me? Not. Real."

Prithvi just looked at her calmly. "Believe what you want. I can't find any other explanation to whatever is going on so I'm going to stick to my own theory."
Diana let out a shallow laugh. "That is not a theory." She said.

"But I must say, I agree with Prithvi." This time Ankit spoke up. "And I second that." Rudy said.

Diana looked at them in disbelief. "Are you guys for real?"

"Yeah." Came the reply.
"Wow. Okay. I'm going to go back to my work while you guys delve in your fantasy. Bye."

She got up and started walking out. On second thought, she turned around to use the ladies room. She wanted to wash her face, just to refresh herself.

She walked in and let the tap sense the hand. It was one of those taps that opened if it sensed something in front of it.

She let the cool water run over her hand for sometime before washing her face. Once she was done, she walked over to the tissue dispenser and grabbed a few. As she was wiping her face, she heard the water run again. She turned. There was no one in the room but her. But the water was still running.

She walked towards the tap. But she had taken only two steps before the tap closed.

On some instinct, she took two steps back. The water started running again. She waited for about 10 seconds. The water was still running. But as soon as she started moving, the tap closed.

And them she felt it. A light but chilling breeze that lightly brushed against her neck that sent chills down her spine.

As Diana walked back to the car, she realised that these weren't any coincidental accidents.

Prithvi was right. She really was back...