Disclaimer - All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
contd...
Gaurav was lying on the ground beside the stream. His body was drenched due to incessant rains. It had gone rather dark as the sunset approached. The river was gushing with full force. The torrential rains had made the river flow with full strength. Gaurav slipped over an unctuous rock while trying to keep up with Tanya and fell tumbling down till the stream. He badly injured his right knee. He was not able to walk at all. He found a small place between two adjacent rocks, and decided to rest there, lying beneath the huge rock. He hoped that Sachin or Tanya would return looking for him, and thus made sure he can look over the rocks and locate if someone arrived. It still hadn’t stopped raining .Gaurav did not realize when he drifted into a deep sleep. The day’s torturous events had taken a toll on him and his body. Even the chill of the night and his drenched clothes did not matter to him as he dozed of unperturbed.
Meanwhile Mayank and Sachin were able to maneuver the car on to the forest road. The sun had set. It was pretty dark and the night had started to engulf the jungle. The rains had not stopped, and the shrilling voice of various insects and toads were quite clearly audible. Mayank and Sachin were soaked in rain. They moved to the back of the car one by one and changed into drier clothes. Sachin quipped about Aditi being alone with two guys at night in a rainforest. Aditi gave a wry smile back to him. She was too pre-occupied with worries aplenty to get offended by Sachin’s remarks. She was especially concerned about Riya who went out alone with Rohit. She sat on the passenger’s seat completely reclined backwards. Mayank put on some music to make her mood a bit better. He also put on the headlights on at low beam so that if anyone of rest of them came wandering back they are able to locate the vehicle. It was past 11 pm at night. Time had flown from the moment they started a day before. Moods had changed; there were no more games and singing, and a distressing gloom was apparent. Same time last night they were making merry at the road side Dhaba. What was supposed to be a fun filled weekend had turned out to be a scary nightmare for most of them, the ones in vehicle including. It was near midnight that it stopped raining. Everyone was awake. Sachin went out of the car to smoke. He wondered about Gaurav and Tanya. He thought that could be the best birthday gift for his buddy Gaurav. ‘A night alone with beautiful Tanya’ He thought to himself. He finished couple of cigarettes and returned. He flung open the door and was taken aback by the scene.
Aditi and Mayank were quite intimate with each other, arms wrapped around each other and engulfed in a lip-lock, or so it appeared to Sachin. “What the Fff..?” He snapped. Aditi was startled and retreated from Mayank and climbed back to the passenger seat. Mayank whispered to Sachin that Aditi was feeling very scared and so he was just comforting her with a hug. “Quit explaining me, you don’t owe any!” Sachin retorted. “Carry on! I will have another sutta (Cigarette)” he continued and slammed the door back and lit another cigarette. Mayank apologized to Aditi about the incident. “It was not your fault” replied Aditi and broke down into tears. He hugged her and kissed on her forehead “Don’t worry! Everything would be fine. And even if it doesn’t I will be there with you till it is fine.” Mayank had always been good with words. “Nice dialogue, which movie by the way?” Aditi blurted and smiled. “See! I made you smile already” he quipped. Sachin had finished his third cigarette in less than 30 minutes. “Gaurav-Tanya! Rohit-Riya! And now even these both” he mumbled to himself “What am I doing here? Everyone’s making merry and I am stuck with my cigarette! Sums up the f***in day for me, and I don’t even get any girl! It’s just me, the Lonely Sachin” Sachin threw his still burning cigarette near the tree and wondered which girl among these he would like to be with most.
Sachin’s thoughts were interrupted with the fire his cigarette had caused. He was quite confused, since it had been raining whole day. ‘No way can the wet grass catch fire!’ he thought. He rushed to Mayank and asked him to come out. Aditi followed. The flames created a trail towards other side of slope. Mayank rushed and stamped out the small trail created by the flames due to fire. Sachin helped him and they were able to put off the fire. Mayank figured out it was caused due to spilled petrol. They quickly rushed to check the vehicle. Everything seemed fine. They followed the smell and stain caused due to petrol leading them to about 50 meters far off the road. They couldn’t see their Scorpio from where they were standing. The place was completely burnt. It was full of ashes and burnt particles. Aditi looked terrified. She pointed towards something “What is that idol?” she exclaimed. Sachin had a closer look. It looked like some idol of Hindu deity. It was carved out of the wood from the trees. There were Holi colors spread across it and it looked really old. It was well protected under tree shed and was beneath the rocks. Thus the colors had not washed off due to rains. “Please don’t touch it, it could be black magic” Aditi shouted at Sachin as he tried to pick the idol. Sachin ridiculed her but Mayank intervened and asked Sachin to let things remain intact the way it was before they came. Suddenly the sound of horn from their Scorpio startled all three of them. Aditi screamed in fear and came running towards Mayank, in process tripping over something. Sachin inspected what she fell on. It was a human hand sticking out from the ground. He pulled out the hand. It was an amputated hand slit from the wrists. Aditi let out another shriek, a louder one this time. Sachin threw it on the ground. All three were standing still, shell shocked in terror. They stood together hand in hand, all of them numb and cold.
(to be continued)
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