Lost

The Class XII students had completed their exams and summer holidays had started. Some of the students who lived in the college hostel were seated together under a large tree in the campus and discussing about how they would spend their holidays and whether they would continue their graduation there. One of them Hemant, said "I will have a good time with my cousins in my native Pevalur. It’s been two years since we went there. My parents left already, i'll be leaving soon after some purchases"

Raghu his friend who used to stammer often, said "I'll move to VQC college to to to to do the graduation" When the conversation fell silent, he tried to resume it saying "Hey Hemant, you remember? Used to say some weird things about train journeys to your native. Some Blackmagic or something of that sort"

"Not Blackmagic buddy, there was a rumour that ghosts appear in trains at night around some stations. Our relatives say funny things like not to look into the eyes of suspicious people who stare" said Hemant

Raghu started "You really think.." and was trying to find the right word while another friend Mani was intrigued by Hemant's mention of eyes and interrupted the conversation giggling at him saying, "Why the eyes are so enticing is it?"

Raghu didn't like the direction the talks were taking. He was curious about ghosts and wanted to learn more

Hemant said "You don't believe it, isn’t it Mani? For that matter even I don't, but the villagers there do. There is a small town named Himanpur 200 kms before our station that is surrounded by woods. There are incidents of people getting down there and getting lost in the woods"

Mani responded saying "Man, ghosts are just a figment of imagination. Some people see ghosts but they could just be hallucinating. Their experiences might be real but the ghosts themselves are not"

Raghu said sharply "How do you believe in god then? Unless we prove that ghosts exist or not we cannot conclude it Mani". Raghu had lost his father last year and his mother when he was a child and somehow the notion of ghosts was comforting to him reminding him of them in a good way. He never liked Mani's outright rejection of these concepts but couldn't say anything more about it. Raghu and Mani studied together in school and though they had known each other since childhood, they could never be good friends

"I don't like your theories Raghu, you never make any sense to me. You scare me when you come close to speak, scarier than the Ghosts" said Mani with that known smile expressing disgust

There was loads of laughter among some in the group who could relate to Mani when Hemant interjected "Guys stop laughing. Mani he just wants to be friends with you, there is no reason to be scared of him. By the way, why don't you join me if you are free? You said you wanted to see my place for a long time right?" said Hemant

"Thanks for inviting, i'll surely join. I like friends like you. This is a good way to spend the summer, I was looking for a ghost to deconstruct it"

"Raghu, before you vacate the hostel remember to take your Horror fiction books, I have a bunch of them" said Hemant

"I know, I will definitely" said Raghu

The conversations held the interest of other friends too and they were curious how the holidays would turn out given the inquisitive nature of Mani and the beliefs around Pevalur that Hemant used to relate previously

Soon one by one left for their natives or some place and the hostel was becoming nearly empty. Mani informed his parents of his journey and they both started to Pevalur. They were generally having a good time for the most part playing cards and talking about weird happenings around the villages and Raghu

"Why do you hate Raghu so much?" said Hemant

"He acts like a Homo when he wants to have intimate conversation" said Mani

"He is not, buddy. Poor guy, leave him alone. Can't you see he doesn't have any friends other than us? You are just making his condition worse when he doesn't have a problem"

"I know him longer than you do, anyways I will reconsider. Let's have a crack at the ghosts for now ok?"

It took sometime for them to come to norm

Mani was an occasional drinker so he carried a miniature bottle of whisky with him this time. He wanted to have a sip and pulled his travel bag from under the seat to take out the bottle

Hemant looked at Mani holding the bottle and with a mischievous smile remarked "This is becoming regular now isn't it? Anyways, have fun"

As time went by and almost everyone appeared to be sleeping in the compartment, Mani had a strange restlessness. He was sleeping on the upper berth from where he sat up and scanned around with half sleepy eyes. A girl in the upper berth of the opposite side was staring at him with wide open unflinched eyes. He tried to ignore her, she might be looking at him absent mindedly and talking to someone else on the microphone. For a while he was looking at an old man sleeping in the side upper berth. He remembered seeing a small kid last sleeping there and wondered when they changed places

Yawning he tried to look at the girl again and she was still staring at him. Out of curiosity he turned around so he could have a proper look but it was unsettling that she wouldn't blink and her eyes were scary and beautiful at the same time. She smiled and for an instant he felt out of the world. Her face was familiar and she was the most beautiful girl he had seen all his life. He was conscious enough to suspect her to be a ghost but her beauty was enticing enough to ignore all questions about her nature.

After a while she got down from the berth and was out of sight. Mani got down too and ventured to follow her. It was 3'o clock in the morning and it was rather dark outside. The train stopped at a station and she got down. He got down too, mentally prepared to confront her in any event. He had a good reputation in the college and it could be for nothing

It appeared as though the everyone in the train were sleeping and no one got down at the station. Perhaps someone overslept and are going to miss the station, he felt. She was walking further away into the woods and he followed. He was alternating between a state of infatuation and increasing fear. Just to be safe he ensured that GPS was switched on in his phone so his friend could track him down if got lost and also started video recording the girl

They kept walking for nearly ten minutes and they were far away from the railway station. The street lights were illuminating the surroundings till a few minutes back and it was becoming totally dark now. Mani had to use his phone light. At one point he decided to stop since he felt very tired and sleepy. Perhaps he could return and find out about it during the day he thought

The lady who was walking ahead had meanwhile disappeared somewhere. Mani looked around but could not find her. He sat under a tree and had a small nap but got up too soon when his sleep was disturbed. It was 4.30 am and barely dawn. He was wondering what woke him because he remembered hearing a loud cry of a human. With more unassuming nervousness he looked around to find the source of sound from the leaves that were rattling

He was taken aback to find the lady turning around her in a spot with her hands raised and emitting maddening laughter. The sight was enough to infect him of her madness. He had seen her before. It was muddling and he felt vulnerable. The daylight was very bare and it was enough to show that she was not as beautiful as he had thought. Her unkempt waist length hair that moved about her covered part of her face except the eyes that would would stare at him on every turn.

The minimal consciousness within him told him to stay where he was, he was afraid he would bring about his own doom. As it was getting brighter Mani lost his consciousness and fell asleep

It was 7 am in the morning and the train was approaching Pevalur. Hemant woke up hearing the bustling sounds of people moving about with their luggage’s. Pevalur happened to be the last station and there was a small queue near the door. Mani's bag was there but he was not in his berth. "Perhaps he must have gone to the restroom", concluded Hemant and he was looking out of the window at the approaching station. His uncle was expected to come and pick him up. The train stopped and his uncle had already boarded the coach through the other door without Hemant noticing him

Hemant's uncle approached him with a happy smile and hugged. He said "Shall we go?"

"Uncle let us wait, my friend Mani has also came with me. Hasn't mother already told you about it?... He is not here,I thought he went to the restroom, it’s been quite sometime"

A young girl got down from the side upper berth and said immediately "Your friend got down at Himanpur station"

"Didn't he know Pevalur would not arrive before 7 am? Or did he know someone there?" the Uncle enquired Hemant

"No uncle, wait", turning towards the girl Hemant said "Was anyone else there with him?"

"No I didn’t notice that" said the girl

Hemant tried to reach Mani and the phone just kept ringing. He tried to locate Mani using GPS and succeeded in finding him couple of kilometers near Himanpur station

"Hemant I think your friend might be in trouble. The next train from here starts in few minutes, lets catch that. We will try to find him, take all luggage’s"

They then boarded the return train which started a little while later

On the way Hemant said "Uncle I heard Ghosts travel in that train, is that true"

"No Hemant, there are no ghosts that I have heard of. They are likely cooked up stories. I have travelled enough times to know that"

"Can you call him on the phone again?"

Hemant dialed Mani's number and the phone was still ringing for a long time

When the Himanpur station arrived, they got down and tried to locate Mani using the GPS. As they came near the spot they found him nearly unconscious and seated close to a large well supported by a stone erection. A small slip could have killed him if he had fallen into the well cause there were lots of sharp protruding stones in it than water



While he was mumbling something with closed eyes they were glad to find him alive else they would have had a difficult time consoling the parents. They two took him back to a good hospital in Pevalur and informed the parents

The doctor suggested some rest for Mani and went on to treat him while his parents arrived the same day evening. Hemant and his uncle went home and came back the next day to hear from the doctor

Mani was now alright and he was glad to see his parents. He explained all that happened and his mother was shocked to hear these. She stared at her husband, Mani's father for sometime and started whimpering

The doctor asked them not to disturb him. They joined in his office

He said "As per Urine tests he has taken a heavy dose of LSD around a day back. This would cause the consumer to hallucinate about non-existent things. He should be alright in a day. Take care that he doesn't take these again, if he is not emotionally stable"

"How could he have taken it Hemant?" Mani's father enquired curiously with overtones of anger

"I have no idea uncle. I don't remember seeing him drinking or eating anything throughout the train journey other than taking a few sips of whisky"

"So he has started drinking as well is it? In spite of having a friend like you who doesn’t?"

"He rarely drinks, when our friends have a party he doesn't join. He is a good guy. He came with me to Pevalur to disprove ghosts in the train. I thought he already told you about it, i am sorry you were not aware"

There was silence for a while when Mani's mother exclaimed "He has not forgotten his long gone Aunt"

Everyone were intrigued and curious to know further

His father continued "My sister was mad. When Mani was a young boy of nine he would be always around her. She was at least eight years elder but they were always together. We didn't like it, I didn't. My sister believed she was possessed by a god but the doctor said she had a mental disorder. One day the unfortunate thing happened, she took her life"

The mother followed "it took him a long time to recover. He would imagine talking to his dead Aunt months after and we were very worried. She was dead and gone but here he was still idolizing her. We took him to a renowned doctor for therapy and he recovered slowly"

The father said "I had to instill in him the idea of non-existence of ghosts or spirits and encouraged him to disprove people who claim that"

"Our childhood experiences don't disappear altogether, they lie dormant. Perhaps he was imagining his Aunt and following her from the Railway station. He must have mixed up the incidents about the ghosts in the Train" added the Doctor

"Raghu was his only friend who knew all about his condition. That poor motherless kid would come to our house and give my child company when almost every other child avoided him. My son did not like Raghu at all, he would mock his stammering. It was unfortunate to see that happening since Raghu had no other friends either. His timely help was invaluable though, our family owes him a lot" the mother continued

Hemant had suspicions about Raghu mixing up the drug in the liquor but dared not to speak about it. He must have dropped in sometime. There were no proofs of his friend doing that and he didn’t want to talk about it

Days went by and the summer holidays passed. They were back in college and Hemant was keen to ask Raghu everything about it. But the guy never turned up and was not reachable through any means. When he was rearranging the books in his table he found a note left by Raghu that read as follows:

“I am sorry buddy i'll not be returning for a while, don’t try to reach me. I am leaving happily. Happy because I have seen it once, the paradox. The dark side of the light and it leaves me in wonder about the irony of nature. I have drawn a longer arrow this time and I don’t know how far it will go, I am certainly going to miss the fun watching it

I will not be going to VQC, I lied. I will be out of this country for further studies, thanks to my late father for the arrangements he had been doing for years. You can have my books. All I wanted was simple friendship, it was difficult for people to understand. I have given more in my life than I have got buddy. I have known you only for two years and thanks. You showed me something exists in this world. I need some fresh air now. We will meet someday hopefully”

After reading it, Hemant said "You have a problem friend, Mani was right" and burnt the note