My Dearest Diary,
Tonight feels different; the air tonight is filled with such pain. The agony that I endured tonight has left a scar in my memory. The deep cut I received pains me. My hand is bleeding; warm blood oozes out of it leaving behind a tingling sensation in my brain. Let this scar remain; to remind me of my mistakes; of the girl next door.
You must be wondering what is going on? What did I do? Worry not dear; as I will tell you all about it.
Tonight’s been a weird night. It feels different somehow. I feel different. It was 6 in the evening when it all started. I was returning home from college. Life was boring; my mundane everyday tasks were boring me. All I did was to follow the exact same schedule each day. I hated my pity-full existence, I was trapped in a cycle of boring tasks which didn’t allow me to exercise the great potential trapped in my mind.
I considered myself smart, better than the rest of course. People are idiots, I have no idea whether they are born stupid or has the Indian education system turned them into mindless zombies, killing their creativity, teaching them to do things without thinking. Following orders, that’s what they are good at.
Anyhow, back to the matter, I reached my house. As I was walking along the narrow pathway to my house; when all of a sudden my eyes fell on this girl. She was sitting on the porch of my neighbour’s house. Curious, I never saw her before. The house belonged to Mrs Prajapati; an old retired school teacher who lived there all alone. My dearest diary, as you know that I am an introvert who rarely goes out of my house to mind other people’s business; but I felt something very different about this girl.
As I strode towards my door, my eyes were constantly upon her. She seemed pretty; her dress was all modern; a bit too Gothic I would say. But there was something very different about her eyes. She seemed lost in her thoughts. I tried to take a closer look her but it was then she suddenly turned her head towards me. Our glances met for a second upon which I immediately looked away and walked into my house.
“Who was she?” I thought for a while, “Maybe a friend of Mrs Prajapati? Naah she is young, maybe a distant relative then? Maybe, But I have never heard of anyone even closely related to her. Her husband died a few years ago and none ever come to visit her, so the question arises; who on earth is that girl on her footsteps?”
My curiosity was killing me. I wanted to find out, I HAD to find out. Such is my nature, I have to know or else I won’t be able to sleep tonight.
I took a look outside through my window; she was still sitting there, her face was calm. There was something strange about her which I couldn’t put my finger on. It was then when I realized that she was looking at me. Our eyes met a second time and I stopped looking and went towards my room.
“Damn that was close, what will she think about me?” I had just reached my room when I heard a ring on my front door. My thought was that it must be the girl next door. Why would she come here? Did she find my staring uneasy? I was scared and curious at the same time. My curiosity was far more superior to my fear and hence I went towards the door to open it.
The door opened slowly to reveal her face shining in the sun. It was the first time that I got to see her eyes from that close. Those mystical black eyes; I felt them hypnotize me; they seemed to be talking to me. But of course I it was interrupted from the actual words that came out of her mouth. Her voice paled in comparison to the communication her eyes were making all along, her voice was irritating.
“Excuse me, Hello! I am talking to you…” I was brought back to earth by her repeated interruptions. “Hellloooo” she continued.
“Well hello to you too, I am sorry, I was lost in thought.” I apologized for flatly ignoring her but what could I do, her eyes were mesmerizing.
“That’s Okay”, she said, “I am from the Tote’s Gallore, I am offering their newest collection of handbags for a great discount…” she went on but I stopped listening. I was in a state of shock, A salesgirl, really, what was I thinking, She is not a relative of Mrs Prajapati, just some girl going door to door selling bags. Great Sherlock, brilliant deduction; you deserve an award…
I interrupted, “sorry I live alone, I have no feminine presence near me whom I would buy a bag for.” I laughed as I uttered those words.
She gave a weak smile and suggested, “Why don’t you look at some, maybe you can gift it to someone in the near foreseeable future.”
I doubted that statement and told her so, she too seemed lacking the motivation to meet her sales target and decided to bid me farewell. With this I closed the door and started to go back towards my room.
On my way I again decided to take a look out through the window, she was gone; I looked towards my neighbour’s house hoping she would go back there. ‘Stupid thought, why would she?’ I was about to look away when I suddenly saw some movement inside the house. On one of the windows there was a shadow. It was very fast but I saw a dark figure passing through inside the house; I was curious when I suddenly realized that something may be wrong. Mrs Prajapati was old and couldn’t walk without her stick but the shadow crept passed pretty fast.
I decided to take a look there and went towards my door. As soon as I opened it the girl from before was standing near my door. She seemed shocked and asked me why I was running. I told her that someone was inside my neighbour’s house and that she might be in trouble. She seemed scared and asked me that was I sure of it and that I may have been mistaken.
She seemed convinced that I was seeing things and told me not to go in, I was unsure I definitely saw something inside. She put her hands on my shoulder saying that maybe I was too tired from work and just seeing things.
But I didn’t flinch. I knew what I saw. She was in no position to stop me.
I convinced her that it was worth taking a look, and went towards the old neighbour’s house. The girl stood near the gate watching me as I went in.
The door to the house was unlocked, I pressed my hand against it and the door just opened quietly. The hallway was dark, I tried to look for a light switch but soon found that the switch was already on. There was no power. I took out my phone and turned on the flashlight, it was creepy. I moved forward making my way towards the window I saw the shadow at. I knew that it was in the bedroom.
As I moved on a strange smell grabbed my attention. It was putrid, horrible. I didn’t make sense of it and covered my nose with my handkerchief. What on earth is going on here?
The bedroom door was in sight, it was ajar and darkness engulfed it. I crept forward slowly, when I saw the most horrific sight that scares me till date. On the bed lay Mrs Prajapati, throat slit, her mouth wide open as blood dripping slowly through her neck. I moved closer to the bed when suddenly a wicked laugh caught my attention. It was coming from the bathroom. I was scared but also curious. I decide to take a peek and hence opened the door.
The shadow which I saw earlier was in clear view now. It was of a girl, the same girl I saw outside. She had blood in her hands and a crooked smile on her face. A bloody knife adored her right hand. She looked at me and began laughing, her laugh was terrifying, imagine a witch smiling at you before she devours you. Her eyes fixated on me and then she spoke, “What luck; that will be two in a row today.”
It was then without any warning she slashed my hand with her knife. It was bleeding. I was scared and I fled out of the bathroom closing the door behind me. She pounded on it, but thank god it wouldn’t budge. I ran out through the doorway but to my horror the girl was standing on the front door. She locked it behind her and said to me, “I tried to stop you from going inside, but now its too late, You are not going out.”
My hand was bleeding; warm blood was oozing out of it. It was leaving a tingling sensation in my brain. But I want it to remain, leave a scar to remind me of my mistake. I should not have trust this girl.
She pulled out a knife from her hand and began charging toward me. I was calm this time, I let her come towards me and dodged at the right time that she was about to strike. Her heavy handbag from Tote’s Gallore fell on the floor. I picked it up as she was getting ready for another charge. This time I was not playing, as she charged towards me I swung the bag towards her face, hitting her as hardly as I can.
She fell down on the floor, she stopped moving. I kicked her to make sure that she was out cold. No movement, she was out for sure. I didn’t make sure whether she was alive and ran out of the house. I was alive that was the biggest victory.
My Dearest Diary, I was so scared by this incident that I never told anyone about it. I didn’t go to the police afraid that they might charge me for hitting a woman. Well it had been a month since the incident, when only yesterday police came to the house next door. Maybe someone finally complained that Mrs Prajapti was missing.
They questioned me whether I knew anything but I didn’t say anything.
After they were done I was curious about whether the girl survived or not; and hence asked “How many bodies did you find?”
His answer left me speechless,
“Three he said, one near the door, one in the bedroom and the last locked inside the bathroom”
–END–
