Paranormal Short Story – STEP INTO PAST
Photo credit: aophotos from morguefile.com
The date was 19th January 2012!
Pranjal Mohato looked at the date on his electronic calendar on his ornate office table and then looked out from the window of his spacious corner office on 11th Floor in the Central Business District of the City. Clear sunny blue sky with dotted white clouds greeted his eyes.
“I shall have to meet M/s Boyds next week, definitely. Have to finalize the negotiations with them very soon or shall lose our market share in no time… will be bad for business!” He thought.
He was a business man of immense reputation and financial standing! His firm occupied a prominent position in the market.
That morning he particularly remembered the date! Exactly ten years ago he and his partner Subordh Dante had started this business with meager resources; both were positive, hardworking and were endowed with profuse energy and perseverance! Ten years later the results were before the world.
That would have been a source of abundant satisfaction for him but the hitch was the differences that had arisen between them for some months. Normal differences of opinions were expected in any business endeavor more so in activities of that size and complexity, but, this had escalated to serious proportions!
Pranjal thought ruefully,”..from the day Subordh was introduced to Ramnak Lal things have started deteriorating. This fellow has known criminal links… I don’t know how long we can keep this partnership going… can’t accept Subordh’s changing attitude to use crime for business… he remains adamant …perhaps as a last resort I can request him to exit … will give him the best price for his exit stake”.
Pranjal called his PA to give instructions for fixing the next week’s meeting.
That night, after dinner, Pranjal went to his desk in the adjoining room. His wife had already retired to bed. He had some unfinished work to do.
He must have worked for more than two hours; feeling sleepy he wanted to go back to his bedroom, it was close to 12.15 am; he suddenly felt a strange sensation, an abrupt silence… his head was swimming… his eye lids slowly closed…!
He wanted to drift to a peaceful oblivion, but knew that he was at his desk… had to go to bed… it was getting late in the night… he forced open his eyes.
But his eyes met with an unexpected altogether different view! He was in his corner office room, sitting on his large settee, it was night and his chair was empty; except there were two persons sitting on the visitors’ chairs opposite his table. They were in animated discussion. The whole scene seemed to be hazy!
He was taken aback! Not a man to be easily shaken by any unexpected event he increasingly felt nervous! Not able to understand why and how these events were unfolding he gulped hard and shook his head as if to come out of some reverie. He tried to get up but could not do so. Tried to shout but no sound came! He started sweating…
Soon his fears were, though, gradually allayed when the voices floating across the room made him realise that one of them was that of his partner Subordh. His eyes narrowed… could see him sitting on the chair, and the other man he also knew was Ramnak Lal.
He could hear them quite clearly as he intently listened.
“Pranjal will never give up his business stake to me, I know him very well…he will rather die than to relinquish everything which he had built…” Subordh was saying.
Ramnak Lal’s gruffly voice floated in … “then Pranjal shall die… otherwise our goal will never be reached”.
Subordh shook his head.”Don’t say impractical things which are not possible… I will be caught on the charge of murdering my partner….”
“Not so…if we plan well…listen…” Ramnak Lal brought his mouth near Subordh’s ear.
After some moments, Ramnak Lal moved away smiling.
Subordh laughed aloud and clasped his hand saying, “Do it… foolproof plan…I agree with you… within next seven days… with strong alibi for both of us”!
Pranjal felt a curious mix of fear and disbelief. He understood that his life was in danger from his partner but the turn of events which were totally strange made his head throb with pain and helplessness.
He felt he was again floating into the same sleep … but before that he saw the date on the electronic calendar on his table… 17th January 2012. He was out of the City at that time! He was experiencing the past which had happened in his office in his absence?
He woke up and found that he was sitting at his desk in his house. The time was 12.25 am. – 20th January 2012!
That morning he reached office and called for Subordh, his office was in the same floor. His PA informed that Subordh had gone to Mumbai by the early morning flight. He was accompanied by Ramnak Lal. They were expected the next day evening.
The incidents of the last night had shaken Pranjal considerably. He didn’t know how he was transported back to the night of 17th January to his office, but he remembered one of his friends narrate about a rare type of haunting called “retrocognition”. It was said that many people had experienced past events and environments as if transported back in time. He didn’t believe at that point, although was it not what he had gone through last night?
But at that time Pranjal was acutely worried of the plan of his partner to kill him. It was very important that he should take some action to save himself. But who would believe him?
The day passed in considerable tension and Pranjal couldn’t take decision for his next step. He would of course get additional body guards to protect him- 24 hours of the day. But that was not the solution!
That night Pranjal was unable to sleep. He sat at his desk, remaining awake till late in the night. His wife had come twice requesting him to go to bed but his mind was in a tizzy.
The chime on the wall clock struck the time: 2.30 am. – 21st January 2012.
Pranjal was wide awake unlike last night… suddenly he felt the same strange sensation, his eye lids started closing!
He opened his eyes and saw that he was transported back in time, in another place! He was standing in a hotel room where two beds were occupied by sleeping figures; one was Subordh and the other, Ramnak Lal. The room was in semi darkness!
Pranjal was not afraid! He had already experienced this! He wanted to see what would unfold!
His eyes then moved towards the door from where he had heard some sound! It gradually opened and a masked figure in black clothes cautiously slipped in… a revolver in his hand with a long silencer.
Pranjal waited. The radium clock in hotel room showed: 12.23 am. – 21st January 2012!
The man came near the bed and with quick succession fired two shots; one towards Subordh’s head and other towards Ramnak Lal’s! There was minimal sound!
Slowly Pranjal’s eyes closed and he floated into his familiar sleep, transporting forward to present!
That morning he was in his office; he got a call from the Police that last night around midnight his partner Subordh along with another had been brutally shot in the hotel room in Mumbai. Most probably handiwork of some dreaded gang; old rivalry!
A sense of justice and relief overcame Pranjal!
__END__
AMITAV GANGULY
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Although this is a work of fiction but a type of haunting – retrocognition-transport of human back in time, had been believed through ages!
