Ineffable

In this modern era where technology is developing rapidly and science is the answer to every question, there are a few phenomena which can’t be scientifically proven. Is there a God? Does life after death truly exist? Can someone’s life be controlled through black magic? Well if you think all these things are non-existent, this story might change your mind. 

P.S The following story is based on true events. Names and locations have been changed.

Rimi was living her dream life after shifting to Mumbai and becoming the Chief Editor of a local tabloid. She was introduced to Kabir, her fiancé, through her friend Kavya. They immediately hit it off and were engaged on 29th September’13 after dating for 7 months. Rimi’s colleague Arohi helped her in adjusting to her new job and soon bonded over gossip and alcohol. Arohi and Rimi were quite close and shared each and every detail of their lives with each other. Arohi always wanted to be the Editor but was not confident enough to take over this position and admired Rimi a lot. She would always tell Rimi “I am so happy for you. If only I had a life like yours”. 

Arohi met Kabir for the first time at an office party and she found him quite attractive. She tried to casually flirt with him by complimenting him for his bow tie and his ‘genes’. Kabir and Rimi had a nice laugh about it. Every time Kabir called Rimi, Arohi would find an excuse to talk to him. He worked at an IT company and Arohi would try to have a conversation about technology and gadgets. 

A year passed by. Rimi and Kabir were married and celebrating their first anniversary. All their friends were invited to the celebration. Kavya bought a gorgeous bouquet of Chrysanthemums, Rimi’s favourite flowers. Arohi entered the party slightly late and insisted on leaving early. Rimi asked her to wait because something seemed wrong with Arohi. “What has happened Arohi, you seem disturbed”. Arohi was staring at the bouquet. “It’s nothing, I just feel like you have become distant since your wedding. We are meeting post office hours after almost over a year and Kabir doesn’t talk to me at all. I don’t feel good around here. The vibe is all negative.” Arohi left the party in spite of Rimi’s efforts to stop her. “Rimi, what did you keep the flowers in?” asked Kavya with a flustered expression. “What is that supposed to mean. I obviously kept them in a flower vase with water.” “Well, come here and take a look at them.” Those beautifully bloomed, bright yellow coloured Chrysanthemums were wilted and lifeless. 

Six months later on 10th May’16 Rimi got a phone call from an unknown number at 4:23 am

“He..hel..hello.. Mrs. Bakshi?” 

“Yes, speaking”

“I am a colleague of Mr. Bakshi”

“How bad was the accident?”

“What? How do you know?”

“Answer my question dammit. Is he fine? Is he able to talk?”

“Yes, but he is covered in blood. We were driving and suddenly dashed on to something, nothing. We are taking him to the hospital. The driver died on the spot.”

Kabir was on a business tour when he met with this accident. The driver was exhausted by driving all night so Kabir asked the driver to take some rest and drove for about a kilometre before the accident occurred. He got 44 stitches on his forehead and head and 12 on his neck. His survival in this accident was said to be a miracle. Within a day Kabir was shifted to a local hospital and as soon as Rimi got to know about this, she rushed to see him. She was extremely overwhelmed to see him and was hiding her sobs using a napkin. She was failing miserably at it though. 

The minute Kabir tried to initiate a conversation, Rimi interrupted. “I dreamt it,” she said and burst into tears. 

Kabir was discharged after fourteen days and Rimi did not bring up the topic of his accident until he was recovered from the trauma. In spite of being sent home, Kabir was asked to take rest for at least a month because of his head injuries. One night before going to bed Kabir told Rimi that he was ready to talk about it. He started narrating the incident “I was in the car sitting next to the driver as I always do. My colleague was sleeping on the back seat. You know how I get while traveling, I wasn’t able to sleep at all in the car and was awake the entire time. A soft R&B song was playing on the stereo. I looked towards the driver and noticed that he was quite exhausted and his eyes were getting heavy. I asked him to switch places with me because I was wide awake and thought it to be a safer option. We both got down from the car to exchange places and it was dark and eerily quiet. The road was completely empty. I was driving at the speed of 60-70 km/hr and all of a sudden, I dashed on to something. There was nothing there Rimi, nothing in sight. It was a one-kilometer straight road and my colleague, who was perfectly fit and uninjured, tried to figure out what exactly happened. We were traveling in an Innova. After the crash, the car had reduced to half its size. The highway patrol vehicle arrived immediately to the scene and was just as shocked as we were. They said that the tire marks on the road are that of a truck but the damage to the car seems like it dashed into a wall. None of us saw any truck or any other vehicle on that road Rimi. I don’t know what exactly happened that morning and neither does my colleague. The only thing I see is that if I hadn’t chosen to drive, maybe that poor driver would still have been alive” Kabir’s eyes were filled with tears. Rimi held him close to herself and told him that it was not his fault over and over again.

After Kabir calmed down, he asked Rimi what she meant when she said that she dreamt it. Rimi didn’t know how to put what she had seen in words. “The accident, I saw it happening. I saw the car dashing on to nothing just like you narrated the incident. I could see it but couldn’t do anything to change it in my dream. It felt extremely real to me and I was a bystander whose feet were stuck to the ground. But the weirdest part about this dream or rather a nightmare is that I saw something right after the crash. I…. never mind” “Tell me Rimi. Everything about this entire accident is anyway quite messed up.” “I saw Arohi walking across the road right after the crash. I saw her face crystal clear.” Both Kabir and Rimi were just looking at each other unsure about everything that had happened. 

“Remember that time when Arohi was forcing you to take the route that she takes to work?” Said Kabir “Yes obviously I do. She was being so annoying about it. I told her it’s not convenient for me but she wouldn’t listen. Eventually, I gave in to it and said yes. She got so excited about it, she literally repeated it five times that entire day. Though eventually I didn’t go with her and I am glad I didn’t because she met with an accident that very day and fractured her tail bone. It was such an unusual coincidence. But why are you bringing this up right now?” “Because what if it wasn’t a coincidence at all. What if all this was done intentionally and you were the original target but she got in the way.” “Wow okay. So, you are saying that the car purposely dashed into Arohi and if I were in her place it would have been me?” “No Rimi. Okay, do you remember our first anniversary? And how she said those things to you?”

“Obviously I do.” “That day I was talking to Raj from your office when Arohi threw that tantrum and almost ran away. Raj said something very weird which I did not think much about until now. He said that Arohi performs black magic on people. Apparently, she had a huge crush on Raj’s friend who also used to work in your company but met with an accident and left. The accident happened right after he told her that he does not have the same feelings for her.” Rimi started laughing “I think this is your head injury talking Kabir. Are you even listening to yourself?” “Raj has seen weird stuff at Arohi’s apartment Rimi. Maybe that’s why she never invited you over and avoided every time you decided to visit her. Think about it” Rimi kept disagreeing to everything Kabir was saying and insisted on sleeping as she was tired.

“Kabir.. Kabir listen. Are you sleeping?” “What is it?” “If ever we are to believe that she actually does ‘black magic’, how does it explain your accident. She didn’t even know you were traveling.” Kabir wakes up instantly “Actually she did know about it. She called me up two days before I left for the tour. She hadn’t called me in quite some time so I answered to make sure everything was fine. She started apologising for becoming distant from both of us and wanted to meet me to talk about something personal. I refused to meet because you know how last time she said the exact same thing and when I went, she started getting a bit too touchy. She dropped that topic almost immediately and asked me about my job and everything. I mentioned about the tour and she started asking a lot of questions.

Oh my God” Kabir exclaimed in disbelief, “She asked me something which just seemed absurd at that time but I did not make much of it.” “What was it? What did she ask?” Kabir was lost in his own thoughts. Rimi shook his arm to get his attention back to her “What did Arohi ask Kabir?” “She asked me which was my preferred seat while traveling in a car…..”