It's Time To Regret

It was around twelve in the night and the sight of the jungle at this hour was very frightful. Neha was sleeping in the car while Alok was driving. Suddenly, due to a flash of light falling into his eyes, he swerved the car off the road and hit a nearby tree.

The car was damaged but by god’s grace, there were no casualties. They waited for more than an hour but could neither find a vehicle nor a person. With his sharp eyes, Alok saw a small lamp glowing somewhere in the middle of the jungle.

“Neha!”, called Alok, “Look I can see some light there. Let’s go, maybe we can find shelter for the night.”

After a long walk, they came to a place where there was a house. They walked to the entrance and knocked on the door, to which a response was heard from the other side.        

“Who is that?” called a male voice, without opening the door.

“Sir, I and my fiancée are lost in this jungle as our car broke down. If you don’t mind can we stay at your house till tomorrow morning?” asked Alok.

The door opened. “Yes, you can stay. Please come in”, said the man. They both went inside and saw that the house was not as bad as it looked from the outside. It was more like a mini bungalow with the stairs in the middle going in two ways to the only floor that was present above them.

“I am Robert and this is my brother Albert,” said the man introducing another person who was sitting on the sofa.

“Hey you both are twins”, exclaimed Neha

They both smiled. “This is Rohit and his wife Nitya,” said Albert pointing to the young couple standing nearby.

“If you need something to eat or drink, the kitchen is to the left on the ground floor. Help yourselves, please. And you can take this room which is to the right of the stairs. It’s pretty late, we will be going to bed. Goodnight”, said Robert going upstairs along with Albert.

Nitya and Rohit left for their room after wishing them a good night. Even Neha and Alok didn’t feel like having something as they were very tired from their journey and the long walk, so they decided to go and sleep. At around three, Neha’s sleep got disturbed as she felt some light falling on her eyes. She slowly opened her eyes and to her shock, she saw a shadow moving on the wall in front of her.

She immediately scanned the whole room but she couldn’t find anyone. Thinking it was her hallucination, she went to the kitchen to drink some water. When she was taking a bottle from the refrigerator she heard some noise outside the corridor as if someone was trying to open the door from outside. Feeling scared, she turned slowly but the noise stopped. When she turned back, the noise started again. By now everyone came out of their rooms hearing her shouts.

“Neha, calm down, what happened?” asked Alok.

“I heard some noise outside as if someone was trying to break into the house through this door”, she told pointing to the door that connects the kitchen with the corridor. Robert went out to see but found none.

“What is this nuisance guys?” asked Rohit feeling irritated as his sleep got disturbed.

“I apologize on behalf of Neha. As it is a new place she might have gotten a little scared. Don’t mind please”, saying this he took Neha with him to their room. Everyone went to their respective rooms.

 “Alok! please let’s leave from here. I don’t like this place”, cried Neha hugging him in fear.

“Neha!! In just a few more hours, we will be leaving. Rest till then”, said Alok.

Alok slept peacefully but Neha couldn’t. Around seven in the morning, she decided to go and check the corridor once. She went out of the main door towards the corridor. She scoured the whole place but found nothing. When she was about to go, she heard someone crying nearby. The sound led her to the middle of the jungle. There she could only hear the voice but could not find anyone. She looked around and suddenly a bright light fell in her eyes, blinding her. Before fainting, she called Alok’s name loudly. Just before that, Alok woke up and as he couldn’t find Neha in the room or in the house, he came out in search of her. That’s when he heard her voice. So, he went in that direction only to find Neha unconscious on the ground. He carried her inside the house. As Rohit and Nitya are doctors, they checked Neha.

“Alok there is nothing to worry. As she is scared and tired, she fainted. She will gain consciousness soon”, said Nitya.

Alok sat beside Neha while the others went to the hall. At around 9 a.m., Neha came out of the room when everyone was having breakfast.

“Neha!! How are you feeling now?” asked Nitya with concern.

“I am fine. What happened to me actually?” asked Neha.

Alok explained everything to her. “Then I brought you here. First of all, what were you doing there?”

Neha tells her version.

“It might be some animal”, said Rohit while Neha denied. Somehow they consoled her.

“I think today we can’t leave”, said Alok to Neha seeing outside the window. As it was raining heavily, there was no power and no signal in the house. So, all of them decided to stay there until everything was fine.

All the men decided to play rummy in the room upstairs which has a television. Nitya and Neha were sitting on the sofa in the hall, gossiping.

“Nitya, your house looks so old and don’t mind me saying that it needs a good cleaning. How are you staying here with all this dirt?” asked Neha.

Nitya laughs “Neha, this is not our house. It is those twins. Just like you we came here for shelter because of our car breakdown and got stuck here because of rain.”

“So you were also going to Sripooram? And may I know the reason?” asked Neha, unsure whether to ask such a question.

“Well, the people in that village are suffering from a contagious ailment, as there are no proper medical facilities available here; our head has asked us to conduct a campaign to give free treatment to the villagers. Our team is going to come today with the equipment. Rohit and I thought it would be better if we go before and have a look at the place properly. But maybe we will be the guys reaching late.” Said Nitya laughing. “What about you and Alok? Why are you going this way?”

“We are going to get married next month and Alok’s parents insisted that we invite a few relatives of Alok who are in that village”, replied Neha.

After an hour, Neha and Nitya prepared lunch. Then they started arranging the dishes on the table. When Neha was taking a lot of time in the kitchen Nitya went to see what the matter was but couldn’t find Neha. Then she came into the hall and everyone came out of their rooms for lunch.

“Nitya, where is Neha? I thought she was with you helping in the kitchen,” asked Alok.

“Yes, she was with me till now. But I don’t know where she disappeared to all of a sudden. May be she went to the restroom. You guys start lunch. I will have it with her.” said Nitya.

All of them finished lunch and Nitya went to search for Neha. She thought Neha might have gone to the recreation room to read books. All the men went into their rooms because they suddenly started feeling sleepy, they thought it might be because of the gloomy weather and soon they were fast asleep. The entire house was silent and as the sky was cloudy there was very little light coming into the house. Nitya searched everywhere but there was no sign of Neha.

When Nitya was about to go down, she heard Neha’s voice somewhere. She went in that direction and it led her to the store room. Neha was laughing evilly “I am giving them slow poison through their food, soon everyone will fall into deep slumber”. Nitya was shocked to hear her words and confronted her “Neha, what the hell are you saying?” Just then Neha turned towards her making Nitya faint looking at her terrific face.

After about two hours, Nitya gained consciousness. She looked around the room and suddenly everything flashed in front of her eyes. Feeling scared, yet with a lot of effort, she got up onto her feet and ran to the door. But the door didn’t even budge. She started banging on the door and kept shouting for help. But there was no response from outside. Finally giving up, she sat near the door itself crying. Her gaze fell on a bag. That was a small college bag which just had few books along with a diary and as she was flipping through its pages, she was surprised to see a photo of two girls. Underneath the picture, it was written “My soul sister Neha and she is my only purpose of living this life” and as she read further she found that it was last updated six years ago. She was all confused. Just then she heard Rohit’s voice.

“Nitya!!! where are you?” called Rohit. Then suddenly they heard Nitya’s shouts from upstairs and she kept banging on the door. Everyone rushed upstairs. After reaching the store room, they tried opening the door but in vain.

“The door must be jammed. Nitya, move back, we are going to break it open”, said Rohit. After a great struggle, the door gave way and Nitya hugged Rohit as soon as the door opened. They all walked downstairs and Nitya finds Neha standing near the kitchen with fake concern on her face.

“Nitya I will get you some lemon water”, saying this Neha left to the kitchen.

“Nitya, why did you go to the store room. I told you right, it has not been used since ages and the door is not proper”, scolded Albert.

Nitya in a panic stricken state told everything to everyone so fast that half of the words were not registered to them. Yet they thought they should find out whether it’s true or not.

“From what you told us, it seems that Neha is possessed because you told that her face suddenly became pale and was looking terrific”, inferred Rohit.

“Listen, guys, I heard that we can’t see ghosts in a mirror and in the kitchen we have a glass partition separating the wash area from the kitchen, so I will go and have a look. Wait!!” said Albert.

Albert went into the kitchen and Neha was facing away from him. He slowly went inside and was shocked to see that there was no reflection of Neha in the glass partition. He was about to leave but Neha called him. He stood rooted in that place not understanding what to do.

“Hey you are Albert right?” asked Neha and he nodded yes. “What are you doing here?”

As he was near the fridge, he opened the door and took an apple and showed it to her not trusting his voice because of fear. She slowly came near him and he could see that she was blushing. He was totally confused. When they were just inches apart, Neha spoke her heart out.

“Albert!! Since I have met you, I wanted to tell you this. I think I am in love with you”, saying this she hugged him. He was in a shock as he knew that Neha is Alok’s fiancé. And if at all she is not Neha and the other soul in her is speaking like that, then why does she love him? To say he was scared would be an understatement. Not feeling his arms around her, Neha asked him “What, Don’t you love me?”

“Well, I need time”, saying this he ran into the hall.

Everyone was waiting for Albert to return. “Brother, why did you take so much time? We were dying here to know the result of your so-called mission,” asked Robert.

Albert stuttering “Sh…. She is not Ne…. Neha. I… I didn’t find her reflection in the mirror. And you know what, she proposed to me”, completed his sentence without looking at Alok. After hearing this Alok felt like slapping Albert but then Neha came there with lemon water for Nitya. Everyone was silent. Finally, Nitya gaining courage, placed the picture which she found in the store room in front of Neha.

“Neha I found this diary in a bag in the store room. But we didn’t see you getting one when you came into the house. So how did this get there?” asked Nitya all in one go.

All of them in the hall were shocked by this new information. Rohit, Alok, and Nitya were seeing Neha, who was now just looking down while Albert and Robert are looking at the picture and both of them at once said “Priya” and Albert snatched the picture from Nitya’s hand. A smirk is formed on Neha’s face.

“Finally you all got to know that I am not Neha. Seriously I am very bored of acting like my sister. And you both (pointing towards Albert and Robert) Do you guys remember me?” asked Neha sitting comfortably on the sofa.

“Priya!! You disappeared all of a sudden one day. What happened?” asked Albert.

“Ask your brother the same question? Why Robert, tell him? He is asking something.” Said Neha, this time her voice was filled with pain. Robert hung his head down.

“Robert, what is Priya saying? Come on speak up,” asked Albert, this time his voice is stern and serious. Now Robert narrates the flashback.

“Well, Priya, Albert and I studied in the same college six years back. We three were best friends. And I started having feelings for Priya, while Priya liked Albert, which I couldn’t digest. So, that day I told her that Albert has planned a surprise for her as it was her birthday. So she came with me and I dropped her on the road near the jungle at 3 am saying that within few minutes Albert would come there and take her to the place where he had planned the surprise. I just thought she would think Albert as a cheat when he doesn’t go to meet her. And she would hate him. But Priya never returned and I was scared to share this with anyone. I am sorry”, saying this he started crying.

“Priya, I am sorry, I hadn’t seen you in that way anytime. You were just a good friend to me. When you didn’t turn up for one whole day, we tried to search for you, with no use. We gave a police complaint too about your disappearance. We just informed your hostel roommate to let your family know about it” said Albert.

“But what happened to you?”, said Alok.

“Look who is asking me this question. The person who is responsible for my state is you Alok”, shouted Priya. Everyone glared at Alok.

“What??” said Alok shocked.

Priya gave a sly smile “I waited for Albert for more than an hour and when he didn’t turn up, I decided to leave from there. Not finding anyone I started walking on the road. You hit me with your car and I fell there with some life still left in me. But you didn’t even stop to see whether I am alive or not and just rode away, leaving me to death”.

This time, it’s Alok’s turn to feel ashamed of himself. He knew that he committed a crime by driving the car in a drunken state. Since then, he is repenting for his deeds, but what is the use of it? Can he get her life back?

Alok came out of his thoughts hearing Nitya’s voice.

“What did we do Priya? Why are you troubling us”, asked Nitya?

“Well I didn’t mean to hurt you both but you guys yourself came to this house without any invitation.  Only planned for these three (Albert, Robert, and Alok), but because of them you all had to suffer.”

Nitya and Rohit had no words to say. They didn’t understand whether they must feel happy or sad about their fate.

“Priya, it was an accident. I didn’t do it intentionally. Please forgive us. And leave Neha alone. She loves you a lot. She used to speak about you a lot of Priya. Please leave us”, cried Alok begging for forgiveness.

“Ya Priya. I didn’t know my small prank will take your life. I am sorry. Please leave us”, pleaded Robert. Just then Albert slapped Robert. “Priya, he will be punished as per the law and I promise you that. Please don’t harm innocent people for your vengeance. If you are the same Priya who was my friend, she wouldn’t have thought of something like this. She is really sweet. I understand that you have suffered a lot because of no fault of your own but I don’t think it is right to kill people. Just think”, said Albert trying to soothe her.

“Priya, even I will surrender to the police for my deed. Please don’t harm anyone here. Please”, said Alok.

By now Priya is crying. She is not bad. She never thought to hurt anyone in her lifetime but this world had made her like this. She felt her powers weakening and fell down with a thud, thus hurting Neha. Alok ran towards her and carried her to the bed. Everyone was waiting for Neha to gain consciousness. After an hour, they suddenly heard a sound from upstairs and they all went to see, taking Neha along with them. They went into the recreation room and found the television working without electricity. They were shocked but then they heard Priya’s voice from television.

“See, I can’t become bad, how much ever I tried to. In fact, I only wanted you all to realize your mistakes and regret them, else no one would have known what had happened to me and who the real culprits are. I just gave you all sleeping pills and not any slow poison. (she gives a sad smile) I am leaving you all to suffer for your own sins. Sorry sister for hurting you.” said Priya from the television and is crying. By now Neha woke up and is shocked to see Priya. She was so happy that her sister is back. She is unaware of all that happened.

“Priya, I didn’t understand how your belongings are here in this house,” asked Nitya out of curiosity.

“Well, they were brought by a tramp just one day after my death.”, said Priya giving a small smile. “It’s time for me to leave. Alok take care of my sister. Goodbye”, saying this the television goes blur and suddenly electricity was back in the house. The sun rose outside lighting up the house. Neha was crying after all she had lost her sister again.

Now as everything was fine, they all left from there to their respective destinations. Alok and Robert went to the police station and confessed to everything. The rest is taken care of by the law.