The Biggest Mystery Of My Life

 I don’t know what happened to me!!! All of a sudden, without any sense of knowledge I woke up, wide awake, sitting on my bed with my blanket surmounted me. I think I heard some noise, maybe a creak or something. I was not sure about it. I saw my roommates; they were sleeping peacefully, so I slept back again peacefully. But, I don’t know what happened again and I woke up with my eyes wide open! I heard a sound under my bed! It was scaring. I went deeper into the blanket. I was breathing heavily, got a small pain in my chest and was gasping for breath. The noise stopped. I popped my head outside the blanket; suddenly I heard the same creak under my bed and now without any second thoughts, I went deeper into my blanket, recalling all the devotional mantras I had learned. The noise stopped again, I looked outside the blanket, sighed a breath in relief, but not for long because our assignment papers which were neatly arranged on the table, began to fly, all of a sudden in all the directions! I got much more scared; I shouted my roommates'names: Rohan, Arjun, Tom, but none of them responded! I was too scared to go out of my bed because I heard the noise coming under my bed!

Inside the room, there were 4 beds, 4 almirahs, 4 chairs, and a bookshelf. To my surprise, one book, like having its own wings, flew from the shelf straight towards my head!!! I ducked, phew!

There was a silence for some time. But again sound grew louder!!! Gathering my courage, taking a small scale and a flashlight from my drawer which was attached to my bed, I slowly moved to the side of my bed. My breath can be heard as loud as a whisper and my heart beat increased manifold. My eyebrows were wet with perspiration. Crawling slowly like a soldier, I slowly approached the side of the bed. The noise was still there! I slowly decided to peep down. With the scale on one hand and flashlight on the other, chanting all the possible mantras, and with full courage I peeped one-fourth of it, heart still beating heavily!! Slowly, I peeped half, closing my eyes and preparing for the worst, and finally with full power and chanting all the possible mantras that I could remember, I put my head down fully, and slowly flashed the flashlight, I opened my eyes and Aahhhhhhh!!!!!!

Due to the chaos and the sound, I slowly opened my eyes and found myself under the bed. The sunshine in the room indicated morning had already fallen. I slowly gathered my strength and crawled out of my bed. The thing which I saw next amazed me and I would personally say that it remains the biggest mystery unsolved in my life!!

The window glass was broken, there was a crack on the ceiling and a lot of earth was spread across the floor. The papers were all scattered and the almirahs had moved from their positions, some even fell flat on the ground. My roommates were gone and I could hear a lot of noise coming outside the room as if some kind of trouble had occurred. The voices of many people could be heard shouting together and there were a lot of leg movements heard! Now, I was fully awake, I walked out of the room and I could see fire personals and rescue team men running here and there. One of them spotted me and guided to a safe place, where I saw my teachers and some of my friends. I was really shocked as if some kind of a disaster had happened to this place! I began to think about what happened last night.

Soon one of the teachers explained, “Karthik, yesterday night around 3 am, a strong earthquake shook this place! Many of our students are admitted to the hospital, some even critical. Your roommates suffered major injuries but they are out of danger. Everyone ran out of their rooms, but we were worried because you were missing.” and she continued to say but I wasn’t listening to anything! My mind was stuck on yesterday night incident!

What was the noise that I heard? Why did I only wake up due to the noise? Why was the noise repeating so many times? So after all, it was not a dream at all but a real encounter with a natural disaster! I couldn’t recall anything that happened to me after I peeped under my bed. But I was damn sure; I didn’t wake up due to the noise of the earthquake. What about those papers flying in the air, the book? Surely there was some unnatural happening in that room! But anyway, I thanked God, because if I hadn’t woken up due to the noise, then I couldn’t have imagined what would have happened to me.

I came out of the hostel building and saw my surroundings! It was too pathetic and I couldn’t see it with my eyes; buildings were grounded, trees got uprooted, fire and rescue members and ambulances dominated the landscape!

While I was walking down the street, I saw an old lady. I looked at her and she looked at me back.

“Thank you for helping me that day son, no one came forward to help me except you! May God bless you.”

I looked at the old lady and I began to remember. A few days ago, she was standing beside our hostel gate, as she wanted to cross the road. I remember I helped her cross the road, fighting against the busy traffic. During night time, when she was begging for food, I gave her food to eat.

“You were walking with your friends, only you came to help me, in spite of being late that day. thanking you for feeding me with your money that night. the same money with which you decided to spend with your friends. God always helps the people who help others.”

I smiled at the old lady and said thank you to her and began to walk. But suddenly all of a sudden, a strange thought came across my mind. How the old lady did know that I was late for class? How did she know that I spend all my money just to buy food for her? I didn’t even mention it to her at all!

With all these strange thoughts and I turned around to ask her, when all of a sudden she disappeared in the thin air! I couldn’t see her anywhere! I ran to the next block, here and there, even asked the firemen, but no one remembers seeing the old lady!

I slapped myself and scratched my head! Wow, another experience! Till today, I wasn’t able to understand, whether the lady was real or my imagination, whether the last night events were real or my imagination, and the biggest question is how I was able to wake up due to the noise and protect myself under the bed from the earthquake? This still remains the biggest unanswered questions in my life.

I closed my diary. All of a sudden, I thought of reading the incident which happened to me 5 years ago. I don’t know why? Just a sudden thought came across my mind and I was very curious to read it.

After closing my diary, I opened the Story mirror website for writing today’s prompt and guess what! The picture given in the prompt was the same picture of my hostel room! The picture in the prompt depicts the exact condition of my hostel room after the earthquake!

I was in shock for a few seconds! I couldn’t believe it! Why today only all of a sudden I decided to read my penned experience of the earthquake? Why did such a thought come into my mind?

I peeped out of the window ( I don't know why) and guess what! I saw the same old lady which I met five years ago! I quickly ran out of my house, but she disappeared again! Then my eyes caught the attention of a paper in my letterbox. I took the paper and read it.

“God always helps the person who always helps others.” I looked up at the night sky and smiled.