The Haunted Minutes

Jake was a young office man who works in Paris. Once, he had to go to Barcelona for an important meeting. From Barcelona, he got some gifts after his representation topped and initially became the CFO of his company. He was now returning home. But in the middle, he started to felt thirsty and had no water bottles. He had finished all the bottles due to severe heat conditions. He had self-respect in him so he did not ask anybody to give him some water as all were sleeping. His thirst started to increase. Soon, a big deserted station had come in the early hours. This station was a haunted one so no one used to stay here or dropped by the train after ten even if their station which they had to arrive is this. They used to depart on the before station or after one but not here.

Jake's thirst was uncontrollable so he had to depart from the train. The train would stop here for ten minutes. Seeing that, Jake decided to get off. Those ten minutes were the haunted minutes for Jake. He took the torch. One of the passengers who was sleeping saw him in his sleeping eyes and tried to stop him from getting into the haunted minutes but Jake was a daring one so he refused. When he got off he saw nothing but darkness. Passenger shouted but he faded in the dark. Jake put on his torch. Everything seemed to fade. Soon the light was visible from far. Jake ran towards the light. There he saw that it was a water bottle store with a shopkeeper turned towards back setting the bottles. Jake asked him for a water bottle. Little did he know that something was wrong. The shopkeeper did not respond. Jake cleared his throat, sneezed and coughed but he did not respond. After he shouted, the shopkeeper said, "What do you want sir". Jake took a sigh of relief and said to him to give him a bottle of water.

But when the shopkeeper turned forward, his face was invisible! It was an illusion of his head in the back. Jake ran towards the train, but in this time, the train started to move. A faded voice was coming from the back," Take the bottle, Sir." with a shadow at the back. Jake moved to the houses nearby the station. The houses were also likely to be haunted. Jake rung one of the houses. When the owner opened he told that "Take the bottle, Sir" with no face, exactly looking as the shopkeeper. He ran from there also till he reached the interior of the city. There it was likely to be safe. He again rung one of the houses.

An old lady opened the door. The old lady knew that he was coming exhausted from the station due to his impression. The old lady immediately took him inside. The old lady said the story of this shopkeeper. She said, " The water bottle store shopkeeper used to sell free water bottles, thinking it will wash all his mistakes. But his opponent shopkeeper was jealous of him. So one day, when the kind shopkeeper was drinking water at the edge of the platform, his opponent pushed him on the track, where a train smashed him. Soon his soul started to wander making nearby houses also haunted. From that day this city was named Haulin." Now Jake understood why the passenger tried to stop him. Jake booked the tickets for the next day and returned to the home.