I Will Haunt You In Your Dreams!

A spooky short story which is bound to give you the chills. Read on!

The train was picking up speed and slowly moving away from the platform. She was running after it. Finally the train disappeared from sight and she stood there gasping for breath. She looked around her. The platform stood deserted and lonely. She shivered and wrapped the shawl tightly around her slim shoulders. Suddenly she felt a hand on her back. Startled, she turned around.

Neha’s eyes flew open and she sat up straight in bed. It was the same dream again! She was perspiring. As she reached for the glass of water on the small bedside table, she thought about her dream. Being the only daughter of a rich businessman, she had never travelled in a train. So why was she seeing a train in her dreams? Why did the dream always end when she turned around to see who it was? Who could it be? Was there any hidden meaning behind it? As she pondered deeply, she realized that the dream had started just after her marriage two months back. Initially it didn’t bother her but lately she was getting disturbed as she saw the same dream every night.

She jumped out of bed and started preparing for the day ahead. As she got busy in her morning activities she slowly forgot about her dream.

That evening when Ravi returned home, he took her in his arms and said ” I have to go to Girikunj for an important business deal. Why don’t you come with me? It’s a beautiful hill station and we can have a second honeymoon there.”

“Girikunj! Never! I wouldn’t go there”, thought Neha wildly. Panic gripped her but before she could protest. Ravi handed her two tickets and asked her to pack as they had to travel the very next day. She looked at the tickets and asked “Are we going by train?”

“Of course, it’s just 3 hours journey. A car would take atleast 6 hours.”

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The last time she had visited Girikunj she had travelled by car while her college mates had gone in a train. Dismissing the past memories, she went to pack with an absent mind.

The hotel at Girikunj was grand and situated on top of the hill with a spectacular view. Ravi left early in the morning promising to return as soon as his business was finished. True to his word, he returned in the late afternoon and whisked Neha away in his car. Inspite of asking him repeatedly where they were going, Ravi smiled smugly and remained silent.

After 30 mins or so, he stopped the car at the ‘Lover’s Point’. Ravi dragged her out and smilingly pointed at the sun setting in the distance. Neha didn’t see anything. Her mind wandered back into the past.

Nikhil was her senior in college and also the brother of her best friend, Priya. While Neha was a raving beauty with a happy go lucky nature, Nikhil was shy, reserved and always immersed in his books. The first time Neha laid eyes on Nikhil, she had resolved that she would have him. It hadn’t taken long to charm her way to his heart. Nikhil was besotted with Neha’s beauty and charms. Neha on the other hand didn’t love Nikhil. She just wanted to have fun and spent some good time with him. Nikhil hadn’t wanted to come to Girikunj for the college picnic but Neha had persuaded him.

It was exactly at this very spot where Nikhil had gone down on his knees with a red rose in his hand and had proposed marriage to her. Neha’s wicked laughter echoed in the hills.  She mocked him ” You’re so innocent, my darling! How can you even think of marrying me?”

Nikhil looked at her in agony.

“But don’t you love me Neha?”

“Love is a vague term Nikhil. It happens only in novels and movies. Anyway, I want you only as my boyfriend and not as a husband. I have always wanted a rich husband. You can never give me the luxurious life which I am so used to.”

She deliberately turned away from the pain in Nikhil’s eyes and walked away.

That was the last time she ever saw Nikhil. Back home, she wasted no time and got married to the son of her father’s business partner. The marriage took place within a fortnight. The day after her wedding, she received a phone call from Priya. She would never forget that call in her life. An inconsolable Priya had informed her angrily that her brother had taken his life by hanging himself to death.

With great effort, Neha brought herself back to the present. Her sixth sense said that Girikunj was somehow connected with her dream. She felt it in every part of her body that her dream was about to reach a climax here. Two days of the trip passed smoothly. For the first time she slept without seeing the wretched dream. Finally the day arrived when they had to return home.

It was a foggy morning and the air had turned chilly. As they reached the station, Neha felt a chill of another kind. It was the same station which she had seen in her dream. The platform was almost deserted. The whistle of the coming train halted Neha’s wild thoughts. Ravi had already informed her that the train would stop for just a minute.  As the train came to a screeching halt, Ravi hopped on with the big suitcase. Neha was already a bundle of nerves and thereby missed the steps . She caught herself from falling down and saw the train moving thereby picking up speed. Neha started running and shouted frantically for Ravi. But there was no sign of him. It was as if her husband had disappeared along with the train fading away in the distance.

Fear clutched at her throat as she suddenly realized that she was actually living her dream. She started shivering and clutched her shawl tightly around her slim shoulders.

Suddenly she felt someone’s hand on her back. Startled, she turned around . And then she saw HIM.

Nikhil was standing there with a dead look in his eyes staring straight at her. Neha looked at him in horror. She couldn’t believe her eyes. She stood rooted to the ground as if some unseen hand was holding her still.

His lips twitched into a wicked smile. “I will haunt you in your dreams!! “ Saying this, he started laughing loudly in the same way she had once laughed at him.The scream died in her throat as she felt herself slipping into oblivion.

Someone was shaking her. She could hear Ravi’s voice. She opened her tear strained eyes and saw an anxious Ravi hovering over her. Neha looked around her and saw that she was lying in the bed at the hotel in Girikunj.

She then remembered the dream and clutched Ravi tightly. She couldn’t control herself and broke down sobbing ” I killed him…. I killed him…”

Ravi took Neha in his arms and tried to soothe her. He stroked her hair gently. Smiling sadly into her hair, he silently prayed ” You can now rest in peace, my dear friend Nikhil !! “

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