Wednesday 30 December 2015

Consternation

                          

It was Mihir’s first day at office, and he had to work overtime the very first day; so basically, it was his first day and night at the office. He was a trainee, an apprentice. He had to learn his work from his seniors. In the morning itself, he had met Akshay, his senior. They had exchanged glances and had talked about work. Akshay was a down to earth person, for he didn’t show dominance over his junior, Mihir. They had become more like friends than colleagues. In the evening, Akshay had to rush home due to an emergency, and that is why the very first day had turned out to be an overtime one for Mihir.
Before leaving, Akshay explained all the work to Mihir, and asked him to do it on his behalf. Mihir agreed. Akshay waited for some time, for checking if Mihir had understood the work to be done correctly. Bidding a goodbye to all his colleagues, Akshay left.
Soon after that, the other people from the office began to leave, too. About two hours later, Mihir was alone in the office. He looked here and there, at the empty seats of his mates. He was getting bored, so he decided to play subway surfers for some time, and then continue his work again. He was utterly engrossed in skipping the hurdles, jumping from one train to the other and escaping the hands of the Inspector, when he heard a chair move. He paused the game and walked to the direction of the chair.
There was a pin-drop silence, with not even a breeze. There was no one in the office other than him, and Sharma ji, the security guard on the gate. Then how did the chair move? His heartbeats got faster, while he asked, “Who’s in there?” He went near the chair to find out that it was perfectly at its place. He thought it was his over thinking. He laughed at himself and went back to his place. Little did he know, this was just the beginning.
Everything was perfectly fine till 1 am. Mihir was making the presentation Akshay had asked him to. Suddenly, Mihir heard someone’s footsteps. He stood up, sweating a little.
“Is it you, Sharma ji?” He asked. There came no reply.
The steps were still audible to him. As and as he went in the direction of the steps, they seemed farther. Following the steps, he had reached the parking lot. There were still 4 cars there, and he couldn’t figure out where his own car was. Yes, the four vehicles didn’t have his car. He called Sharma ji.
“Sharma ji! Come here! Sharma ji!” He yelled.
Sharma ji showed no signs. Mihir was now genuinely scared. He ran throughout the parking. Neither the steps were audible now, nor could he find out his car. Suddenly, the headlights of all the vehicles started blinking. He looked here and there, terrified. He held his head.
“What is going on here?” He screamed.
No reply came by, but those four vehicles began moving now, from all four directions, towards Mihir. He shrieked, “Aaahhh!” The vehicles sped up, and so did his heartbeats.
“Pleaseee, don’t. Please.” He shouted again, and collapsed on his knees and closed his eyes.
The cars stopped an inch away from him. He stood up and ran, as fast as he could, as far as he could. He went near the lift, and entered in. The door closed. As soon as the lift started, he let out a sigh of relief. But this wasn’t the end; fear was still waiting for him. He sat down, for he was tired of running and engulfed by fear.
Suddenly, the lift stopped between the eighth and the ninth floor. The lights went off. He heard those footsteps again.
“Who’s there? Help me. Help me, please. I’m stuck in here, in the lift. Please help me.” He cried. No one replied, but he heard another noise of someone cutting some sort of wire. And as soon as the noise stopped, the lift crashed down. The lift was going down and Mihir was crying by now.
He was screaming, and closed his eyes for the worst.
Death is the only truth of life, and when it arrives, we are left spellbound and everything is beyond our control. All of our lives, the only fear we live in, is that of death. But when we face it in real, is it really a fear? The feeling is eternal; we are not bound by even our fear at that time, no?
The lift was crashing down and Mihir was prepared to face The Fear. But, life had some other plans. Mihir fainted. No one knows what happened then. It was 3.30 am, when he woke up in the cabin of his boss. He tried hard to remember how he had landed there. But he didn’t remember anything after the lift crash. How had he survived?
At first, he thought he had been dreaming about all that’d happened. But then, he should’ve been at his place and not this cabin. He was confused, so to confirm if all of those incidents had happened in real, he went near the lift. The lift had crashed completely. Mihir was shocked. Then, he went in the parking lot. There were those four cars again, and he was convinced now, that it wasn’t his dream. It had happened in real. But then, how was he okay?
Was he dead? Was this office haunted?
Mihir went back to his place. He sat on his cubicle, and began completing the presentation he had begun working on, ages ago. But he was still afraid, nothing was certain. He worked for some time, then. But all that began again. The computer on the cubicle beside his turned on, on its own. On its screen was written, “The end is near.”
The electricity went off. Mihir began running; and entered his boss’ cabin again. That was a cruel night, the dim light was blinking and there were voices of people laughing, but there was no one around. Time seemed to have stopped in that moment, Mihir’s heart was about to fail due to fear.
“Who are you? What do you want? Why are you doing this to me?” Mihir cried loudly, scared to death.
Suddenly all the lights turned on, and Akshay walked in.
“Got scared my boy? It was just a prank!” Akshay said and laughed hard on Mihir, “I had thought of you as a brave man, but it seems that you’re still a coward boy!” Akshay laughed again.
Mihir stood up, wiped out his tears and hugged Akshay. Mihir’s eyes were red. He smirked and whispered in Akshay’s ear, “The biggest prank had been played on you. I had been dead seven years ago, here, in this office. Catch me if you can.”

Hearing this, Akshay fainted.
The next morning, Akshay woke up, to find out that there was no trainee named Mihir ever registered in the office.




3 comments:

  1. Amazing work..you built suspense till the last line and I really loved it.. Keep up the good work.. :)

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Surbhi! This, coming from you, means a lot!
      Thanks again! :)

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