What Lies Beneath

Chapter 14 (i)

Misha was more than just baffled than feeling obnoxious. She didn't know exactly what to feel after reading the text. Nevertheless, she was doubtless on the fact that he was doing it either because someone may have told him to do so or he was faking a favor. Like ain't no way he suddenly starts to act like he's caring after locking her for a whole night in a dark room. Does he feel bad now? 

Whatever would be the reason, no matter how he found out that she's going to stay in the office for work, Misha didn't want to think about him for now. This message sure have disturbed her peace a little but she collected herself quickly before drowning herself into the work and completed the files as fast as she could. 

Working for countless hours Misha had no idea when the time passed and it was 10:45 already. Finally a very little review was left to be done so she completed that and went to Natasha's office for the final approval. 

It was late but due to tomorrow's meeting preparation Natasha stayed in the office beside a few more employees. However the whole building was still empty as she made her way to her boss's office. 

After knocking a few times on the door, the same voice called her in and she entered her dark, chilled room again. 

Natasha was leisurely sitting on her chair with a laptop on her lap as she swung it to and fro. Surely working on some files and when Misha came in, she upped an eye.

"All done?" She commented with a tone of derision in her voice.

"Yes ma'am." There wasn't anything much to be said so Misha placed the files with a flash drive in front of her and stood quietly. 

She has tried her best, making sure that there were no mistakes left to be pointed out as she gulped when the lady boss took the files in her hands and inspected the data thoroughly; before inserting the drive in her laptop and checking the presentation. 

There wasn't any such blunder which she was trying to find the whole time and after spending a good fifteen minutes on Misha's work, Natasha finally gave her permission to leave. 

Misha became happy but was more relieved that she managed to complete the task before getting this matter caught by Shubh's hands. If so, her husband wouldn't let her go easily after that for sure.

Thinking all of this in her mind, she exited her cabin and came back to her workspace to gather all her stuff before leaving for the home. Right when she turned to move, her feet halted immediately. Her eyes landed on the large glass window situated on the wall across her and the only thing she could perceive was, the night. 

The night that was scaring her for nothing, the night which suddenly felt terrifying to go into alone. The night that reminded her of events from yesterday which she believed she'd moved on from already; seems like it still has its imprints left on her mind.

It wasn't always like this. Misha was never scared of the dark since childhood. She always used to be fearless and bold unlike any other child of her classmates, be it camping or watching horror movies at midnight, she was always the bravest among all. But it was all until the day her parents died. 

A car accident near the village of Kyari, Uttarakhand, the loud bumping noise of the crash was still alive in her mind. The image of the dead bodies of her parents, those icy blue lights and roars of wild animals roaming in the night was still haunting her mind. Yet she overcame that fear within a year but who knew that one night could stir everything up again. 

She is afraid of the dark now, scared of its eerie silence as she could feel this fear of being watched by someone rising within her slowly. 

Though it never affected her majorly in the past, today was something different.