The Night Is Here

Apocalypse

Around 3 into the dead night I woke up to a strange sound outside my bedroom window. It was like a dog howling or more like a human howling in pain. I didn’t know. And I didn’t have the courage to go and check. I nudged Rudra sleeping beside me like a dead man. No response. “How can someone sleep so peacefully throughout that noise?” I murmured. 

The noise suddenly grew sharper like it was coming closer to us. Like whatever that creature was can enter my room at any moment! Beads of sweat started forming on my forehead. Another howl. Closer this time. I felt a chill run down my spine. I froze in my place. My throat felt like a desert on a summer afternoon. I couldn’t utter a word. I waited shivering, as my death came closer every second. I wondered if my husband is still sleeping next to me or is already dead as these deafening screams made no difference to him. 

One more howl. This one was right outside our window as if asking for permission to enter. I could actually see two yellow eyes burning into the black night. Staring right back at me. I could taste bile rising up till my mouth. I waited for it to end my life any given second as I stared at those burning eyes looking at me with such desperation. With one more piercing howl it aimed at my throat tearing it apart with one stroke. 

“Rudra!!” I screamed my lungs out! 

“What the fuck Sam? Why are you trying to give me a heart attack right in the morning?” Said Rudra waking up like a mad man questioning my sanity. 

“Oh! A nightmare!” I whispered to myself wiping the sweat off my forehead. 

“What forgodsaken nightmare did you have Sam that you woke up covered in sweat looking like a loony?” asked Rudra a bit amused. 

“Uh nothing. Anyway, let’s get started for the day then if we are already up. We have a lot in hand to do before we leave for Udaipur.” I said getting up from the bed. 

Rudraksh Singh Shaktawat, my husband is the last descendant of their family. The last king of that ghostly district near Udaipur. I have only been their once and that particular visit still manages to give me goosebumps. 2 days ago when we got a call from the Haweli that his grandmother is counting her last breaths we decided to visit that place. Though I never liked that lady but being the only granddaughter in law of her majesty I have to accompany Rudra. I don’t know why I’ve always found that woman and every thing in that place very odd and umm…chilly. As if the place has mysteries wrapped in its old embrace. You can feel it in the air. Somehow even Rudra, the guy I love for the past 4 years also changes as soon as he takes a step on that land. He is all of a sudden a different man, always on the verge of cutting my throat over silly issues. 

As we reached Udaipur I started to feel the same uneasiness in my gut. Rudra sensed it and held my hand to calm me down. I turned to look at him and as I expected his eyes no more felt warm. They looked darker. They felt darker. I missed home as the car sped away on the deserted road. 

“Pairi laago kunwar sa, bahuraani.” Coughed the old keeper of the haweli in the language I detested. 

“Khamma Ghani taau, is everything fine in the haweli apart from Daai sa’s health?” Rudra asked like he had no idea of his so called fortune getting demolished day by day. 

“Everything is still the same Kunwar sa. The way it has always been.” The old man uttered the genuine lie. 

I couldn’t take this conversation stretching any longer than this so I pulled Rudra towards the direction of his grandmother’s room. Which again was a place I detested. But alas. 

“Ghani Khamma Daai sa.” Said Rudra and I in unison as we knocked on her door. 

“Khamma Ghani Rudraksh, Samira. Come in” She called out.