[Highest Rank - 34]
An insomniac writer, looking for a new story, crosses paths with a mysterious girl who engages him in an infamous serial murder case, and brings him to a point where he begins to question his own Sanity.
Title:...
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24 Dhiwan Road
Chapter 4
A Man in the Café
* * *
PAST
Ayush was probably nine at that time when it happened. The unexpected tragedy, so brutal and heartbreaking in nature, that it created a strong inescapable void, so deep and wounded that he never recovered from it. All he wanted to do on that wintery night of late December was to study for his Maths exams but his obnoxious mother thought otherwise. She angrily sent him to the dairy to bring some milk and fruits. He hated going out alone after the dusk, not because he hated dark, but the possibilities of finding strangers in shadows scared him.
A part of him didn't believe in the ghost stories the old nanny told them, but when he used to sit alone in the dark of his room, staring at the late night moon, he would hear whispers of corpses, would feel cold hands on his neck and face, and sadly he couldn't tell these things to anyone except his sister, Diya.
They weren't real siblings, and wouldn't talk much. Just regular stuff like classwork and cricket. Diya had a crush on one of the boys from the school, and he knew about it, but he kept it a secret, just like she kept his I-am-going-to-take-this-black-kitten-with-me secret. Ayush loved cats and he had a theory that they are good listeners.
Ayush named her, Roohi, the cat. He found her, abandoned, in the backyard, a week ago, the same way his father found his half-sister, a couple of years ago. His parents adopted Diya and he adopted Roohi. Roohi was pitch black in color, had diamond eyes, and dark silver patches all over her body.
Going to the dairy was easy, but returning on the same dusky road was quite a difficult task. The road was in the middle of a small forest, and he read it in the news that a dead wolf is hiding in the heart of the forest. He could feel his invisible presence all around him.
But more than the wild wolf, he was worried about his scared cat.
What if she makes some sound and mother finds out about it, he thought. Even Diya wasn't home to protect her. Ayush's mother was a heartless lady, and she hated animals and almost everything good in the world.
Worried, he fastened his steps, ignoring the hooting of owls and soul-chilling whispers of winds. It was really cold out there, and he could sense something strange and dangerous.
Just walk home.
He thought but curiosity is a charmer, isn't it? He turned around and investigated the road carefully. There was no one there. It was all silent and dark, but suddenly he heard another cry.
