Dusky Moonlight

Chapter- 20(4)

Rathi heard a woman's whisper against her ears, it doesn't let her sleep and she opened her eyes gasping hard to find herself in the middle of eerie darkness.

Confused and petrified, she looked around to see light from anywhere. But then the giggling of a little boy got her attention. She turned to find no one.

"Who is that? Come to me?" though her voice shook, but getting rid of her fear she stood there reaching out her hand in the direction where the footsteps come from.

She knew this is a dream.

She knew there's a purpose for it.

She knew it's going to change her mind the next morning.

Suddenly someone held her hand. The clasp was rough and tight. "Who are you?" Rathi asked wiggling her hand.
"Leave my hand?" Rathi tried but she couldn't.

She reached out her hand to touch the figure who's holding her and to her surprise, there's nothing, just the hand.

"What do you want?" she stopped wiggling and asked.

"Kill yourself," the firm voice of the ghost heard from the obscurity.

"What?" Rathi whispered in shock.

"Kill yourself, Rathi, before it's too late," it said and left her hands.

Rathi abruptly opened her eyes from that weird yet baffling dream. She sat up taking deep breaths and placed her hand on her forehead. Aadhiyan's hand suddenly fell on her thighs, startling her.

He's sleeping, his face is calm, and he's looking like her Aadhiyan, the man who promised to protect her and the man who said that he loved her is no more now. Like an evil taking the place of a good, the monster is hiding under Aadhiyan's skin.

As she agreed, Rathi slept beside him last night. She hated it but she's in a situation where she couldn't take any better decision.

Like the voice in my dream said, I should die, that's the only way, Rathi smiled thinking that.

She turned her head to see the dark ambiance. The sun hasn't shown up yet. As she stepped down from bed, Aadhiyan held the end of her saree and thereby stopping her. Rathi didn't expect him to be wake up.

"What you're doing?" Rathi asked as she's startled by this act of him.

"Where are you going?" he asked.
"I-I am going to the bathroom,"

"Oh," he left her saree, and Rathi walked looking at him. She wondered, is he woke up hearing what I have thought?

She washed her face finishing off her morning chores and looking at her facade vacuously, realized that she hasn't seen her own reflection for the past five days and now she's looking like someone else.

I am forgetting my face.

Is this me?

I am not like this month's back?

What happened to me?

If I stay like this, then I will completely forget who I am.

She thought, seeing her happiness lost face. Her eyes were covered by dark circles, her cheekbones were too visible and her skin complexion has turned dark.

Rathi has never seen herself like this, it showed how traumatized she is. Her eyes welled in tears thinking why her fate ended up like this?

Rathi's gaze landed on her necklace. It's indeed the ghost that wanted her to die.