The Haunted Fortress of Bhangarh: Book 1

33. A few full moons

Rudra was appalled that morning since he was all by himself in the classroom and none of his friends had shown up to attend Dr. Ghai's lecture. The pot-bellied middle-aged man droned on and on in a monotone, pointing towards the green board and explaining the topic for the day, but he couldn't care less that the students were yawning and toying with their phones, paying no attention to the lecture. Dr. Ghai didn't even notice that his most attentive student and two of her other friends were absent from the class while only one out of the clique of four was perched at the last bench of the topmost aisle, scribbling notes once in a while.

Rudra could swear he had never experienced time moving as slowly as it did that morning. He had been expecting the trio to show up till the last minute since Siya was adamant about never missing a single of Dr. Ghai's lectures, but he was shocked when the class commenced and none of his friends turned up. Hence, the moment Dr. Ghai gathered his belongings and left the class, Rudra stuffed his notebook and pen inside the bag and sprinted out of the hall, shooting straight towards the canteen where he was hoping to find them.

Much to his surprise, Siya, Ranvir, and Ayush were sitting at their regular table inside the canteen while Aman and Surbhi were standing close by as Shravani brought a tray full of red velvet cupcakes to the table. The expressions on their faces gave it away that something terrible had happened. Aman's presence in the canteen right after getting discharged from the dreadful accident was also a source of amazement. Though he was seemingly exhausted and his left arm was in a sling, he was not at all happy but was rather consoling an anguished Surbhi.

Shravani offered a cupcake to Surbhi and pulled her cheeks. "Have one. You will feel better."

Rudra approached the table, and six pairs of eyes fell on him. "Did something happen? Why is everyone serious?" He glanced at Aman. "And why are you here? You should be home. Resting."

He wrapped his undamaged arm around Surbhi's shoulders. "Something terrible happened with Surbhi, and I couldn't keep resting anymore."

***

After Surbhi was done narrating the harrowing experience she had had that morning, the entire group fell silent, occasionally biting into a cupcake and exchanging furtive glimpses with one another. Surbhi was a quivering mess after recounting the tale, and although apart from witnessing the apparition form from a blob of smoke, nothing else had transpired for her to be scared of, she was nonetheless shaken to the core. In fact, after listening to her tale, all of them came to the conclusion that things needed to be taken more seriously because, unfortunately, something evil was constantly tailing them and attempting to frighten them, sometimes going as far as injuring them physically and making their life a living hell.

Ranvir was the one to break the length of dismayed quietude. "Did you guys notice? These strange things began happening to us after we... we..."

Siya's brows shot up. "We what?"

Ranvir took a deep breath as his eyes swept across the other six. "After we returned from our trip."

Another bout of stark silence fell across as all their minds wavered to the series of mishaps that had transpired with them. Siya, Aman, Rudra, and Nidhi already had been on the receiving end of the lady in red's antics while Surbhi was the new entrant to the list.

"We don't believe in all this," Surbhi's voice shook, "but do you think it's a spirit or a ghost? The negativity that transcends any positive energies our souls hold."

Rudra recollected the jocularity and the ease with which they had announced the non-existence of ghosts during the trip. That thought needed to be cast aside and misremembered as the mishaps could be attributed to what people call ghosts. Something that couldn't be justified by Science but nevertheless was a reality for them.