The 13...

It was late night, as Naina hurried into the lift clutching her laptop. She was all alone, as the lift trundled towards the ground floor. As it reached the 13^th floor, suddenly the power went off. Naina started sweating out of fear. The reminiscence of all horror movies which she had seen in her entire life, danced before her. She smelt blood around, and heard soft footsteps, coming closer & closer. As it came too close, she shouted and the lift started working again, all of a sudden. She stumbled as she came out, snatched the key from the watchman, ignored his questions and drove the car towards her new villa, recently bought on the outskirts of the city.

As the car crossed the city borders, it started raining heavily and Naina had to limit the speed. Suddenly she remembered that it’s not monsoon yet and the idea chilled her soul. Monsoon was never early in the past 12 years of her life in the city. She smelt cigar and heard a heavy breath & cough behind. She started shivering. With all her courage, she turned back, but there was nobody.

She accelerated the car with no second thoughts, but heavy rain made the street lights go off, all of a sudden. The way became smoky and there was no other choice for Naina than to stop the car. She braked and the vehicle skidded and struck the 13^th milestone. She started searching for her mobile, like a mad woman. As she got hold of it she immediately dialled 100, and it got switched off. She cried and pressed the buttons in vain. As she looked at her watch, she noticed the date and time, one o'clock on Friday the 13^th .

She wanted to run, but as she opened the door, 13 stray dogs came rushing towards the car, howling and barking. She slammed the door and raised the glasses. The dogs were jumping onto the window. Somehow she pushed her head between her knees, but tears were rushing from the tightly closed eyes, down her cheeks. She wanted to shout, but was unable. Once again she smelt cigar and heard the coughing sound. Before she could shut her ears with her palms, she heard that heavy voice...NAINA!

She stood up in her bed, shivering, drenched in sweat, gasping. It took some time for her to settle down. A relief that it was just a dream soothed her mind. She couldn't sleep thereafter. She searched for her mobile. She wondered, it was switched off, as she switched it on, messages wishing her a birthday started piling up in the inbox. She looked at the watch, to get up, but it showed dead by 1 o'clock. She quickly arranged her files, laptop, bathed, had breakfast and closed the door of the 13^th Villa. As she threw the laptop bag on the back seat of her car, she found, half-burned cigar sticks. She ignored them and drove towards the office, she found the road was wet, and after a while found some electricians mending up the damaged street lights. She found posters warning rabies, and as her car KL-13, 1313, entered the gate, the watchman wished her a happy birthday. As she entered the lift she found some drops of blood...



[NB: Strictly based on the psychological disorder of  Synaesthesia. Now after reading this, you might doubt the writer himself suffers from this particular disorder.]

 (Linking this to Ultimate Blogging Challenge)