Tuesday 2 July 2013

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 13th 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 13th 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 13th .

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 13th 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)

35 comments :

  1. wow . A chill down my spine.liked it.

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    1. Thank You Kalpana...its based on a psychological disorder called Synaesthesia.

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  2. damn scary..... and the buildup surely got me hooked onto it!

    Richa

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    1. Thank You Richa...its based on a psychological disorder called Synaesthesia.

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  3. Wonderful write up... so with the disorder is she imagining things??!!

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    1. Yea, that's it!...Since the number 13 is associated with omen and is considered to be a bad luck, she tends to associate the number with her fear.

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  4. Awesome, Dude....Gonna fan of your write up....Excellent portray .

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  5. I had started to loose hope that any male member is taking part in this UBC...what a respite when I found your blog :) :)...

    a nice piece you have written here..i could literally imagine all this happening... did not know about Synaesthesia until now ...

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  6. Sreedev I certainly thought you do, nice spine chilling and gut wrenching :)

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  7. Really chilling but I sort of found it to be incomplete...

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    1. Thank You Brendan, well it has been consciously kept incomplete and is left to the imagination of the reader...

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  8. I found it lil funny :P bt yes u wrote it well

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    1. Every piece of literature can be viewed through different perspectives...some find it scary, some funny and some may something else, its the way how you indulge yourself with art...Thank You Bhavana...

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  9. loved the way you kept the painting unfinished for you readers to fill up colours of their thrilling imagination ..
    Nice!

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  10. I imagined almost every scene u depicted... nicely written!!

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  11. Well I'm impressed with the plot and narration as well

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  12. It was really good.Scarier than I thought it would be.. :)

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  13. It was very nice. Scarier than I thought it would be..

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