What The Eyes Don't See

18 | Gift from the Other Side

It took Anay the better part of an hour to explain to Vishwa what was transpiring in his life. Vishwa sat in rapt silence as Anay unfolded event after event and came right up to this point in his life. Vishwa, stupefied, absorbed all of it and said, "You mean there's a spirit in this room?"

Anay nodded. "He latches on to me."

"Are you guys fucking with me?" Vishwa said.

"Why would we?" asked Anay. "You just saw it. Dude, this thing whatever it is, is quite powerful. Imagine something that can make a tremor like that or make an entire café collapse."

"Fuck! Have you seen it?"

"I have." Anay provided grim details of the episodes when he felt the clammy fingers on him.

Vishwa rose. "All right, then I have to leave. Sorry, guys, but these kinds of things super-freak me out. I won't be able to sleep for nights now, thanks to you. And now this hotel room creeps me out. Sorry, I am not going to stay here and play detective with you two."

Darkness was already permeating the room with a bad vibe. The evening hour had come and they hadn't realized it.

After Vishwa left, Kautuk and Anay filled up two ashtrays with cigarette butts thinking what could be done. There were the practical things to talk about too. What would Anay do next? Where would he stay? So much of it! Kautuk had offered to stay on for a while.

"But be careful, Kautuk," Anay warned. "He's hell-bent on taking everything that gets close to me. The way this is going, I am afraid for your life too."

Kautuk laughed aloud. "I am not afraid of ghosts," he said. "They don't scare me. I'll hang out with you for a while. Let's really hope that your ghost guy appears. I will get a good look at him."

Anay did not protest further. In fact, he was happy his friend was staying back. It gave him a measure of courage.

For long moments did they sit in silence then, doing nothing but scrolling down their phones. Anay was reminded of Shanaya when he saw her last message. She hadn't messaged today. There hadn't been a goodnight message from her after their uncomfortable parting at the multiplex. Nor had there been her customary good morning message.

"She's not replying, is she?" Kautuk said, noticing his frustration.

"It's good that she is not. Better to keep her away."

But his face showed his disappointment. He had managed to annoy her finally. He suppressed that pang of guilt; it was the right thing to do. After everything was sorted out, he would go and apologize to her. She would understand.

Kautuk was now pacing up and down the tiny hotel room. Outside, there was the highway that connected the city to the other northern parts of the state. The evening traffic on it had increased, and the incessant honking and screaming of the irate drivers made things like ghosts and spirits seem so far removed from the real world. Was such a thing as haunting even possible? How could one account for it?

"It's a waste of time," said Anay. "He is very clever. He is a spirit; he knows. He won't come out of the shadows now. Ghosts don't appear when you are looking for them."

Kautuk could not suppress a sardonic laughter. "Do you realize what fools we appear to be right now? What the holy hell are we doing here? Ghost hunting?"

"He won't make his presence felt unless I am at the most vulnerable and alone. You go, Kautuk. You have done a lot."

Kautuk did not reply. He walked up to the window.

And then something happened.

It was at the moment when he was just about to go to close the window to keep the evening mosquitoes out. Hardly had his fingers grazed the handle of the window when the entire thing shuddered with a loud bang again. It almost caught Kautuk's fingers between the two panes, and he would have lost them if he hadn't been quick.