It was 6

It was 6 in the evening and the Sun was at the horizon. The four years of ecstasy and struggle was over. I was at the gates and nostalgically beamed my thoughts at some sweet reminiscences which seemed to leave a lasting impression on me. There was pervasive silence or perhaps. I wasn’t ready to listen anything. Breeze was gently playing with my hair and it was lovelier than it had ever been. The barren land around the gates some years ago, was then teaming with green grass and the trees, lining the road to the admin building, grew a bit taller in four years.

I kept standing motionlessly. “It’s over now”, voice echoed. Looking everywhere I found nobody. Voice came from inside me and nowhere else... the Sun went down bringing an era of halcyon times to an end.

It is getting dark and I am not sure if I really know the place. There are two streets ahead of me, neither of them have street lights. Probably because the city has been abandoned by its dwellers or may be it has all been done for me. I have a feeling that it has to be the later one. But, who could be it. Is it my manager at office or S, the other guy who is behind A? Meanwhile I am strolling down one of the streets. The silence is more intense than I had ever felt in my life(?). The buildings on both sides seem to have been abandoned by their dwellers. Am I terrified by the frightening combination dark and silence? Is this place a haunted one? I guess the place is too frightening even for the ghosts. My eyes are getting adapted to the level of darkness or may be it’s just a hallucination. I can see a big gate in front of me.

I hesitantly approached the gates splashing the rain water on the street. Opening the gates gave out a frightening creepy sound which broke the noisome silence in the air. My breathing got brisker and deeper. Moon had never been so dreadful and to make things worse, it began drizzling. The road was long leading to a huge majestic mansion. Silvery moonlight on the mansion rendered a ghostly appearance. Slowly but cautiously, I paced up towards the mansion and frequently monitored the shrubs running parallel to the road. Thunders struck and lightening illuminated the skies. Far off, a few bats encircling the chimney protruding from the roof. Perhaps, I thought, life at office with the irritating manager was better.

The old mansion gives me a hope of meeting someone. Doesn’t matter if I hit into a ghost. Somewhere down the line ghosts have lost grounds against me and I no longer fear them as I used to in my childhood days. A ray of light is coming from the creek of the door. I push open the door. There is a lighted candle which seems as if it had been burning there for years. I can’t actually decide about entering the house. The rain outside didn’t bother me much but the disturbance that I may cause to the residents does. I felt a little hesitant but suddenly strong wind from outside pushes me inside the house. The wind also blows away the candle. Was it really wind? Because it’s very rare to find a lonely stream of wind and that too of such incredible strength. Was it someone pushing me? My manager or S? But, the blowing away of the candle suggests that it was wind. This realization relieves me. Now it’s dark again. But, even at such a moment there’s a silver lining (?), I have a roof on my head. I look up to the roof and to my amazement there’s no roof as I can still see the dreadful moon up there. This weakens my earlier reasoning that wind blew away the candle as the culprit could be the rain as well. Manager or S?

Entering the old creaky mansion gave me the creeps that I never ever had felt. Someone was inside the hallow mansion, am I sure of it? I don’t think so, never ever after I crossed the threshold have I been sure of myself. Am I sure that someone is there or is it something? Something that might have been there since time immemorial. How can one ever be sure? One has to cross the threshold, that invisible boundary to go beyond the edge. I here remember the words of one of my favorite programs, “to go where no man has ever gone”. But then again am I sure that no man has ever stepped here in this mansion. The word “hallucination” means that one has the feeling which might be of hearing, smell or sight without any external stimulus. So is it all real, is there any external stimulus or is it my own imagination?

Here I come to a bend beyond which I see a ray of light.

(This is a novel piece of writing. The writers are sharaf, dr manu and amit srivastava. It all started when sharaf sat down and wrote a couple of paragraphs. I bounced upon the story and decided that i'll continue from where he left. Without any discussions with him, i wrote the next paragraph and ruined his story-line. Now it was his turn. The rule of the game was that no one can discuss/clarify/edit what has already been written by others. dr manu came in between and he too enjoyed the game after writing a para of his own)