SUSPENSE STORY

                                                 "THE ACCIDENT"

It was midnight when she woke up. It took her a minute to realize what really startled her was not the child. Her little princess was still sleeping soundly. She had been awakened from her dreamless slumber by the girl in the blue dress. The dress had looked familiar but what had disturbed her night’s peace was the girl’s incessant crying and pointing at something above. That had surprised her enough to make her sit up and ask the girl the reason for her sobbing in her bedroom at this hour of the night.

But the moment she got up she realized she was all alone in the room, except for the baby, with the stillness of the night being broken only by the clock ticking. She looked around once more. It was too real to be true but there was no sign of any girl – sobbing or otherwise. The child stirred, as if sensing her mother’s watchfulness but she lulled her back to sleep. But she couldn’t sleep after that.

Images of the girl were fresh in her mind, playing games with memories of long forgotten summer days, when she was a little girl, talking to her dolls, sleeping in her pink room, playing with Ria, her neighbor’s daughter, just a day before her 8th birthday. No one knew how Ria fell down from the terrace. And slowly memories returned. Of how she had cajoled Ria to jump from the ledge. She was just teasing her, nothing serious. Just daring her to do something, like always taunting her for being too scared always. And then she did.. and all that she could see was her dress ballooning around her. She had not dared to look down for fear that Ria will point at her. So she ran towards her flat, and pretended to be asleep…

Just like she was doing right now but the child went on wailing, oblivious to her pretence… Ria hadn’t complained about her then. She couldn’t have done it even if she wanted to. They had discovered her too late even for the hospital, her head had smashed on the road, the moment it had touched it but her eyes were still glazed open. She had been too scared to tell anyone the truth. And then her family had gone to Bangalore for a month-long summer vacations. When she returned, Ria’s family had changed cities and ‘the accident’ became a distant memory as she went on to make new friends.

But today, these memories were coming back in a rush. And then she heard a giggling sound. She froze until she realized it was coming from the crib. She finally got up to see what the child was up to but her her daughter was already staring towards her, not smiling, not crying, just a fixed gaze, looking at her as if she was very angry. Staring at her as if recognizing her beyond the memories of the last few days; her eyes accusing, looking at her unblinkingly. And then she lifted her hand and pointed at her and smiled. Just like Ria used to smile. She was back.

–END

PUBLISHED BY-OURHELLO.COM