The digital watch on the dashboard of Keya's car was showing 11:25 pm ,unaware of the time keya was thinking about those inexplicable things which were going on since the evening .Why her boss surprisingly gave her some not so urgent looking work after the office hours ? , why Nitin called her to Gurgaon on that chilly December night when even the nocturnal too do not dare to step out of their homes ? why the hell Nitin wanted her to take that hilly route to Gurgaon via Faridabad when she could have reached there from her office situated in Okhla via Dhaula Kuan ? and the most inexplicable of them was why she letting herself carried away by his despotism and doing exactly what he wanted her to do ? May be because just after a couple of months they were gonna tie the knot and she did not want to disappoint him in any way , but this was one of the most awkward way of pleasing her fiancee when she knew that either his demands were coming from an insane mind or may be he was fed up of her and wanted to get rid of her , well that was one of the most weirdest idea but if it was the case then no prize for guessing that she was trapped , trapped in an unusual way , it was like that someone else had dominion over her mind , someone else was making her do what he wanted her to do...was like ... she was possessed...
The 30 km stretch which leads to Gurgaon via Faridabad is a fantabulous boulevard but that same awsome looking road turns out to be a petrified and deserted place as the clock's hours' hand passes the figure of 10 and the chill in the weather adds to the scariness ,the car's speedometer was showing a speed of around 80 kmph and gurgaon was still 20 km far. She wanted to reach her destination as soon as possible , the speedometer was gradually climbing up and up , the digital watch read 11:26 when a screeching sound came as Keya applied the brakes or rather stood on the brakes to stop the machine with minimum displacement. The impact of the retardation was so extreme that the car turned almost 90 degrees and had it not been the seat belt which she was wearing she would not have been witnessing the forbidding site which she was witnessing right now.
A skinny structure with an icy white face was standing in front of her and gazing towards her with an unaccountable mirth , his pale yellow eyes though blooming out and giving a sharp contrast to the complexion of his face were daunting as hell but yet somewhere they displayed a deep amount of care and love. Keya's heart skipped a couple of beats as he took long strides towards her , she was astonishingly not scared of that scene instead a drop or two came rolling down from her eyes on her pink cheeks and shone like little diamonds as she recognized the care and love in those morbid eyes.
FIVE YEARS BACK
Keya and Amit worked together in a multinational firm .Everyone was in awe of the bond they shared with each other ,the apparent bond of love , they were childhood sweethearts and destiny had brought them together after a separation of four long years. Keya was the subject of the reverie of all the male colleagues while Amit was the desire of every female counterpart infact they complimented each other with their ravishing physical features.
Keya was tall (5 feet 8 inches) , fair , had long hair and her utterly demure attire gave her an unimaginable comely appearance. On the other hand Amit had a taller and leaner built not skinny though , wheatish complexion and his most striking feature were those pair of brown eyes. He could make any girl drool over him just by a mere glance. They were really like those bookish made in heaven couples , they always promised each other to grow old together no matter what the circumstances be , no matter how strong the tide is they will go against it if they have to. Being neighbors they both grew up together , once a toddler Amit hated the way she dressed , she talked , she walked in fact every girlish thing of her seems to regress him from her and same feelings were emanated from Keya's side but as the time took the toll on their respective minds and bodies they started to appreciate the nature's creation , started to appreciate each other's innate beauty and the more they conversed out of the sheer physical attraction the more they started knowing each other and the more they came close to each other.
The love, the care grew with every tick of second and the boundaries of their love propagated to eon as they crossed the barriers made by the society though they were neighbors there was just formal interaction between their families but the families never interfered the budding relationship .Things were going perfectly fine until Amit told Keya that his father has been transferred to Kerala and they will have to shift in a week . All hell broke loose, she knew how difficult it is to be in a long distance relationship, longing for a mere sight of your beloved, she knew the hardships one has to suffer in those dreaded long distant relationships and with no surprise her nightmares started becoming a reality .They started drifting apart but their faith in each other kept them together though the intensity was fading but it didn't vanish, it just needed a kick and fate gave that , they both were placed in the same firm after their engg degree , they were ecstatic ,their joy knew no bound , they were elated with the idea of being together again in each others' arms....the euphoria bubbled inside them as they realized that they can hold each others' hands again, can hug each other , can kiss each other.
They again were one of the happiest couple on the planet and time started to flow like the water of the river Ganges. It was a December afternoon when Amit told Keya that he would have to go Mumbai for a couple of days to attend a cousin's ring ceremony. Keya for some strange reasons looked apprehensive may be because she doesn't wanted the distance to come between them once again however Amit managed to convince her that it was just a matter of couple of days , she was convinced , though not whole heartedly but she was , she bade farewell to Amit at airport with wet eyes seeing which Amit told her that he is going for something very auspicious and these tears will act as bad omen , this made her smile though that was a fake one.
As before her psychic powers proved to be true .She heard the news of crash of a Mumbai bound aircraft when she tuned in to a news channel , the aircraft in which Amit was travelling. The news further confirmed of no survival .....no survival .....which meant the end of her mirth....the end of Amit.
The death of Amit made Keya go insane her world was lost and it seem to her that her life was purposeless. She was broken and was all prepared to end her existence but somehow her mother managed to bring her out of that trauma being aware of her daughter's relationship with Amit she understood the anguish of Keya , she tried hard to make her realize that it was not the end of the world for her infact a new world awaits her and as they say time is a big healer it healed the wounds of Keya gradually and slowly she began adapting to this new world..a world without Amit.
Keya started working again her life started coming back on track and thats when she met Nitin at a work seminar. Nitin was the vice president of an another firm , an average looking guy with a ting of shrewdness in his eyes had great managerial skills and was able to manipulate things according to his desires though all the shrewdness and manipulative nature he was an admirable human being always ready to help with an alluring smile on his face and may be it was this benevolent nature of his which attracted Keya and needless to say Nitin was mesmerized by Keya's beauty. The relationship grew stronger with time from mere acquaintance to friendship , from friendship to a stronger friendship and so on but never this friendship got converted into love because for Keya love meant Amit .
Like any other parents Keya's parents wanted her to get married and she too was feeling a void in her life which she thought can be filled by a family. The search of groom began and ended on Nitin. She was engaged to Nitin and everything was falling in place .The pensiveness about Amit was slowly and steadily vanishing , the euphoria was coming back. Keya never felt like this since last five years....since Amit.
The melancholic figure was approaching nearer and nearer and the tears from Keya's eyes were growing in number as the perplexity from her mind was departing. How can it be true ? was it an apparition , or was it real .She opened the door of her car and looked into the eyes of that ghastly figure .Nowhere were the remains of that wheatishness , it was all pale , the charm was oppressed by the morbidity , she said "Amit ..is it you?", the figure replied ... "having a difficult time recognizing me Keya?" , tears burst out of Keya's eyes , she leaned forward to hug him but the figure moved backwards and said "this is not the real me Keya , it's the afflicted soul of mine" Keya was bewildered and as she tried to wipe off her tears the soul said "I survived the crash that day but only to go in a state of coma,I had been in this state of oblivion for last five years but I fought with death and didn't give up because I knew that there is someone who loves me more than I love myself and that someone was you and I knew that this love wont let me die I fought....I fought for goddamn five years but dunno why suddenly I started feeling week ...don't know why the death started mocking my braveness. I am dying Keya...I am dying". The tears of Keya's eyes were dried up the fact that she accepted years ago was not quite a fact .She hated that time when Amit left her in that limbo. She was nearly dead but she lived again and accepted the death of Amit and now this sudden appearance was first euphoric but after that revelation of his getting vanquished by death made her to contemplate that she will have to face that dreaded trauma all over again and that was the reason of those dried tears. The apparition said "I know Keya you can't exist without me ,neither can I , that's why I am here , that's why i made all the arrangements , lets die together Keya...so that we'll be together forever". Keya was amused by the idea and replied "it's so easy for you Amit , you say that you love me and you have come to kill me !! what kind of love is this Amit. I accepted your death long ago but even then u were there at some corner of my heart but you made it harder for me to live so I decided to choose a new life for me I am engaged to someone , someone who loves me a lot , someone who is there with me not just as mere memory but as a person who can cherish my happiness and who can support me in my bad times .I love my life more then anything else Amit. I loved you once but not more than myself and if you love me then you will let me go or else I will never be yours not even after death". The apparition stood impassively as Keya started the ignition and headed towards her detination , towards Nitin. She stopped directly at the parking of Nitin's apartment and rang the door bell. It was 2 in the morning and Nitin was baffled as he saw Keya at the door. Keya hugged Nitin and from a place afar the apparition saw it and remained impassive and at the same time at a place very far away a tear dropped from those charming brown eyes of Amit as the doctor declared him dead.
