It’s Dark & Cold, Suddenly the lights went off

It’s Saturday night. Shikha is busy preparing the meal in the kitchen. Suddenly, the lights go off & everything is dark. Luckily, Shikha has got the phone but much to her dismay, it’s without any signals. This startles her however, she soon realizes there is little that can be done about that.

She has recently come for a visit to this beautiful & mysterious hill station in India, “Vyasgiri” that is cut off from the mainland, to enjoy solitude & find peace of mind.

Vyasgiri has a low population density & doesn’t have any existing mobile towers. Moreover, the electricity in the house is powered by solar panels. It was this reason that led Shikha to choose this village. But then it hits her. She was out the whole day trekking & didn’t use the power outlets to drain the battery. Furthermore, there was enough sunshine in the morning. There couldn’t be any plausible reason for this sudden power outage. Not this way!

She hurriedly runs towards the entrance and tries to unlatch the door but gives in after multiple attempts. Shikha shouts for Ravi, the caretaker of the house but he has gone with the other villagers to attend a wedding in a nearby village. It’s a common tradition in the hills of India to welcome other villagers to the wedding since theirs is usually a close-knitted community & Vyasgiri is no exception.

Suddenly, Shikha hears something in the kitchen. She musters up the courage to move in that direction. The bright moon is high in the clear sky but she could sense something eerie. Just when she is about to enter the kitchen, the TV turns on by itself.

This breaks her to the point that she starts to scream her lungs out. But realizing that she is on her own until Ravi & the other villagers return, Shikha decides to give it a fight. She gets hold of a wooden stick & goes towards the living room.

As she inches towards the room, a foul smell of sweat & sulfur fills the air around her. The sky slowly starts to get dark. She looks at her Phone torch which has been lit for an hour & the battery currently stands at 10%.

“This couldn’t be right!,” Shikha thinks to herself. If there is a power outage then how come the TV is on? She runs towards the living room, where she finds a person sitting on the couch. She goes numb as if her heart has skipped a beat. She wanted to cry but she couldn’t.

But she decides against backing down. She grasps the wooden stick stronger and swings at the person. What happens next shakes her to the core. Those were just a pile of pillows stacked up together with a blanket & a cap over it. Right when she looks at the situation in disbelief, the light comes back.

Everything looks normal. Without thinking twice, Shikha runs towards the door leaving everything behind her. She runs as far as she can. After traversing for around 10 miles, she reaches the town’s bus station. It is 4 AM now & the bus services to New Delhi won’t resume until 5. She is still shaken by what had happened with her back in the hamlet.

Shikha, being the brave girl that she is, shrugs it off as a one-off nightmare that she was going to leave behind her. She boards the bus at 05:00 AM & reaches New Delhi in the evening. Instead of going to her place, she decides to visit her parents as she still isn’t out of the trauma that took place not even 24 hours ago.

Shikha decides against narrating this story to anyone as everyone has always thought of her as a brave, young, bold & independent woman who is too tough for this world. But now she starts to feel more comfortable as her Mom feeds her delicious savory snacks. The night gets over and the city wakes up to a hot, humid morning.

Unlike New Delhi, back in Vyasgiri, it is cold, very cold! Strangely, Bhotiya dogs who thrive in cold weather have been howling since last night. The village has a total population of 25 people but only 24 turned up after a ceremonial bell was rung from the temple tower that is used only for emergency purposes.

The people realize that only one man is missing. They quickly divide themselves into two groups to search for him. One villager goes to the lone cottage at the hilltop; she senses the same foul smell that Shika did. Just as she makes her way inside the room, there lies a wooden stick with a bloodstain on it.

Despite being shocked & scared at the moment, she, a true Pahadan (term used for people who live in the mountains), calls the other people in the village to search the house. Even after trying for several hours, they fail to locate the man. They give up believing a leopard might have taken him away. It’s common for leopards to frequent isolated cottages & houses in search of food at night. The Village Pradhan orders the closure of the cottage & fencing of the entire area.

Not long after they had left the cottage, a strong wind starts to blow. The washroom’s door starts to squeak loudly as the villagers forgot to lock it since it was built separately at the rear side of the cottage. Although the force of the wind was very strong, it couldn’t close the door. The hinge was obstructed by a body.