Strange night...

 I was tired after the long and hard day at work. After collating the data from all my peers, my mind was reluctant to review the whole thing again. However, past experience told me not to send it without a final review. My eyes were burning as if someone had lit a candle inside my eyes!  Another 15 minutes and it will be midnight… but this was very important. With great difficulty I finished the last line before calling it a day! After shutting down the computer, I left my place at 12AM. I had to push my body a couple of times before it could respond. It felt as if all my organs woke up after a long sleep. I was about to open the door when I realized someone standing behind it. The door in my cabin had a translucent glass. The face of the shadow figure standing outside my cabin was not clearly visible. For a moment, it gave me a little shock as I was not expecting anyone to be in office at that time, that too outside my door, trying hard to peek inside! I stopped for a while to analyze the situation… thinking this could be some sort of illusion… I rubbed my eyes and checked on the door again. The shadowed figure was not my illusion. It was still staring at me from the other side of the door. ‘It could be someone from my team or a security person…’ my consciousness whispered in my ears. Though hesitated for a while, I slowly opened the door. 

image courtesy stormgrounds.com

 

‘what the…’  … … let alone someone standing behind my cabin, not even a single person was visible in the entire floor! After few seconds, a security guard came along – who might have heard me coming out of the cabin. Still thinking about the hooded figure, I inquired the security guard for a possible colleague who might have left just before I came out. But his answers didn’t solve the mystery, rather it increased my curiosity. I was so sure that someone was trying hard to look through that door. However, it was too late so I decided to move on.  

‘Sometimes, tired mind shows up things that do not even exist…’ it was the security guard. I turned back to acknowledge him, only to find an empty chair! This time my heart beat skipped. I rushed through the main door towards the parking lot - eyes set only on my car parked at the far side. That ‘someone-is-following-me’ feeling was creeping inside my head but I didn’t dare to turn around. Within seconds I was inside my car. My hands were shivering and it took some time to start the engines... With only one thought of getting myself out of that building, I peddled on the accelerator. It would take about 20 minutes during peak traffic to reach home, but at night 10 minutes is more than enough. But, even before I could drive down to the next level – I saw the same hooded figure through the mirrors, sitting quietly at the back seat. I applied the brakes at ones and looked behind in surprise. The hooded figure was still sitting – calm and quiet before I saw some movement. The hooded figure took out a knife out of its jacket. Before I could even shout, it finished its job. The pain was inevitable. It was struck so hard around my throat that I couldn’t even murmur for help. First the hands and then slowly, entire body was soaked in my own blood. My eyes were shutting down, this time not because of tiredness... The dark had turned even darker for me… The curtain of life was about to be drawn… 

Suddenly, I woke up... my heart beat running at its peak and my forehead covered in sweat… The report which I had to send was still open on my desktop… May be I dozed off while doing the report… maybe it was just a bad dream…  My hands were still shivering out of fear… that dream seemed very much real… However, the fact that I am still alive made me a lot more relaxed and brought huge amount of relief… I wiped my sweat and looked upon the time… It was 12AM!!! A strange feeling, some sort of discomfort surrounded me… The silence was so much killing that even the cold breeze from the A.C started to sound a bit spooky… And then I looked at my door… the same hooded figure was standing there trying hard to look through those glasses!!