“Ravi, you were again uttering some strange words and speaking to someone in your sleep last night.” Ravi’s wife Leela, told him when he woke up in the morning. Indeed she was right, it was consecutively the third night that he had the same dream. His sister had recently disappeared after an unusual incident.
Leela asked Ravi while sipping her cup of tea,” who do you speak to every night? Have you been able to find Riya?” Ravi appeared blank for a while and then said “ Leela, I don’t know if you will be able to believe me. I see a strange silhouette each beyond the window. It appears very familiar, perhaps like Riya. It keeps chasing me and asks me to help her out. I keep speaking to it, with the hope of providing her all the support that she needs but somehow my voice doesn’t reach her. It disappears beyond the window, in the same way as Riya actually disappeared from our lives.
Ravi still remembers the fateful day in March. It was close to the Holi vacation, Riya had arrived from Bengaluru and was going to stay with Ravi, Leela and their children for the fortnight. Everyone was excited to celebrate the festival after a long time. They had booked their friend’s farmhouse to spend the weekend. During the day, they all played some games and walked around the farmhouse exploring the wonderful greenery around the farm. There was an old and ruined temple behind the farmhouse, which attracted Riya. She thought to explore it further and tried to climb up the temple, just prior to the twilight hours, as Ravi and Leela kept waiting for her.
“Riya, where are you. Please come down it’s turning dark “, Ravi kept on calling her but there was no reply. He tried to climb up the old creaking staircase but to his utter shock, she had disappeared. Both Leela and Ravi desperately tried to find her, with the help of the caretaker and staff but she never appeared again.
The police officers informed them a couple of days later that they had found the body of a woman in her mid-thirties near the farmhouse, she did not have a single scratch on her body but had died after falling from a great height. Ravi was able to identify Riya’s body because of the ring she wore. Perhaps the mysterious silhouette was appearing every night in his dream to tell him that Riya had died because she tried to chase her ambitions and scale great heights, perhaps it appeared to warn Ravi not to be too ambitious in life but to spend more time with his family. The mysterious silhouette was never seen again but Ravi felt his sister’s shadow always surrounding him and protecting him whenever over_ambition tried to misguide him.
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