Stalkers

At first, Aastha thought Denisha should stay and keep an eye on them. She told Denisha to let her know when they left, but Denisha disagreed. Aastha knew that lady would be back by 11 p.m. or 11:30 p.m. They had one hour, so she didn't argue with Denisha about keeping an eye on them. They both went inside the woman's room, climbing through the window. Thankfully, for them, the window was not locked. It was easy for them to get inside the house.

They looked around the room very carefully. The room was big and messy. Denisha started to look inside the cupboard while Aastha started to open the drawers at the side of the bed, one by one. She found an old album inside the last drawer. She quickly sat on the floor to look at it. Denisha saw the album and came to sit beside Aastha.

Aastha opened the album and started to look at the photos. There were many photos of a young girl, whom she assumed was an old woman. As they went on, one photo caught her attention. There were three young people in the photo. On the right side was the man, whom Aastha assumed to be her mama. In the middle was a handsome man who was six feet tall. Prayas seemed an inch taller than him. On the left side was a girl, whom she thought was an old woman. She was wearing a floral knee-length dress. Her long hair seemed to cover some part of her face.

"Who are they?" Denisha asked.

"I think this is mama. She is the lady, but this, I don't know him," she replied, pointing at the faces in the picture.

Denisha looked more carefully, and her eyes widened. "He was more handsome back then."

Aastha rolled her eyes. "Stop crushing on my mama, Den. My mama means he is your mama too," she warned her wolfie.

"I can't help it, and besides, it's just a crush, Ash. It will go away." Denisha shrugged.

They looked at every single photo. Most of the pictures were of that young woman with the guy, whom they assumed to be her uncle. In most of the photos, they seemed happy, like genuinely happy.

"Your mama looks happy in the picture," Denisha said.

Aastha felt someone was coming, so she hurriedly closed the album and kept it in its place. After that, they both hid behind the curtain of the window.

It was the woman.

Aastha had only seen her from afar, but now she got to see her closely. She was a natural beauty. She had no make-up on her face or any charm. That woman sat on the bed for a while, looking at the drawer. She was in deep thought. After some time, she laid on her bed. Both of them felt her trying hard to sleep, but she couldn't. Aastha then remembered all the times she couldn't sleep. It was horrible. She didn't know the reason, but she hated not being able to sleep. The lady rolled from one side of the bed to another, and finally, after what seemed like forever, they felt her breath getting slow.

Aastha knew what was coming next, so they left. Even though he was not in any good form and couldn't sense them as they thought, Aastha decided it was better to leave. Prayas was a vampire. He would do anything to protect the old lady. They slowly climbed down the window, and once they were on the ground, Aastha turned to look up. She thought mama must have already gone to the room.

"Let's stay here for some time," Denisha suggested.

Aastha nodded.

Half an hour went by, and suddenly they heard a low scream that was loud enough for them to hear.

"What was that?" Denisha questioned.

"I think she is having a nightmare. I told you on the phone." Aastha said, frowning.

"Ah, yes," Denisha replied in realization.

They both went silent and stared at the window.

"I should leave now so you can finish what I said. Remember what I said?" Denisha asked.

"Yeah, it was yesterday, and he was already gone. Today, you are with me, so give me another idea," Aastha replied.

"No, I am going to give you the same idea, and it will work. You have to do it."

Aastha was about to speak, but Denisha cut her off.

"Ok, see you in your room."

Denisha left.

"That was my best friend; can you believe it?" She said to herself:

She waited for her uncle to come out, and when he did, she went in front of him just like her wolfie told her. He was confused to see her there. She smiled, but he just looked at her with no emotion in his eyes.

"I... I...know everything," she started to say in a frightened tone, showing her face towards the house.

Prayas shook his head and started to walk. He was not in a mood.

"You can talk to me. You know, maybe I can help," she said in a slightly loud voice, but he left, ignoring her.

While walking back, he thought about how his niece had turned into a stalker.

Aastha went back and told Wolfie that it didn't work. Denisha was quite angry. She suggested to Aastha that they go to his hill house. Aastha thought for a while, and in the middle of the night, they decided to visit his house. Unfortunately, he wasn't there.

They searched for him everywhere. Finally, they found him a little bit far from the farmhouse. He was on his knees, just below the moon. He was screaming as if he were in pain. After a while, he got up and ran. They followed him, afraid he was going to hurt himself. He stopped and sat in the middle of the forest. Aastha couldn't see him like that. She was about to go towards him when she heard him say,

"I know you are there, Aastha."

His voice startled her, but she was somewhat happy that he talked to her. She couldn't believe that in one day he had spoken so many words.

"I just want to help," she said, taking slow steps toward him.

He got up, shaking his head, and turned to look at her. When he found out there were two of them, he stared at Denisha for a while.

"She is my best friend," Aastha said as she introduced her bestie to him.

She could feel that Denisha was scared. Hell, she was too.

"Hi!" Denisha slowly waved.

"Leave," he ordered.

"I know everything. She must be your lover..." As she was saying, his eyes turned red.

"You know nothing!" he yelled, coming towards her.

Before he could come near them, Denisha pulled her, and they ran back home. They would look behind their backs time and again, afraid he had followed them. Once they were inside the house, they lay on the bed, thinking about what had happened.

Would he have hurt her? That question came to both of their minds.

"It must be his pain. When a person is in pain, he can't think straight and destroys everything that's in front of him, including himself." Aastha thought.

"I want to help him even if he hurts me," Aastha muttered, but deep down she was sure he would never hurt her.

"You will, and we will come out with an idea, OK? Denisha said, turning her face towards Aastha. Aastha nodded, believing in her best friend.

On the other hand, Prayas thought of how he may have hurt his niece.

"She stalked her and found out about her, but that's it; she will never know further than that," He thought to himself.

He sat there in pain.

"Was I going to hurt her?" He asked himself.

"Just because I am in pain doesn't mean I should hurt others too. I am hurting them, and I can't help it." He shouted. But more than others, he was hurting himself.

People tend to hurt others while they are hurting. Their eyes get blinded by pain, which turns into anger. Pain brings out the worst in people. No matter how much you try to stop yourself from hurting others, you can't and end up destroying everyone, including yourself.

He sat there, hating himself like always.

The next day, they both went to college. Aastha was in a bad mood. She was sad. Wolfie would do things to cheer her up but it was of no use.

"I am very sad. My mood is not going to change, Den," she told Denisha.

"Everything is going to be okay,"

After class, Denisha left. Aastha went to sit alone in the park near her college. She was in deep thought, thinking about Prayas, how he was all alone, and how he never asked for anyone's help. He was in pain, but he wouldn't let anyone near him share the pain.

"Maybe he has lost all his hope," she thought.

"Hope is an insane thing. It drives people crazy, and that's why we shouldn't keep hoping all the time. It destroys us when things don't turn out as we had hoped. False hope is like poison. It kills you slowly. Maybe, that's why he doesn't want to have hope. But what is life without hope?... maybe less hurtful." She thought, sitting alone, trying to figure out hope.

She never liked hope. It was like an expectation for her. But no matter how much we tried to stop hoping for things we couldn't cause, life was the hope in itself.