Astha froze.
The corridor was empty. The long windows at the end of the hallway let it in thin silver moonlight, slicing the darkness into pale strips. The old school building stood silent - too silent.
Her breath trembled.
" I didn't leave," she whispered, through she wasn't sure who she was answering.
From somewhere inside the walls came a faint scratching sound. Not loud . Not violent. Just slow... Deliberate.
Like someone writing.
Astha turned towards classroom 12- the locked room.
The door was slightly open.
That was impossible.
She clearly remembered the rusted padlock hanging from the latch yesterday. She remembered the dust on the handle. The warning from Astha.
Don't go near that room.
But now-
The door creaked wider on its own.
Inside, darkness swallowed everything.
Astha stepped in.
The air was colder than before.
Her flashlight flickered as if something invisible brushed.
It's cover was torn.
And written across it in faded ink were three words:
"If you forget again...."
The figure slowly tilted it's head.
Astha's chest tightened.
Forget again?
" I don't even know you! " She cried.
The desk screeched across the floor.
The diary slid towards her.
And the voice - no longer soft- whispered from everywhere at once.
"Open it".
Astha pressed her back against the wall. Her heart pounded so loudly she thought it might echo.
"Who's there?" She called out, trying to sound braver than she felt.
The humming stopped.
Silence stretched.
And then, right beside her ear again -
" You promised."
Her mind raced.
Promised what?
Images flashed in her head- dreams she'd been having for weeks. A playground. A swing moving on its own. A girl standing under a Banyan tree hidden by her hair.
Astha stared at the diary lying at her feet.
Her name.
Her dreams.
A promise she couldn't remember.
With trembling fingers, she bent down and opened the first page .
And what she saw made her blood run cold.
Because the handwriting inside -
Was hers.
To be continued.