Present:

Haileys POV:

"ARREST ME …. PLEASE" , I pleaded the police….

I looked excruciating and helpless. And in particular, regret popped out of my face. The police looked confused and asked me to relax for sometime. By the way, I knew him in advance and that is why I was treated unlike the normal prisoners. He knew very well ,my nature and mentality. After a long pause, he slowly enquired what actually has happened to me that I was so restless.

I slowly whispered, "I… I... I… killed someone!"

He was shocked listening this from a girl like me who is so simple,calm and easy going .It's peculiar to me as well.

Who on earth will expect something like this from an introvert like me? , I thought in myself.

Later ,he asked me to explain everything in detail and so I started slowly….

Flashback

Morning :

"What the…..! Huff !" I got up tensed and sat on my bed in an uneven position ,not able to believe in that, I dreamt of last night. I can sense beads of sweat running down my forehead. I was highly petrified with the dream. It actually has given me a bone-chilling fear…..

Suddenly, my mom entered my room to wake me up, as it was already late for my office. She was slightly shocked at my strange behaviour. This is because I acted as if I was hiding something from her and obviously not normal. But she managed to ignore everything and asked me to come out of my bed and get ready soon. I explained myself that it was just an ordinary dream, nothing special, but little terrifying.

I did my routine and started at 9 am and picked a local train which I generally prefer. I sat in the train specifically near the window seat. The train was calm and not overstuffed unlike the normal days it would be like. I can find almost no one in the entire compartment. This made me fear a little. This again reminded me of the horrifying dream….

Dream:

I don't exactly know where I was. But when I opened my eyes, all that I could see was gloomy darkness surrounding me. After a while, I understood that I got out of my nap.

" But what the hell was I doing here?", is my next question. I tried to stand slowly, overcoming all the fear that was hitting me hard around. I started walking through the woods ,hoping that I could find someone. I moved for about few miles ,but my attempt was in vain.The place was too silent and has evoked me of the scary forests that usually are depicted in horror movies. I began walking again…..

I flinched all of a sudden when I heard foot-steps slamming hard on the woods. I pretended to turn around with all the courage I had stored so far, but found no one behind me. Everything looked like a petrifying scene.

I understood that I was in between the devil and the deep sea and so I started moving forward. I decided to ignore all the sounds that were disturbing me,though it was highly impossible.

The sky was dark and the fog around is adding on an extra terror to it. I could never forget this breath-taking ,tremendous situation in my entire life. I again started to move forward in a desire to find atleast a single human in this bewildered and scary forest.

"There it was!", I yelled after finding a source of light in that unilluminated forest. I literally sprinted through the bushes to reach the well-lit place after a long struggle in darkness.

It was a two-storeyed building(an old one). It was highly illuminated with lights equipped at each corner . I felt ,it would be safe to move in. I slowly tried to open the main door since the situation outside is becoming worse than expected. Though it's an old one, the building seemed good. It has got all the furniture but everything looked antique and has got dust sprinkled all over.

There! I saw various potraits hung on the walls. Each picture is depicting something. Like some sort of signal which I ignored in the beginning. I walked through a narrow hall which has let its way to the

staircase. I whispered out loud saying,

"Is there someone here?"

But ,there was no response from the other side. So, I started sauntering, but my every move upstairs began making me shiver.

Anyhow! I reached the first floor.

"Thats where the problem began!"

The lights started flickering. It was not just the floor I was staying in , having this rhythm of light flickers, but the whole building is experiencing that. This made me paralyzed for a second. I ran as fast as possible and God knows where I was rushing. I reached the top floor in a hurry.It was too dark than I expected and only a beam of light is falling from the window. I managed to move and found a door at the corner of the narrow path.

I have finally come to a conclusion ,losing all the hope I had and whispered,

"Whatever happens, let it happen….and let me take a brave step forward!"

So, I moved towards the room and extended my hand to open it. Over coming all my fear, I unlocked it finally. As expected ,it was dark and the light flickers still continued , even more faster. My heart began to race and it is ready to stop at any moment. There, the light beam has allowed me see a shadow of a person whos attempting to kill me.

I turned around very quickly and found a man hiding his face with a black mask.His eyes are the only ones that I could see.They were sharp,keen and strongly anticipating to haunt someone. All of a sudden, I slid my way,escaping from him. It was a fight for few seconds wherein the unrevealed person was blood-sheded after I stabbed him with the knife he

brought. I began panting looking at what I did and stains of blood remained on my body….

This incident raised my heart-beat and has woke me up…..

#end of dream!

Flashback

Morning :

While I was busy recollecting the dream I had, I saw someone keenly staring at me from a distance. His eyes are exactly the same ones I recalled few seconds ago. This made my heart palpitate and I was dumbstruck looking at him. I saw him walking towards me and this again reminded me of that incident. I was not sure whether its true or just my imagination but, all that I wanted to do is to ESCAPE!

I almost have reached my stop and so I rushed from the station and tried as hard as possible to get off his sight. I got a sense of relief after making sure that he's no more around me. But, this looked something strange… Really Strange….!

Very soon,I entered my office and after seeing the busy environment over there, I got a glance of the tour they planned ,the previous day. Though I was not interested in all these stuff, my colleagues forced me to join the tour. I scolded myself, how on earth I forgot about this plan. All the things required for the tour were already packed and very quickly,we started from the office.

The whole day went on cool cracking jokes on each other and enjoying every single moment to the peaks as if theres no tomorrow.These fruitful moments made me forget the nightmare and the man I saw in the train that morning. The evening passed cherishing all the incidents we had in the morning and had lots of fun. But somehow, I felt something's haunting me in constant….

At 8 pm or so, we planned to return .So,we stepped into the car and started moving but…..

To my surprise, the car began to move through the same way,I ran in my dream last night…..

This has brought a shiver in my back-bone. Everyone in the car were surprised as they were travelling through a dark forest, except me, because everything is happening just as scripted in the dream. But how's this possible? It was just a dream! I tried to explain myself repeatedly.

"This is completely strange! I cant believe this!"

This made me feel tensed. There…. I saw the two storeyed house,the same one!My jaw dropped on to the floor seeing this.They were highly excited to move into the building. I was not sure whether to call it a coincidence or a pre-planned schedule…

I begged them not to go inside, but still they called me a coward and rushed into the building….

Every single thing ,I saw there was just reminding me of the same building. I WAS ABOUT TO DIE THEN….

We entered into the building and the rest all ran upstairs in a desire to check out the old mansion house.I remained in the hall itself ,not daring to move along with them to hell. I was caught by the pictures on the wall and this time they clearly have given me signs of danger. I was frightened with all the unusual things happening around and the coincidence with my dream.Quickly, with an intention to save my peers, I ran upstairs with a knife I found on the table. It was again the same knife which helped me kill the person.

I was dumbstruck looking at the bloodshed all through the stairs and found my colleagues lying dead on the floor.After a while, I found the same unrevealed person. This time, instead of thinking for a second ,I stabbed him hard.

Present:

I told the police the entire story happened, though I knew it wouldn't be something believable….

I surrendered for my fault of killing a person and I regretted my self for not being able to save my colleagues….

I cried out hard for all the strange things happened to me and all of a sudden, someone started patting me continuously on my shoulder. I opened my eyes slowly and found someone looking at me seriously....

It was none other than my Mom!

What the heck!

"What are you doing Hailey? It's already late for your school.Wake up!…..", my mom shouted.

Then….I wondered…

IS EVERYTHING A DREAM? DAMN YES!!!!

"Woah! I had a dream in a dream! How funny and terrifying…..",

I laughed at myself….

"This is how things happen when you delve deep into story books….",

I laughed hard taking out the fiction under my pillow, which I read last night.

                               <-- The End -->