The night of the darkest hour Part-1

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I had been waiting for the weekend so eagerly, and finally, it is here. After a long week, I will finally get some time for myself......At least that was what I thought. But now that the weekend is here, I don't feel like doing anything. 

I have quite a few ideas to kill time and also have some fun, but all I want to do is "nothing", or maybe I don't know exactly what I want to do. So, here I am laying on my bed and staring at the blades of the fan. My mind lost thinking about things that made absolutely no sense, and then I got reminded of a story that I had started writing a few years back. I never completed the story. Anyways, I wanted to share it with you all. So, here it is - 

The night of the darkest fear 

After a four-hour-long flight, I finally arrived at my destination. Located 128km south of Mysore is the beautiful hill station, Ooty. It is popularly called "The Queen of Hill Stations". 

I was looking forward to spending some great time, making new memories, and relaxing while I was here, in Ooty. I collected my luggage and headed out of the airport. On coming outside, I felt a fresh cool breeze blow across my face. The sky was covered with clouds and it seemed like it was going to rain. 

I took a taxi to the small apartment that I had rented for a few days. I was able to rent the apartment for quite a reasonable rate. Once I reached the apartment, I unpacked my bags and began to plan how I would spend my holiday. The apartment was beautifully designed amidst a rubber estate. We usually hired a different apartment for the holidays but this time since this plan was made suddenly I could not avail of that apartment, so I had to take up this one. 

I went to the botanical gardens, the wax world museum, the emerald lake, and much more. I also took part in various other activities, such as trekking, bird watching, boat riding, etc. Then I enjoyed the local delicacies, and believe me when I say, they were delicious.

At night, I went back to the apartment. By then it was raining heavily, and it rained profusely for 3 days. I could hear the thunder and the shatters outside my house. The lightning passed through the glass pane into my living room as I sat beside the fireplace, reading a book. The sudden thunder and lightning sent shivers down my nerve, as I stood up to close the window. I peeped out to see the darkness that stretched for miles apart. The trees were swaying from left to right enjoying the showers of the night. Darkness had engulfed the night along with the rain giving the night an eerie feel.

I sat alone by the fireplace on my chair, rocking, feeling the coldness of the night. All of a sudden the power went off, and I was also engulfed in a pitch of darkness. As I stood up to get the candle from the kitchen, my legs wouldn’t move further, they were stuck there in fear of darkness. 

I brought in courage and moved forward humming a tune to myself to forget the fear that had fully engulfed me by now. With a mild light that was emitted by my mobile phone, I started looking for the candle. My heart was pounding, I could hear it beat more heavily and strongly than before, which gave me the feeling that I am still alive. 

Finally I heaved a sigh of relief when I found the candle, I was about to light it when suddenly the phone rang, I gave a screech of fear throwing the candle away from my hand which I had found with a lot of difficulty. I picked up the call, it was my mother on the other side. With a shaking voice, I said “Hello”- Mom asked me “ What happened” I told her that the power had gone and it had been raining here for 3 days making it difficult to move out of the house for the past 3 days.

I was a businessman and had been busy all time. Since I was tired of my hectic life I thought I would take a break and spend a few days in Ooty. My mom was in London right now, she had gone there as my sister-in-law was delivering her first baby, otherwise, my mom would have been with me here right now. At this point, I missed her a lot. I always had a phobia for darkness(nyctophobia) and it grew even more now.

My mom’s call gave me a great sigh of relief and my fear had disappeared. I regained my strength again and searched for the candle and lit it. I took the lighted candle in my hand and started moving to the living room. My shadow seemed larger than normal making me fear myself. I peeped out of the window; it was a full moon night. The scene outside looked awesome. The moon was smiling from between the trees which swayed heavily in the wind. The sound of the rain grew louder symbolizing that the rain had become heavier and it showed no signs of stopping, which meant that I would have to sit in the darkness for a long time. I went back to sit near the fireplace. I just wanted to escape this fear so I decided to sleep with the hope that the rain would stop by the next day and I could go back home. 

As I lay down on the couch within minutes I fell asleep. It was a loud scream that woke me up around midnight. The screams brought in shivers to me. I opened my eyes and felt that it had stopped raining but it was still dark all over. I lit the candle again and peeped out of the window all I could hear were the dogs howling. I cursed them for that. do they need to howl at this time only? My heartbeats grew louder I could hear every beat of it. Again a shrill sound of someone screaming reached my ears my blood froze was I dreaming or was it real? No, it was real, someone was screaming somewhere far away. I trembled with fear. The sound of the dogs howling brought me sweats even on a cold night.

I ran back to the couch pulled my bed sheet up and lay down trying to forget the fear but it was not going to leave me. The screams grew louder and more intense. I started to tremble, I could feel huge beads of sweat running down my forehead. My heart was beating faster now. I felt that my heart would stop beating now if it ran so fast. I picked up the courage and slowly walked towards the window and moved the curtains to peep out. 

My heart skipped a beat and I gave a louder scream than the one I had heard before. The power came on at the same time maybe god had sensed that if he left me like this anymore I would die of fear. 

But,  what I saw outside the window was terrifying...  


Ayyy! Readers you are still reading? I thought you must have gotten bored and left by now. Anyways, if you made it here then tell me in the comments 

Would like to have a part two, where I would complete the story?


Check out the previous posts:

Favorites 

https://they-call-me-elf-ears.blogspot.com/2023/05/lets-talk-favorites.html

A Memory and A Lesson

https://they-call-me-elf-ears.blogspot.com/2023/05/lets-talk-memory-and-lesson.html

Fear is a LIAR

https://they-call-me-elf-ears.blogspot.com/2023/04/lets-talk-fear-is-liar.html

 

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