Persisting ghosts – Part 1

Who is HE?

Reema had been in denial for quite some time now.

She had everything. A big palatial bungalow, in one of the most posh localities of Delhi, parents whose affluence speaks of Mercs and Skodas, doting on her with all material luxuries she could ever think of… Her birthdays are celebrated in a new city each year. The last three were Paris, Miami and Kingston. Paris marked her 21st birthday. Last year. Her gift was a diamond trinket that she hung on a small delicate chain of platinum below her neck. She was beautiful. And when I say beautiful, I mean really really angelic. Her colour reflected sunshine, eyes a deep brown with a twinkle.

Yet, there was something fundamentally wrong. Something was missing. Her parents had given up. Nothing seemed to bring back her lost smile.

It had started with that one dream, or rather, mom and dad would want to call it nightmare, on the night of her 19th birthday. It’s been three years now. Her dreams keep recurring and draining her of her vitality. She complained of an image. A blurred one. A tall man in blue shirt and blue jeans, on a brown horse. A small helmet kind of thingie on his head. He looked regal. Her words. He has a sword in his hand. He is coming for her.

And then she wakes up.

Thus started those hauntings. Of someone she had never met or heard of. She described her nightmares vividly. Her nightmare would always start at 1.11 AM. And she always saw him in vivid forms. A big round face, a benign smile. Yet he would come out to get her. She felt she knew him. Yet she had never met him.

She saw him in grey sometimes. He was wearing a uniform sometimes. He always held a weapon in his hand.

Her nightmares just did not let her sleep. Dark circles around her red blood-shot eyes spoke of how tormented she was. She spoke of extending her hand to him. And he would attack each time. She would flinch, but she would move towards him again. He would attack again.

Yet, she saw him each night. As if he was punishing her. For something she had done to him.

(To be continued)