Lights Out...

"As spirits roam the neighborhoods at night, 

Let loose upon the Earth till it be light…"

― Nicholas Gordon

11:45 pm

Reads the watch on her wrist.

Being the last one to leave work leaves her quite edgy. The fact that the place where she works comes with its own history only adds to it. Also, the fact that she is totally alone with not a single soul around on the Godforsaken 13th floor of one of the poshest commercial building, which serves as her workplace, doesn't help either. 

She tries to reason with herself in her head. 

Okay so every place has a history, right? I mean you can't possibly find a place on Earth where nothing bad has ever happened. In this case, it was a poor woman who lost her life in a fire. She was at the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s it. THAT IS IT. 

But another voice inside her head raised its hand and spoke before it could be silenced.

Uh… No! That's not all! That's not even half of it. 

It was that annoying voice who just had to have her say. Another version of herself. Persistent and hell bent on making her remember some horrible details she had heard people speak of. Rumors about things that go bump in the night in this edifice. 

"Shut up!" she hissed through clenched teeth as she made her way to the elevator.

There were talks of how some woman or the same woman who died in the fire that fateful night haunts the place. A lot of people had also mentioned hearing howls of a woman crying late at night. 

She could do without such morbid thoughts inside her head right now.

Her hand reaches out to press the button of the elevator summoning it to the floor when the lights go out. A gasp escapes her throat. Her heart leaps up in her chest as her pulse quickens. She keeps thinking about the woman who was burnt to death. However, she realizes quickly how foolish she is and takes a deep breath to calm herself.  

 

What could possibly go wrong with the light now?

As if in answer she hears a muffled sound. Feet shuffling. Someone walking. Someone walking real close. 

Could there be someone up here besides me at this hour?

The annoying voice was ready with an answer. Though it was not the one she had hoped for.

She felt kind of stupid flapping her arms in the air in front of her as she walked trying to find the stairs. 

Surprisingly, she couldn't remember where she had kept her phone. 

Wasn't it on me when I left? Why can't I remember?

The thing broke her reverie sent a chill down her spine. She could smell something burning. The hair on her neck stood as she started trembling in fear. 

The footsteps sounded even more close now. They were getting heavier. In a bid to save herself from whatever it was that was chasing for her she started running in the darkness. 

Only to bump into something. Or someone.

She staggered back from the unexpected jolt. She hadn't even recovered from the initial shock when a scream pierced the silent midnight air. The woman she had just bumped into ran in the opposite direction waving her arms frantically. 

Puzzled. That was her first reaction. 

What the hell is wrong with people these days? She scared the shit out of me! Running away from me as if she saw a ghost...

Her eyes automatically looked into the glass window in front of her. She stared into nothingness. 

A sea of awful memories drifted back to the shore of reality. She had been at the wrong place at the wrong time. It was a case of bad timing. An short circuit that caused a deadly fire no one had seen coming. And it was that day that she had to leave work late at night. At midnight. She could smell the fire now. She was breathing it. She remembered the fear it had ignited as she had screamed for help till her voice gave up. She remembered how that fire has scalded her charring through her skin eating its way to her flesh.  The fire took with it not just her physical self but also her hopes and ambitions. Her dreams and desires. Faces of people in her life that she had known and loved floated in front of her dead eyes. 

All turned to ashes. To nothing. 

The ruing sound of a woman wailing in pain filled the dark premises. 

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.