"Are you sure?" Hrik's voice trembled slightly. "You saw a little girl there?"
"Then what are you saying?" I shot back, trying to steady my voice. "Was I hallucinating?"
We were still arguing when I noticed something strange—Tarun Babu was still standing at the end of the corridor, motionless, watching us.
Hrik called out to him, "But Tarun Babu… Karthik saw a little girl standing in the corridor."
Tarun Babu's eyes widened—just for a second—and his expression shifted. He hesitated before replying, his tone low and deliberate.
"Sir… don't wander outside your room too much."
The way he said it sent a chill down my spine. It wasn't advice—it was a warning.
"Karthik, what's wrong? You look pale," Soumik asked, his voice breaking the uneasy silence.
I opened my mouth to tell them what had happened, but before I could speak, a knock echoed on the door. Our dinner had arrived.
The aroma filled the room—rich, warm, and strangely comforting. It almost felt out of place after what we'd just experienced.
"Forget it," Sahil said, forcing a laugh. "Let's eat. The food looks too good to waste time talking about vague things."
We sat around the table, trying to act normal, but the tension clung to the air like smoke. No one mentioned the girl again.
After dinner, Rahul glanced at his watch. "It's already 10:30," he murmured. "Let's step out for a smoke… might help clear our heads."
There was a huge pine tree standing tall in front of the hotel. We went there and sat beneath it. I took out a pack of cigarettes from my pocket, and we each lit one. The atmosphere was calm—surrounded by towering pine trees on all sides, with the occasional sound of birds chirping softly in the distance.We were enjoying the moment when suddenly we heard a scream. It was Rahul. He was running toward the hotel like a madman. We shouted,
"Rahul! Rahul!"
But he ignored us completely, as if he didn't even know who we were. We immediately ran after him. He ran behind the hotel, shouting at the top of his lungs,
"Fire! Fire!"
We sprinted after him, our hearts pounding. But when we reached there, what we saw stopped us cold.There was no fire at all — not even a trace of smoke. Yet Rahul had lost his mind, screaming over and over, "Fire! Fire!" His voice echoed through the silent night. We tried to hold him back, but he thrashed wildly, as if determined to leap into flames that didn't even exist.
Suddenly, Rahul stopped screaming. His eyes widened as he pointed a trembling hand toward a corner of the hotel.
"Can't you see it?" he whispered, his voice quivering. His skin was burning hot to the touch.
We followed his gaze, but there was nothing there. Everything was still, naturally quiet.