Aditya was shaking his head. His eyes were looking at the road, but at the same time, they were looking at nothing. The car was driving as if nothing had happened. He suddenly hated himself for driving alone. This was stupid.

Something jumped out of the trees in the far distance. He jumped and his head jerked in its direction. Far away on the stillness of the clouds, he saw the silhouette of a bat. It flapped its giant wings once, then turned and disappeared into the darkness of the night.

Aditya looked back at the road, and started shaking his head again. He then stopped himself. He had been doing that for the last fifteen minutes now. He took one hand off the steering wheel and slapped himself.

He had to get a hold of himself. There was still a long way to go. He had a few hours of driving ahead of him, and he couldn’t afford to lose focus like this. He couldn’t afford to be distracted by — by —

Aditya’s eyes flicked to the rear-view mirror. There was nothing behind him except the road escaping away from him.

Of course. There was no one — there was nothing back there. He couldn’t believe what he had seen. How could he?

As soon as the woman had looked at him, his brain seemed to break the spell. He didn’t think, but his foot slammed down on the accelerator, the car jerked, and flew ahead, leaving the woman behind. A few moments later he had looked into the rear-view mirror, and there was no one behind him. The road was as empty as it had always been.

And now, some fifteen or twenty minutes later, he was starting to convince himself that this was the truth.

The road was empty. The place was empty.

There weren’t even any fucking animals around. And that was that. He had most likely imagined the whole thing. The spooky story had gotten to him, and so had sleep. He was feeling drowsy after eating, and that’s why he had imagined the whole thing.

Flashes of the dark brown shawl, the jet black hair and the marble white eyes kept appearing in his mind, refusing to accept any argument he was making. But he shook his head and drove on. Nothing was the problem.

Except the knocking sound that he heard again.

Aditya looked around, his eyes narrowing in frustration. This was maybe the third time he had heard the knocking sound. The first two times he heard it, he simply ignored it. He thought maybe it was a pebble stuck in the tyre treads.

But this time it came slightly louder.

He couldn’t tell what it was. He didn’t know much about cars, but he had never heard this kind of a sound before. It wasn’t metallic or anything. It wasn’t a loud groan, as if the suspensions weren’t working properly. It wasn’t even the kind of rattling sound that some loose nuts or bolts inside the car made, when he knew he had to take it for a servicing.

It was just a knocking sound. He couldn’t describe it any other way.

Aditya decided to pay attention to the sound. He wished he wouldn’t have to hear it again. He couldn’t bear the thought of something being wrong with the car.

He checked his phone, and saw that he was getting a few bars of network, perhaps just enough to call roadside assistance if he needed to. But he really didn’t want to. The last thing he wanted to think of, was to be stuck on this road. This empty, dark road with the moonlight shining from between clouds. And with that thing —

He closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them. There was nothing. He had decided not to think about — about what he had imagined. There had been no signs of anything for a while now. He just needed to focus on the —

Knock knock knock.

Aditya tilted his head and tried to catch the sound, but it was gone already. What the hell was it? He still couldn’t think of anything. All he could understand, was that it was louder than before.

He hated that. He didn’t need to be a mechanic to understand that the sound getting louder was not a good thing. He wondered if he should stop and check the car quickly, but ignored the thought. He could not gather the strength to do it.

He would just have to pay attention, not drive the car too fast, avoid all sorts of bumps and potholes in the road and pay attention. Maybe he could understand —

Knock knock knock.

Aditya turned his head slightly to the back. It came from the back, he was sure of it. Somewhere from behind… maybe the suspension. He hated that thought. He really wanted the sound to be something small, something meaningless. Something that wasn’t a serious issue and would allow him to keep driving until he either saw the sun or another dhaba on the horizon.

He slowed the car a little bit.

There were fewer intervals between the knocking sound now. The first two times it happened, it happened maybe ten minutes apart. Now, he had heard it almost thrice within five minutes. It could be something serious. He prayed that it wasn’t anything serious.

He drove in silence for a while, his ears working as hard as a cat’s. Two minutes passed, then five. His eyes kept flicking to the clock on his dashboard. Seven minutes passed and he breathed a small sigh of relief. Maybe it really was a stone, and it was loose now, fallen back onto the road where it belonged.

Ten minutes passed and Aditya could feel his body relaxing a little bit. But his ears stayed sharp. He was starting to hope that everything really was fine.

KnocknocknocKNOCKNOCKNOCK.

Aditya jumped a little in his seat and slammed his foot on the brakes. The car screeched slightly as it came to a complete stop.

He looked around with wide eyes towards the back of the car.

The sound had increased in volume halfway through. He felt that had he not stopped the car, it would’ve kept making the sound. His heart felt like it had slipped downwards a little bit. He didn’t know what to do and looked around helplessly.

Then he made his mind up. He couldn’t afford for his car to break down or have some major issue while he was driving. A quick check wouldn’t hurt. And anyway, this is exactly what he would have done if he was driving any other day on any other road. He was just getting spooked again. He was just…

Aditya took a few deep breaths. He checked in his rear-view mirror. He checked the road ahead. He checked in the rear-view mirror again.

All was still. He then turned the car off, left the lights on, and got out on the road.

He moved fast. He knew what he wanted to do and he didn’t want to waste any time. Aditya went to the front of the car first. He opened the hood and took a quick look at the engine. There were light clicking sounds, but he knew that was from the engine starting to cool down. Apart from that, everything looked normal. Nothing was steaming and nothing was leaking. He brought his hand up to close the hood.

And a weird thought crossed his mind.

The only thing he could see was the inside of the hood and the engine. He could see the sides of the road from the corner of his eyes, but nothing in front of him. And for a moment, he couldn’t help but wonder… what if he closed the hood and saw someone standing near the car. Or worse yet, sitting inside?

The image of the woman flashed through his mind again.

Aditya closed his eyes tight. Suddenly he didn’t want to close the hood. He didn’t want to move from this spot. Suddenly he felt like he was asleep, this was all a dream and he just wanted to wake up. Please dear God… just…

A few seconds passed and nothing happened. Aditya rubbed his forehead, took yet another deep breath, and slammed the hood down a little too hard. The sound bounced and echoed on the blank, black road.

And there was no one around.

‘Fucking idiot,’ he muttered at himself, and then moved to the back of the car. He had checked the engine just in case, but the sound had clearly come from the back. This was where the problem most likely was. He checked both the back tyres, didn’t see anything different.

He looked around then. Once more. He couldn’t get the fear out of his mind now. Every time he looked away, he felt like something was there just out of the corner of his eyes. But there was no one except for him, as far as his eyes could see.

He then took his phone out, turned on the flashlight, and bent down. He flashed the light under the car and looked carefully, hoping to see some branch or something stuck somewhere. He couldn’t find anything. He then angled the light, and looked carefully at the suspension system. It seemed completely fine too.

And then he saw something.

He saw it from under the car. It was on the other side, in front of the car and right near the hood — exactly where he had been standing a few moments ago.

He saw a pair of feet, naked and white.

Someone was standing in front of the car.

Every muscle in his fibre was forced into paralysis yet again. He kept staring at the feet, and some kind of a small noise escaped from his mouth.

And then the feet turned a bit, and started walking, circling around the car.

They reached the driver side, and continued towards the back of the car.

And Aditya remembered how to move, and his body jerked backwards and he fell on the road, his phone flying out of his hand. He scrambled towards it, grabbed it and quickly stood back up. He flashed the light around like a madman, trying to see whoever it was that was standing next to his car right now. And he couldn’t see anyone.

The light from the phone was jerking around, and Aditya realised that he couldn’t stop the shaking of his hand. He held his phone with both hands and tightened his grip on it.

His breath was coming out in irregular huffs and puffs. Aditya moved his legs, and stumbled, almost falling. He slammed onto the back of his car, and balanced himself up. He moved the phone around again, as if someone was right behind him every time he turned his head away.

Aditya ran to the driver side of his car, jumped inside and slammed the door close. He realised he didn’t feel that much safer inside the car. He felt like someone who had climbed inside a cardboard box to protect himself from a storm.

A few seconds passed, and the silence was only disturbed by the ragged breathing sounds coming from Aditya. He then slammed his car’s steering wheel, and put his face in his hands. He didn’t know what to do. He wanted to drive away, but his mind was gripped by an irrational fear. He felt as if any movement would bring the woman back.

‘What do you want from me,’ Aditya whispered, and his voice shook and threatened to break.

And as if in response, he heard another sound. It sounded like air moving over coarse paper. It sounded like someone breathing through a dead, dry throat.

His head snapped up and his eyes immediately went to the rear-view mirror. A blank, white face stared back at him.

The woman was sitting in the backseat of his car.

Aditya screamed and his body jerked around, slamming into the door.

He tried to open the door but his hands struggled with the door handle. His fingers kept slipping.

The woman held one arm up, and reached out towards him.

Aditya never knew he could scream so loudly, but in that moment he found out. It felt like his lungs would shatter.

The woman grabbed the edge of the passenger seat, and started to push herself forward, and Aditya pushed himself back.

The woman’s face came closer to him. He could see now that her tongue, which looked like someone had pulled it out almost to the point of breaking it, was blue. Her eyes were as blank as her expression. A smell of garbage rushed inside his nose. His own shrill scream threatened to destroy his eardrums.

His hand hooked into the handle, the door opened, and Aditya fell out. He hit his head hard enough on the road that he lay still for a few moments. Then he moved and slowly sat up. He rubbed his head, and remembered the woman.

He stood up so fast that his head spun and swam a little. Aditya ignored it. He slowly got up, holding onto the car for support. His eyes scanned the backseat with a scared focus.

There was no one inside. Aditya held onto the side of his car as he fell to the ground. He had no idea what was happening. He had no idea what to do.

He then heard a noise in the distance, and saw the headlights of an oncoming car.

***