It took a few moments for the reality of the situation to settle in. Aditya could not believe his eyes. There was finally someone else here. Was this real? Was he hallucinating? Was the ghost of the woman making him see things?

The noise of the car increased, and so did Aditya’s trust. He shook the doubt out of his mind.

For the last hour or so, his mind had not been in control of itself. It was like a gate had been thrown open and all sorts of ridiculous thoughts were entering, unchecked and uninvited. He was being stupid. What did he mean the woman was making him see things?

The headlights of the car were approaching closer, and with them Aditya found the strength returning to his limbs. He took a few steps forward, stumbled, balanced himself, and walked into the middle of the road.

This was his chance. Someone was finally on the road. He would ask for help — he would ask them to follow him — he would beg — he would do anything, and get out of here. This was his chance.

The muscles in his throat realised that they could work, and he found a little bit of his voice. ‘HelLO heL — ’ his voice was unsteady, not able to control itself. He cleared his throat, and tried again, ‘Hello! HELLOO!’ he shouted as he started waving his arms around.

He knew the person couldn’t hear him yet, but he still wanted to keep talking. The dull yellow lights were close enough now that they had started to hurt his eyes, but Aditya refused to close them. He stared straight into the lights that looked like small, twin suns in the absolute darkness, and waved his hands faster.

‘Hello! HEY!! HELLOO!! HELP PLEASE — ’ he called out and moved back and forth. His legs had gotten their strength back, and he didn’t want to stay still. He could tell the car was slowing down. In response, his legs got so excited they actually started to jump a little.

The car slowed to a crawl as it turned slightly. He saw that it was an old model — like a really old model. It was one of those cars that had been out of production for a lot of years now. It was so old that he only had vague memories of seeing it being driven on the road when he was no more than seven or eight years old.

The car rattled to a halt, and Aditya ran over to the driver’s side. ‘Hey I need — please help — I — ’

The driver’s window was up and slightly fogged over. He couldn’t see the driver clearly. It kind of made him glad, because it meant the driver couldn’t see him properly either. He realised he must look like a lunatic.

Aditya took a few breaths that did not come and go evenly, but they calmed him down a little bit. He swallowed, cleared his throat and bent down slightly, making sure not to stand too close to the window and scare the driver.

He could see this much that it was a man behind the steering wheel.

‘Hey,’ Aditya forced his voice to be as normal and polite as possible, ‘Hi, uh can you hear me? I need help — my car, it uh — hello?’

The car idled. There was no movement from the inside. It was like the driver could neither see him nor hear him. Aditya wondered if he should knock on the window or if it would seem weird and rude. He looked around then. The road was empty and he couldn’t see anyone else.

But he didn’t trust this emptiness anymore.

Every time he thought there was no one around, he had been surprised. He didn’t have the time to think too much about politeness. He immediately brought his hand up and was about to knock on the window when there was movement.

The window had started to slide down, and he could see the driver now. And the words of help that were about to come out of his mouth suddenly stopped.

There was something odd about the driver.

The man looked middle aged. He was neither thin nor fat. He had short black hair, and was wearing something that looked like a tattered sweater.

His eyes were wide, and he was smiling at Aditya.

There was something… off about his expression. It was like he was looking at Aditya, but also wasn’t; like his smile was not real, but just a bad copy of an actual human one.

Everything felt fake, and something felt off.

Aditya swallowed, and blinked. He was spooking himself again. Had he forgotten what had just happened? He quickly looked around once more, then turned to the man with the wide-eyed smiling face.

‘Hey,’ he said, ‘I’m uh sorry to stop you like this — I hope I didn’t scare you or anything. I just— I really need help. I can’t — my car it uh — the engine — there’s something wrong with the car I think. But it’s working I think. I mean I think it isn’t broken down or anything — ’

Sweat rolled down one side of his face. What was he blabbering about? Aditya worried he might scare the person away. He swallowed and put his palms together, like he was praying to the person.

‘Could you show me the way out? I think I’m a bit lost, and my car was giving some weird noises so I thought it might be having some problems or something. But I think it’s working. I’d just really like it if you could show me the way, and just keep an eye on me in the rear-view mirror? I’m sure nothing will go wrong, but I got a bit scared and well — you can see this road is very empty and all,’ he laughed nervously, ‘so I was just hoping you could help me a bit here?’

Now that wasn’t too bad, Aditya thought to himself. He tried to keep his smile and not appear like a bandit or a scammer or anything. As difficult as it was, the harder thing was to control his eyes. He kept wanting to look towards his car. He kept wanting to look around. He kept wanting to look behind him.

A few seconds passed. A little bit of confusion appeared on Aditya’s face. The man hadn’t responded to him. In fact, he hadn’t even moved a muscle.

He just kept looking at him with that blank stare and that empty smile.

A shiver ran through the back of Aditya’s head. He ignored it.

‘Uh please sir — I really need help. I would really appreciate it,’ he said.

The man’s head moved slowly. It moved up, and then it moved down.

Aditya realised he had nodded.

The man never broke eye contact as he did it. And for the first time, Aditya felt something was really wrong with this person.

He didn’t know what to say. The man didn’t say anything. And a few empty seconds passed by in this manner.

Finally Aditya decided to either say something, or run to his car.

And then a sound cut through the silence. Aditya’s eyes went wide and he frantically looked around. He had recognised it. It was the same sound that had haunted him for so long now. It only came once, but he definitely recognised it.

He couldn’t see anything on the road. Nowhere. And then the sound came again.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

Aditya’s head jerked to the back of the man’s car. He knew it came from there. Exactly as it had done with his own car. But it had never been this loud before.

As if he had all the time in the world, and as if this was something very normal, the man slowly turned his head towards the back of his car. Aditya looked at him, then back at the trunk, then towards the backseat of the stranger’s car, then back at him. He wanted to say something. Maybe warn him. But the way this man looked and moved… no words came out of Aditya’s mouth.

Finally the man moved.

With the same slowness, he opened his door. Aditya moved back. The man got out of his car, stared at Aditya with that unchanging, unreal smile. Then he looked away, turned around, and dragged his feet as he walked to the back of his car.

And Aditya couldn’t believe what he saw next.

The man opened his trunk, bent down and reached inside with both hands. Aditya couldn’t see what the man was doing. He couldn’t even see his face, only the back of his head as struggled with whatever was inside the trunk.

Then he stood up, and dragged something out of the trunk.

It was the woman.

It was the same woman that had been haunting him. She had the same deathly white skin, the same marble eyes, and the same blue tongue hanging out.

And the man had pulled her out of his trunk.

Aditya’s breaths started to shake once more, and with them, his entire body.

‘Huhh… whu — ’ he muttered dumbly as he watched the man drag her out and drop her on the road. Aditya looked at the man’s face, and he wasn’t smiling anymore. His eyes were still wide, but they were only focused on the woman.

The man started to drag her towards the edge of the road and he saw that her hands and feet were bound with rope. The woman was looking at Aditya.

‘Wait — ’ Aditya said. His voice wouldn’t come out properly. ‘Leave — what are you — she — leave her — ’

The man paid no attention to him.

‘Wait!’ Aditya’s voice finally found a millilitre of strength. ‘Wait!! What’re you — leave her alone! What’s — ’ his brain didn’t understand what it was seeing.

The man continued dragging the woman and had reached the edge of the road. Aditya’s eyes flicked to the woman’s face. He didn’t know what to think anymore, but his legs moved on there own.

He stumbled forward, and he grabbed the woman’s arm. He thought he had grabbed onto a slab of ice, but didn’t let go.

The man stopped. The head turned, and the wide eyes stared directly into Aditya’s.

And Aditya felt his legs wobble a little.

He was afraid when he had seen the woman inside his car.

He was terrified now.

The man turned, and Aditya tried to pull the woman away, but nothing happened. And then suddenly there was a hand near his face. In the next instant, the man was grabbing his throat.

Weird gurgling sounds suddenly started to jump out of Aditya’s mouth. He tried to breathe, and every time he did, he thought the fingers dug deeper into his throat. He let go of the woman and grabbed at the man’s hand. His fingers were as cold as the woman’s arm. They were as rigid as stone.

Aditya’s vision swam and blurred. As his eyes slowly lost focus, they saw a pair of hands grab onto the man’s arm and try to pull it back.

It was the woman.

And then, as suddenly as he had grabbed his throat, the man let go.

Aditya fell to the ground. His eyes burned, his nose watered, and his throat couldn’t stop coughing. He heard himself make harsh, vomiting sounds as he tried to breathe and rubbed his neck.

He heard the rustling of bushes, and looked up. His vision was getting better now, and he couldn’t see anyone. He only heard a rustling sound as it seemed to recede away into the bushes, further and further away.

He realised then that the man had dragged the woman into the bushes.

Aditya took a few moments to get his breath back, and then he stood up. He swayed once, stopped himself from falling, stood straight and looked into the bushes.

The two of them were in there. And his mind was blank and shivering.

And so he couldn’t explain what he did next. He didn’t know why, but his legs moved. He didn’t understand what was going on with him, but his legs gained speed and he ran into the bushes. He stumbled and cursed at himself. Some thorns scraped and cut his arms, and he didn’t stop.

And then he came into a clearing. The bushes were thin here, and the trees were few and far between.

His eyes went to the tree a few metres ahead of him, and there were the woman and the man.

The woman was hanging from a thick tree branch. There was a rope tightly wrapped around her neck.

Her eyes were white. Her tongue was hanging out.

And below her was the man. He was standing with his back to Aditya, and he was looking up at her.

There was no sound. Nothing moved. Aditya’s eyes forgot to blink and his lungs forgot to breathe as he stared at the scene in front of him.

And then the man moved. He turned his head, as slowly as ever, to the right. He stopped for a moment, and then he turned it some more.

And it shouldn’t have been possible how much he had turned his head, but he still didn’t stop. He turned his head some more, and more, and then stopped.

The man’s head was completely turned around, and in his direction.

Aditya stared at the face of the man who was standing with his back towards him.

When Aditya rushed in here, he wanted to help the woman. Those thoughts hadn’t left his head. This whole situation had caused stress to him, and that hadn’t left his head. And as a result, his brain no longer knew what to do. And it did something that was neither planned by Aditya, nor advisable in this situation.

Aditya’s foot moved forward.

As soon as the movement happened, the man fell backwards, but his head was still turned around, and his face was still staring at Aditya. The man then stood on his legs and his hands, his stomach up in the air, his back close to the ground, his neck twisted around, his face staring at Aditya.

And then he ran on all fours like an animal, backwards, towards Aditya.

Aditya had never screamed in his life the way he did now. He didn’t even know it was possible for a human throat, much less his own, to make such a sound.

The next few moments turned into hazy flashes, like the corrupted reel of a film.

Aditya was stumbling. He was running. He wanted to look back, and he didn’t want to look back. A thorn scratched his face. He screamed.

He fell onto the road. He ran and fell and ran to his car.

He slammed into the driver door. He struggled to open it. He fell into the seat. He pressed a button as the car roared to life.

He was pressing down on the accelerator.

He eyes were flicking to the road ahead, and the rear-view mirror to the road behind.

He was pressing down on the accelerator.

Aditya didn’t know how long he drove, either in terms of time or the distance.

When his brain seemed to work again, and start registering what was happening, he was sitting at a dhaba. And he sat there, not ordering anything, not saying anything, not moving at all, until the sun came up.

After a while, someone shook him gently. Aditya looked up and saw familiar faces. It was Ramu and Chotu. And then Aditya held onto them as if the ground was shifting under his feet. And then he screamed, and he cried. And he thought he would never stop. But he did, and that was when he lost consciousness.

Eventually he woke up. Ramu and Chotu were still there. Slowly, he told them what had happened. Slowly, he gathered the strength, and the sanity, to get up and go back to his home.

And slowly, he returned to his daily life.

And he never forgot what he had seen that day, on that lonely road.

***