By Pooja Gupta
THE WHISPERS OF FATE: THE NIGHT THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING!
Word count: 3582 (Not including the title)
It was an eerie night in Pune when a lone car stealthily maneuvered to the side of a deserted, dimly lit road.
Inside, Maya sat in the darkness, her tense fingers trembling as she dialed a number on her cellphone. The call was immediately answered, and amidst the distant sounds of thundering music, Maya drew a shaky breath.
"I'm sorry, Maddy," she murmured, her voice laced with trepidation, "I can't come right now. Mom won't allow me at this hour." As Maya hesitated, the pulsating music from the other end of the call gradually faded into the background.
Madhav her long-time boyfriend on the other end of the line, had moved away from the loud noise to speak to her. "Come on, babe. It's my birthday. I'll talk to your mother, and we can..."
"I'm sorry, love. I promise I'll make it up to you tomorrow at college." Maya abruptly cut Madhav's sentence short, her voice quivering,
“Suit yourself” Madhav spoke, his patience wore thin as she finished her sentence, and he abruptly terminated the call in between her sentences.
Maya's eyes widened in shock as she looked at the disconnected cell phone. I overdid it this time, he sounds so pissed, She thought as a smile played on her glowing pale face. She slowly reached for her phone, trying to call Sophia, her best friend, who was also attending Madhav's party.
However, Sophia wasn't answering her call.
Damn it, Soph. Pick up the phone! Maya's frustration boiled inside her, causing her to clench her teeth and bury her face in her trembling hands. She and Sophia had devised an elaborate plan to surprise Madhav on his birthday.
Earlier that day, Maya had meticulously arranged everything for the party and handed Sophia the charge so that everyone thought it was Sophia who had orchestrated everything.
Then Maya would call Madhav and bail out at the last minute only to later with Sophia’s help, she would sneak into his house and unveil the surprise. But something had gone wrong.
Sophia was not answering her call.
Abandoning the idling car, Maya entered his house from the backyard, her heart pounding, it was almost midnight, and she knew she had to hurry before her perfect plan would be ruined and Madhav would never forgive her.
However as she passed Madhav's moonlit garden, a shocking tableau met her eyes. Madhav sat on a bench but he was not alone, Sophia was there, comforting him. Maya thinking nothing of it, stealthily continued her approach when, in an instant, her feet froze.
Her pulse quickened as the shockwave of reality hit her, Sophia had leaned in to kiss Madhav.
Maya gasped, her world unraveling, and she instinctively pivoted, darting behind a looming tree. She then saw Madhav fire up his motorcycle and Sophia perched behind him.
Maya's eyes glistened under the moonless night as they disappeared into the obsidian night.
***
It was almost three a.m. when Maya turned her apartment key with care and inched the door open. As she shuffled through the dimly lit space toward her room, an unexpected flood of light seized the room. Her heart leaped as she came face-to-face with her mother.
Quickly, before her mother could utter a word, Maya intervened. "I know I'm late, Maa, but not today, please, you can scold me tomorrow" she implored, her voice heavy with emotion.
Her mother, about to reprimand her, stood in stunned silence as the weary Maya hurried into her room, locking herself inside. All she could hear were her daughter's muted sobs from behind the closed bedroom door.
The same night In her dimly lit bedroom, Maya's eyes fixated on the vacant ceiling. All around her, photographs clung to the walls, capturing eighteen years of cherished memories. But tonight, those pictures seemed more like haunting specters than fond recollections. Each gaze she cast upon them felt accusatory as if they were mocking her.
Overwhelmed by their presence, she tore those memories from the wall, one by one, and tossed them into the nearby trash can. She had hoped that shedding these
mementos would alleviate the pain of betrayal that gnawed at her, but it only seemed to intensify. Frustration and anger welled up inside her.
In a reckless moment, she grabbed a matchbox near her bedside table, lit a matchstick, and hurled it into the bin. I shouldn't be the only one burning, she thought.
As she watched the images turn to ash, she clenched her eyes shut and whispered "I wish you were dead." As she spoke the sentence her eyes swelled up again. But these weren’t the tears of pain.
For the next couple of days, Maya confined herself to her bed. Her eyes remained swollen from crying and a lack of sleep. She was lost in her thoughts, absentmindedly scrolling through the different reels on her social media on her cellphone, but the betrayal from that night still lingered.
However, amidst this nostalgia, something caught her eye: numerous messages flooding her group chat. The messages accompanied a group photo that she had burnt two nights before featuring Madhav, Sophia, Viren, and herself, all bearing the caption, "You will be missed, RIP."
As Maya skimmed through the comments, she was suddenly jolted upright. Who would be missed? What do they mean?
Her head was a foggy mess, still muddled from sleepless nights. She couldn't muster the patience to read through the entire conversation. But then, her gaze fell upon the
charred trash can that was now left with a scorched mark on the carpet and Inside lay a heap of ashes from the burnt photographs.
Fear gripped her heart as she dialed Madhav's number, her fingers trembling. With every ring, her anxiety grew, desperately wishing he would answer and be alright.
"Maya... Where are you... I need you," Madhav's voice trembled when he finally picked up.
Tearing through her nerves, all anger forgotten, Maya rushed to his side, her heart pounding with concern. Inside his room she saw Madhav bedridden, Bandages covered his arm and leg, and a wrap adorned his forehead.
Her tears welled up as she saw his injuries. She rushed to his side, overcome with relief. "I'm so glad you're okay. I was terrified when I saw those messages."
Madhav remained silent for a moment before confessing, "They aren’t for me, but I wish they were."
A heavy feeling settled in Maya's stomach as he began to recount the night that changed everything.
It all began on Madhav's birthday party. Sophia, drunk and heartbroken from a fight with her boyfriend Viren, found herself with Madhav outside. In a moment of weakness, she leaned in to kiss him.
Maya listened to Madhav and nodded in recollection as she was there but what she missed in the pretext of hiding herself behind the tree was that Madhav had pulled away from Sophia.
Realizing the mistake. Guilt washed over Sophia, and she apologized. Changing the subject, she began to search for her phone that she had left back at Madhav’s place, she revealed Maya and her plan to surprise Madhav.
Madhav who was sad about Maya’s absence, lit up with a smile, and he decided to surprise Maya by visiting her instead. Sophia asked him to stay back as she knew Maya would be arriving but since she hadn’t heard from Maya, Sophia volunteered to accompany him and fetch Maya from her home.
That’s the part Maya saw that night and misinterpreted. She listened to Madhav carry on his narration with guilt.
Madhav continued that as they ventured down a desolate road, he felt a sense of foreboding as if he could see an approaching truck. Just then, Sophia's restlessness
jolted him back to reality as her drunkenness started to hinder her ability to stay still on the motorcycle.
Madhav considered turning back, but Sophia pleaded and promised she was okay now. Uncertain, Madhav used her long scarf to secure her to the motorcycle, creating a makeshift seatbelt to keep her in place.
Suddenly, the ominous sound of an approaching truck echoed in his ears, mirroring his vision. The truck's blinding headlights drew closer, casting fear over their faces. Panicking, Sophia begged him to start the bike, but the vehicle refused to cooperate.
In a frantic effort, Madhav abandoned the motorcycle, and grasped Sophia's hand, intending to guide her to safety. However, the scarf remained tangled in the bike's engine, resisting their desperate attempts to free it. With desperation mounting, Sophia struggled to release herself from the tightly knotted scarf.
As the truck loomed just inches away, she finally managed to break free and screamed for Madhav to pull her to safety. In a rush, he tugged at her hand, but the truck arrived, propelling her body over its hood.
Madhav clung to her hand for a brief moment, but the truck's relentless force overcame him and tossed him to the side making him lose his consciousness. As Madhav slowly woke up, he found himself on a quiet roadside, with no sign of Sophia.
The next day, in the hospital, the police delivered the devastating news that they had found Sophia's lifeless body just a short distance away. She had suffered terrible injuries, and the truck responsible had vanished without a trace.
Back at Madhav's house, After he finished narrating his side of the story, Maya looked terrified and unable to find the right words. Her lips trembled as she tried to make sense of the terrible ordeal. She blamed herself for the misunderstanding that had led to her best friend's death.
"I'm so sorry, it’s all my fault," Maya kept repeating, lost in a daze.
Madhav saw how distraught she was and tried to comfort her. "It's not your fault. You couldn't have known this would happen," he reassured her, thinking that Maya was taking the blame for the accident, which occurred while they were on their way to meet her.
But little did he know the truth.
Just then, Viren, Sophia's boyfriend, burst into Madhav's room, clearly filled with anger and grief after attending Sophia's funeral. Madhav hung his head, feeling as if Viren blamed him for his girlfriend's death.
But instead, Viren collapsed to the floor, crying in frustration. Maya rushed to him and held him tight as he sobbed for what felt like an eternity. "Can you hold onto this for me?"
Viren asked, taking out a diamond ring he had planned to use to propose to Sophia on their third anniversary. "I can't bear to look at it. The last time we spoke, we were fighting," he said, his voice choking with grief.
Maya nodded and gently took the ring from his trembling hands.
On the same night, Maya found herself collapsing onto her bed, tears streaming down her face. She felt lost, her one wish had turned everything upside down, and she didn't know how to make things right.
It had been night after night since Madhav’s birthday that Maya cried herself to sleep. Maya's mom had noticed her daughter's suffering, but she'd been giving Maya some space, hoping that her daughter would open up on her own. But as the days passed without any sign of improvement, Maya's mom decided it was time to intervene.
She gently entered Maya's room, her heart aching for her troubled daughter. Sitting down next to Maya, she began to stroke her daughter's hair, and with a soft, caring tone, she asked, "What's been bothering you, sweetheart? You don't have to carry this burden alone."
In the warmth of her mother's embrace, Maya felt a sudden urge to share everything that had transpired on that fateful night; her wish, the unintended consequences, and the guilt that gnawed at her. With tears still in her eyes, she began to tell her mom the whole story.
Maya's mother listened attentively, her worry growing with every word. When Maya had finished, she tried to comfort her, saying, "You know, reacting without all the facts can lead to misunderstandings, but you mustn't blame yourself. What happened was a terrible coincidence."
No one was ready to believe her and how would they? Wishes were just a way to keep people’s hope alive and weren’t supposed to come true. But it unfortunately did, for Maya but no one would believe her.
But even if people excused her from her crime, she couldn’t. Frowning, she looked up and protested, "But Mom, I wished for Madhav to die”
That’s when Maya's heart raced as a shocking truth hit her like a lightning bolt. I wished for Madhav to die not Sophia. Could Mom be right? Maybe it was just an accident. Her eyes widened, and a wild mix of emotions played across her face, while tears streamed down her cheeks. Could she finally be rid of her guilt?
The following morning, Maya was awakened by a frantic call from Madhav's phone. She answered to find Madhav's mother on the line, her voice fraught with worry. "Madhav is acting crazy. Please talk some sense into him."
Maya leaped out of bed and rushed to get ready to head to Madhav's house. Inside Madhav's room, a doctor and his parents were in a huddle, deeply concerned. Madhav's eyes were wide with fear, and he was resisting anyone who tried to touch him.
When he saw Maya, his gaze softened, and he beckoned her closer. As his parents and the doctor left the room to discuss their next steps, Maya hurried to Madhav's side. Madhav locked eyes with Maya, desperation in his gaze. He whispered,
"Remember when I told you about the vision I had of the truck before the accident?" Maya nodded, recalling the chilling moment.
With a deep breath, Madhav revealed a part of the story he'd kept hidden. "At first, I thought it was just a hallucination. Then, after Sophia died, I believed I had a premonition of her death, like déjà vu. But last night, I had the same vision. Maya, and I was wrong. That night I had a premonition of my death, not Sophia’s."
Maya pulled back in shock as Madhav continued, in his trembling voice. He turned to her, gripping her hands tightly. "Sophia was just collateral damage, It's still after me, and it won't stop until I'm dead. You believe me, don't you, Maya? I'm not crazy."
Maya stared into Madhav's eyes. He was a shadow of the person she once knew, but his words confirmed that she wasn't delusional about the effects of her wish. She pressed his hands between hers and spoke with shaky determination, "I trust you, and I'll find a way to make things right, I promise."
Madhav looked at her, a lost boy seeking salvation. Maya didn't know how she'd overcome this, but she had to try. She rushed out of Madhav's house, racing against time.
That same night, in Maya's bedroom, she sat beside the charred dustbin. She retrieved her purse and found Viren's diamond ring meant for Sophia. Kissing it gently, she set it aside on the floor.
She then searched for the same matchbox and ignited the same bonfire in the trash can. Closing her eyes, she reversed her wish. "I take my wish back," she whispered, her heart pounding as she waited.
Suddenly, her ears rang, and a soft breeze whispered something in her ear. Maya was startled as she repeated the words, "A life for a life?"
She couldn't wrap her head around it and replied in defiance "Sophia died, you got a life for a life, now please stop it." she requested to the unknown voice.
The eerie whisper returned, lingering longer this time, echoing in her ears. "Your choice, a life for his life," it insisted.
Maya then remembered Madhav’s words Sophia was just collateral damage. besides Sophia was never the one she had chosen to die, she was not her choice. It was Madhav. So now to save him, she had to consciously choose someone else to die.
Tears streamed down her face as she made up her mind. She retrieved her college ID from her purse and muttered the chilling sentence, "I wish you were dead."
Maya then readied herself, bringing the ID closer to the flame when suddenly, the door burst open. Her mother rushed in, seeing the fire in the room and Maya perilously close to it. In a split second, her mother doused the flames with a jug of water. Before Maya struggled desperately with her mother,
In the struggle the ID and most of the contents that were kept on the floor were now tossed across the room but it was too late. The fire was out and her ID remained unburnt.
"What on earth were you trying to do? Maya!" her mother said, shaking her gently.
Maya, now realizing the gravity of her actions, broke down in tears and hugged her mother tightly. "I need help, Mom. Please save me."
Her mother nodded and held her close.
The following morning, Maya drove to Madhav's place, even though she couldn’t keep her promise, she wasn’t going to let him suffer alone. However as she parked her car next to his house, she heard screams and commotion coming from inside.
Madhav was forcefully escorted out of his house by two men, while his mother and Viren pleaded with his father to stop them. While Maya sat in the car as she watched the heartbreaking scene unfold.
Madhav shouted in fear, "Please, I can't go outside. If I go, it will kill me too. It's waiting for me, I don't want to die."
As soon as Madhav spoke, his mother profusely sobbed looking at her son. Madhav's mother, who had been begging her husband till now, resigned herself to the fact that she had lost her son for good.
She then stood aside, sobbing quietly, as the men came forward to take him away. Seeing the men approach Madhav, Maya rushed toward him, but her feet froze once more, and the whisper returned. "Your choice, a life for a life," it hissed.
Maya was baffled. The ritual had been abruptly halted by her mother, so what was the voice trying to convey? Was it urging her to sacrifice her life to save Madhav? But how?
Just then, a deafening noise filled the air. On the quiet road ahead, the same ominous truck from Madhav's vision that had caused Sophia’s demise charged toward her.
Maya's eyes widened in terror, but she couldn't move. It was as though an invisible force had rooted her to the spot. She tried to scream, to move, to jump out of the way, but it was all futile. All she could do was wait for the inevitable collision.
At the same time, outside Madhav’s house, amid a tense moment, Viren attempted to talk some sense into Madhav. But it only made Madhav angrier, and he became suspicious.
"You blame me for Sophia's death, don't you? That's why you lured me out here, so that thing can take me too."
Viren felt sorry to see his friend like this and, he tried to reassure him as he moved closer, but Madhav pushed him away.
Viren stumbled and fell in the middle of the road and frustration, he shouted, "You really need to take some help, Maddy" Just as Viren was about to get back on his feet, a screech of brakes and blaring horns filled the air.
Viren turned toward the source of the noise, but it was too late. Viren's body was struck by a speeding truck and sent sprawling into a nearby tree.
Madhav saw this but stood there, frozen, as if he'd been transported back to that fateful night when Sophia had died. He then snapped back to the present, driven by the sound of his mother's screams. There, on the ground, lay Viren, lifeless and surrounded by a pool of blood while the neighbors began to gather around the scene.
Meanwhile, Maya, who had been frozen a few meters away from the same road, suddenly jerked and instinctively moved away. She was about to make sense of the situation, when.
"A life for a life has been given," the eerie whisper echoed in Maya's ears one last time.
But how and why? I had never chosen Viren to die. It was supposed to be me before the ritual ended halfway. She was perplexed, but there was no time to process it.
A few meters away, Madhav stood in a state of shock and to avoid the judgmental crowd, his father signaled to the men who quickly escorted Madhav into the waiting van.
As the van pulled away, passing by Maya and the curious onlookers, the two lovers exchanged a final, distant farewell. Tears welled up in Maya's eyes as she smiled at him. You’re safe now, she thought. Madhav also nodded as though he could read her thoughts.
At the same time in Maya’s room, her mother who was tidying up the place, discovered Viren's diamond ring submerged in a watery mess in the trash can. It must have fallen during the struggle between her and Maya last night. Thinking of that night brought chills to her body.
She then pulled the ring out from the ashy water and kept it on the bedside table before closing the door behind her.
“The real truth lies somewhere in between the two extreme truths, what is real and what is not, is perhaps a mystery or subject to our perceptions.”
By Pooja Gupta
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