‘Do you want some help with that?’ Sanket asked and extended a hand towards his friend as they approached the exit of the railway station. A train horn blared behind them.
‘What?’ Rishi asked, leaning his head towards Sanket, straining to hear his voice—a whisper amidst the noise of the crowd around him.
‘I said,’ Sanket spoke, a bit louder, and pointed to one of Rishi’s hands. ‘Do you want me to carry one of those?’
‘It’s okay, I’m good,’ Rishi replied, one hand supporting the heavy backpack over his shoulders and the other clutching onto two duffel bags.
‘Just let me take one, man,’ Sanket said and reached for one of the duffel bags. Rishi loosened his grip and let Sanket pull one of the bags’ straps out. ‘Now let’s get out of this place,’ Sanket said and both of them stepped out of the railway station and into the dusk.
‘Thanks,’ Rishi said as he waved away a tea-seller coming his way with a paper cup held out.
The duo weaved in and out of the crowd as they walked towards Sanket’s car. The sky above them was a farrago of orange and purple. Sanket looked up and checked his wristwatch.
‘The train was on time,’ he said as he opened the backseat door and stashed the duffel bag inside. Rishi opened the door on the opposite side and pushed his backpack and the other duffel bag inside.
‘Yeah,’ Rishi replied as he got into the passenger side seat. Sanket was already in and was starting up the engine. ‘Thank god for that. Any more time and I would have lost it.’
‘Twenty hours is no joke,’ Sanket backed up the car, slowly, making way for the scrambling pedestrians and other cars. ‘And you stink!’
‘Shut up and drive, dude,’ Rishi laughed. Sanket joined in.
The car honked its way through the city streets as the two friends told each other their stories—Rishi with stories from their hometown, hundreds of kilometres away, and Sanket with stories from the city. The traffic was horrible, but the stories bridged gaps in timelines that childhood friends usually have when separated by distance and time. The interior of the car exploded with memories and laughter.
Once the stories reached a lull, Rishi leaned against the window, tired from the journey behind him, and looked out. The streets were preparing for the night—neon lights lit up the buildings, and the sidewalks teemed with people—families out for dinner, students out for a night of partying, and everything in between.
Rishi had been looking forward to this trip. He had gotten a call from an unknown number a few months back, and it turned out to be from Sanket, his childhood friend. Sanket had left their small town a few years back and had gone to the city in search of a better life. They had made plans, as friends usually do before going their separate ways—weekly calls and monthly meet-ups. The calls had happened as per schedule during the first couple of weeks. Sanket had told him stories about the city, about how it’s always buzzing, always moving, and how it never sleeps. Rishi had listened in awe as he resumed his life in the town, taking care of his father’s shop. The calls soon dwindled as each friend got lost in their own lives. The meet-ups never happened. And then the phone rang, out of the blue, just as Rishi was closing up the shop one day.
‘Rishi bro! How are you?’
Rishi had recognised the familiar voice almost immediately. Once-forgotten memories had come flooding in. They had talked as if they had never stopped talking to each other; after all, it takes more than just a few hundred kilometres and a few fewer calls to break friendships that border brotherhood.
‘Come over and spend a few days. I will show you around,’ Sanket had said. ‘You can stay at my apartment.’
Rishi had considered this for a few days. His dad would be able to manage the shop. And it would be great to get out of the town for a while and see the outside world.
Things happened quickly after that—the train tickets and the packing. Within a few weeks, Rishi was on his way to the sprawling city.
Rishi turned his gaze away from the city’s artificial charm as the car broke away from the main road towards narrower and less crowded roads. Trees crammed next to each other on these roads instead of restaurants and shops. The sun had long gone down the horizon.
‘Have you ever thought of shifting to an apartment in the city?’ Rishi asked as he gave a quick look at his wristwatch.
‘Many times,’ Sanket slowed down the car. It turned right into an even narrower road. ‘I can’t afford it. At least not now.’
‘Hmm,’ Rishi wanted to ask more about Sanket’s life in the city, but the surroundings distracted him. This new road was darker, and the trees on either side of it looked bigger and more bunched up together. A heaviness emerged deep within his chest. ‘What if another car comes from the other side? There’s barely room for one.’
‘No car usually does—there’s another way into the city. I take that in the mornings,’ Sanket said and turned up the car’s headlights to high beam. ‘It’s an unofficial one-way,’ he made air quotes with his left hand.
The car trundled along the dark road, manoeuvring around the potholes and the parts of it without asphalt.
‘It’s a bit chilly, isn’t it?’ Rishi said and turned up the A/C knob.
‘It’s this road.’
Rishi did not understand what Sanket meant by this, and was made uneasy by the way he said it—it sounded different, very different from Sanket’s usual affable demeanour. ‘Why? What’s wrong with this road?’
‘Oh, I think it’s these trees,’ Sanket replied, eyes focused on the road ahead. Even though they had been away from each other for many years, Rishi knew when his friend was lying.
The two of them remained in dead silence for a few seconds.
‘You really wanna know?’ Sanket asked.
Rishi felt perspiration build up on the nape of his neck.
‘Tell me,’ he replied.
‘This road—,’ Sanket gulped, his hands wrapped tightly around the steering wheel and his eyes locked on the road in front of him. ‘This road, they say it’s dangerous.’
‘Dangerous?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’ Rishi noticed the slight tremor in his voice as he asked this. ‘Dacoits?’
‘No. Something far more dangerous.’
‘Like what?’
Rishi waited for a response. Nothing came. The car weaved to the right to avoid a pothole and straightened out.
‘What is it?’ Rishi asked again. ‘Sanket, I swear if you are bullshitting me, I’ll—’
‘They say you shouldn’t cross this road,’ Sanket said, his voice devoid of any emotion. His eyes stared straight ahead. ‘Anyone who does gets—’ he gulped.
‘Gets what?’
‘Killed.’
‘Bullshit!’
Rishi noticed that the car was picking up speed.
‘And they don’t die the same way.’
‘You gotta be kidding me,’ Rishi laughed. ‘When did you come up with this prank, Sanket? When you called me that time, weeks back? Or yesterday?’ he laughed again. ‘Or did you just come up with it right now?’
‘Just last month, a mother and her son were walking here. The kid, he broke away from his mother’s hands and ran to the other side. She went after him and caught him.’
Rishi could feel the car becoming colder as Sanket thought about his next words.
‘The kid died just a few days afterwards. A lung infection that went out of control, the doctors said,’ Sanket paused and wiped his forehead. ‘And the mother…she, uhm, hung herself after that.’
‘It’s just a coincid—’
‘And it’s not just this one. There was that one old guy just a few weeks back, he—’
‘Bullshit!’ Rishi shook his head in disbelief. A few other emotions lurked in the depths of his mind. ‘Can you slow down, please?’
Sanket turned his head slowly. ‘I’m not joking.’
The sombre voice made Rishi uncomfortable. He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. He did not want to reveal that he was scared—prank or not. Sanket was still staring at him, expressionless.
‘And…and there’s no way out?’ Rishi asked, his voice breaking into a staccato.
‘From?’
‘This curse or whatever this crap is?’ Rishi asked, trying his best to convey bravery.
‘Oh, there’s a way, of course,’ Sanket said, his eyes on Rishi’s, away from the road. For a second, Rishi could not recognise his friend. ‘There’s a way,’ he repeated.
A flicker of light from the corner of his eye made Rishi turn his head to the road.
‘Sanket!’ Rishi grabbed his friend’s shoulder. ‘Watch out!’
Sanket snapped out of his trance and pulled his attention back on the road. By then, it was too late.
***
The deer had been pushing its way through the forest and decided to jump across the road when it came upon it. It smashed into the approaching car, breaking the windshield on Rishi’s side and leaving it covered with flesh and fur. Blood sprayed across the windshield, leaving the occupants blind and disoriented. The car veered to the right and crashed into a tree. The hood crumbled on impact.
Rishi, in a daze, unbuckled his seatbelt, his head still buzzing and his eyes blurry. He reached for the door handle and pushed it open. Rishi shifted his weight over to the side and fell to the ground. He slowly got on all fours, coughing as he did so, and crawled away from the wreckage. After a couple of metres, he spat on the ground and exhaled deeply. A deathly exhaustion swarmed his body. His mouth tasted like metal. He lay down on his back and closed his eyes. The pain across his body pulsed until it was no more.
***
Sanket found himself pressed against the steering wheel when his eyes opened. He stayed like that for what felt like hours to gather himself. His head buzzed and his chest ached. He tried moving his legs but couldn’t feel them. He pushed his arms against the dashboard—one of his fingers cracked—and leaned back against the chair. Just one headlight was flashing now—a faint yellow glow.
on…off…on…off…
The windshield, with its intricate cracked patterns, gave off an eerie shade of red and brown each time the light flashed. He raised one hand to his forehead and felt the wetness across his head and the tiny fragments of glass that stuck to it. Touching the glass grains on his face hurt—it burned. He looked to his left and saw the empty chair. The passenger side door was open. His brain, clouded by pain and confusion, tried putting everything together.
The deer. The tree. Rishi jumped. Hope he didn’t cross—
Sanket’s heart pumped faster. His brain hurt even more. He unbuckled his seatbelt and slid out of his seat, pushing the door open as he did so, and stepped out of the car into the cool air. His ribs screamed out from under his chest. His legs moved him back around the car, but he still couldn’t feel them. He winced as he placed a hand on the cold boot of the car and peered out to the opposite side of the door. His eyes strained in the dark, the only light coming from the faint yellow light that blinked from in front of the car.
‘Rishi!’ He called out into the void. ‘Rishi!’
He stepped on the asphalt and stopped himself from going any further.
No, I shouldn’t cross.
His hand pressed against the boot of the car even harder.
But Rishi.
Sanket had always taken risks. Had always gambled with options. Coming to the city. Taking up that job. Starting that side hustle. All gambles. And all of them worked. He trusted his instincts. But now, this was different. This was dangerous.
Just rumours. A different voice inside him said. Just rumours.
He pulled his hand away from the car.
Cross the road, the voice spoke to Sanket. The voice pushed him forward as it had done to countless others before.
‘Rishi, is that you?’ Sanket shouted as he walked, slowly at first, but then moved quickly ahead into darkness, to the other side. ‘Rishi, hold on, I’m coming!’ He started to feel his legs again.
***
Rishi’s tired eyes opened up to the darkness around him. The pain started coming back—first near his ears, then all across his head. It made its way down his body, like a centipede, through his spine, down to his legs. His tongue instinctively felt the inside of his mouth, tasted blood, and quivered when it found the jagged edges of teeth. He closed his eyes just for a few seconds, exhaled, and thought about how his life would never be the same again from that point onwards. If one could hear the road, then one would have heard a sinister laugh.
Rishi’s hands and legs pushed up against the ground, against immense hurt, and lifted his body up. He stood there in the dark, with a hunch, one hand holding on to his chest as if to give it some comfort from the burning pain. He noticed the subtle yellow flashes in his peripheral vision. He turned around and looked at the crumbled car next to him—he had just crawled a few feet behind the car before blacking out. He walked towards the car and noticed the door open on the driver’s side. He peered inside the car through the rear window and waited for the yellow light to flash.
There was nobody inside.
He looked around. Trees rustled behind him. The half-alive headlight of the car made a crackle each time it flickered. A cold wind blew through him, across the cuts and scratches on his body, and he shivered.
‘Sanket?’ Rishi shouted. ‘Sanket, you there?’
He waited. Silence wrapped him like a cold blanket. He waited some more. And then he heard it, the murmur, from somewhere in the darkness. ‘Sanket?’
‘Rishi…’ a whisper from across the road. ‘Help.’
Rishi ran across the road, leaving the wreckage behind. As he reached the other side, he saw a silhouette, sitting beyond the edge of the road, knees drawn up to the chest, leaning against a tree. The edges of the shadow glowed a sombre shade of yellow each time the car flashed its light, like an old man’s rugged breathing before the flatline arrives.
‘Sanket,’ Rishi walked towards his friend, twigs and stones crumbling under his shoes. ‘I’m coming.’
Sanket stood up as Rishi approached him. The light blinked again. Rishi stopped in his tracks, a few metres away, when he noticed Sanket’s face under the yellow glow, before it returned to the darkness. Rishi waited for the light. He could hear rough breaths coming from in front of him. It glowed yellow again. Rishi saw the face, the blood with the yellow hue, the dark gashes across the forehead, but it was the eyes that made him stumble backwards—bloodshot eyes, wide open. Sanket lunged forward and the light went out.
A hand punched into Rishi’s chest, making him cough out blood-tinged spit. He fell backwards and the ground crashed into the back of his head. Rishi’s head screamed within itself as his hands rummaged the ground around him for something, anything—a rock, or a stick. A pair of hands wrapped around his neck and pushed down. Rishi wheezed and his legs squirmed against the dirt and dead leaves. His arms grabbed Sanket’s and tried to push it away, his nails biting into skin.
‘I’m sorry,’ Rishi heard him say. ‘I’m sorry…you…,’ Sanket strained. ‘There’s no other way.’
The hands tightened. Bones cracked.
A calmness spread across Rishi like fog across a marsh. The screams inside his head died down. The light flashed once more, revealing the deathly hands and its holder above him, eyes wide open. Rishi noticed that the eyes were not bloodshot anymore—it glistened yellow. The light went out, and with it whatever held Rishi’s consciousness to this earth.
Sanket rolled over next to his friend’s body, stared into the night sky, and screamed. The scream transitioned into sobs.
The yellow light flashed again as he wept.
