I was laying in the darkness waiting for Deepika and Deep to be asleep. As soon as I was sure they are asleep, I sat up and took my laptop. I opened Facebook and searched for Maya Mehrotra, I saw there was no such person. I searched only for Maya and after searching a lot, I found her as there was her profile picture. She had named herself as Maya Sharma. Strange! I clicked on it and scrolled down her wall. I saw her photo with a man which I easily guessed that it is her father, the person who posted this picture was named as Ashwin Mehrotra, it had a caption, ‘Miss you bubbly.’ Why miss you? I was in deep thoughts and sighed heavily.
I scrolled down more and saw a post of Janvi Mehrotra, she might be her mother, it had Maya’s childhood pic with her which also had a caption, ‘Miss you my little girl.’ Why the hell is everyone just saying miss you? The most strange thing was there wasn’t a single comment of hers on the posts. Maybe she was inactive. I scrolled down more and there was a picture posted by Saanjh Mehrotra in which she was there with a girl and it also had a caption, ‘sisters forever.’
I scrolled a little more and saw Arjun Sharma’s post. It said, ‘You are my first friend in heaven, rest in peace.’ I gasped reading the post. No.. No.. No.. What does this mean? I should message all of them to know the matter. Firstly I messaged Arjun, I wrote, ‘hey, its something regarding Maya, m her friend, call me ASAP.’ And I wrote my number. I closed my laptop. The posts weren’t of today, they were of two three days before. I sighed.
Wait, is Maya really dead? Then how she came to us? Did she fake her own death? If yes, why no blood came out when the glass pierced her skin? I laid myself to sleep in distress. I was getting strange dreams. Sometimes I would be running after Deep in distress as he ran away from me and suddenly I would fall as he ran away. Sometimes, I might be running with Deepika after him but then my hand leaves her hand and many cars come on my way and she would trespass them leaving me behind. It was strange.
Sometimes I would be thrown in the sea and would struggle to swim but then I would drown sinking in the depth of the sea hitting the surface letting my eyes drool as my hair rose up blocking my vision. I woke up from the series of dreams I was having. I drank water to calm myself and convinced myself to sleep again. But just when I laid to sleep, I sunk into sleep paralysis. The more I struggled, the more I sunk into it, I was pushed into the mattress. I focused on my breathing. I was in panic.
I tried to shout but just my lips moved and no voice came out. I couldn’t move. I had a weight on my whole body. Tears rolled down my cheeks, I’ve never felt so helpless in my whole life. I suddenly remembered that if in sleep paralysis, you make such a face as if you’ve smelled something bad, you get out of it easily. I did the same and suddenly I sat up. I wiped my tears and sweat. I drank plenty of water before sleeping again. Next morning, we all sat to have breakfast, I was scared by last night.
I saw Deep was smiling like a fool as Maya had also come. I will kill this b*t*h one day losing my control. When we were finished with breakfast, they retired to our rooms but Deep and Maya were talking as if they know each other since a long time. I took my phone and hid behind a pole taking their pics. My phone automatically wrote the day and time the picture was taken. When Maya stood up to leave, I kept my phone on the ear pretending to talk to someone. ‘Hallo, Arjun Sharma there? Maya is here.’
I spoke loudly to make her hear but she didn’t even listen and went. I was really angry and went to Deep. ‘Hello Deep, Aarohi here,’ I said smiling at him. ‘I know you are Aarohi,’ he said. ‘Why are you so much into this girl?’ I asked and he went from there. Just then, Suchita aunty, my MIL came to me. ‘Beta, Sanaya is coming today to stay with us for few days, keep the spare room ready for her,’ she said and I planned on not unlocking my previous bedroom but some other locked room. ‘OK aunty,’ I said, she stopped me.
‘Promise me you will call me mom from today?’ she asked and I smiled. ‘OK mom,’ I said and hugged her. ‘I know what has been bothering you so that is why I called Sanaya as she can solve your problem, this goddess of darkness Maya is trying to fill your life with darkness but don’t worry, if you both love each other, Maya will only be a third person or other girl forever,’ she said and I smiled. ‘Mom thank you. Love you,’ I said and hugged her again. I cleaned up the spare room neatly for Sanaya.
Sanaya is Deep’s little sister by the way, sweetest sister in law, helpful, joyful, chirpy and full of life, she always has a smile on her face. When she came and was done with chit chat, we sat to talk about my problem. ‘Look Sanaya, these are the glass pieces which went inside her skin but no blood nor any DNA, and the posts on her wall on Facebook are giving me disturbing thoughts,’ I told her and she kept on looking at the glass piece and gasped, she looked at me worriedly scaring the hell out of me.♦