A NIGHTMARE…

A NIGHTMARE…
By Lairai Karnik

One fine day, my cousins, my family and I set out on a picnic. We were extremely ecstatic, because we had met after a long time. We enjoyed the picnic a lot and it was a nice get-together of sorts. We had gone to Pune to spend the vacation with my aunt .So, after the outing we returned home quite late. We were very heavy-eyed. By the time we reached home, I had already started dozing off in the car.

At last we reached the bungalow. The lawn, even in the middle of the night, was brightly lit up. I started walking; not towards the house but towards a rusty metal door. Suddenly, all my sleepiness vanished and I was wide awake. The door seemed very far away, but I reached there within a nanosecond. In my heart of hearts,I really did not want to open the door, but I had a queer feeling that something or someone was forcing me to do it. A voice inside me squeaked, “Beware! Do not open the door, do not…do not…”
But another voice, which was the stronger one shrieked, “Open it! Open it, I say! Open…Open…”and the voice trailed off into a long silence.


Reluctantly, I opened the door .Slowly and quietly, I slinked inside and closed the door behind me. It was pitch dark inside. My heart quailed. The air was still. It was very eerie. I had a feeling that the whole place was enchanted. A very great power, a terrifically evil power was controlling this place, which is why I felt so queer .I felt I was forgetting everything; I tried hard to remember my name, but all the things were just slipping away from my mind. Within a few minutes which seemed like ages, I was completely blank. I was unable to remember the fact that I’ am
a human-being! A great feeling of distress and sorrow swept over me. I wanted to scream my guts out, but that same something or someone was stopping me from doing so. I felt very miserable, but I kept on walking.

Suddenly, I came to a halt. The darkness had come to an end. When I looked back, there seemed to be no darkness at all, just light…light streaming from every nook and corner of the place. Wherever I looked , there was nothing but brightness. By now, the place was so lit up that the dark passage in which I had walked seemed like a dream. If one had a close look at this place, one would think that this place was lit up , just like this since ages.


Just then, in this place glittering with light, a reddish black darkness appeared. From that darkness emerged an enormous creature. This creature was as big in size as dozens and dozens of elephants. It had a red curved mouth as big as one elephant. It did not have any nose, hair or hands but it had hundreds of eyes! The creature’s one eye was as big as ten baby elephants! I was completely terrified after seeing this creature. I’m sure that if you would have seen this creature you would be no more afraid of a lion than you would be of a gnat!

After I saw this creature, I remembered everything…just everything! I started screaming and shouting as loudly as my voice could permit me to. I moaned and moaned, shrieked and shrieked until I was tired of doing so. Just then, the beastly creature seemed to be floating away from me, the darkness returned for a moment and then went in a nanosecond. Everything seemed still. Just then, I heard the sound of a car engine stopping. I stopped shouting. I opened my eyes and found that I was still in the car. It was just a nightmare; a really ghostly nightmare. One that I will never forget. NEVER!!!
Lairai Karnik