Shadows - Chapter 2

Story so far:

Chapter 1

Now Read Ahead:


Aunt Padmini's house was a decent sized two room affair. It was a single-storied apartment, with a roof above. The external of the house was painted in shades of green, complimenting the wide expanse of garden that lay surrounding the house. The interior was beautifully colored too. The drawing room was an amalgamation of light blue and cream, while the room allotted to the kids had a pinkish tinge to it. Aunt Padmini's room, well, let's leave that for later.

"How was your day? What did you learn?" Sapna asked her brother, as they sat on their bed, munching popcorn. They had a good lunch. The meal of rice, lentils and fish was delicious.

It was 5 in the evening now. The sun was preparing to set behind the Pahari Hills. However, she couldn't savor this beautiful scene, that Sapna had so often read in story books. The reason, there were no windows in the room.

Aunt Padmini had retired to her room. She was probably having a nap.

"Day good. Teacher bad," Swapnil tried to conclude in his limited array of words.

Sapna loved her brother. His cheeks were so soft, delicate. Sometimes, she measured the size of his legs and fingers; they looked so minuscule in comparison to her. As such, she was over protective of her sibling.

"Why dear? What happened?" Sapna asked curiously. She loved talking to her brother.

"Teacher scolded," he replied with a sad expression.

"You must have done something wrong, didn't you?" Sapna inquired, teasing.

"No. Rahul's cake.I ate that. he cried. Teacher scolded me."

Sapna laughed her heart out. Swapnil had a sweet tooth. He loved eating all things sweet, toffees, chocolates, cakes, pastries. As such, it must have been difficult to resist when he saw some one else opening his lunch box to unravel a piece of cake. She pressed his cheeks playfully.

Just then, the lights went off. Everything went dark. Pitch black.

There was no window or ventilation, there was no way they could get some light inside. Sapna and Swapnil hated dark places, like all kids do. They feared darkness, and they shouted in restless fear.

"Aunty. Where are you?"

There was no response. They waited for the sound of her door to open, which would mean Aunt had woken up from her sleep and was now coming towards their room. They craned their ears, but couldn't hear any sound.

"Thud!!!" A sharp noise came from somewhere behind them. Yes, in their own room itself. "What was that?" After several moments of indecision, Sapna looked behind, and her eyes met terror.

Staring at her were two red eyes, ferocious and large. Sapna wanted to shout, but her voice disobeyed. The eyes kept staring, unflinchingly, pulling her towards its dreadful reach.


What happens next:

Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9