Astonishingly a ghostly appearance loomed before me

Astonishingly the figure of a ghost loomed before me.

R.Jayaprakash.

When I start racing in my car on lonely countryside roads, it always drives me crazy when I see the lonely road dashing in front of me. Mind you, this kind of driving gives me all the more thrill when I drive through in the middle of the night. I always enjoy seeing out of the ordinary things which one rarely sees at daytime.

I remember I had turned my car towards a lonely path which kept winding up and down, which seems to ascend upwards in narrow winding streets for hours at end in the dim light which was hardly sufficient to see forward. It was a hilly region situated somewhere in Idduki, the most mountainous region in the state of Kerala.

Then suddenly the road diverted in two directions. On one side there was a board in Black displaying bold letters “KEEP AWAY FROM THIS PATH. TURN THE OTHER WAY” but I ignored the warning and turned right into that path. A sense of curiosity always prevailed on me and I was really eager to find out the cause. I was not easily frightened at seeing extraordinary things alone at night. When I continued to drive along this path, another motorist pulled before me and signaled to me to stop. I was perplexed but I stopped. He said,” My God! Are you really nuts! You are driving to a forbidden path. No one dares go through it at night.

“Why? “ I enquired.

“That place is haunted! No one dares to choose that path at night time.

“It’s all right. I can manage”. I then speeded on my way up the hilly terrain.

Nothing really happened for a long time. I was enjoying the cold chilly air blowing in my face. The person who had come to warn me had gone. The person had warned me of immense danger as many people had lost their lives and their bodies were never really recovered. I kept on driving upwards slowly because the pathway was rocky and risky to drive.

Then I saw a white hooded figure in the distance standing in the middle of the road. I knew the time was past midnight now.

I turned a sharp curve in the road and swerved right in front of the mysterious figure which did not appear to move from where it stood. Then on closely gazing at it, I knew it was a woman.  I was flabbergasted and for the first time in my life, I was shudderring in my seat and hairs on my body started rising. I shouted at the figure to move away from my path.

The next moment it was gone and I felt relieved and drove on. I was thinking what could have been that thing. Was it really human and if it was really a woman on the path, what was she doing there and where did she disappear suddenly like that. But my thoughts were answered immediately when I felt a slight movement behind me inside the car. Anyone else would have been horrified in such a spine- chilling sight. The woman was seated right behind me smiling at me.

I felt for the chain with the image of Lord Krishna tied around my neck and I felt comforted. I knew then that no ghost could harm me in any way and I kept cool. But I was mistaken because the next second I felt cold hands encircled around my body as she hugged me from behind. Then I knew that in such ghastly moments people had lost their lives by falling to the ravine far below. I suddenly applied on the brakes and came to a halt, yelling out aloud. I woke up all of a sudden and then I realized  that the whole episode was a bad dream after all.