When Pradip woke up the next morning, he remembered everything that had happened in his dream the previous night.
A part of him felt troubled. Sangini was much younger than him, almost like a younger sister in the way he had always thought about her. Yet the dream had taken a direction that left him feeling uncomfortable and conflicted.
At the same time, however, he felt an odd sense of peace. It was as though some long-buried desire or curiosity from deep within his heart had finally found an outlet. He did not know why he had carried such feelings since childhood, nor why they had surfaced now after so many years of keeping them under control.
Eventually, he tried to convince himself that it had only been a dream and nothing more.
But when he looked at the condition of his bed and the damp bedsheet, that explanation no longer felt quite so simple.
Shaking off his thoughts, he stepped outside, washed his face, and fed the cows.
After finishing his morning chores, he was standing near the front gate when he saw Sangini walking down the road.
She had a bag slung over her shoulder and appeared to be heading to school. For nearly twenty years, girls in the area had been receiving an education alongside boys, so it was perfectly normal nowadays.
Pradip called out to her.
"Hey, Sangini! Come here for a moment."
She walked over.
After hesitating for a few seconds, Pradip asked,
"Did you come to my house last night?"
Sangini thought for a moment and then shook her head.
"No."
Pradip blinked in surprise.
"You didn't come to my house?"
Again, she shook her head.
"No."
For a moment, Pradip could not speak.
It felt as though his feet had become rooted to the ground. The earth itself seemed to be holding him in place.
Finally, he forced out a reply.
"Alright. You can go."
Sangini nodded and continued on her way.
Pradip stood there for a while before slowly returning inside the house.
He picked up a broom and began heading toward the bedroom. Next he will get a bath and go to temple room of the house.
Some may call it paryer room. But Indians love to call it Temple. A small temple inside the house. Cause to them house is a temple itself.
Yet the same question kept circling through his mind over and over again:
What exactly happened last night?
On the other hand in the village of Askra, the villagers found Askra in sleep after 48 hours. He didn't wake up.
The recently coming, Dankrit, son Songha Halder, a doctor who came to visit his parents, confirmed that Askra is in coma.
At first villagers thought he is dead and they should held the funeral soon. But then Dankrit suggest that Askra should be send to the government hospital in the village. Cause he isn't dead but in coma.
-----_
As Sangini walked along the village road on her way to school, something strange happened to her.
Actually, calling it morning would be inaccurate.
It was only six o'clock at dawn.
At that hour, many villagers were already awake and standing outside their homes, beginning their daily routines. But the path Sangini had chosen was different.
It was a shortcut.
A road that cut straight across a wide open field.
The field was famous throughout the village for countless old stories and legends. Most of those tales had faded away over the years, and people still used the route regularly. However, once night fell and it grew too late, everyone naturally avoided passing through that area.
Even so, Sangini had never heard of any real incident occurring there.
So that morning she chose the shortcut.
As she walked through the field, she suddenly felt as though someone was sitting in the branches of the old keora tree standing near the edge of the land, silently watching her.
She immediately turned her head.
There was no one there.
How strange.
Unsure of what to do, Sangini quickened her pace.
"You imagined it," she told herself.
"You saw something wrong. There's nothing there."
Besides, ghosts did not exist.
That was what her schoolteacher always said.
All these stories were just village superstitions—old fears and foolish beliefs passed down from generation to generation.
People would invent strange rules and strange stories, then convince themselves they were true.
Repeating these thoughts in her mind, Sangini began walking even faster.
But the faster she walked, the stronger the feeling became.
Someone was behind her.
Right behind her.
So close that if she turned around, she felt she would immediately come face-to-face with whatever it was.
Yet she did not want to look.
In the dim, mist-covered light of dawn, cold sweat began running down her back.
Her heart pounded louder and louder.
Then suddenly—
Someone placed a hand on her shoulder..