That night at the Manikarnika Ghat changed Medha's perspective regarding the other world.
A month had passed since that incident and Medha was going home for the holidays. The train journey to Bhopal took almost 15-16 hours.
After boarding and settling down, Medha put on her headphones and began scrolling through her phone. Slowly, the sky grew darker and the train chambers fell silent.
It was almost midnight when a bored Medha came across an interesting game on her phone, 'CURSE OF TORTURE'. She clicked on the link and the game popped up on her home screen. An axe dipped in a bucket of blood and big, bold, red words that read CURSE OF TORTURE'. It asked for her name and Medha filled up the blank space. The screen turned black and the following instructions showed up:
THE RULES OF THE GAME ARE AS FOLLOWS:
*THIS GAME WILL GIVE YOU A SET OF TASKS AND YOU HAVE TO COMPLETE THEM WITHIN 12 HOURS AND IF YOU DON'T.....
*YOU CANNOT BACK OUT FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE GAME.
* AT LAST, NOW THAT YOU HAVE ENTERED THIS GAME, YOU WILL BE UNDER OUT WATCH...ALL THE TIME...
Medha snickered thinking, " What harm can a simple game do? What more could they do except for sending notifications." She clicked on the start button and the first task appeared onscreen,
WRITE YOUR NAME ON A PIECE OF PAPER AND THEN GO TO THE NEAREST BATHROOM AND BURN THAT PAPER.
Medha tore a slip of paper from her writing pad and wrote her name on it. Rummaging through her bag, she found a box of matches and she headed towards the bathroom at the end of the compartment. Feeling stupid, she followed the instructions and then came back to her seat. Just as she sat, a notification popped up on the screen.
WELL DONE..NOW ONTO THE SECOND TASK......TAKE FIFTEEN STEPS FROM YOUR PLACE TOWARDS THE LEFT, THEN SIT DOWN AND COUNT TO TEN AND THEN COME BACK TO YOUR PLACE.
Shocked, Medha got up and took 15 steps. She got to the end of the compartment and near the gates of the train. She did what the game told her and when she got up, she saw a man leaning by the gate with headphones plugged in. Before she could go back, her phone vibrated and a message from the game read:
THIRD TASK..PUSH THIS MAN OFF THE TRAIN.
Her heartbeat fastened and her palms grew sweaty. She couldn't do that. This was murder. She ignored the message and walked up to her seat. The phone filled up with multiple threats.
DO IT...OR ELSE
YOU ARE INVITING YOUR OWN DEATH
WE WILL FIND YOU SOON.....
Feeling threatened, she put her phone on silent and then lied down covering herself with the blanket.
After some time, Medha heard a murmur. A soft whisper that sounded familiar. She peeked out of her blanket and before she could do anything, a pair of eyes stared at her. A hypnotizing effect ran over her. Her body was no longer under her control. A black shadow stood in front of her seat. She got up and started following the shadow. It led her towards the gates. She stared at the gates and then before anything could be done, an unknown force pushed her out of the train and onto the railway tracks as the bright lights of an approaching train blinded her.
TO BE CONTINUED
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