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The Unfinished Hike – Would You Dare To Fall Behind?

Noted Nest

Updated: Oct 5, 2024

By Kuhu Gupta



Two hikers along with the members of their team were traveling through a dense forest in

the middle of the night to one of the high hills located in Uttarakhand. Since Arun and Shashi

were best friends, more like brothers and novice trekkers who were still getting to know

their new interest, they trailed behind. They could hear strange, muddled sounds coming

from the area as they ascended the mountain. "There are rumours that this forest is home

to a lot of wild animals and other entities/creatures that are not visible during the day, or

better yet, cannot be seen with the naked eye," Arun smirked.

Even though Shashi was a kind person, he was secretly terrified. He thought angrily, "Wild

animals are understood, but other living entities? We have nowhere to run to right now, is

he really kidding? "Can you just shut up and focus on catching up with others? What's the

point of bringing this up now?" was his reply. On the other hand, Arun was completely at

ease and probed further, "I guess you are terrified, isn't it? Don't worry, nobody would dare

to come near you while I'm here with you..”

But Arun could not finish his sentence, in fact, he was nowhere to be seen. Shashi turned to

see if he lost Arun, but he was nowhere to be seen as if he was never there with him. Shashi

completely freaked out and started running and shouting trying to reach out to someone

and then he just stopped, but it seemed that the others could not hear his voice and he was

stranded. Everything around him had become deadly silent and eerie as though even the air

had stopped moving. The only peculiar sound which he could hear was of small insects. The

hair on the back of his neck sprang up, signalling danger, and he was so terrified that he was

unable to move a single limb. He checked his phone but there was no network connectivity.

Then when he thought of moving ahead, he saw Arun sprang in front of him, but there was

something wrong with him. He appeared extremely pale as if he had been drained of blood,

his eyes were unfocused as if he was in a trance. Shashi wildly glanced around him before

turning to face Arun and spoke in a trembling voice, “Arun! Arun! Are you okay?”, he shook

him to bring him back to his senses, at that moment Arun lost his balance down and fell to

the ground. All the energy consumed from his body it looked he could use few bottles of

blood.

Shashi started to pray assiduously; it was the first time in his life that he prayed so much

desperately driven by the desire to join others or escape the location before anything else

found him first. For few minutes he just stood rooted at the spot thinking about what just

happened, unable to comprehend the possibility of the situation however, at that moment

miraculously, a couple of villagers appeared out of nowhere, carrying a lamp in one hand

and a stick in the other, and they appeared to be headed directly towards them. Not

believing his luck, he loudly started to call them. The villagers ran towards him and saw Arun

comprehension drawing on their faces. “Sir, this place is very dangerous at night, this forest

is home to a variety of wild animals and other creatures.” If something’s attention is focused

on you at this hour, nobody can save you. The creature who attacked your friend, we call it


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‘the one who never sleeps’. You shouldn’t have come here at night? What are you doing here

currently? Moreover, you must know at night even the hills are alive”, asked one of the

villagers. Shashi shivered, “We are a part of trekker’s group, and we came here to trek to the

hilltop however, we both got separated from the group. I need to save my friend; it looks the

entire blood has been drained from his body. Please could you help me, we will be eternally

grateful.” The second villager Ramu said, “Sir, we humans are seldom grateful. Neither to

mother earth nor to anyone else but fundamentally self-centered with a propensity to

disrespect and destroy everything admirable. However, I think you are quite fortunate sir, we

have an elderly woman in our village who knows the cure and she might be able to help you,

but we will have to carry him there as he cannot walk. Your friend is going to take a long

time to recover”. Shashi relieved to hear and only people to place his trust on responded,

“We will be forever grateful, please could you lead the way, I’ll carry him.” Mentally Shashi

had prepared himself, he was going to investigate this weird case, “It is not normal, it is not

an animal attack. He would have been hurt, or worse, killed, by an animal. This is something

else. It is true, despite my desire not to believe it.”

Slowly, they dragged themselves towards the base of the mountain, the constant eerie

silence continued as they moved as quietly as possible carrying along with them. After it

seemed like hours they reached their destination. As soon as they reached the village, the

villagers called upon the old lady and other villagers. The lady was a famous clairvoyant and

healer of that village. As soon as she saw Arun, she asked them to move him into the small

hut she used to stay. It was a tough task to take Arun inside as suddenly his body became

quite heavy, and he agitated. Somehow, he was taken inside, the old lady then started a

peculiar process of drawing energy from the elements in her surrounding and placed her

hand on Arun’s forehead. “There he returns”, she said softly. Slowly the blood seemed to

return into his body and his face flush as a tomato. The old lady smiled and said, “He is now

out of danger, but you should not go trekking at night, whatever business you have; do it

after the sun rises. You were lucky to find these people and me, the creature that strolls the

forest is not a creature that should walk the earth. That creature usually does not expose

itself but is a result of destruction that humans have started to cause unheard of until now

but there will be more of such creatures in future. The creature could not harm you because

of your strong aura. Something saved you today from it and you should be grateful”.

Hearing all these things, Shashi started feeling dizzy. “Am I seeing things? My friend who was

standing right next to me suddenly disappeared and when he appeared he was drained out

of blood. BLOOD! This weird old lady healed him within minutes, as if nothing happened to

him earlier. I... I will lose my mind if I must hear any more of this, even when I don’t want to

believe in these things, I will have to because it is happening”, he thought. And she says

there will more in future, how does she know? Are they from a secretive mission which are

unnaturally creating blood draining creatures? Is this creature a ghost, a spirit, a vampire or

a zombie? And how did she cure him? Everything is so peculiar and creepy.” As though

sensing his thoughts, the old woman replied, “I know what you are thinking, however, the


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lesser you know the better. I am not involved in any secret mission of erasing humankind

though. Your friend was saved today because you were there for him, you could have run

and saved your life, but you never left his side. All that matters in this world is purity in love

and friendship. Lucky is your friend to have a true friend like you”. While she was talking her

eyes changed color, they went from black to hazel and then back to black. Shashi blinked his

eyes, “It seems I am too exhausted to take and accept all these weird stuff for now, all I want

to do is to sleep”. Shashi called the villager and asked if they could stay the night and the

kind villager readily agreed and provided a space to both.

Shashi fell asleep as soon as his head hit the bed and he dissolved into nothingness, it

seemed he was drowning in the ocean, deep ... deep down. “Shashi you are so heavy, wake

up! WAKE UP! If you don’t wake up, I am going to throw you into the river. Oh! I do not have

any other option then I guess”. Big droplets of water hit Shashi’s eyes and he jerked awake,

he was lying in a tent, and it was raining. The tent had a hole on the top and droplets of

water were pouring through that hole. Shashi was feeling dizzy, he shakes his head and looks

at Arun. “Good morning sleepy head how are you feeling now? You really freaked us out

yesterday, if you were not feeling well, you should have stayed back”. Shashi gets confused,

“what are you talking about? What happened to me? It was you whom I had to carry on my

back but ... but where are the villagers? And the elderly woman who treated you?” Concern

etched all over his face, Arun said, “Are you kidding because if you are, this is not the right

time or the right place to mock about yesterday. You freaked us all out; you were walking

just behind us and then suddenly you disappeared. Then when we thought we lost you, you

suddenly appeared out of nowhere; your hair disoriented, your eyes unfocused as if in a

trance. Your body looked as if it was all drained out of blood, we were scared that we won’t

be able to save you. It was such a paradox of a situation. You were lucky that there were so

many people with us, we had to bring you down to this village and then an old lady cured

you. However, we couldn’t find her since morning and that’s weird. Anyways, if you are

feeling all well now we will have to leave this place. What are you gaping at me for?”

The information was too much to process, Shashi felt all the color left his face for a moment,

he said to Arun, “Are you mad? You were the one who disappeared; you left us behind and

then you were gone like smoke. We were lucky that the two villagers found us and then they

helped me to bring you to this village. After everything we endured last night, how could you

possibly make things right now?” An argument broke out in between the two. All the team

members were also standing there surrounding the two friends. They stared at each other

and decided to search for the old lady. While running towards the paddy field desperate to

look for the only hope and source of information, they saw an ancient huge banyan tree and

sitting under that tree was the old lady looking so radiant and peaceful. It looked as if a

white light was emanating from her surrounding and protecting her which they didn’t notice

last night during their individual encounters. “It’s her, isn’t it?”, asked Shashi for confirmation

to Arun. “Yes, it’s her. She is the same old lady that I met last night, the one who treated

you”.


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Swallowing Shashi and Arun went towards her, there steps brisk. At that point of time, fifty

meters seemed like miles to cover. Finally, they went and stood in front of her, she looked at

them with the same calm smile and gestured them to sit. “I know you two have some

questions to ask”, she asked. Her eyes had a piercing gaze as if she knew exactly what is

going on in your mind. Shashi blurted out, “It’s weird and I don’t even know how and where

to start. Every aspect of yesterday’s encounter that happened with us last night and the

attack which Arun suffered did not just happened with him, he says that the thing instead

actually attacked me and that he was the one to bring me to you. That means in our stories

at least two things are common one is the creature that attacked, and the other factor is

you”.

The mysterious lady stood up calmly as if it was a just a walk in her garden while the two

boys were almost off the edge. What she said next was no less than a riddle:

Deep within the Universe lies the answer to all questions.

What one goes through is the epitome of fear, might be a mere fragment of

others’ imagination.

One may have to pay for their deeds even if not at the same time or place.

Good and evil are only metaphors when it comes to human race.

How ingenious is the plan of the universe, isn’t it?

Both the friends exchanged puzzled looks; they were taken aback by how absurd everything

seemed at the time. They noticed the woman going in a new direction and standing a foot

apart just as they were preparing to ask further inquiries. She no longer looked old but

young and beautiful. She turned her head and smiled towards them and then just vanished

like a smoke. It was like the previous night, when they'd both seen each other disappear in

their separate experiences.

In an attempt to escape the situation at hand, Arun started off by saying, "Listen, Shashi, I

think we need to get out of here first." I think I'm starting to lose my mind. Let's go home

and discuss this when we've had enough sleep.” Shashi nodded, “I cannot agree more.”

Both proceeded to the village and began to leave the area with their teammates. They had

just taken a few feet when they noticed the monster; this time, they noticed it

simultaneously as a pair. It possessed large ears, snake-like yellow eyes, and pale skin. The

thing was staring at them directly as though examining them while also emitting confused

feelings of rage and grief. Then it smiled mischievously and vanished as quickly as light into

the forest.


By Kuhu Gupta



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10 comentários


manu gupta
manu gupta
22 de jun. de 2024

Amazing work Kuhu...

Curtir

Bhagyashree Pawar
Bhagyashree Pawar
19 de jun. de 2024

Awesome story kuhu

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Vipin Swami
Vipin Swami
18 de jun. de 2024

Indeed it is an interguing though a scary short story. Easy to understand. It emphasize the value of true friendship. It has an important message, we should mind our own business and dont mess with nature...

Curtir

Rimpa Sengupta
Rimpa Sengupta
17 de jun. de 2024

It is very captivating. Full of new ideas. So so good Kuhu. You are a born writer.

Curtir

guptanive2012
17 de jun. de 2024

Thrilling journey of two friends..purity and power of true friendship. Good story ...keep going ❤❤

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