Stalkers

At first, Aastha thought maybe denisha should stay and keep an eye on them and let her know when they leave but denisha disagreed. Aastha knew that lady would be back by 11 or 11:30 and it was just 10. They had almost 1 hour so she didn't argue with denisha about keeping an eye on them. They both went inside the woman's room, climbing through the window. Thankfully, for them, the window was not locked.

They looked around the room very carefully. The room was big but all messy. Denisha started to look inside the cupboard while Aastha started to open the drawer at the side of the bed, one by one. She found an old album inside the last drawer and sat on the floor to look at it. Denisha saw her with an album so stopped and came to sit beside Aastha.

She slowly opened the album and started to look at the photos. There were many photos of a young girl whom she assumed was an old woman and then one photo caught her attention. There were three young people in the photo. She somehow recognized her uncle, so handsome and he had a smile on his face. The same young girl and another guy were there which she had no idea about.

"Who are they?" Denisha asked.

"I think this is mama and she is the old lady but this I don't know," she replied pointing at the face.

Denisha looked more carefully and her eyes widened. "He was more handsome back then,"

Aastha rolled her eyes. "Stop crushing on my mama, den. My mama means he is your mama too," she said looking at her wolfie.

"I can't help it and besides it's just a crush, Ash. It will go away," She said.

They looked at every single photo and most of the pictures were of that young woman with the guy who looked like her uncle. In most of the photos, they seemed happy, like genuinely happy. Aastha felt someone's coming so she hurriedly closed the album and kept it back in its place then and they both hid behind the curtain of the window.

It was an old lady. Aastha had only seen her from far but now she got to see her closely. She was beautiful, like a real beauty. She didn't look like she was in her 50s but her face had no charm just like her uncle. She sat on the bed for a while looking at the drawer like she was in deep thought. After some time, she laid on her bed. Both of them felt her trying hard to sleep but she couldn't. Aastha then remembered all the times she couldn't sleep. It was horrible. She didn't know the reason but she hated not being able to sleep. The lady rolled from one side of the bed to another and finally after like forever they felt her breathe getting slow.

Aastha knew what was coming next so they left. Even though he was not in any good form and maybe couldn't sense them there as they thought. He was a vampire and in this house, he must be more protective cause she was there. They slowly climbed down the window and once they were in the ground Aastha turned to look up. She thought mama must have already gone to the room. And suddenly they heard a low scream but loud enough for them to hear it.

"What was that?" Denisha asked.

"I think she screams in her sleep like maybe a nightmare. I told you on the phone," Aastha said frowning.

"Ah, yes,"

They both went silent and stared at the window.

"I should leave now so you can finish what I said. Remember what I said?" Denisha asked.

"Yeah, it was yesterday and he was already gone and today you are with me so give me another idea," Aastha replied.

"No, I am gonna give you the same idea and it will work. You have to do it," she said. Aastha was about to speak but denisha cut her off.

"Ok, see you in your room,"

"That was my best friend, can you believe it?" She said to herself.

She waited for her uncle to come out and he did. Like her wolfie told her, she went in front of him. He was confused to see her there. She smiled but he just looked at me. He had no emotions in his eyes as always. That was no new thing for her.

"I... i...know everything," she said quite afraid of him. Showing towards the house.

He shook his head and started to walk.

"You can talk to me. You know, maybe I can help," she said in a slightly loud voice but no answer, he just left.

While walking, he thought how his niece had turned into a stalker.

She went back and told her wolfie that it didn't work. Denisha was quite angry and told Aastha that they should go to his hill house. Aastha thought for a while and like that, in the middle of the night they went to his house but he was nowhere to be found.

They searched him everywhere and there he was A little bit far from the farmhouse. He was on his knees just below the moon. He started to scream like he was in pain and got up and ran. They followed him, afraid he gonna hurt himself. He stopped and sat in the middle of the forest. Aastha couldn't see him like that and was about to go towards him when she heard him say,

"I know you are there, Aastha," he said.

She was in confusion if she really heard his voice and then smile came on her lips. He called her Aastha. In one day he spoke this much words, she couldn't believe it.

"I just want to help," she said slowly taking steps towards him.

He got up shaking his head and turned to look at her. He looked at her then stared at denisha awhile.

"She is my best friend," Aastha said. she could feel denisha being quite scared. Hell, she was too.

"Leave," he said.

"I know everything. She must be your lover...." as she was saying his eyes turned to red.

"You know nothing," he yelled coming towards her. She was so scared that couldn't move while Denisha pulled her and they ran back home. They would look behind them time and again, afraid he had followed them.

They were lying on the bed thinking about what just happened. Would he have hurt her? That question came on both of their minds.

"It must be his pain. When a person is in pain, he can't think straight and destroys everything that's in front of him, including himself." Aastha thought.

"I want to help him even if he hurts me," Aastha said but deep down she was sure he would never hurt her.

"You will and we will come out with an idea, ok? Denisha said turning her face towards Aastha and she nodded believing her best friend.

On the other hand, prayas was thinking of how he may have hurt his niece.

"She stalked and found about her but that's it, she will never know further than that," He thought to himself.

He sat there in pain. "I almost hurt her. Was I going to hurt her?" He asked himself.

"Just because I am in pain doesn't mean I should hurt others too. I am hurting them and I can't help it." He said to himself. But more than others he was hurting himself.

People tend to hurt others while they are hurting. Their eyes get blinded by pain which turns into anger. Pain brings the worst in people. How much you try to stop yourself from hurting others you can't. You destroy everyone including yourself and like always he sat there hating himself.

The next day, they both went to college. Aastha was in a bad mood. She was sad. Wolfie would do things to cheer her up. You need someone beside you at the times like this to cheer you up.

After class, Denisha left and Aastha went to sit in the park near her college. She was in deep thought and she was thinking about her uncle, how he was all alone and how he never asked for anyone's help. He was in pain but he wouldn't let anyone near him to share the pain.

"Maybe he has lost all his hope," she thought.

"Hope is an insane thing. It drives people crazy and that's why we shouldn't keep hope all the time. It destroys us when things don't turn out to be as we had hoped. False hope is like a poison. It kills you slowly and slowly. Maybe, that's why he doesn't want to have hope? but what is life without hope?... maybe less hurtful." she thought, sitting alone trying to figure out about hope. She never liked hope. It was like an expectation to her. But how much we try to stop hoping things we can't cause life was all about hope.