The reality

Rahul's mouth had gone dry. This felt like a déjà vu. It felt like his nightmare was coming to the life. Or maybe the nightmare was a foreshadowing. Rahul had to find out what really was going on. He knew for sure that he had not been dreaming or hallucinating. Rahul gathered the courage to leave the comfort of his bed and walk towards the window. He stood by the window looking outside.

His instincts and racing heart were telling him to move away from the window. But he wanted to see what was happening for himself. Rahul did not believe in intuition, foreshadowing, or the nightmares becoming the reality. He would believe only what he could see and feel. He was not ready to believe that the dreaded nightmare was becoming his reality.

As he stood by the window all events occurred in the same chronology as he had seen in the nightmare. The screaming, stray animals running away to seek shelter, the lanterns, and a group of people wearing red robes. But there was a slight difference. In his nightmare the group of people wearing red robes where 15 or 20 in numbers. Here the group was larger. Probably this group had over 100 people. Of course that was scarier.

Just like the nightmare the group halted across the street. Now Rahul did not know what was going to happen next. This is exactly where his Nightmare had ended and now he was completely unaware of the events that were about to occur.

Rahul's every Instinct was asking him to move away from the window. But he was determined to stay there and see what happens next. All the people wearing red robes stood still. They had been holding the lantern in their right hand now. With a slow, calculated, and choreographed motion all of them raised their right hand still holding the lantern. Now the lantern was in front of their faces yet there faces were not visible. As of now they had not done anything scary but this visual of people in red robes holding lantern was deeply unsetling.

Rahul looked around to see if there is any other curious onlooker like him. He noticed that all the people in the nearby area had been sound asleep. Nobody had been standing in the balcony or by the window. A train of scary thoughts ran through his mind, "what if they do not want a witness? What if these people come to know that I have been watching them? What if they stood opposite my street to inform me that they are aware of my presence? What if the decide to hurt me after they have realised that I have been watching them? What if the decide to kill me?" Each thought was making Rahul more uncertain of what was going to happen.

Finally Rahul decided that he should move away from the window so that he is out of the site of the mysterious group. He avoided taking picture or video of this events but he was hoping that at least the CCTV cameras in the street would have covered these events. He was praying that the night should end quickly and with the daybreak he would approach someone to speak about this.

Whatever happened that night was not normal, Rahul knew that very well. But he was not aware that it was the beginning of a disaster.