Next Target

They land in Mussoorie. The weather is rainy here. Nothing can be seen outside the car window. The outside is so hazy. Even the road cannot be seen. They don't understand how the driver still keeps driving the car on the narrow hill road.

People often avoid visiting the hills in the rain due to the fear of landslides. But there is another degree of adventure in it. They can see nothing and it seems as if they are driving into the uncertain.

It seems as the uncertainty grows stronger when Neel takes a look outside and sees a man looking at him in a way as if he is trying to tell him something. Everything is so hazy outside but somehow the man appears clear to him for a moment but he disappears as the car keeps moving.

"Did you see that strange man standing in the rain?"Neel asks.

"No, I did not see anyone." Ishita replies.

"Maybe I'm just imagining things. Ishita's joke about being the cottage spooky might have gotten into my head. So I'm having these weird visions." Neel thinks.

Suddenly the car stopped. They get out and keep walking until they find the cottage. Rain has stopped then. Anybody can say the cottage has been abandoned for a long time now by the look of it. There have been hill grasses all around it. It seems as if not even a single trace of somebody has been here for years. 

"It does look spooky." Neel says.

"I told you, you won't like it." She replies. 

She stares at the cottage as if she got lost in some flashbacks. She startles when Neel says, "what are you looking at? Let's go inside."

They walk towards the cottage door. "I cannot see anything," Neel says. "I told you it's dark," Ishita says as she turns on the lights. "Dirty too!" Neel exclaims.

"It looks like someone has not come here in ages. How come there is still electricity?" Neel asks. Ishita does not answer his question.

"The rain was not enough. Now this dust!" Neel says.

"Stop complaining" Ishita replies.

They clean around the cottage. While cleaning, Neel sees a photo of a man on the wall. "Oh my God! He looks exactly like the man in my vision. Or maybe not. I think I'm just being paranoid." Neel thinks.

 "Who is he?" He asks.

"Just my cousin." Ishita says.

 "I've never seen him." Neel replies. 

Ishita replies "he died." 

"I'm so sorry, I did not know." Neel says.

Neel does not say anything about his visions to Ishita. But he starts to have a weird imagination. He thinks that maybe they shouldn't have come to this cottage. Maybe this cottage is haunted after all. Maybe the man in his vision is the man in the photo. Ishita's cousin. Maybe he is trying to tell him something, Neel thinks. Maybe he is the ghost and he is trying to warn them through the vision to leave the cottage, Neel thinks. He wants to believe that he is tired so he is having these weird thoughts but his guts tell him something may not be right.

Meanwhile Neel looks at Ishita and sees that she ignores the photo and acts very cold towards the dead man. As if she does not care. Neel feels strange about this behavior. Why would she act like this towards her own cousin? But he doesn't say anything. He does not like to be looked paranoid in front of his wife.

After cleaning the room, they sit for a while and start a conversation.

"I don't think we can go outside in this soggy weather." Ishita says.

"You're right. Plus, I feel tired. We will go to the hill station tomorrow. What do you say?" Neel asks.

"Yeah that's a good idea. I do not feel like leaving this cottage for today." Ishita replies.

"Why? What is special about this cottage?" Neel asks with curiosity.

"I have so many memories in this cottage. One of my best memories. One of my saddest memories. I have many memories here." Ishita says.

"Would you like to tell me about those memories?" Neel asks.

"Some things are better left unsaid." Ishita says with a serious tone.

Neel feels very curious and he wants to know. He was just going to ask her about it again but he stopped himself. He thinks that it may be something dark and she doesn't feel comfortable enough to talk about it now. He wants to sort out the problems they were having recently. He does not want to make it worse.

The weather suddenly gets awfully chilly. A melancholic aura surrounded the cottage. The rain starts to fall again. The area is very quiet. The sound of rain is clearly being heard in the pin drop silence. Neel sees Ishita leaving the room.

"Where are you going?" Neel asks.

"Nowhere. I'm just going to walk in the cottage. It's been very long since I got here." Saying it Ishita leaves the room.

Neel fell asleep for a while. The nights grow cold. He wakes up and sees Ishita still hasn't returned. He calls out her name but she does not respond.

"Were you calling me?" Ishita asks after a while.

"Yes, what are you doing?" Neel asks.

"Nothing really. I saw you were sleeping. I didn't want to wake you up." She says. "By the way, I'm hungry. We should go eat something." she adds.

They go outside to look for a hotel to eat dinner. There is nothing around. The street looks so empty. The place is odd. Raindrops have soaked the street. The chilly weather and silence create a spooky environment. They walk for a while and finally find a small cafe. They order the food and wait for a while.

"I'm so tired." Ishita says. After a few moments of silence.

 Neel says, "Going back to the cottage we will sleep and rest up. We'll have a good time starting tomorrow".

Ishita nods. The food arrives. After the journey all day, they were hungry. They start to eat. Even the cafe is empty. No one is there.

"Is this place always empty?" Neel asks the owner.

"Only at night." The owner replies.

Neel does not ask any more questions. After finishing the food, they pay and head back to the cottage. The place is awfully empty anyway. As if something happened here before and now no one comes around at night. Besides, mountain areas are often empty at night anyway. So they do not go anywhere else. They go straight to the cottage.

They finally reach the cottage and go to the bed. Ishita is quiet but after coming here, she has become more than quiet. As if there is something that is bothering her and Neel can feel it. He asks her "Are you okay?", "yes, I'm just tired." He kisses her goodnight and they fall asleep.

They are so tired that they do not even realize when they fall asleep. Suddenly, the man in the photo appears in front of Neel. 

"You are the next target" he warns and suddenly disappears. Neel wakes up in fear and murmurs to himself "what a strange dream! I think my wife's dead cousin's ghost won't let me sleep in peace."

He tries to sleep again but he cannot bring himself to sleep. He gets up and starts to wander in the cottage. He finds a photo of the man and Ishita together. They seem very close. Neel does not understand why Ishita reacts coldly towards the dead man. He wonders why she is acting very strange since she got here. What is the matter with her and this man?

"What are you looking at?" Ishita says in a serious tone.

"I thought you were sleeping!" Neel explaims. He continues, "you scared me!"

Ishita does not say anything related to his exclamation. Taking the photo from his hand she says, "I saw you were not beside me. Let's go to bed."

They go to the bed and do not talk about anything. They lie down and pretend to be asleep while they both are wide awake. They came here to fix their marriage but somehow it turns out the broken pieces are going astray. Neel feels like Ishita is hiding something. She feels like a different person since she got her. It's like she is not herself. She is absent but she doesn't say anything.

The warning of the Man in Neel's dream "you are the next target" starts to knock on the door of his mind.

"Whose Target? What connection does Ishita have with his cousin? And why would I be anyone's target for God's sake?" Questions like this rush into his head.

"Not everything can be just a coincidence. I think everything is linked and this man is trying to tell me something. Probably warn me about something. I don't know if I'm right or wrong right now. But this cannot be my paranoia. There must be some dark secrets that Ishita is carrying inside her. I don't know why she doesn't want to tell me about it. Even if she doesn't tell me about it, I will figure it out on my own. I will get into the bottom of this "you are the next target" thing and conceal the secrets buried in this cottage.", Neel thinks. He doesn't know if Ishit is sleeping or not even though she is right beside him. He finally stops thinking in the attempt to sleep.