A holiday

She didn’t see it coming.

Nina was running in the mountain fields in the middle of the night. She wasn’t sure of the time but with the intensity of darkness and the fritinancy that surrounded, she knew it was surely past midnight. Fear had consumed her to an extent that she had forgotten what she was running from or where was she heading to. She could stumble upon a rock or fall in a pit as the starlight could hardly find its way through the dense forest.

She could hear the waters flowing somewhere near, but wasn’t sure exactly where. It could be a river or a waterfall, but she thought that it was enough to help her find someone or at least a way out. Running and gasping through an uneven path, there came a point when Nina thought she would lose her conscious. She had to halt, no matter what, to get a little rest. The waterfall was still far but she could hear it splash clearer this way. She gave her panting a chance to ease and tried to examine which one of the two will make her squeak—a wild animal or a ghost.

And as if they were listening to her thoughts, a spine-chilling shrill-of-a-laugh came from her side. She screamed aloud and charged her body to run against the direction of the sound. The sudden burst of energy caused a strange reaction—she woke up to a clear sky, outside a camp in front of the Ganges. Shudders went to her heart when the screaking laughter did a round two; it was Nina’s friend who was having an overjoyed conversation with the rest of the holiday crew.

A long awaited holiday had finally begun.