Keshav woke up from a nightmare abruptly. It was 4:50 am, earlier than his regular six on school days. He calmed down and had some water.
It was not an unusual occurrence but a known outcome. Every time Keshav saw a horror movie at night, there was a high chance that a nightmare had become part of the schedule that night. Keshav had stopped mentioning or complaining about them since his father was insistent that a 14 years old should be above such things.
Some days of the week after school in the evenings Keshav would attend Math tuition, a subject he was not too fond of. On his way back at the entrance of the apartments the security guard signalled him to come to him.
“You know the building under construction?” said the security guard
“The one which has been left under constructed?” asked Keshav
“Yes, that one. There is a ghost in there.”
“Wh-What? I had heard about miscreants roaming there sometimes, but a ghost? Did you see one?”
“It’s in a viral video, a boy local to the neighbourhood went there and took the video,” said the security guard
“There is no such thing then. It’s a fake, such videos are very common online,” said Keshav and he went home, but his imagination regarding a ghost in an abandoned building invited another nightmare that night
The video, it seemed had gathered quite the attention, and had given birth to more videos, with more people going in and around there recording their experiences of the out of ordinary they felt there. Many in the locality were talking about it. Some people had even put up food stalls nearby, often telling the stories themselves.
“This ghost thing is getting out of hand,” whispered Keshav to his friend Siddh during the Math tuition
“Have you been there?” asked Siddh
“No, have you?” asked Keshav
The conversation led to them going to the place. The building was just like how they had seen it, nothing out of the ordinary except, light from torches could be seen inside the building moving around.
“Well, the content creators have certainly driven the ghost away, if there was one to begin with,” said Keshav, partly glad that there was nothing scary about the place, in fact there were more people than before
“No, I have not been driven out, I am here”
The boy’s turned to see a bearded man oddly wearing sunglasses at night in what looked like vacation clothes. The boys stood puzzled.
“When I was alive,” continued the man, “I was never a popular one, not that I wanted to be. But look at that so many people here for me.”
“You are in the video?” asked Siddh
“Nope, it’s a fake, but I was certainly there watching that guy trying to make the camera move like he had seen a real ghost. It was a funny sight,” said the man
“Are you selling something?” asked Keshav
“No, I am just here to see things like you guys,” smiled the man
“If you were a real ghost, we wouldn’t be able to see you,” said Siddh
A tense expression came over the man’s face and then he smiled again “Yes, you are right. I am just joking, don’t take it seriously. However, it is time for me to leave.”
The boys watched the man as he prepared to cross the road, he turned once to smile and when he started walking he turned once more to wave. Just then a speeding bike approached, there was a high chance that it would hit him.
Keshav and Siddh froze in their place as they awaited what would happen and the bike came just like they thought it would.
An ambulance was called, the man was injured but was still conscious, the biker has also sustained some injuries. The boys stood there at a distance.
“Be honest,” said Siddh, “there was a moment when you thought the bike would pass right through him, right?”
Keshav stayed quiet, a bit surprised by how Siddh had skipped right over everything that had happened and arrived at that thought, but he had felt something like what Siddh said.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
Early Morning Memories 
One response to “Beyond Natural”
I too felt the bike to pass through the bearded man…. 😁
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