A beautiful mirage

Rohan was returning from his tuition when he saw a strange sight. His friends from the school’s debating society, Aisha and Kabir, waved to him as he sprinted towards them. 

“What are you guys doing here?” he enquired. 

“ The debating tournament was preponed, so we only have 6 days left. It is a two day journey, and the path is mostly forest, so it is better to leave right now,” Aisha explained.

“Oh, I’ll quickly pack my bags and come to the caravan in around half an hour,” Rohan quickly informed and paced back home. 

They soon started their journey and midway, as the sun set over the far horizon, they decided to rest for the night. The guest house was a shabby, run down two-storey building with leaking roofs, creaky doors and a squeaking staircase. The menacing forest, cocooned in an ebony fog, eerily crept in through the cracked window. 

“This is stupid,” Rohan bellowed at the miserable cottage and kicked around a couple of the items set on the altar in the corner of the hallway.

The lights suddenly went out and a deafening silence laid heavy over the rolling hills.

Lightning struck the parched land and an enormous bird’s reflection startled the kids. They were about to draw the curtains when a loud hoot turned their knees to jelly. It was an owl, creepily staring through them, towards the far end of the room. Aisha started panicking, and Kabir tried to console her but was not able to. She hurriedly paced out of the room with a flashlight and went into the adjacent garden to calm herself. 

The boys hit the hay, exhausted after a long day of travel.

Rohan kept tossing in his bed, and he soon got up and went near the window. He was repeatedly practising and improvising his speech when a strange figure scampered in his vision. He peeked outside to see the silhouette of a bison, or maybe a bull. All he could see was a head, leading to a pair of menacing horns. The shadow’s sinister aura seemed to have a choking grip on Rohan, who was paralysed on the spot. 

Millions of thoughts galloped across his mind when he remembered about Aisha. She was still out there. Rohan sensed something out of place, and furiously ran outside to search for Aisha, and to scold her for cluelessly roaming about in the terrifying, pitch black forest.

Soon Rohan found himself lost in the thick canopy that blocked all moonlight that desperately tried to penetrate its thick foliage. His flashlight died, and he was now stranded all alone in the dark. 

He again caught a glimpse of the bison-like figure, and behind it a clearing that led to a covert bower surrounded by a sprinkle of blood red spider lilies, that shone like rubies in the mystical moonlight. Instantly lured by the breathtaking scenery, he sprinted until his legs gave out, but the bower still seemed a distant mirage.

His breath hitched for a second as he stopped to settle thr fire blazing in his lungs, and a horrendous cackle echoed through the forest. The hair on his neck rose as he felt a cold grip on his shoulder that made his bones shiver. Thorns of fear cemented his feet to the ground as terror muzzled him, and he panted to escape from its deathly clutches. 

The silhouette, with hostility rolling off of it, glissaded towards Rohan, crouched to his eye level and in a sickeningly sweet voice whispered, “Stupid, eh? I’ll show you what is stupid.” Wind whooshed in from all sides of the forest, carrying with them debris and sediment.

Ruby-like  butterflies, with wings that looked like stained glass, flew out of the silhouette’s hood and settled across Rohan’s body. An excruciating pain ran through his chest as the butterflies, slowly fluttering their gorgeous wings while guiding him to the bower, sucked every last bit of life left in his soul.