The footsteps following me sounded closer. I ran through the empty corridors of the hospital, my heart pounding with terror, and my steps seemed to be quite nearer to those steps following me, since I was niether walking down or running over, instead was crawling to that extent, which made those sounds inevitably louder. Sarah was one of the duty physicians, who was deployed that night in the respective corridor. I was still crawling, trying to make my way to a nearby cabinet, which would certainly be enclosed and I can lock myself in, and in this terrified process, eventually got one, however, it appeared to be locked from outside, in the meanwhile, the sounds of those footseps only multiplied to that extent, wherein I could barely imagine a feet distance between me and the one following me. The moments were significantly unbelievable and undoubtedly got me freaked out to the core, which in turn drove a sense of static numbness, thereby making me flabbergasted and therefore made me incapable to even get up, and try the door handle, just to check if it's really locked or not. Suddenly, I saw Sarah opening the door for me, and I suddenly felt a sense of relief, amidst this incredibly taxing occurence. Though I was relieved, I still didn't manage to get up and walk down, therefore still crawled my way through the room, and could hear the doctor smiling in an astounding manner, and she in turn asked me to get up and sit on the chair, and she continued speaking with a grin probing, how exactly can she help me.
I replied stating, my wife has gone for good, and I am here to collect the mortality certificate. She looked a bit startled, but her smile was still preserved, and she started shuffling the papers, and guess what, since I entered the room, I could still hear those footseps, however it sounded a bit far, though it felt like just behind me, and the only reason being I was preoccupied with the doctor. Sarah finally started empathizing with me about this tragic loss, and checked with me about the cause of my wife's death. I stated narrating about the malfunctionality of her heart, thereby leading to never-ending complications, and in turn leading to her death, and I undoubtedly blame this medical institution for their callousness and negligence, which might have made this death inevitable at the pace of light. I thereby stated further, that I killed one of the doctors by chopping her feet off, who were concerned in this chronic medical case. Sarah heard me out till the end, thereby acknowledging this entire ordeal, and requested me to wait for a couple of minutes, till she manages to find the documents. Out of terrible fear of those soundsteps following me, I failed observing an important element in this process, and it was nothing but Sarah being constantly static in her chair seat, wherin her cabinet closet was a bit far, and the documents which I was seeking might be in the closet. The most suprising thing was, we both were static at our own positions, and we were not heading anywhere with the documents, and the sense of fear, still prevailed fundamentally.
All of a sudden, she told me to look behind, and in turn, I stated, I just can't do this, owing to which she stated about the documents which I requested, and I can get to it by turning behind, and finally, out of immense apprehensions and fear, I looked behind and found my wife holding two chopped feat in one hand and a document on the other, and incredibly made me bizarre to that extent, which made me shit bricks to an extensive manner, and in turn made me turn back to the frontal side, and what I saw was unbelievable, it was Sarah standing on the table, without her feet, and thereby telling me, it was you who killed me and got the beautiful pair off my body. I tried saving your wife till eternity, but you didn't believe that your wife can still be saved, so you first killed me, thereby eliminating this optimistic notion to survival, and the reason behind this ruthless intention was a hefty insurance amount on your wife's name. One of those thoughts, which crossed my nervous mind was to run away from there, by overcoming those fears possessed in this ordeal, and head towards one of those gallows, wherin I would grant those, preserving sovereign powers, to hang me at their earlier behest. However, it was not such an easy escape, because I was already hanged two days before as per jurisprudence, post which my feet was the chosen one to get amputated, and in turn was sent to a medical school on federal demand, for young doctors to simulate and therefore revise their learnings on surgical body examinations from a practical perspective.

Henceforth, it was the same hospital, where my feet was sent for medical simulation, pertaining to budding doctors, and all of us, were in the same hospital in pertinence, to which this ordeal was narrated, and we were ghosts indeed, and even they might have an afterlife, which may lead to vengeance!




© Shirsendu Mukherjee!
© shish