DREAM OF DEATH

It was 9 p.m.

Kartik was standing in the parking lot of his office beside his car. He opened the car door and got inside.

He started the car and was about to leave when his phone started ringing.

Kartik looked at the screen.

Mr. Aman.

His boss.

Kartik sighed and answered the call.

“Hello, sir?”

“Kartik, are you still in the office?” Mr. Aman asked.

“No, sir. I was just about to leave.”

“Oh. Actually, I need a file from the office.”

Kartik looked at the office building.

“Can't I give it to you tomorrow, sir?”

“No, Kartik. It's an important file. Some clients are coming tomorrow, and I need to complete some work with it tonight.”

Kartik sighed.

“Sir, I was going home.”

“I know, Kartik. But I really need that file.”

Kartik stayed silent for a few seconds.

There was no point arguing.

“Fine, sir. Which file?”

Mr. Aman told him the name and location of the file.

Kartik ended the call and stared at his phone.

“Great…”

He had just left the office, and now he had to go back inside.

Kartik got out of the car and went back into the office.

He found the file after a few minutes.

As he picked it up, he looked at it with an annoyed expression.

“Seriously? I came back for this?”

He then started silently abusing his boss in his mind.

After a few minutes, he finally left the office.

Kartik got back into his car, started the engine, and drove towards Mr. Aman's house.

Kartik reached Aman’s house at around 10 p.m.

He got out of the car and handed the file to Aman.

“Here,” Kartik said.

Aman took the file.

“You could have brought this a little earlier.”

Kartik looked at him.

“Sir, I was already going home.”

“I know, but I needed this file.”

Kartik wanted to argue, but he knew he could not fight with his boss.

So he stayed quiet.

After a few seconds, he simply turned around and went back to his car.

Kartik sat inside and started driving towards his home.

It had started raining on the way.

Around 11 p.m., Kartik finally reached home.

He threw his bag on the sofa and took off his clothes before going to the bathroom to freshen up.

While taking a shower, he suddenly felt a slight pain in his head.

He touched his forehead.

“Not again…”

After finishing his shower, Kartik came out of the bathroom and changed his clothes.

He then prepared dinner for himself and ate.

After dinner, he took his medicine.

He went to his bedroom and lay down on his bed.

Before turning off the lights, he once again cursed his boss.

Then he switched off the lights and went to sleep.

Kartik was sleeping.

Suddenly, he heard a noise.

At first, he did not pay much attention to it because he was still half-asleep.

But slowly, his eyes opened.

The noise was still there.

Kartik sat up in his bed and looked around.

He listened carefully.

The sound was coming from the kitchen.

Kartik got out of bed and went to check.

He looked around the kitchen, but he could not see anything.

Then his eyes went towards one of the shelves.

A rat was sitting there.

It had torn open a packet of bread and was eating it.

Kartik sighed.

“Seriously?”

He walked towards the shelf to scare the rat away.

But suddenly, the rat disappeared.

Kartik stopped.

He looked around.

Then he heard the rat again.

The sound was coming from behind the shelf.

Kartik slowly turned around.

The rat was there.

But this time, its body was covered with multiple cuts and wounds.

Blood was coming out of its body.

Before Kartik could react, the rat suddenly jumped towards him.

Kartik screamed.

His eyes suddenly opened.

He sat up on his bed, breathing heavily.

It had only been a dream.

Kartik was breathing heavily.

His throat was hurting after the scream.

He looked towards the bottle kept on the drawer beside his bed.

There was no water in it.

Kartik got up and went to the kitchen.

He placed the bottle under the water purifier and started filling it.

The sound of the water falling into the bottle echoed slightly through the room.

Kartik waited.

When the bottle was finally full, he picked it up.

Then he heard another sound.

It was soft.

It sounded like someone crying.

Like a girl.

Kartik slowly left the kitchen and entered the drawing room.

In one corner of the room, there was a girl.

She was wearing torn clothes and had her back turned towards him.

She was whispering something.

Kartik's heartbeat became faster.

He started sweating.

Slowly, he walked towards her.

When he reached the corner, he slightly bent down in front of her.

The girl spoke.

“Turn around... and look yourself beautifully.”

Kartik froze.

Slowly, he turned around.

A boy was running towards him.

Kartik stared at him.

The boy looked exactly like him.

Kartik screamed and quickly turned back.

The girl suddenly jumped on him and grabbed him.

Kartik struggled.

Then he turned around again.

The other Kartik was suddenly standing very close to his face.

He leaned towards him.

“Sshhhh....”

A few days passed.

Nobody saw Kartik at the office.

He did not answer phone calls.

He did not reply to emails or WhatsApp messages.

His neighbours also noticed that Kartik had not left his house for several days.

One day, one of his neighbours went to his door and knocked.

There was no answer.

She knocked again.

Still, nobody came.

The neighbour immediately called the police.

The police arrived and tried calling Kartik from outside the door.

There was still no response.

Finally, they broke the door open and entered the flat.

They searched the entire house.

After some time, they found Kartik's partially decomposed body inside the flat.

His body was sent for a post-mortem examination.

The doctors later found that Kartik had been taking sleeping and stress-related medication for a long time.

The investigation also revealed that he had been suffering from severe stress because of his heavy workload.

The doctors said that the medication could cause side effects such as headaches, sleep problems and hallucinations, especially when combined with extreme stress.

However, the post-mortem revealed that the actual cause of Kartik's death was cardiac arrest.

The doctors believed that his extreme stress and poor physical condition had put immense pressure on his heart.

The police closed the case.

Kartik's death was officially declared a case of cardiac arrest caused by extreme stress.

And the strange things he had seen that night?

They were believed to be nothing more than hallucinations.