On the second floor of Patel Hostel, silence carried a different weight. That morning, the silence was broken by the discovery of the stray cat the boys used to feed. Its body lay in the corridor, twisted as though caught mid-leap and frozen in death. The claws were embedded into the floor, fur stiff, and the eyes—wide, unblinking—stared in sheer terror. The tongue lolled out, teeth bared, as if the animal had seen something so unspeakable that its heart had stopped instantly.
The sight alone was enough to unsettle them, but for Aman, it pulled out a truth he had kept hidden.
He remembered the night only too vividly. It was past midnight when he stirred awake, disturbed by a sound that didn't belong to the usual hum of the hostel. At first, it was a cat's mewling, soft and plaintive, echoing faintly in the corridor. He thought of the stray, perhaps wandering outside his door. But then, mingled with it, came another sound—delicate, rhythmic, metallic. The unmistakable chhan-chhan of anklets.
Each step grew clearer.
He lay frozen, his eyes fixed on the narrow gap beneath his door. Through it, he saw the corridor light flicker erratically, shadows stretching and collapsing in quick flashes. The air seemed to pulse with the anklet's rhythm. Light—dark. Light—dark. With every burst of darkness, the anklet's jingle was louder, nearer.
Aman's breath hitched. His body refused to move. Fear pressed him deeper into his mattress, and he buried himself under his blanket, trembling. He whispered every god's name he could recall, prayers tumbling over each other in desperation. Beneath the covers, he clutched the fabric like a shield, willing the sounds to stop, willing the light to stay steady.
But the flickering continued, and so did the anklets—circling, lingering, as if something unseen stood waiting just beyond the wooden door.
When morning came, he dared not speak of it. But now, with the cat lying dead in the corridor, its face still frozen in terror, Aman knew. He had not imagined it. Something walked those halls at night, and the cat had seen it too.
Something was on Patel Hostel's second floor. And it was no longer hiding.