I looked on the right side of the corridor. I felt a chill in spine. A child was standing in the corridor's dim light, her bare pale feet against the cold floor with porcelin doll in her arms with cracked cheeks and eyes too glossy to be lifeless.Her face was unsettling in its stillness,skin pale and shallow.Dark smudges sat beneath wide, unblinking eyes that reflected the light like wet glass, . Her lips were colourless and pressed into a thin line, neither frown nor smile, just a quiet tension that felt wrong on a child's face. Strands of tangled hair clung to her forehead, framing cheeks that looked too hollow, too silent, for someone so small.
"Hey, who are you? what are you doing? Where are your parents?" - I asked her.
No reply,She looked right at my eye , smiling like she knew something I didn't.
"What is your name?" - I asked further
At that moment someone touched my shoulder, I heard a voice.
"Karthik, Karthik!!"
I startled. It was Hrik.
"What happened? With whom you are talking with" - Hrik asked me further.
"There is a little girl at the end of the corridor." - I replied.
He turned his flashlight, I was shocked, the corridor was empty.
"Where is the girl ? I didn't see anyone " - Hrik exclaimed.
"Maybe she ran away to her parents, Leave it. let's wake everyone up, we have to have dinner" - I replied with confusion.
We went back to our room,I woke up Sahil and Soumik.
"What's the time?" - Sahil asked me.
"Oh, it's 9.37" - I replied.
"Oh it's 9.37 already, let's go have some dinner" - Soumik replied.
Rahul and Hrik also entered in our room.
"Let's go guys we have to finish dinner, then we will play cards" - Hrik.
We locked our room and came downstairs. We saw Tapan Babu sitting on his usual place.
"Tapan Babu, we would like to have dinner." - I told
"Yes sir, come to the restaurant I will tell Subhas (waiter) to serve your dinner.
"What's on the menu for dinner" - Rahul asked.
"Chicken curry sir, with steamed rice." - Tapan Babu replied.
We entered into the restaurant attached with the hotel.The restaurant was eerily silent and empty, the kind of silence that felt too heavy to be normal. Chairs were neatly placed under tables. As we walked to our seat, the echo of our own footsteps seemed unnaturally loud. The overhead lights flickered once, then steadied, casting long, thin shadows across the floor.
"Tapan babu, where are the other visitors,Have they already had there dinner?" - I asked.
Tapan Babu replied with his usual stonecold emotionless face "There are no other visitors except you guys."
Me and Hrik looked at each other with shock in our eyes.