It was the first day after the summer holidays when our class teacher introduced a new student.
Our class teacher entered with a short girl walking behind her . She wore a simple black sweater, and her expression was calm -too much calm .
"Our teacher said, class , this is Astha .She has transferred from the another city Karnal to Panipat", she said .
Astha nodded slightly and walked to the last bench near the window. She didn't speak . She didn't smile at all. She just sat there , staring outside as if she was waiting for something.
At first , no one paid much attention. But slowly slowly, strange things begin happening.
On the second day, the lights flickered when Astha entered the room.
On the third day , the classroom clock stopped exactly at 12: noon - the moment she looked at it.
On the fourth day, during a group activity, a stack of notebooks and books suddenly fell off the shelf - even though no one had touched them.
"It's just coincidence," our teacher said firmly.
But it didn't feel like a coincidence.
Astha never joined games during recess. She never laughed at all. She had never shared anything about herself with anyone. Whenever someone asked her a question, she would just give a short answer and look away.
One afternoon, I forgot my pencil case in the classroom and went back to get it . The school corridor were silent. The sky outside had turned dark with heavy clouds.
As I reached our classroom, I noticed the door was slightly open.
I pushed it gently.
Astha was inside - alone.
The windows were shut tightly, yet the curtains were moving wildly. The papers on the teacher's desk were circling in the air as if caught in a small storm . Astha stood in the middle of the classroom, her eyes closed, her hands stretched slightly outwards.
The air felt heavy.
Suddenly, the classroom door slammed shut behind me with a loud bang .
Astha's eyes opened.
For a second day, they didn't look normal at all . They seemed brighter and brighter almost glowing.
Everything froze.
The flying papers dropped. Teh curtains became still. The air felt normal again.
She looked at me without any expression.
"You shouldn't have seen that", she said quietly.
My heart was pounding so loudly I could hear it in my ears.
"What.... was that?" I whispered.
She walked towards me slowly. "Sometimes, things happen around me. I don't control them. They just.... react."
Before I could say anything else, thunder roared outside. The lights went off. The classroom was in the complete darkness.
When the power returned a few seconds laterz Astha was standing right in front of me.
"Forget this," she said me calmly.
The next day , I woke up with feeling strange - like I had forgotten something important.
When I reached school, I froze.
The last bench on which the Astha sit was empty.
There was no Astha .
I asked my friend Rahul,"where's the new student?"
He looked confused. "Which new student"?
"Astha! She joined last week!"
"There hasn't been any new student," she replied.
I ran to the teacher. Ma'am what about Astha?
She frowned. "There is no student by that name in our records."
My hands felt cold.
I slowly walked back to the classroom and stared at the last bench.
Carved lightly into the wood were the words:
"You remember"
My breath stopped.
At that exact moment, the classroom clock stopped.
12:noon.
And the lights began flicker again .