Tapan was never interested in going out on vacations, rather than going out he would just stay in, take a nice shower, workout and chat with his friends. But his friends, Kumar, Babai and Aditya were successful in dragging him out of his house and taking him out on a vacation. From Chandrapura they started driving to reach their destination. Tilaiya Dam was a beautiful place surrounded by dense forest quiet villages, mountains with beautiful waterfalls and luxurious hotels. Tapan was a young man in his early twenties who worked in DVC thermal power plant along with Babai, Aditya and Kumar. After an
eight-hour long drive, they had finally reached Tilaiya Dam in the evening. They kept their bags in their rooms and went out for a walk.
“Do you guys want to drink some date juice?”. Kumar said. Tapan replied “It is almost 4:00 pm, we won’t get fresh date juice right now. The ones collected in the afternoon will make us drunk. “So, what?” said Babai, he continued, “Listen, we are still young and dude you are not even married yet. Once you are trust me your wife won’t allow you to have any fun, I have seen my cousin and it’s not good”. “Well, I don’t want to have it.” Said Tapan. “I am with Tapan,” said Aditya. “Why, because you are a devotee of Lord Hanuman?” asked Babai. “Yes”, said Tapan. “And what about you, Aditya?”. “I just don’t want to”, said Aditya. “Well at least you can come with us, we need someone to carry us back after we are drunk”, Babai said and smiled mischievously. “Fine”, Aditya said. They walked down to the market from their hotel and asked for date juice to most of the drink shops but none of the shops sold date juice in the evening. The only answer they got was “Date juice is only available in the
morning, if you want to get some right now you need to head towards to village.”. They asked some people the way towards the village, but most of the people didn’t answer, as if they were very uncomfortable to talk. After asking for a long time, one man replied. “Sir, if you want to go towards the village, should go in the morning.” The sun is going to set after sometime and the road which leads to the village is not good.” “Just tell me which way it is.” Babai said annoyingly. “The man looked at his face apologetically and pointed at a direction and said, “That way”. “I feel like we should be going in the morning”. Tapan said. “Have you gone mad, I am craving for date juice”, Babai said annoyingly. “I feel like we shouldn’t be going, look the sun is almost setting. It’s going to be dark after sometime, and
village roads are generally dark at night, what if it’s really dangerous?”, Kumar said. “You guys have gone nuts; I am going that’s it”. Babai rented a car and said “I won’t be bringing any extra”. Saying this he drove away.
The moment Babai crossed the city borders, it started getting dark. There was no moon in the sky, therefore the headlights from the car were the only source of light on the road. After driving for some time, he saw a car crashed against a tree. His car’s headlights pointed at the crashed car. Babai came out of the car and went towards the crashed one. He hoped to see the driver alive, but to no avail, the driver was dead. He spotted a picture of a girl in the hand driver’s hand. The girl was exceptionally beautiful. He was so attracted by the picture of the girl that he forgot about the date juice that he was craving for. He returned back to the hotel. His friends went to him and asked him if he got to drink some date juice or not. But he was so enchanted by the picture that he didn’t even look at them. Kumar, Tapan and Aditya were worried, because throughout the night he kept on staring at the picture. When they came to have breakfast the morning, they saw Babai sitting on the chair still staring at the picture. Tapan looked into the picture and saw that it was a girl with long black hair wearing a beautiful saree and she had her right hand up with one finger out showing one to whoever had clicked the photo. He found the picture disturbing, but he didn’t say anything. When the night came, Babai said, “I am going towards the village to find this girl”. “Have you gone mad?”, Kumar screamed. But Babai didn’t hear anything he straightaway hopped inside the car and drove away. All of them rented another car and drove towards the village. Near a tree they saw a car crashed against a tree, they went near it and saw Babaisitting on the driver’s seat, he was dead. Tapan and Aditya called the police. Kumar went near Babai and saw the picture Babai was holding. He took the picture and got fascinated by it, a beautiful girl, with long black hair. She had her right arm up and had two fingers up showing two to whoever had clicked the picture. All of them returned to their hotel. Except for Kumar, Aditya and Tapan were sad. Tapan looked at Kumar and saw him looking at the same picture Babai was looking at. ‘What the hell is wrong with you”, Tapan stopped, he saw Kumar holding the same picture which Babai was holding, the same girl, but this time instead one, the girl was showing two fingers. “I am sure I saw the girl holding up only one finger”. But Kumar couldn’t listen. He shook Kumar but Kumar was lost in
that picture, he was smiling at it. The next night when Both of them came to call Kumar for dinner but, he was no longer in his room. They searched the surrounding area but they couldn’t find him. The receptionist came running towards them and said, “Sir, he went towards village, no one is supposed to go through that road at night, it is haunted. A lady from the village was killed there and buried there once. Her grave is near a tree with her photo on top of it. And since that day no one crosses that road
at night”. Tapan looked terrified and said, “One of my friends has died in that forest” The receptionist said, “That friend of yours, Babai, he died in the forest?” Tapan nodded and said, “Now my friend Kumar is headed towards the forest I must go”, the receptionist stopped him and said, “Don’t go Sir your friend is already dead, she has dragged him to his grave.” “What nonsense” Aditya said annoyingly, “I am going to the forest to save Kumar, Tapan are you coming?” Tapan said, “We should go in the morning” But the only thing he got to hear was, “You are the most selfish among us”. Tapan and the receptionist tried to stop him but he took the receptionist’s bike and went straight towards the forest. Tapan and the receptionist ran to the police station.
Aditya entered the forest road, the headlights from the motorbike was the only source of light. After riding the bike for about five minutes he saw Kumar lying dead under a tree, for once he thought that the story might be true, but then his eyes went towards the photo of the girl, it was the same girl but now, she raised her right hand and had three fingers out, showing to whoever has taken her photo. Aditya looked at the photo petrified. He didn’t dare to touch the photo and was about to run away when an arm tightly gripped his neck. He tried to free himself but the arm was way too strong. Tapan along with the receptionist took the police and drove towards the forest. Near the same tree they
found Kumar and Aditya lying dead. The police later on collected their dead bodies and called their parents. While going back Tapan saw the same photo but it was lying upside down. He didn’t pick it up. He lamented on the loss of his dear friends. He promised to never come back to this place. A place which took away his three best friends from him.
Years later a man named Sandip drove towards the village at night. He saw a woman standing on the road. When he stopped the car and came out, he found no one. He only found a photo of the women. He searched for the woman around the area, but he didn’t see her. He looked at the photo and saw the woman with her right hand up, she had long beautiful hair and was wearing a saree. Her right hand was showing one to whoever had clicked her photo.