Sumit woke up at dawn. In fact, he didn't sleep well last night. Every time he fell asleep, he dreamed about the incident. A drowned man looking at him calling Sumit to save him. Women and children are crying for help. The groom was being swiped away by the raging river. Those who tried to help also ended up being swiped away by the strong river current. They were all looking at him, pleading him to rescue them. He wanted to go inside the river and save them, but he could not move his body, he stood there helplessly. Seeing them as the strong current carried them farther and farther away from the shore. After a moment all of them stopped in place and their body started decomposition. Their flesh started rotting, their white bones showing in moonlight, their unrecognizable face with rotten flesh gone here and there. All of them looking extremely creepy under moonlight.
Next morning he looked very worn out. Nobody talked about last night like they forgot about it. Sumit wanted to ask many questions but stopped himself. After breakfast his grandmother told him to follow her. He followed her, his uncle and others also went with him. After everyone sat down, his grandmother started talking. What she said made him unable to believe his ear. She told him about an incident that happened few decades before.
His grandmother said, "four to five decades ago a girl was getting married in their village. The marriage was happening at night. The groom's party was late on the road so after they came nearby, they saw a small path by the main road. As they were getting late and their destination was still a little far away, they were in a hurry. This time someone spoke after seeing the small path."
'I've heard that path is a shortcut to the bride's house. If we follow that path, we can reach faster.'
'Do you even know where that path ends? Why do you want to go that way?'
'I went that way when we came to see the bride. So, I know where that way leads.'
'Are you familiar with the route?'
'I told you I am familiar with the route, one of my friends home is here and I came to his home before. This route goes by the river, if we follow this path we can reach there faster then by this road.'
'Then we should go this way.'
'I think we should go by the road. Going near the river at night does not feel right. Also, the river must be flooded because of the rain.'
Sumit's grandmother said, "Even though some people thought taking that muddy path is not the right choice as it was slippery because of the rain and accident may happen. If someone slipped, they won't be able to enjoy the fun. Nobody thought that there could be other dangers other than slippery road. They did not know villagers stopped using that path because the path started cracking after a few days of heavy rain. Heavy rain fallen for a few days before the wedding day. And for the heavy rain river flooded as cracks appeared near the riverbank. Small fields by the riverbank collapsed by the impact and the path also weakened as a result. But those people did not know about that. They followed that path. They were dancing along the way. Because of the darkness they did not notice the situation, and nobody realised the river was nearer than before. As they were engrossing in excitement, they reached the most fragile and nearest part of the path. Many people were dancing surrounding the groom. As they reached the fragile part of the path, mud started to loosen, and those people fell in the river with the loosen mud. They were caught off guard; few small kids fell into the river with others. Those kids could not swim well, on top of that because of the rain river current was very strong. Those kids were drowning fast, older people tried to save them, but they were also swiped with the current. The groom and all those men drowned int the river that night. Others tried to help but because of their weight nearby areas also became loose and all of them fell in the river. They all died that night. They screamed for help but by the time people came there they had drowned. All people including children, women, men, all of them died that night. From then on people would saw them at night. If anyone went near them than those ghosts will kill him as well. From then on villagers rarely used that path. People would go there on daytime only. Because all the people who went there at night all ended up dead."
Sumit was stunned after hearing that. He could not believe that. "How can something like that happen?" asked he. All this felt so unbelievable to him. How can something like that happen in modern time.
After looking at his face, everyone understood he is having a hard time believing all these things. They understood that. But Sumit could not unsee what he has already seen. So, after a long internal struggle he finally understood that just because he can't see something does not mean they don't exist. After this shocking experience his world view changed.
After a few days his cousins wedding day came. Sumit enjoyed the wedding to the fullest. After that he was back to the city. Many years passed after that incident. Still, he sometimes dreams about the incident. After waking up he feels that it's not over. He was not there but he felt could not move on from the incident at all. He never went back there again; he went to his uncle's home but not near the river. He still feels his heart starts beating fast every time he goes near the river. He avoids the river not because he felt scared because he found that, human might feel powerful because of their inventions but there are more powerful beings out there, those are unseen but has the power that will make human felt true fear. And as a normal human being he does not want to face that power at all.