It was a pitch-black night, and the clock struck three. Akash was standing in front of an abandoned mansion on the outskirts of Pandua. His car had suddenly broken down right there. A photographer by profession, he was returning from a shoot of some old architecture.
The surroundings were silent as a grave. There was no sound at all, except for the occasional chirping of crickets. Akash switched on his flashlight. The circle of light pierced through the massive gate of the mansion and entered the premises. The walls were covered in moss and tangled with the roots of an old banyan tree.
Suddenly, he felt as though the curtain on the broken window of the upper floor had moved. Akash stopped in his tracks. "Is anyone there?" he asked, his voice trembling. There was no answer.
But just as he turned back toward his car, he heard a strange sound in the dead of night—the sound of someone wearing heavy jewelry, walking on the floor. Jhom-jhom... Jhom-jhom...
Akash's blood ran cold. As he slowly turned his head, he saw a figure dressed in a white saree standing on the balcony of the first floor. Her face was hidden behind her hair, but as the beam of his flashlight hit her, Akash was paralyzed with shock—the figure's feet were hovering just above the floor!
Akash ran to his car and tried to open the door, but the lock was jammed. At that very moment, he felt someone breathing coldly against the back of his neck. A mechanical voice whispered in his ear, "Want to take a picture? But have you taken mine?"
Akash turned around in terror. There was no one there. But when his flashlight pointed down to the ground, he saw another long, skeletal shadow slowly dissolving into the pitch-black darkness, right next to his own.
The next morning, the villagers found Akash unconscious near the mansion's gate. His camera's memory card was still inside, but all the photos had been erased, leaving only one image behind—a picture of Akash standing alone on the balcony of that house, with a skeletal shadow standing right behind him, reaching out.