Breathlessly running away with agony and terror of death on his face , his

legs bleeding with thorns embedded in his feet, deep in the dark and dense
forests, shouting his lungs out for help, he stumbles upon a rock and falls on
his face, he tries to pick himself up, to save his dear life, he drags himself
with his knees continuously rubbing against the rough ground and bleeding .
Suddenly something grabs both his feet and starts to crawl on his upper
body……… Vasu… Vasu….Vasu what’s happening? ………Vasu wake up! His
eyes opened , his whole face and his upper body was soaked with sweat
when he realized that this was all nothing but a dream. Oh great heavens!
How relaxed he was at that moment. His mother was standing beside the
bed, she was tensed and straight away asked him that if he was having a
really bad dream . Vasu nodded his head in agreement and told her that
something was chasing him as it desperately wanted to kill him. Rekha
giggled and asked him about what the ‘thing' looked like out of curiosity.
Vasu opened his mouth to answer and stopped, he realized that he had
completely forgotten about the looks of it. He knew deep in his mind that he
saw a glimpse of it but he wasn’t able to remember even a single detail
about it. Rekha told him to forget about this and come out for the breakfast.

Vasu was 20 years old. He lived with his mother Rekha who was in her late
forties and his sister Naina who was 14 . His father Dinesh was a police
inspector and had said to have died on duty in a shoot out two years ago.
The financial condition of their family was not very good . They received a bit
of financial help from the government but still it was nothing compared to
what they had lost . The money which the family had saved over the years
was rapidly being used as their was no one in the family who was earning to
cover up their expenses. Not even a single relative of theirs was willing to
support them.

After a month, Rekha started a tiffin service business and Vasu started
teaching kids of small classes as a part time job besides his college studies.
Vasu was against her mother’s decision to work as she was frail and weak,
but at the end he had to agree because of the tough conditions. Naina loved
his big brother very much. For her, Vasu was a superhero. The emotional
bond between Vasu and Naina was the strongest and the purest.

Mostly every night when Vasu went to sleep after a day of hard work , he
always used to think about how he would support his mother and sister and
set them free from the hardships they were facing. He was specially worried
about Naina, her whole career and marriage expenses became Vasu's
responsibility after Dinesh died. Naina was a brilliant girl, she excelled in the
academics and was mentally very strong. She always told Vasu about how
she would become a great lawyer and help her brother when she grows up.

Vasu frequently tried to remember about the dream but he wasn’t able to .
After sometime, he completely forgot about it. Vasu’s second semester
exams of college were over. Four of his friends Aman, Naagar, Seema and
Megha decided to go an a trip in the post exam vacations. However Vasu
refused to go with them because the idea seemed like a unnecessary waste
of money to him amidst their family’s financial crisis. When he told about the
trip to his mother Rekha, she encouraged him to go with his friends to enjoy
for some days and leave forget about all the negative things going on. Vasu
finally gave up in front of his mother’s smiling face and decided to go with
his friends.

The next day Vasu and his friends gathered in the college canteen to plan
the trip and decide the venue. Everyone seemed very excited and were
ready with their own ideas.

Vasu’s considered his friends a huge part of his life. They always helped him
in every way possible. They supported him mentally, picked him up when he
was emotionally down, lightened his mood whenever he was tensed and
frequently helped him financially as they all came from a decent financial
background. Amongst them Aman was the one closest to Vasu and they
considered themselves as brothers . Aman was a very handsome young
boy, he was pure from heart and always helped others. Vasu was the only
one who knew that Aman had a crush on Megha as he himself told this to
Vasu, but he wasn’t confident enough to confess his love to her. Megha was
decent in looks, she had a light brown fairness and big eyes. Her sense of
fashion was great. She always wore stunning ethnic dresses. Naagar was
brown skinned and had average facial looks but he was strong, muscular and
shredded. He was extremely health and fitness conscious, but he was
extremely afraid of all the dark and horror stuff. Seema was what you would
call gorgeous and beautiful, she had striking facial features, blue eyes and
had a great fashion sense, but nobody in the college had a crush on such a
beautiful girl and nobody except her few friends talked to her. The reason
was every boy who ever had a crush on her and proposed her, she rejected
him in a very harsh manner