The Unknown

This incident that I’m about to narrate to you here has been retold by me to almost all of my family and friends just so that I can get a sane explanation of what happened that night.

This was a decade ago when I used to work at a call center in an urban city in South India. We used to work odd shifts to rake in a few more shift allowances for the month. I was a bachelor then and had rented a small room in a boy’s hostel in the heart of the town. The place was surrounded by all kinds of commercial establishments and used to be separated by narrow lanes. All this between two main roads connecting the different parts of the city. We had cab services that picked and dropped us up at a common point for employees staying in the same vicinity.

This was just like any other day at work, We had finished up late and were dead tired as always as we work against the clock. We started back and settled into our drives trying to catch some much-needed sleep. The cab driver would already carry a route sheet and would drop the employees accordingly. I usually would be the first one to be picked up and the last to be dropped.

The driver was tapping me on my shoulder as we had arrived at my point. I woke up from my short-lived slumber, thanked him got down, waved goodbye and the vehicle sped off. I was at one of the main roads and my place was a short walk away through the narrow streets.

Everything was well-lit, except that the place was devoid of people at this ungodly hour. It was a little after 2 AM. I started walking hurriedly taking the turns through the lanes as usual. As I was rounding a corner, it started.

The air became strange and all the noises got muffled out except for the low thrumming of the sodium vapor street lamps overhead. It was as if somebody had covered my ears with their hands, and my shoulders became heavy. At the end of the street could make out some movements, on closer inspection was relieved to see that a few stray dogs were gathering themselves. I picked up speed, yearning for their company.

As I neared, I could see that all their eyes were set on me, suddenly one in the pack started howling at me, and the others joined the chorus very soon. I could count almost ten dogs there barking, howling and whining at me almost blocking my path. I was walking among them now and the whole pack started moving with me for some distance almost like escorts, all the while taking time to stop, turn, look at me and bark. After some time I got bored of this ritual and started to shoo them away.

That’s when I noticed it, as I was trying to chase them they tilted their heads ever so slightly to take a look at my face. All this time they were barking at something behind my back.