But Staci was there. It cannot happen. I saw her myself. It cannot be a dream. I have blood on my hand still. I was running away from that lady. I held that girl. All this was not a dream or was it??

Was I just imagining things, hallucinating?? Making things in my mind.

But. ... Then it all seemed soo true. How can this be possible??

"Uncle are you sure?" I asked

"Yes dear. I just checked. Your mother and your sister are safe in the car. And sir its better if we leave this place soon. " He said somewhat panicked or maybe scared.

Did he see the lady too?? I was dying to ask him that but dad beat me to it.

" Alex you heard him. Don't you dare run like that again. Alex, Staci is very young, she cannot leave the car like that. Now come on. We are getting late. " Dad said. He seemed angry with my little rendezvous. But can he blame me?? No I love my sister.

As we started walking towards the main road. I gave the forest one last look to see droplets of blood trailing towards the inner part of forest but not a single living thing sighting the place.

There was either of two things. I was dreaming and i will wake up in my bed. Or i was hallucinating.

Or something was completely and utterly wrong with this place.

I would love to go with the first two but the trail of blood forces me to consider my third option.

As we start walking towards the main road, i felt strange. Like someone was looking at me. Seeing and calculating all my moves. It felt weird and somewhat horrifying.

The creaking sound of the fallen branches were the only sound one can hear in this deep forest and as I now look around, I see how lifeless it appeared the worn out branches, the dried up leaves and trees half fallen and broken.

The eerily quiet atmosphere. I didn't notice it earlier but why I noticed it now was the main question running in my head.

Was I trying to connect the dots of what this place was? Who that lady was? Who that girl was?

Or was I just trying to find a closure something to tell me how I was wrong all along. How I was dreaming every single thing I thought I saw.

I was lost in the trail of thoughts about that vivid memories of the lady or the little girl who I met.

I wanted to stop this trail of thoughts so I tuned myself in dad and uncle's conversation.

"No sir it will take you more time now as the weather is getting very bad. "
The driver uncle said.

" But it is important for me to reach the house today. But you are right it is not wise to go all the way to the town in this weather. We should reside somewhere soon. Are there any place for lodging around some 100 km around this place?"

"Sir I believe you should not even travel another 100 km the weather has got very bad. Sir you and your son has been inside this forest and the rain doesn't reach the ground completely due to the extremely dense cover. " The driver uncle said.

" No If I cannot reach there today I will have to reach before evening tomorrow. Therefore i want to cover as much as I can. " Dad said.

" Yes sir I understand" uncle replied.

It was then I noticed that we had reached the exit of the forest and it was pouring way too much, like raining rains and dogs or maybe even more.

"Is it always raining this hard in this region?" I asked.

"No sir it happens like this on every fifty years during this month. "

" Every fifty years why? Is this any kind of climatic condition??" I asked.

" Uhh sir I am not much aware of it. But what I know from my parents and grandparents it is a curse upon this whole area, this and the area of your new house is well cursed." He said looking somewhat uncomfortable. The way he was talking it seemed as if it was a forbidden topic. A topic not to be talked about by anyone.

Then this curse must be a cruel one. And oh god was what I saw a part of this curse.

Staci, the lady the blood and now this curse. This day is turning out to be extremely interesting now isn't it??