An Unsolved Tale of Kathgodam

This post is Written for the Festival of Words, organized by WriteTribe. 

Prompt Used – “You’re traveling in a rental car when you hear the thumping of a flat tire. You pull over and discover the thumping is not coming from a flat, after all, but from the trunk. What or who is making the noise?”

These incessant rains were lashing city from days now. My trip to mountains has already taken the brunt due to extra work-load at the office. How badly I crave for these solo trips in oblivion, ever since left that terrible life behind. Can’t even believe how I lived that miserable life, six years. Whole six years I lost for a lost hope. He was definitely a wrong choice and so were his folks.

Well, I must not think all this ugly stuff, especially during driving. It was getting dark, before its night I must seek some safe shelter.

She was checking for a decent hotel close to the highway, ‘it is always safe to be closer to roads‘, her dad told her once during their weekend travels. She could see shimmering lights from a nearby village but decided to go further and check for a warm and dry place.

A few miles ahead she could hear some weird sound. “Oh my God! Did the tyre just burst?” She panicked seeing dark outside and thought of checking it herself. Pulled over to check on the tires, luckily all were fine. However, the thumping grew louder. She moved towards the trunk and realized it was the trunk this terrible thumping sound coming from.

All her fears came to life when she moved closer to car’s trunk and open it with trembling hands. Hysteria almost hit her when the boot popped open and she found a ‘life-sized doll’ in it. Utterly surprised to see a smiling human-sized doll in the car’s truck sitting upright.

These rental guys, they should have checked the vehicle properly before handing it to next person, she fumed and took the doll in front with her. ‘At last, I will have a company now! So what if it’s just a dumb doll‘, she murmured.

They began the journey again, this time as two. She started yapping with the doll about not so brainy stuff and found it amusing. Just then she saw a hotel and thought of pulling over but the wheel was acting funny.

“What’s wrong with this f*&%#ng car! I will slap a legal notice to this damn agency”. She tried her best to turn the steering but failed.

‘Now, what are you smiling at huh you silly doll. You can’t even talk!’.

‘YESS S S S I C AAA NNN YOU DDDEEEAAADDDDDD MEEEEEAAATTTT’ replied the DOLL.

Two days later, local newspaper headlines mentioned about an accident –

“A lady in her early forties found dead under mysterious circumstances on National Highway 109, near Kathgodam. The body is found in mutilated condition with head turned backside and limbs broken. No witnesses to report the crime scene. Police have registered the case unnatural death. A Doll is found near the body”

Disclaimer –

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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© Dipika Singh Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Dipika Singh (Gleefulblogger) with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.