The exact date is unknown, but the location is a private hostel where rohin stays near his university. Time is past midnight.
Another unknown fact is the precise layout of this particular hostel. But it is known that during that time, the building was undergoing some sort of renovation, and that the students were pushed to one half of the hostel as the other half was kept unoccupied owing to the re-construction work.
At the particular hour when the incident had occurred, one half of the hostel was flooded with lights that always remain turned on despite the time...typical in a boy's hostel. The other half was filled with darkness. Pitch black it might not be, but it was dark enough to make it look sinister. The light from the occupied rooms never really reached this section....it seemed as if there was something holding it back...something that was very stubborn to let go of the darkness. The presence of this lightless section in their hostel is what ultimately led to the dare...which resulted in the incident that happened to rohin.
During the usual gathering of friends, the idea of a dare was brought. The voluntary victim will have to walk into the other half of the hostel and enter a particularly intriguing room at the very end of the corridor. The voluntary victim was rohin, and there was a reason to the nature of this challenge. Unknown how many years ago, a student used to stay in this very building. His name, place or any other detail is irrelevant. But the only fact that's significant is that he had committed suicide. The reason might be pressure of exams or some personal reason...we may never know. He had ended his life....and he had done it in the very room rohin had dared to enter.
Rohin left the occupied rooms behind and started venturing out into the darkness. The moment the halfway point was crossed, he felt a stir in the air...something was very different here. But no feeling of dread settled in him, and he walked on.
Eventually, he noticed that the corridor seemed to be much longer than he had ever imagined. He kept his eyes straight ahead though, never faltering, although a small urge to turn back tried to take over him. The darkness seemed to press around as the light from the other half of the building seemed evanescent. He turned back to look at the rooms he had just left. They seemed so far away that he was shocked by the distance he had walked. So friendly and inviting, it looked like a small window into heaven. He shuddered at the metaphor, and walked on till he finally reached the door. A feeling of dread tried to overwhelm him...nevertheless he turned the door knob of the unlocked door.
His eyes already adjusted to the darkness, he could make out the inside of the room, helped by some light coming through the window from outside. It couldn't look more ordinary, with the ancient looking cot and the shelf. The thick air started to suffocate him, he wanted to get out as soon as possible. Rohin half-expected a shadow to move across the empty room but having done the dare, he found no more reason to stay. He turned back, this time a feeling of triumph almost started settling in.
Just as he stepped out of the room, something tugged at his sleeve.
-Vysakh
