City of Shadows

City of Shadows

Arpit was an investigative journalist who was interested in solving mysteries and unsolved cases. One day, he received a secret letter which said just this—“If you are not afraid of the truth, come to the city of shadows. You will find answers there that you never searched for.”Can such a city exist? Or has someone played a joke on me?

There was no name in that letter, no address, just a map, which was taking him to a deserted and forgotten city. Curious, Arpit wanted to go there and see. He packed his luggage and set out alone towards that city. He did not find anyone to give him any kind of information about such a city. He moved towards his destination according to the map.

When Arpit reached the city, he realized that this was not an ordinary place. Everything here was wrapped in a strange fog. The buildings had turned into ruins, there was no human being on the streets, but he felt that someone was constantly watching him. He could feel around him that some people were probably walking along, but he was unable to see them. Suddenly, he saw someone's shadow, but when he looked back, there was no one there. This continued as the night fell. He went deep inside many ruined houses and looked. There was desolation all around. Whenever he looked out of a window, he saw shadows, but no humans. Humans are not visible here, then how are their shadows being formed? Arpit's mind was getting dizzy. Is this a haunted place? Now that I have come to this place, I will leave from here only after revealing this mystery. Despite roaming in every street and locality of the city, he was unable to understand why this is so. It was useless to even think that there would be any kind of arrangement for food and drink in the desolate city. Yes, it was definitely true that there were fruit trees in some places which had fruits. Arpit was feeling hungry too but suddenly he thought that these fruits are poisonous or cursed? But now he was stuck here. He was not able to bear the hunger either. Finally he plucked the fruit from the tree and ate it. When nothing happened for a long time, he heaved a sigh of relief.

It was late in the night now, he stayed in the oldest hotel in the city. The hotel was also deserted. He had definitely got some sleeping arrangements there. He had just laid down when he heard a woman's soft voice.

"You should not have come here, Arpit. Now you will also become like us."

Arpit gathered courage and asked, "Who are you? Why is this city like this?"

A voice came, "This city belongs to those who could never free themselves from the burden of their past. We are all characters of incomplete stories, which were left behind at some point. And now, we are just shadows."

Arpit remembered that this was the same city where a terrible accident had happened years ago. The entire city was destroyed in a train accident, and perhaps these souls were trapped in the same accident.

Now the question was how Arpit was to get out of this city. Would he also remain a shadow here?

He asked the shadows, "Can you get salvation?"

A deep voice came, "Yes, if someone listens to our stories and spreads them to the world."

Arpit started writing the stories of those souls. He put their unfulfilled desires into words and published them. As people started reading his stories, the shadows of the city slowly started disappearing.

One morning, when Arpit woke up, the city was very quiet. The shadows had disappeared. And when he looked for the way out of the city, he found that it was now open.

When Arpit returned, he wondered if it was just a dream or a real mystery. But when he put his hand in his pocket, he found an old, burnt train ticket. It had the same date on it, the day of the train accident.

After some time, the stories written by Arpit became famous, but there was a strange emptiness inside him. He felt that the city of shadows was still calling him. One night, there was the same fog outside the window of his house, which he had seen in that city.

Had he really been able to free himself from the shadows? Or had he himself become a part of someone else's story?

Perhaps, some questions never get answered…