The Summer nights

Friday night: The air conditioner in her bedroom was set to 22° C, but the clock approaching midnight was giving Nikitha an eerie sensation. She wiped the drop of sweat off her brow and was waiting for a repeat of the last two nights.

Wednesday 11th:

Her bedroom on the first floor was in the corner of the huge house, and she was alone. Her parents slept on the ground floor. There was a big hall - a living room outside her bedroom that opened to a balcony on the rear. A huge mango tree outside covered most of the balcony. She spent most of the monsoon season under the tree with the living room door left open. Summer, however, was different. The summer holidays were scorching and the nights were no less tormenting, but the AC had its effect and she felt comfortable.
After a sumptuous dinner and chatting with her friends online for over an hour, Nikitha slipped into her bed to watch her favourite thriller series 'Sherlock' on Netflix. It was almost midnight and she felt she heard someone knocking on the rear door. She got out of bed, walked to the end of the living room and opened the back door to see the source of the knocking. She switched on the lights around the house and peeped out, there was no one.
The first floor had no way up from the ground except the internal stairs. The walls were high and it was impossible for someone to scale them and reach the rear door and knock. She went back to her bedroom and opened the front door to the small balcony facing the road and saw the gates were locked. The street was washed in lights from the pole across the house and not a soul was outside.
She looked below - her red car was gleaming in the street light, the stray dogs which usually barked at the slightest of intrusion from strangers were sleeping too.
She closed the door and went back to her laptop. The episode was thrilling and soon she forgot the knocking on the door. An hour later she shut the laptop, put her mobile phone on silent and dozed off.

Thursday 12th: 

Nikitha woke up early and opened the eastern balcony door to view the sunrise, the mango tree swaying in the breeze. She looked up at the high unreachable mangoes and noticed they were still a few weeks away from ripening. As the day progressed, she decided to stay home all day and finish a few of her college summer assignments and catch a nap in the afternoon.
As she showered late and got into comfortable cotton clothes for the day, her mother called out for lunch in the afternoon. Nikitha remembered the previous night's knock on the door but did not want to tell her mother about it. After lunch, she slept for a couple of hours and later called up her friend to meet up in the evening.
Nikitha returned home past 8 pm and decided to finish two episodes of Sherlock. After completing the first episode of season two, she took a break and had dinner with her parents. It was 10.30 pm as she returned to her bedroom. Over the next half hour, she was giggling over funny text messages with her friends on chat. And soon, The Hounds of Baskerville beckoned her, and she got involved in the thriller. Halfway through the episode, she was startled by the knock on the door. There were three continuous knocks and then it stopped. She paused the viewing and sat up straining her ears. It started again, the knocking on the door. This time it was louder, and distinctly human.
Already affected by the goings on in the web series, she felt a chill run down her spine. Nikitha garnered all her courage and walked to the end of the living room and stood near the door. There was silence as she slowly opened the latch of the door and peeped out into the dark. She switched on the balcony light and stepped out. There was no one and nothing that could have caused the knock on the door. Perplexed she stood near the door for a few minutes as the mild breeze dried the sweat on her face.
She smiled, wondering if it was the effect of the thriller she was watching that made her conjure the noises in her mind. She shut the door and walked back to her room. Just as she was about to sit on her bed, the knocking began again. And this time, they did not seem to be human. It was louder and relentless, almost like a pounding on the door. Terrified now, she closed her eyes and ears tight and prayed for it to go away. The noise subsided. She switched off her laptop and jumped into bed. It took her a few minutes to realise the knocking had stopped completely. Wearily, she slipped into a deep sleep.

Friday the 13th:

Nikitha woke up late and the first thoughts were to get to the door. The sun had risen high into the sky, and it was bright and hot outside. There was no breeze and the temperature was quite high for the morning. She looked up at the clear sky and knew that the day was surely going to be a scorcher. She had already made plans to go for a movie and lunch at the Coffee Shop with her friends.
At the breakfast table, Nikitha told her mom about the sounds of the previous night. Her mom was calm and concealing her anguish- she patted on her daughter's back and said "stop watching late night shows on the laptop and sleep early, you will be alright". She smiled, but wondered- was her mother thinking she was hallucinating? In their 4 decades at that house, her parents had never heard of any burglary or even a thief intruding, it was one of the safest localities in the city. Could there be some supernatural beings at work? Ghost?! Hmmmmm… She stopped thinking of that.
The cute animation detective movie cooled her senses, as did the company of her chirpy friends. After a lunch of pasta and mojitos, she drove back home late afternoon in her car. She headed straight to her laptop and completed the unfinished Hounds of Baskerville mystery.
It was 5 in the evening as dark clouds formed in the sky, dust storms gathered and the summer evening became unusually pleasant with a drizzle. Two hours later, it turned into a thunderstorm. The rain started pounding and the street was filled with gushing water. After dinner, as Nikitha strolled into her bedroom balcony, the lightning persisted and with a loud bang the power went off, and after was finally restored after what seemed to be the entire night but was just an hour.

The air conditioner in her bedroom was set to 22° C, but the clock approaching midnight was giving Nikitha an eerie sensation. She wiped the drop of sweat off her brow and was waiting for a repeat of the last two nights.

A loud bang on the back door startled her. She screamed and ran down the stairs to her mom, and that night she slept in her parents’ bedroom.

Saturday 14th: 

The sun was back in the sky, shining and bright and the devastation of the previous night was seen all around the house. Tens of fallen mangoes, mostly broken, were picked up in buckets.

Nikitha and her mother went to the first-floor rear balcony and opened the door. There was a huge branch felled by the stormy winds of the night sprawled on the balcony.

The branch that swayed in the winds and knocked on the door, was lying on the floor, silent!

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