My name is Aarav. We are three people in our family. My mother, my big brother and me. Our father passed away when we were kids. This story is about my brother Ritesh. Few weeks ago, my brother went to his office as usual. My mother and I decided to visit our aunt that day, who lives in the outskirts of our town. It all started from there.

Ritesh had a colleague, they were not that close to be friends but they were work partners. From some time, he was very ill. On that day, he passed away. All office colleagues went for his final rites. Ritesh also went with them. After completing the cremation of the body, everyone went to their individual homes. When Ritesh was leaving, he had the feeling that his colleague had called his name, so he turned back and looked. However, no one was there. After that, he came home, but he was very restless and he did not know the reason. After sometime, he had whatever present in the kitchen as his lunch and took a bath. He slept on bed, but the sleep was faraway. His mind was riddled with the thoughts of all the things happened today, specially the last incident at crematorium. He somehow slept with those thoughts.

We came home late at night. My brother was a very light sleeper, but today he did not woke up when we arrived. We thought he must be tired from work and is sleeping very soundly. We also got freshened up and slept.

The next morning, mother woke up early, and made heavy breakfast thinking Ritesh might not had food properly yesterday. However, my early riser brother did not woke up and it was 9:00 already. He will be late for work so my mother decided to wake him up. He woke up after 15 minutes. He got ready and told us everything that happened yesterday. Except the crematorium incident. After that, he quickly left for work.

When he arrived at his work, he was fine and greeted everyone. Once he sat at his place he did not logged in the system and was just staring at the PC. As hour passed, his colleagues became little worried and asked him "What happened? Are you alright?" To which he replied to no one and just stared straight. His boss thought Ritesh was disturbed by the death of his colleague so he asked him to take a leave today and get some rest. He after nodding just left and came home.

When he arrived early, my mother asked him what happened but he did not replied to her, went straight to the room, and slept until late evening. He did not came out of the room even to eat. This continued for few days. He did not come to eat, just sits in his room, and stares at his reflection in the mirror for the whole daylong. He also did not went to office, so we called in his office and told them he is sick and will join soon after getting fine.

To be continued?..