Story writing - Me...

I wrote this story for a short story writing initiative in the group blog we run. The story was so well received that I thought I must post it here too :) Here we go...

Shiva was sweating profusely, in spite of the pleasant Ooty climate. He must have had run more than 2KMs without any break, not even daring to look back and verify whether he was really being chased or not. He was beyond the state when his brain can listen to his body shouting "I can't anymore"!!!

His mind was thinking all the time. The last week had been a very bad one for him and his 6 college buddies - Anil, Raghu, Vijay, Sethu, Mano and Gokul. All 7 of them had traveled to Ooty for a fun week last Sunday, a week off from work and other pressures. Things haven't turned out to be the way they planned.

Vijay died on Sunday night!!! He fell down from the roof of the hotel they were staying. Or that's what they thought initially. The same night, their bags were found missing, they dint have money to return immediately. They rang up their homes, left messages and came back to their rooms waiting for a call back. Then they found that note in the room. It had only 4 words - YOU SIX WILL DIE.

Since then they have all been on the run. And one after one, one per day in fact, Shiva saw all his friends die. Today is Saturday, he's the last one left and he's running away from death now!!! All his friends, before their last breath, mentioned one name - Leela!!!

Shiva is afraid!!! What is happening is so obvious!!! Why this is happening, the dead 6 and Shiva know. Whatever that was, today he has to escape. "Run Shiva" - he told to himself, even though his legs were crying for a break!!!

And then he saw her!!! He felt a chill on his spine. He knew this was it. Her eyes were fixed on him. They followed him wherever he moved. And then, she blinked. The camera was fixed on Shiva's face. The light boys switched 2 heavy power light beams onto him, the rays which will be converted into something spectacular by the animation crew, and he enacted whatever the director had asked him to. Then Shiva fell onto the ground - as a dead person would do!!!

"Cut" called the director. It was a lot better than the unit had expected from Shiva and they were happy!!! There were claps all around. The 6 dead friends were clapping too. The director was the first to reach him. "Great job Shiva. This will be a big break in your career!". "Yeah Yeah Yeah!!!" nodded all the others as they surrounded him. He was still on the ground, motionless.

It was the director who saw small the pool of blood around his nose. He was dead for REAL!!! The first assistant director then touched the director's shoulder and with trembling hands, gave him his mobile. He was trembling - "It is Leela madam sir. She's saying that she'll be late for the shooting sir!!! She says she's been trying for the past one hour to all our mobiles".

That's when they observed - Leela was missing!!! There was a piece of paper in the place where she was last seen. It simply said "YOU SIX WILL DIE".