One Night

Hundi and Riman were inseparable friends. They had bonded over common experiences, trust, and mutual silent understanding of one another. They spent most nights at one of the city's most popular bars, where they relaxed after a day's work nightly. It was not different on that evening. They sat at the corner table they always used, having a laugh and cracking jokes as the night wore on. By the time they decided to leave, it was well past midnight. The streets were eerily quiet, and the dim glow of the streetlights cast long shadows on the empty road.

They got into Hundi’s private car and began the drive back home. The road was known, yet the night itself felt unusual—thicker, as if the air was in suspended animation. As they drove on a desolate portion of road, headlights illuminated a figure standing forward on the road. She was a woman, stunningly lovely but unsettling to behold. She was wearing a flowing white dress, hair disheveled, and there was an unearthly glow emanating from her eyes. She called them to a stop with the hand extended.

Hundi and Riman exchanged uncertain looks. It was not normal to encounter anybody, much less a woman, so far along such an empty road at that late hour. But there was something about her—something arresting that made them hesitate—held them back. The woman settled into the car's back seat in silence, then sat passively, staring straight ahead of her, expression serene but distant.

The two friends stopped short but never questioned her. They continued driving, the silence in the car growing denser minute by minute. The woman was intriguing but intimidating. Hundi caught glimpses of her in the rearview mirror, noticing the way that her face seemed almost supernatural, as if she did not belong to the world.

Finally, after an interminable period, the woman uttered something. Her voice was low but there was something peculiar about it. "Pull over," she told Hundi, beckoning at a point just before them. Hundi pulled over and the woman stepped out without further remark. She disappeared into blackness, her figure becoming indistinct as she was withdrawn from sight.

Hundi and Riman stood there in stunned silence, their hearts pounding. They looked around and saw they were standing before a dilapidated, abandoned cemetery. The rusty gate creaked, and gravestones were broken and weathered. A cold shiver went down their spines when they noticed there was a nameplate on the gate. It read, "Elena, 1890–1910."

It hit them squarely. The lady they had followed—was she a ghost of Elena? Had they just encountered something which did not belong in the world of the living? They were shocked and terrified as they alighted from the car to observe. The graveyard was still, except for the gentle rustling of leaves blown about by the wind. They called out to the lady, but there was no response.

Hours passed, and Hundi and Riman did not return home. The next morning, the vehicle of their friends was found in front of the cemetery, but Riman and Hundi were nowhere to be found. The villagers talked about Elena, a woman who had died early over a hundred years ago. She had been cheated on by her lover, and her ghost had never been at peace. She allegedly roamed the highways at night and requested assistance from anyone who would listen. Those who picked her up and provided her with shelter were never heard from afterward.

Some believed that Hundi and Riman had been swept into another world, one where Elena's ghost existed. Others believed that they simply vanished, their fate forever bound with the white woman. No one ever learned what happened to them, and their disappearance became a legend.

Even now, people steer clear of that section of road at night. The graveyard is a chilling reminder of the night that Hundi and Riman encountered the enigmatic Elena. Their story goes on, a chilling reminder of the delicate balance between the land of the living and the dead. And as for Elena, her spirit is rumored to still haunt the earth, searching for the people who can help her find peace she has been denied for over a hundred years.

This is the longer version of the story that develops atmosphere, feeling, and mystery more and is more suspenseful and intriguing.