A Gift of Evil

  We were in Colaba, panic shopping for our friend's birthday tomorrow. Two boys searching for an appropriate item good enough to gift our beloved Akriti. 

  Our first thought was to buy her some piece of decent fallalery. Hritik asked the shopkeeper the price of a necklace that he liked, the shopkeeper said, "Two hundred and fifty rupees for that special piece." Astounded I blurted out, "Two hundred and fifty?! What is it made of? Pure silver? You must be kidding!" The shopkeeper gave me a puzzled look and my friend whispered in my ear that it was normal for jewelry to be that costly, even when it was fake. It was my first time out in search for a gift for a girl, and I had no idea what girls liked.
   Since it wasn't in our budget we moved on to the next shop in hopes of finding something else. Beside paying an extravagant amount for some silver beads on a thread felt absurd to me. There we found two pairs of earrings for fifty rupees and bought them. Then we walked over to the next block where a bunch of book sellers sat in their make-shift shops. It was  a quiet Saturday evening with very few people on the streets. Hritik was staying at his grandma's place in Fort
for some days and I spent the day with him as my family was out of town for the next three days.
   We walked till I saw a shop on the left, in a narrow lane, what caught my eye was a board which read SALE: ANY BOOK FOR Rs. 100. Upon entering, Hritik mentioned he had never seen this shop during his regular walks. The interior was quite impressive. Since most buildings were built long back, it had high ceilings and dark wood furnishing. The pillars holding the structure together had intricate designs carved into them. A number of antique jewelry pieces and vintage items were kept at the side of the entrance. The book sale was on the far left of the shop. Whereas on the right, old leather books adorned the glass cases on the walls. There weren't any other customers around and the shopkeeper came to greet us. He was old; it felt like years of staying alive had withered and stooped him. He walked us to the book sale table. The lights were dim and he switched on a bulb for us to see better. We liked three books: a modern self guide and two mystery novels. We were about to pay when the shopkeeper tried to show us many more books but we politely refused. Finally he pulled out a book with a dark cover and told us it was a very rare edition. As the author wasn't publicized to that extent in India, it was at a really cheap price. We gave in to his repeated persuasion and proceeded to pay for the 4 books. Shortly after, we left.
   Sighting a small fast food canteen across the street, we crossed the road and ordered some food as our growling stomachs commanded us to. I struck up a conversation with the kid at the shop, who I guessed to be the owner's son. Hritik had excused himself to take a phone call. The kid pointed out at the paper parcel in my hand and asked me what it was. I motioned towards the book store across the street and told him about the books we purchased. The boy looked at me and said in a quizzical tone, "But bhaiya, there is no book store where you're pointing. That place has been empty for years. Long ago it belonged to an old couple but they died." Hm that's strange. Maybe he doesn't know this area that well. As the food arrived, Hritik came back and told me he had to leave urgently to complete a project which was due tomorrow. We decided to take away our parcels and said goodbye.
   I walked to the railway station nearby and went straight home.
   It was around 9 pm when I sat at my study table to complete my notes and only after two hours I realised it was time to sleep. I had a long day of college tomorrow and we had a birthday celebration too. However I was supposed to stay awake to wish Akriti at midnight.
   Bored, I picked up the books on the table, slumped against my bed and started to flip through the pages of the novels we bought earlier today, my interest piqued when I finally took a good look at the other novel; it had a blood red and blackish cover with the title GIRL NEXT TO YOU in pretty italic vintage font. The pages had turned yellow and extremely dry. I observed that the name of the author was not revealed anywhere in the book.
   The contents section mentioned many stories of abrupt deaths. The very first chapter was about a school boy who attempted suicide due to depression but the ending was apparently not clear. Most of the other chapters almost had the same stories: some person dying -  either in a car accident or due to an animal attack and so on.
    In the middle pages, various incantations and signs were depicted. There were handwritten pages printed in the book, it seemed to be in Greek and another unrecognizable text. After a moment I realized it might have something to do with ancient magic. It felt like this book wasn't a regular novel at all. Some pages were missing; it was peculiar as I had checked all the books before paying for them, a quick glance but it did not look like any content was missing.
   The other chapters referred to paranormal incidents where people saw visions and got diagnosed with personality disorders. Some killed themselves, some made horrible mistakes and put other lives at stake.The book was getting weirder by the minute. Every single story didn't have an end. Every single person's death was abnormal. No witnesses and no signs of murder whatsoever.
   But when I turned to the last chapter, there was only one page with the story of a man who lost his life and the specific reasons were not given. He was found reading a book before he fainted, and he never woke up. I didn't understand the point of any of these stories and sat up straight on the bed. The title didn't even make any sense as there was no girl mentioned in any of these stories.
   The strange part was that I had bought four different books. Now somehow I saw three copies of GIRL NEXT TO YOU on my lap. As I turned my gaze to the table right in front of me, every other book I saw had the same title with the same cover.
   I couldn't comprehend what was happening; it felt like I was in a trance, until I glimpsed to my left and saw the girl next to me.