Diary

He wakes up in the middle of the night. The room is very dark. He cannot seem to remember what happened or where he is at. He gets up and lights up the candle on the table beside him. All he sees is nothing in the glimpse of the candle light. Slowly he remembers that he has come here on a trip with his wife. His wife…?

He remembers he was having a fight with his wife and she runs away. He remembers going after her but then he cannot remember anything. He realizes that he lost consciousness somehow and he is alone in the cottage now and his wife is nowhere around. The rainfall has stopped by now. He tries to go look for her to see if she has returned. He suddenly remembers there was blood in his head. He touches his head to see if he is still bleeding. He finds out that he is not bleeding at all. Surprisingly, all the blood is gone. He thinks maybe she has returned. Just when he is about to leave the room, he finds a diary. He did not see this diary last day. Where did it come from? The diary looks old and dusty. It seems like the diary has a mystery to reveal. It seems as if all the answers of the unanswered question lie in the diary. He sees Ishita's name in the diary. He cannot but be curious to know about what is written there. He turns on the lights and opens the diary.

Ishita in the diary :

"It was another lonely day. I was returning home and then he came. I never thought that that man could change my life so drastically. Ryan. The love of my life. I feel like he is someone who only understands me. I feel this strong connection with him that I never felt with anyone else before. There is not even a day that I feel lonely when I'm with him. He makes me feel very special. I always knew he loved me but he could not show it as we were cousins. But after my uncle's death, we got a new chance to love each other. We moved into this cottage and got married. No one knows us here. We can start a new life."

Neel skips some pages. Ishita continues...

"That tender touch of his love could make me forget about any bad memories. But I feel like he's changing lately. He does not treat me the same way he used to. He comes late at night and does not even pay attention to me anymore. I miss how he loved me in this cottage when we first got married. Maybe we fought but fights happen in relationships. Why did he have to change?"

She does not write for a few weeks and then she continues…

"Not even in my worst dream could I think this day would come! Ryan told me today he doesn't feel the same for me anymore. He says I'm dominating. He says I get jealous and very possessive and he is getting tired of me. I also find out he is having an affair with his co-worker. More to my surprise, he wants a divorce!"

"The thought of him with someone else makes me feel sick. I do not want a divorce but he is persistent. Nothing I do can make him change his mind.

He doesn't want me anymore. I told him that I'll change. I will do anything to make him stay with me. But he is determined. He leaves me with no option. I cannot see him coming home late every night. I cannot imagine what he is doing while he is not home. I don't want to know how he is touching that lady. After he falls asleep every night, I come close to him and kiss him when he is unconscious. Maybe the drug that I give him everyday without his knowledge is working. This is the only way I can be close to him now. This is the only way I can live knowing he is mine."

He turns over the pages…

"I'm sorry it has to come to this but I was helpless. He found out about the drugs. He was very rude to me and I found the divorce paper in his room. I knew he would have come to me with the papers and everything would come to an end. He has hurt me. I told him I agree about the divorce. Maybe this is the best for us to go our separate ways. I signed the divorce paper. And I asked him to go to the hills with me for the last time like we used to. He agreed. Standing beside him made me realize how hard it actually was to stay apart from him. This is the last night of our togetherness. He may get married to his co-worker soon. These thoughts made me feel very jealous. I could not take it. The night was growing cold and dark. I asked him for one last kiss. He leaned towards me and I pushed him in the hills. Marriage is not a game."

Neel does not know how to feel after reading this. He also finds a photo of the man in his vision and Ishita kissing in the diary. He realizes that Ishita was romantically involved with her cousin. Not only this, she also got married to him. But she started to control him, dominate him later. And just when he wanted divorce, she murdered him. He cannot believe his wife is a psychopath. He suddenly remembers about the warning "you are the next target." A sense of fear rushed through his bones. He finally figures out the significance of the warning. Ryan was trying to warn him about his wife. Ryan was probably trying to say he was the first target and Neel is the next.

He takes his phone and takes some photos of those pages as evidence. He thinks he will show these to the police once he gets away from here. He feels he is in danger. He also thinks of making a video about how he is stuck at the cottage with a psychopath and he thinks about sending it to his friends in case anything happens. But somehow his face does not appear in the video. His voice also does not come in the video. He thinks his phone is useless.

He doesn't understand what is happening. He thinks of running away from there as soon as possible. He takes his bag and just when he is about to leave, he hears a sound on the door. He hides thinking Ishita may have returned. He can see her in the pale light. She is trying to do something with someone's body. A dead body!  

The new discovery that his wife is a psychopath hurts him. A mix of fear and sorrow makes him feel overwhelmed. He cannot think right. It seems as if he lost his senses. He just cannot hide there. He walks to her and asks her, "what are you doing?" 

But she ignores his question as if he is not even there. Neel touches her to make her face him but he cannot touch her anymore. His hand is going through her. He does not understand the meaning of this. He pays attention to the dead body in the pale light and what he sees makes his eyes bloodshot. He does not believe his eyes. He sees no other man but his own body lying on the floor and she is trying to get it somewhere. Probably another attempt to get away with the second murder.

Neel stands there in silence. He wanted to solve what happened here. He wanted to find the l**k between his vision of the man and the cottage. He wanted to know how Ishita is connected with all these. He finally gets to know all the secrets that his wife hid from him. He gets to know how he was married to a psychopath and what a mistake it is that he made to come on a trip with her! To trust her! He figures it all out but now it's too late. "It is too late" he screams as he looks at his lifeless body being taken somewhere by a cold blooded murderer whom he once called his wife.

"Welcome to the cottage in the hills'', the man from Neel's vision whispers as he looks at the man from behind.