Date: 7th june
Time: 8 pm

It was one dark night in which a guy was standing on the terrace under the dim light beside the vivid shadows of huge monstrous  tress. The only illuminated thing around was the tip of the cigarette, he was puffing on.

He was gazing into the darkness, lost in his wide thoughts. A voice waked him from his sub conscious mind. He turned around towards it.

"Hammad." Alia called out to him.
"Yeah." he said as he carelessly turned back towards the terrace as she walked towards him.
"What are you doing here?" She asked him.
"Nothing at all." he said playfully.
"When did you started this awful habit?" She asked annoyingly.
"Few years back. I only smoke when I am stressed out." he told her plainly.
"Why are you stressed?" She asked him as she looked around the terrace and glared her giving her an annoyed look.
"You know why? Ahmer didn't came." he replied taking another deep puff.
"You know him. He is always like this." she told him.
"We had planned so much for him." he said.
"Yeah. But we can do it when we get back." she told him with a smile to which he kind of smiled back.

"Now put this thing off. Time for dinner." she ordered him.
"Yes. I am coming." he nodded.

As she walked away he took another puff of the cigarette and then extinguished it. And followed Alia in to house.

***
The guest house was located in a posh area of Lahore. It was house with three bedrooms on the first floor and two bedrooms on ground floor along with that a lush green lawn with airy living room and spacious terrace.

Time: 10 pm

After they had their dinner, they all settled down in the living room on first floor right in front of the terrace which made it quite cool despite the fact that it was hot summers in Lahore.

After a lot of arguments finally all of them agreed on playing a game. As Hammad grabbed an empty bottle so it was decided to play truth and dare.

So everyone gathered around that bottle and sat down on the carpeted floor in a circle around the bottle. For the first time the bottle was spin and it landed with head on Hammad and tail on Ahmad.

"Okay, my turn. Truth or dare." Ahmed asked him mischievously.
"Dare." he proudly announced and Everyone clapped.
"Hmm. I have just the right dare for you," Ahmad said in a low voice so that only he could hear it.

"So I dare you to eat two spoonfuls of hot sauce without water for one minute." he announced it and Hammad's face hilariously went pale.
"Ok fine." he answered showing off his courage.

In the meanwhile Saira went down to the kitchen and picked up the bottle of hot sauce, with a jug of water and a glass. She handed Hammad the bottle of hot sauce and as Ahmad started the timer he gulped two spoons of hot sauce one at a time. After that he remain there for a next one min but as the timer ticked zero he snatched the jug from Saira and gulped all of it in one go while everyone laughed at it.

Then the bottle was spinned for the second time followed by everyone's gaze on it out of curiosity. It stopped with head on Farah and tail on Alia.

"MY TURN," she shouted in excitement.
"So I dare you to talk for exactly ten minutes with the seventh number on your call log." Alia told her while taking her phone in her hand.

She unlocked it and swiped through her call log and by herself dialled the seventh number on her call log. It was Omer's number.

Farah pov
So Alia dialed the number and put the phone on the floor on speaker surrounded by all of us while Ahmad started the timer.

I did prayed about him not picking up the call but he picked it.
"Hello." Omer said as he received my call.
"Hello." I replied.
"How are you?" he asked me.
"I am good. Actually I wanted some help for the next assignment." I said to him.
"Sure. What is it?" He asked him.
"Can you relate some type of examples for it......?" I asked him while my eyes on the timer which showed just five minutes to go.
As I was struggling badly to continue the conversation, I hardly knew him. He was just a class fellow of mine, whom I had called last night to inform about the upcoming project. We barely talked for thirty seconds that day. Awkard!

Finally I somehow managed to talk to him for a whole ten minutes. As the timer stopped, I ended the conversation and hanged up the call immediately . And when I looked at every one I found out that they were all laughing at me.

***
So then the bottle was spinned for the third time. It landed with head on Alia and tail on Hammad which left them all excited.

"Dare." Alia said.
"Hmm." Hammad said and turn to everyone for advice.
Just then Saira popped up with a suggestion and whispered it in Hammad's ear making his lips go curve into a naughty smile.
"I dare you to wipe of all your make up here in front of every one." Hammad announced.
"NO." she protested but no one listened to her.
She eventually she had no choice and started wiping her makeup off with wet wipes Saira gave her. She first wiped her eye shade then eye liner, then her blush and lastly her lipstick and everyone clapped. And Hammad mysteriously took a photograph of her without her make up.

"Hammad." Alia shouted as she saw him running around the room after taking her photograph.
"This has to be viral." he purposely said it to irritate her while running from Alia who was trying to catch him.

Just then Ahmad's phone rang. He stood up and told everyone that the travel agent just called, now they are supposed to go there as there is some problem in their tickets.

So Ahmad and Hammad decided to go out. While Farah, Saira and Alia choose to stay back as they were very tired.

***
Time: 11: 30 am

Farah pov
I was busy unpacking my suitcase, putting my clothes in the cupboard and arranging my shoes in the right order. Saira and Alia went downstairs to prepare some tea, I was wondering what took them so long when I heard a weird noise from the terrace.

I followed the noise towards the terrace. Due to dim lighting around the terrace I was not able to clearly visualize the situation. I took a few steps forward and saw a man of morderate physique wearing a hood on his head and backpack on his back standing in the terrace.

I guess Ahmad and Hammad are back so I decided to go back to my room but wait a minute why would they be standing in the terrace wearing a backpack.

I moved towards the terrace with slow steps.
"Who is this?" I called out while walking.
"Excuse me." I called out again this time louder as I recieved no reply previously.

Now I was pretty close to that man who turned towards me putting his hood off his head.
"How did you get here?" I exclaimed.

'Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see'

Hi readers, so any guesses who it could be????
taura5