The first thing that they did after coming home was to check on the almirah for any stains.

But contrary to Ayush's expectations there were no signs of any blood on the almirah. Prakash raised an eyebrow. "Blood? Are you sure you didn't spill something and imagined it to be blood? I don't see any blood stain here."

Ayush felt a wave of embarrassment wash over him. He didn't want to sound crazy, but he couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong. "I swear, it was there this morning. Maybe it's gone now" he said at the end trying to sound casual.

"Gone? Next thing you know, you will tell me it's gonna come again the next day." came the reply from Prakash.

"Please, believe me, I really saw that. I know I am not going crazy."

Prakash shrugged, "Alright, man. If you say so. But I think all this studying is getting to your head. If you ask me, you seriously need a break. You already have pulled two all-nighters this week. You need to take a break and relax."

Ayush nodded absently, still feeling shaken. He didn't know what was happening to him. Maybe Prakash was right. Maybe he was just overworked and needed a break.

As the night went on his uneasiness also grew but still, there was no sign of blood anywhere in the room. Ayush couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong. As he lay in his bed that night, he started hearing some strange noises but didn't dare wake up thinking of it as another delusion and after some time he finally fell asleep.

The next day Ayush woke up and the first thing he did after waking up was to promptly look closely at the almirah but there was no sign of blood there. The rest of the day went as normal for Ayush. There was no sign of anything superstitious and extraordinary happening to Ayush.

He went to the coaching center studied there and came home. All without experiencing anything that can be regarded as out of ordinary. It was as if whatever he went through yesterday was nothing more than a bad dream. Ayush was now convinced that what he saw yesterday was nothing more than the result of exhaustion.

Prakash even asked him sometimes to confirm if he is fine or not and was glad to find out that his friend did not experience anything strange today.

As the night grew near Ayush's mood just kept improving as he has not experienced anything strange today. As the night grew and the time to sleep came Ayush slept with a smile on his face as he was feeling particularly good.

However, in the middle of the night, Ayush woke up feeling a sense of discomfort, covered in sweat. Further noticing Ayush found that the discomfort was caused due to the fan being off. He remembered that he heard something about a blackout due to some kind of maintenance. Sometimes he wonders what the government is thinking, doing maintenance of electricity lines in a city that may as well be abandoned in a few weeks.

As he has already woken up and wasn't feeling particularly comfortable sleeping in such a hot environment, Ayush decided to go out to get some water to drink and wait for the lights to come on.

As he takes a sip, he notices a strange, bitter taste that he hasn't experienced before. He furrows his brow, puzzled by the unfamiliar taste, but later dismisses it as his imagination or some kind of fault in the purification of the water.

As Ayush walks back to the room and lies down on his bed, he catches a glimpse of the almirah from the corner of his eye.

To his surprise, Ayush notices a faint metallic scent in the air, becoming more prominent as he turns his head towards the almirah.

This makes him remember all the incidents from the previous day and makes him wonder if whatever he saw that day was just a hallucination played by his tired brain. Was there truly some bloodstain on the almirah? Were the things he saw that day just a hallucination? Cold sweat started to flow from his forehead as fear started to grow inside of him.

Eventually, curiosity takes over the fear, and Ayush approaches the almirah cautiously. He cautiously started to approach the almirah, as the rotten metallic smell grew stronger the more he came near the almirah.

Nausea kept increasing as he opened the almirah. As he pulled the door, the rotten smell increased even more. But to his great surprise, he did not find anything inside the almirah that could point to the reason for the smell coming from the almirah.

'Should I inform Prakash. ' such thought came inside his head but shook his head at the thought due to worry about being ridiculed.

As he was contemplating what he should do, the lights in the room lit up as the electricity blackout came to an end. Due to light being finally restored he was able to finally able to see things more clearly and he noticed the smell suddenly now seemed to have decreased. By now he was not sure what he should do and if he was even mentally fine.

With these thoughts, Ayush was unable to comprehend what was going on. He wonders what the smell coming from the almirah and what should he even do about the strange events happening to him. He looks around the room, but everything seems to be normal. He can't find any answers and decided to let it go for now.

Feeling drained, Ayush lies back on his bed and tries to go back to sleep. Despite the mysterious events, exhaustion takes over, and he eventually falls into a restless slumber.