Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction created for entertainment and reading purposes. The characters, events, places, and situations depicted are fictional unless otherwise stated, and any resemblance to actual people, living or deceased, or real events or places is purely coincidental. The story may contain fictional situations, themes, or material that may not be suitable for every reader. Some images accompanying this story may be generated using Google Gemini and may be fictional, stylized, or interpretive and may not accurately represent real people, places, objects, or events.

(10:30 It Passes is a short story about repeat dreams: an office horror story about a recurring nightmare, a truck, and a dream with a twist ending.)

A random girl was taking a left turn without honking or signaling when a big truck rammed into her motorcycle, crushing it. She fell into a drainage and lost her life while she was still wearing her helmet. The truck that rammed into her motorcycle took a left turn while moving forward and left the scene.

Scene shifts

A young man was driving his car while he was on a phone call and looking in front of him at the road at the same time. All of a sudden, he got angry at the person who was on the call. He took his eyes off the road for a while to look at his phone and yelled at the screen, “Leave early to go home.” He cut the call and kept the phone near the gearbox. He turned his attention back to the road, and all of a sudden, he rammed his car into a white figure on the road.

He saw what happened, so he stopped the car from moving any further. He slid down the window and peeked through it to look back. To his surprise, there was nothing. He kept his hands on his chest, sighing in relief. But to make sure there was nothing and that it was just an illusion, he moved his head back into the car while removing his seat belt.

When he looked ahead, he was filled with fear. There was a huge truck that had rammed into his car, crushing the bonnet. He covered his face while lifting his hands but couldn’t escape the hit.

Someone woke up from the bed with a huge scream, breathing heavily. He turned his head and looked at the clock. It was 10:30 p.m., and he sighed while looking at it.

“Tchh, it’s always 10:30 p.m. when I get this same dream. Because of this, I need to change my sleeping schedule; otherwise, it will haunt me in the middle of the night,” Rishi spoke to himself.

He got down from the bed and went to the kitchen to have some water. After having it, he came back to bed and slept.

It’s the next day, Monday.

Rishi parked his car at the office parking lot and came towards the entrance of the office. As he was about to enter the office, he saw his colleague looking at the entrance of the office. Rishi stopped for a bit and started to think.

Rimi is here, and this early too. Anyways, there are some pending works. I will give them to her.

And he laughed evilly. “Heheheee.”

He went towards his colleague and greeted her.

“Good morning, Rimi,” Rishi said to Rimi.

Rimi looked back to see who it was. Upon seeing Rishi there, she greeted him with a gentle smile. As Rishi saw her smile, he felt flattered and said, “You see, I never knew you could be this innocent as a senior.”

“Enough. Don’t flatter me, you dummy. So, are you gonna go or wanna stay here?” asked Rimi.

“Of course I am gonna go. If not, boss will again gonna rumble about, ‘Hey Rishi, you came early in the morning and still missed submitting or getting the work done on time,'” Rishi mimicked the boss.

Rimi laughed at his mimicry and asked, “Still, there is enough time. Are you ready to teach me bowling?”

Rishi looked at Rimi with a surprised face and asked, “Are you serious? You are interested in learning bowling at this time? And there is still too much work left, and you think asking me now will work? You must be kidding me.”

“Ohh, look at the junior already learned to use his tongue.”

“Well, this is the last chance I am gonna give you. After this, I will ask this: Will you reject it?” said Rimi.

“After all this time of persuading you to learn the bowling game, you choose this time. What an unrealistic situation,” he grumbled about it. “But still, since you are asking, why not? Let’s go to the office sports premise.”

With this, Rishi and Rimi turned back towards the office entrance and moved towards the sports premise.

While they were on their way, Rishi asked, “After all this time, why are you asking me this?”

“Well, to be precise, for nothing. Since I came early in the morning, I just wanted to spend my free time. So you came and became my time pass,” said Rimi.

With a frustrated face, Rishi said, “You really think of me as a time pass? What a stupendous word. I can’t believe it, and here I am still going with you.”

“Well, that’s the first recognition of you being stupid. Well done.”

Rimi laughed at Rishi.

As they got near the sports premise, they entered inside. Rimi observed Rishi while Rishi kept his bag to the side. He unbuttoned his sleeves and folded them. While looking at Rimi, he said, “The one that you are seeing in these rows is called a bowling ball.”

While picking one, he showed it to Rimi.

“As you can see, there are three dots. You need to hold the ball by inserting your fingers into them and grip it.”

Rishi turned backwards, facing the pins.

“As you can see, there are bottle-shaped things standing. Those are called pins. You have to hit them with this ball. Let me demonstrate.”

Rishi moved backwards a bit, took a few steps forward, and let the ball roll and hit the pins. As the ball hit the pins, they all fell. Rishi gave himself a cheer and looked at Rimi.

“This is how it is played. Why don’t you try?” said Rishi to Rimi.

The cleaner, who was just outside the sports premise cleaning the glass, looked at Rishi and started to wonder who he was talking to. The cleaner saw no one but Rishi. Getting scared, the cleaner did his cleaning quickly and left the premise.

“Was this game this easy? I never thought this game was this easy. As you always say how relaxing this game is, I thought you needed to put some effort into playing, but this one is dead easy,” said Rimi.

“Ohh, ma’am, who said this was difficult? I said it is a relaxing game. Why don’t you try? You will get to know,” said Rishi.

Rimi followed Rishi’s advice and did as he demonstrated, but she missed by an inch, knocking down only a few pins. Rishi cheered her.

“You can do this, ma’am.”

While grabbing another ball, Rishi cleared the pins again. Rimi followed the same, getting closer to clearing all the pins. Like this, they took their turns playing the game.

As the time neared 9 a.m., Rishi looked at the watch and said, “Ma’am, I think we should end now. It’s time for the office work.”

“Of course, of course, you should go,” said Rimi.

“What about you?” asked Rishi.

Rimi stopped her words for a while and said, “I am gonna grab a coffee and come to the office. But I really wish I had listened to you about this game earlier. I never thought this would be this relaxing,” Rimi told Rishi while breathing heavily.

“As they say, you should listen to juniors. But nothing will change until you change. But since you got to know you can play this whenever you want, now maybe you can tag along with me,” said Rishi.

“Of course, of course,” said Rimi with a sarcastic tone.

Rishi left the sports premise, leaving Rimi alone, clenching her lips and thinking to herself, Why didn’t I hear him earlier?

As Rishi entered the office premise, he was greeted by his friend Lany.

“Ohh, Rishi, looking tired. Did you run all the way from the parking lot to here? Hehehehe.”

“Hey, nothing like that. I was in the sports premise playing the ball game since I came early, and Rimi was asking for it, so I had no choice.”

Lany, with a shocked face, said, “Don’t scare me, Rishi. You seriously telling me a story now?” said Lany.

“What story? I just told what happened. Why would I make a story out of it?”

Another colleague interrupted Rishi and said, “Of course. If you tell this, everyone will think you are just scaring them, because she is no more. She has been dead since last night.”

“Dead? You must be kidding me. I just played with her in the sports premise,” said Rishi.

“Ohh, you think me and him are kidding with you? Why don’t you look at the office group? You will get to know,” said Lany.

Rishi hurriedly took his handset from his pocket and scrolled through the office group to find the RIP messages and a photo of her explaining that she was no more.

As Rishi saw those messages, his heart dropped, and he dropped his handset to the ground. Lany and his colleague helped him stabilize himself while Rishi was in shock, mumbling to himself, “Then who did I see, and who did I play with?”

As fear took over his body, Lany clapped his hands in front of Rishi’s face, making him come back to the current situation.

As he came back to the current situation, he started to explain what happened before, but Lany and his colleague didn’t believe him.

To prove it to them, he took both of them to the sports premise, believing she would be playing there. But when they entered, there was no one but silence.

Rishi remembered her saying she would go to the cafeteria, so believing she would be there, he took them there. But to his surprise, she was not there.

Rishi hurried to the counter and asked about her whereabouts, but they said she didn’t come there.

Those words made Rishi lose his belief.

Lany came forward and said, “It must be an illusion you saw. Don’t worry about that. It is definitely not a ghost. Don’t be scared.”

He and his colleague dragged Rishi to his office while he was mumbling all the way.

Soon it became afternoon while Rishi was doing his work half-baked. At the same time, he kept looking at his colleague Rimi’s desk, often thinking and hoping she would come.

His colleague Lany looked at Rishi with a sympathetic face.

The boss came out from his office and ordered everyone to leave the office premise and go to Rimi’s house because the last rites and rituals were taking place.

With the order, everyone left the office and reached Rimi’s house in their own vehicles. Among them, the boss was also there.

As they reached, they saw crowds of Rimi’s family and neighbors. Her father, mother, and sister had saddened faces. In front of the house, Rimi’s body was covered in flowers and a blanket.

Upon seeing this, Rishi was convinced that she was no more. Whatever he saw and played with in the morning must have been an illusion. He had been seeing her and nagging her every single day to play bowling with him, so he finally believed that because she was no more, his mind had created an illusion of her, and that was how he ended up playing bowling with her.

Rishi was saddened to see that his colleague was no more, but he accepted the situation.

Lany, who was just a few steps behind him, felt relieved that Rishi had become normal. But he was curious about how she got into the accident, so he went further back and asked one of her neighbors.

Previous day (Sunday), 10:22 p.m.

Rimi was in a medical store purchasing lip balm because it was the season of cold. After purchasing it, she went straight to her scooty, started it, and moved towards her house.

As she was halfway there, there was a sharp left turn. Without a horn or signal, she took the left turn. The truck that was coming on the same road had occupied most of the road and didn’t leave enough space for her scooty to pass through.

She ended up being rammed by the truck, which made her fall into the drainage system and lose her life. The watch on her hand showed the time as around 10:30 p.m.

Upon listening to this, Lany simply felt bad about what happened and asked, “What happened to the truck driver?”

“Well, he was getting away, but with the help of CCTV, the police captured the driver, and he is in jail now,” said the neighbor.

“That’s good. They arrested him,” said Lany, and left the place.

The rituals went on until evening, and they were all there until she was buried around 9:00 p.m. Everyone said their goodbye to her and left the place. Rishi also left the place with his car.

As it was already late, he took a shortcut road that was new to him. As he was driving, the dashcam clock showed 10:20 p.m., and in a few more minutes, he would be home.

He got a call from his girlfriend saying she was outside eating snacks, so she asked him to come along. But Rishi, who was already tired from the day, said he wouldn’t be able to come.

As his girlfriend insisted that he come, he got angry. While diverting his vision from the road to his mobile, he yelled at his phone, saying, “Go home early,” and cut the call.

After he moved his vision back to the road, his car got rammed by the truck that was coming opposite to him. It crushed the bonnet and glass, and Rishi too lost his life at that very moment.

On the other side, the cleaner who had been watching Rishi in the sports premise woke up after dreaming about Rishi’s death.

Soon morning came, and in the office group, everyone received the message of Rishi losing his life in an accident.

Lany was shocked upon hearing that and dropped his phone.

The End

The curse continues.