The Proposal…

Annie woke up early in the morning. As usual, first thing she did was checked her mobile. There was a message, “I Love You!” it read. It was from Steven. She smiled and rolled her eyes. She texted him back "I Love You too!".

On her way to the kitchen she saw a dozen red roses kept in the hall. They were beautiful. With the bouquet there was a teddy bear and a note that read "Go to the Fairy Dress Store across the street." Annie made a puzzled face and read it three times to be sure of what it said. She got ready to go to the Fairy Dress Store.

When she reached the dress store, and met the person at counter, the person smiled and said, "Oh you are here for your dress?" "I guess so!" Annie was dumbfounded.
The storekeeper returned from inside the store with a box wrapped in red. He smiled at her and handed her a note. "What's this?" Annie asked. "I'm just supposed to hand you that, girl. Have a good day" replied the storekeeper.

On her way home Annie opened the note:

Annie,

I hope you like the pretty flowers I had sent. Go home and get dressed up. The car will pick you up at 5pm.

Love Steven
P.S. I love you!

Annie was unable to speak. Happy tears rolled down her eyes. What a wonderful person she had found. When she reached home she opened the box that had the dress inside. It was beautiful yellow dress. The skirt was above the knee and tasteful. She spun around in it after trying it on several times. This was just too much.
After she was ready in the evening she went downstairs and as she walked outside, a chauffer greeted her. "Good evening Ms. Annie. He opened the door for her. She stepped into the car and to her surprise Steven was sitting inside smiling at her.
"The dress looks much more beautiful now when my sweetheart wears it." he said greeting her with a kiss.
"Love you honey" she said.

He held her in his arms. She told him about her day and how sweet he'd been. As they were approaching their location Steve handed over a small rectangular box, "Oh, this is for you."
"Steve, you've done enough already". She said.
"Well open it!" he said excitedly.
Inside the box was a beautiful diamond necklace and earrings to match. They fit perfectly. The necklace was a single diamond teardrop as well that just accented the dress. "Oh, Steve, it's beautiful. Thank you so much." She kissed him long this time.
"I'm glad you like them." he smiled to himself and kissed her again.

As she stepped outside the car, she wasn’t quite sure of where they were. A gentleman met them outside. He seemed to know Steve and asked if they were ready to go. Steve put his arm around her and they followed the man. Annie could not believe it! It was a helicopter.

"You ready to fly?" Steve asked and gave her a wink.
"Steve!" she squealed. She'd been on many planes, but never a helicopter ride.
They got inside and buckled up. As they lifted off of the ground she noticed herself becoming surprisingly nervous. He took her hand and it made her feel warm and safe. It was time for sunset, and everything seemed magical. She said "It's beautiful"
"So are you" he said. It was hard to hear over the propellers, but she could read his lips without a problem.
"I love you." She said and they kissed.
"Can you hear me loud enough Annie? Will you marry me?" He said.
"What?" she said not sure she heard him clearly. Her eyes crinkled up. He loved when she did that.
"I said. Will you marry me Annie?" He pulled out a small box. He had had it in his pocket the whole time.
"OH MY GOD!" she screamed.
"I kind of need an answer here." he said.

"Oh yes... I mean... Of course I will" she laughed and he laughed. He placed the beautiful ring on her finger. "I am so glad you said yes, having you in my life was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Steve had rented a private room in the restaurant. It was filled with beautiful red and white candles and they had soft music of piano played. She loved the way he looked in candle light. Just flawless.
"I wanted to make sure you remembered this day forever," he said.

__________________________________________________________________________

Took my breath away!

I still remember every details of that night when it all started. Steve, a friend of mine had bought a house. It was an old house and it had creaks and moans. But the price at which it was offered, was very attractive and he could not turn down.

Steve called Ron and me to his place for dinner, a day after shifting to his new house. After dinner Steve invited us for a game of billiards in the basement. We played a game or two and then Ron and me decided to leave.

A week passed by, but Steve never showed up. Whenever we called him up, he gave us some excuse and stayed back at home. Ron asked me, “Did you notice something unusual that night when Steve called us?” It wasn’t that I did not notice. That night Steve played brilliantly, every shot he took was perfect and echoes of clapping was heard after every shot he played. But I thought may be it was the sound produced by the clashing of the billiard balls. But Ron said, "Even I heard someone clapping.” The forgotten feeling of dread was suddenly back and it ran through my veins like poison turning my blood cold.

We decided to stay a night at Steve’s place and find out what exactly was going on and why a guy like him who always used to hang around with us stayed back at home nowadays. “May be he has got someone much more closer than we are to him”, said Ron. So one night Ron and me went to his place. It was clearly visible that Steve was not quite pleased by our presence. He greeted us with an uncomfortable smile. We sat for dinner. It was just three of us but we felt the presence of someone else there too. Suddenly I sensed a sweet fragrance, I asked Steve what fragrance was that, but he said, “ Fragrance? I smell nothing!” As soon as he finished saying that, a mild rush of air blew away the sweet fragrance.

After dinner we went to sleep. I could hardly sleep thinking about the fragrance. Suddenly at around midnight, Ron slipped into my room and told me Steve was not there in his room. Both of us came to the hall, we looked across the dimly lit corridor, but he wasn’t there too. Then we heard someone playing billiards in the basement. We went to see. We saw Steve playing, but surely he wasn’t alone. He was talking and smiling with someone we couldn’t see. We heard a female laughter. Steve looked happy and carefree like he was before. Suddenly Steve’s eyes feel on us. A gush of wind blew across our face and the room was quite again. Steve invited us to play with him, hesitantly!

It was nearly 2 A.M. I went back to my room. The next thing I remember was Ron calling me in the morning. While going back home we asked Steve about what was going on and that he can tell us all, but he said, “What are you guys talking about?” So we decided to leave. Just when I was about to open the front door, Ron asked me, “ Then whatever we felt and heard was just our misconception?” I answered, “Maybe.” Just at that moment, a female voice whispered into my ear “I AM HERE…….”  The feeling of fear slid down my throat like a cold steel blade taking my breath away!

This post is written for Blogeshwar and Anubhooti