Did He Come back to complete his unfinished business? -swc

This post is in response to Supernatural Writing Contest! Hosted by @jerrybanfield

Is Death the final full Stop?

Is Death the end or is there something beyond it. Every once in a while people do report instances when someone came to life after death. Strange are the mysteries of life and death and we as humans are still a long way away from either understanding death completely or life after death and how they came back to life.
I have had a number of experiences that can be classified in the realm of ghosts to supernatural. They have affected me greatly and left an indelible mark on me.
Today I share with you a different kind of experience that my best friends brother experienced.

Many years back I was visiting my best friend. There I found his elder brother. He was unwell. He was running high fever and was experiencing bouts of delirium.
I almost jokingly asked him why are you so pale have you seen a ghost?
The moment I said these words my best friend pressed my hand and motioned me not to talk like this but his brother made eye contact with me and restlessly tried to sit in the bed.
I could see the difficulty with which he swallowed his thick saliva.
We gave him some water and he drank it in one gulp.

His eyes were motionless as he spoke. What he said went something like this.
I am narrating what he told me, the events he experienced in first person.

I was visiting my home town after a year. Everything seemed quiet about the sleepy hamlet. Nothing much had changed. At least I did not find any change except the dusty secluded road leading to our hamlet had been targeted by the highway robbers a couple of times. I was told that I needed to be cautious while taking that road but I was not carrying anything of value. So why would anyone like to rob me?

Walking along the dusty road I saw a familiar figure standing by the big old tree.
I saw him waving to me and I waved backed. He was my best friend from school. He accompanied me on my way back home. It took us little over 45 minutes but when 2 friends are together time flies and we recollected all the good times we had together and we relived all the fun we had as children.
As we reached near the hamlet just near the old water well he stopped and said he had some work there. He extended his hand to give me a old book. This was the first time I realized that he was holding something. It was a book he had borrowed from me and wanted to return it. I did not think much about it then.
I offered to wait for him but he said that as it was already evening I should reach my home before it gets dark. I said see you and extended my hand to shake his but he did not reply instead he gestured me to move on.
Without thinking much I moved towards my home.

Next day after breakfast I informed my mother that I would be going to meet my best friend the same guy I had met the previous day. Hearing this my mothers face turned sad and what she told me shocked me out of my wits.
She said that my best friend had died 3 months back. "My Best Friend is Dead?, How is that possible" as I had met him just a day before.
I was confused and did not believe what my mother was telling me.
My mother elaborated that my best friend was coming back home in the college break.
He had taken the last bus that dropped him way out side the hamlet,same place I had got off. Then as he walked towards his home he was attacked by the notorious highway robbers.
However as he did not have anything of value the robbers killed him and threw his body in the water well just outside the hamlet. That was just the place I had left him a day before.

Was it his final resting place or was he waiting for me?

I was baffled. I rushed to his home to meed his parents. Only his mother was at home she had a grim look on her face. I sat there for some time and she narrated the incidents that happened before his death and they were the same events as my mother had told me.
Still it was hard for me to relate to the reality that my friend was not longer with us.

I got up and wanted to leave. His mother stopped me and said there is something that her son wanted to give me. We went to his room and everything looked like the way it used to be. His bed was made but it seemed that someone had been sitting on the edge as the fabric had a depression.
She started going through his things but could not find what she was looking for.
I did not quite understand what she was looking for?
She turned towards me and threw her hands up in despair. It was just here the other day and now I cannot find it.
I asked her "What was she looking for?"
"A book" she replied. “A day before my son died he had said it was your book and I should return it when you came here.”
She seemed puzzled by her own statement why would he ask me to return the book to you when he could have done it himself unless he knew that he was going to ... and he voice choked on her own words.

Did my friend have a premonition about his death

She kept searching and I excused myself. I went home and brought back the book that my best friend had given to me.

I took it to his mother and asked her if that was the book?
She looked at it and instantly recognized it.“Yes that is it! But where did you find it?” She asked.
It was my time to be speechless. I did not know what to say.
I bid her goodbye and left
I had so many questions on my mind.
Who was it that I saw was it the ghost of my dead friend?
Why did he show himself to me? Was he protecting me from the merciless highway robbers as I was taking the same last bus and the same fatal route that caused his murder.
What was the purpose of his returning the book to me? Was it a way of clearing the accounts before he moved on to the next world?
Too many question that made me dizzy and the only person who could have answered them was gone.
I did not see my friend or his apparition again but the experience shook me to the extent that I developed high fever and delirium.
The doctors could not find anything wrong in my reports and everything seemed normal.
This was his experience as he recollected.

I revisited him 3 days later and found to be normal again. Without my asking him anything he filled me up on the details.
This is what he told me “Last night I saw him again. I am not sure if it was a dream or a reality. I saw him sitting by my side. He changed the cold compress on my forehead a couple of times and told me not to worry as I would soon be fine.”
I asked him if we would meet again to which he said that his work was over now and he had to go.
I did not know what that meant until I noticed a piece of news in the local newspaper that told the story of how a van carrying 4 wanted highway robbers had met with an accident near our Hamlet and resulted in the death of 4 criminals who had succumbed to their injuries.