THE GIRL IN THE MIST

It lurks in the shadows. It lives in your worst nightmares. It feeds on your deepest fears.

When she loses her parents in an accident, Diya Mathur's world collapses around her. As far as she knows, she's alone in the world now - untill a mysterious letter arrives from India. Suddenly, Diya has a chance at being part of a family again. But moving from Boston to India also brings Diya closer to the place where the horror of the Chakwa first started. As bodies and tragedies pile up around her, Diya's belief in the legend of the Chakwa increases. Will the monster that ruined her parents' life now destroy Diya's happiness? Or will she manage to defeat it at its own game? With the help of her newly discovered friends and family, Diya must fight not just the monster from her nightmares, but also make sense of the fast-unravelling web of lies that makes up her life. Vinaya Bhagat grew up with her face partly obscured by the books she was reading. She knew more about her favourite characters than her next-door neighbours. When not reading, she was writing and immersing herself in imaginary worlds. Writing took a backseat as she pursued a career in IT, until a fateful winter day in Dallas, Texas when she met with a near-fatal car crash. During her lengthy recovery, from wounds of body and mind, she once again found solace in writing and picked up the pen with renewed focus. Her short stories have been published in anthologies and have been short-listed in national and international writing competitions. She now lives in Bengaluru, India. Find her on Twitter @VinayaBhaghat1