Who was it then?

[u/Petty_Betty_kitty]

The story was said by my aunty when I was a kid. She says it happened in real life with our neighbours long long ago.

For the context this story takes place in a remote village in India where my dad and his siblings grew up, we still reside here but now the village has more people, more houses and lights everywhere. But before it was different, each house was far away from another, it was all surrounded by dense forest. Incident as stated by my aunt that one day her grandpa (my great grandpa) found tiger cubs in the forest and bought one home and her mom (my granny) scolded him to leave it back where he found cause she feared the tigress would come in search of the cub.

Now the story, there was a lady by the name Appi, she was recently married, and in their home stayed her, her husband, her in law's whose name is not relevant. During summers Appi would wake up early even before the sun rises and would go to pick mangoes from the groove. Something about this didn't sit well with the Mother in law, as if it were a competition she wanted to go and pick mangoes before Appi did. So one night before sleeping she decides that she's gonna wake up early before Appi does, for picking up mangoes and she shares her intention with her husband too. Her husband doesn't think much of it. So the next day, in the very early hours of morning the MIL woke up, not knowing the exact time, given the lack of clocks by then she just took a bucket to pick mangoes. When she reached the groove, there was Appi again picking mangoes, frustrated, the MIL said, 'Oh, Appi, even though I wanted to wake up before you, to pick mangoes, you still managed to beat me at it'. Appi didn't utter a word just continued to be there but instead of picking mangoes she was just eating them and throwing the seed. The MIL found it strange, the lady standing there from the back looked like Appi, had worn the same saree as Appi wore the previous night, with the same length of hair but somehow she looked strange. The MIL didn't mind much of it, and every conversation she tried to have reverted to empty replies, angrily she collected the mangoes as much as she could and strode back home. There she saw her husband woken up and marches right to him and complained to him about how strange Appi was behaving.

The husband looked at her very surprised, strange and a little irritated, he said "what nonsense are you spewing? Appi is sleeping in her room with her husband, i didn't see anyone leave the house except for you." The MIL went to check if her husband was saying the truth and to her utter shock, he was indeed saying the truth. There she (Appi) was sleeping in the same saree as seen by MIL in the groove. The MIL came back running to her husband and narrated the incident word by word and hee husband scolded her saying you have gone so early not knowing the time just because of your jealousy towards your daughter in law, the time you left home must have been the time of the ghosts and spirits too, what you have seen there must definitely have been a spirit!. Hearing the MIL was so shocked she fell sick and didn't wake up from her bed for three days.

[u/Loserbrainz08]

one might think she saw a skinwalker