The Haunted House

Today was the last paper of my first semester exam, the very first year of engineering. It was 5 p.m. when I came out of the examination hall; the short winter day was almost over. Dana and Raju were waiting for me at the entrance, and as soon as they saw me, they waved their hands and approached me with a grin on their faces and exclaimed with joy: “bro”, the exams are over now! Today we will party hard. Suddenly, Mr. Paul thumped on my back and sarcastically said, three of you seem very exultant. Are you all going to top the exam? I grabbed him from his neck and said, no bro, we are going to pass the exam and don’t have any anticipation to top the exam. Dana takes a gibe saying that Mr. Paul is going to top the exam.

I, Dana, Raju and Mr. Paul live in the same rented house. Dana and Raju are my classmates and Mr. Paul is of another engineering stream. Mr. Paul’s original title was Pal, but his school authority made a mistake and added a U to the Pal, since then he has been called Mr. Paul. A Bengali guy with an English Man title. He is a studious guy who makes sure that his study should not get affected and knows all the tricks to distract others from studying, especially during the exams. He is ultra-calculative and keeps every penny record. He is too miserly to spend but too lavish to enjoy other people’s expenses.

Raju, unable to control his appetite, said, before going home let’s eat something, and we all agreed. But Mr. Paul had a question: who will pay for the food? Dana said with a cunning smile the topper will pay. Mr. Paul understood the insinuation and hesitatingly said he was not feeling hungry. I, well aware of his nature, offered to pay for the food. After having food, we went to the shopping mall near a mile away from the college. We spent a few hours at the mall, did the shopping and ate ice-creams.

It was 9 p.m. when we came home. We were not feeling sleepy, so we decided to watch a movie. Mr. Paul came up with an idea of watching a horror movie. Dana agreed, but Raju, being a weak heart, refused to watch. I refused too, saying that watching a horror movie in a group is like watching a comedy. But Dana stressed upon watching a horror movie. Everyone comforted themselves in my room. The laptop was switched on, the lights were put off and a Hollywood horror movie came up on the screen. Dana and Raju took chairs to sit and Paul sat on my bed beside me.

I was sleeping soundly when I was suddenly waked up by a loud scream. It was Mr. Paul shivering out of fear. Dana switched on the lights, paused the movie.

‘Mr. Paul, what happened?’ I asked, yawning.                                              

Didn’t you see that scary and creepy scene, it was so scary that made him shiver and scream out of fear, Mr. Paul replied.

‘No, man, I was fast asleep, I said.

They all got angry with me saying that I was not supposed to sleep till the movie was over. Paul insisted on rewinding that scene for me to watch and challenged me not to get frightened. Dana rewind the scene, the lights were put off, and the movie started streaming once again. That scary and creepy scene came, but this time no one got scared, no screaming, no shuddering, no fear happened. I was correct, watching a horror movie in a group is like watching comedy. A few scary scenes came and went but not creepy enough to frighten me. When the movie was over, Mr. Paul went to his room to sleep. Dana and Raju live upstairs, but Raju was too scared, and he didn’t take the courage to go to his room upstairs. Dana too didn’t dare to go upstairs all alone. They both slept in my room. We slept till early daylight.  

The day was warm, the Sun had come up today. We had our lunch.

Paul asked me, “Sachu, you don’t believe in ghosts, do you?

‘I don’t believe in ghosts or any such rubbish one bit’, I replied. ‘But I would like to know why you are asking me this question.’

Mr. Paul said he had found about a haunted house and wanted us to go on a haunted adventure.

‘Well, where is this place, and what is its name?’ I inquired with a growing interest in the subject.

“Oh, it is a century-old haunted house in Hasting Road, Mr. Paul answered. Once known for its beauty and architecture, this aristocratic building is now a ruin. It is believed that the affluent owner of this house was mesmerized by the beauty of a woman dancer, brought her here, promised her a marriage but he used her for his pleasure, molested her dignity and brutally killed her. He slit her throat, took her eyes out, cut her nose, destroyed her face to hide her identity and buried her deep inside this house to keep his crime under wraps. As a result, the place became haunted by the scorched and tormented soul of the woman who died a horrid death at the hands of her rich Babu. The most frightful and spooky screams can be heard from the house after dark, and no one dares to go upstairs after the sunset. Yet, this haunted house in the Hasting Road has tenants living in the ground floor of the house for centuries, and they have simply become unafraid of the screams and horror but they too don’t dare to climb up the stairs after the dusk had fallen.

‘When are we going for this haunted house adventure?’ Dana asked fearlessly.

As no outsiders are allowed in this haunted house after 6 p.m., but I have talked with Mr. Parth, one of the tenants living there, and he said he was ready to host us tonight, Mr. Paul answered.

We decided to leave for the haunted house adventure after having dinner, by the last metro to the Hasting Road.

Raju asked scared, ‘do every one of us need to go for this adventure?

‘No one is allowed to skip, we all will go together, Dana replied.

It was 11 p.m. when we reached the Hasting Road Metro Station. Mr. Parth was waiting for us outside the metro station. He greeted us with a smile and took us to ‘The Haunted House’. It was a ramshackle building of red bricks, not being painted for decades, trees and bushes grown over its wall.

As we entered the house, a sense of chill and a shrill of fear shook our body. A dark chill dusk had enveloped the house like a sable blanket. It was all dark upstairs except a few lamps glowing dimly on the ground floor. Mr. Parth showed us our room, it was gloomy and dimly lit, beds and blankets were arranged.

Mr. Parth said that at 3 a.m. some ghostly activities can be felt. One can hear the scary shrieks, sounds of footsteps and the sound of anklet bells. Several visitors claimed to have seen a ghostly apparition who has no face, holes in place of eyes, nose and mouth, but there is no need to be scared as she doesn’t harm anyone and no mishap has taken place till date. Before leaving, he told us that he lives in the room next to this, and if any help is needed, we can call him and warned us not to go upstairs in the night.

Everyone went to sleep.

It was 3 a.m. I woke up and tiptoed out of the room silently. The house had a large rectangular courtyard enclosed by rooms on all its sides. The staircase was in front of my room on the other side of the courtyard. I crossed the courtyard, climbed up the steps and reached the second floor.

It was all dark and scary there, and I forgot to bring the cellphone or a flashlight but going back to get the flashlight was not a good idea, and if I had used the flashlight, the tenants might have come to know that someone is upstairs.

It was very stinky there, suddenly a cold shivering wind blew, and the corridor got filled with the tempting smell of the night blooming jasmine. I kept walking in the direction of the enticing smell as if I had lost control over myself. I saw a dim yellow light. As I approached, I saw a girl and that enticing smell was coming from her hair bun jasmine. She turned, she was holding a lantern. I out of fear fell on the floor wobbling and crawled a few steps back.

I saw her face, it was spellbinding, she had sharp facial features, deep piercing eyes, straight and delicate nose, sensuous lips, round face, dimple on left cheek. She offered her hand to lift me up, for a moment my heart leaped sharply, and then I had a sudden impulse to move forward, I held her hand and she pulled me up.

Her hand was as cold as a frozen corpse which shivered my warm living flesh and blood. But I had touched her, she was real, she couldn’t be a ghost.

‘Who are you? What are you doing here?’ I asked, scared.

‘I am one of the tenants, I live here,’ she replied. ‘I come here every day in search of the ghostly apparition, but I have found none, everything is a myth.’

‘But why are you here?’ She asked.

‘I am also here in the search of the ghostly apparition, and I want to confirm it by myself if there is any and don’t want to be led away by an idle tale, I replied.

She said, then let’s find, let’s have a walkthrough of the house, and she walked. As she moved, I heard the sound of the anklet bells, she was wearing it, I saw. A strong shiver shook me from head to foot. I am not ashamed of it in the least; I was very badly frightened. She turned and asked why I was still standing and asked me to follow. Gathering courage, I asked why she was wearing those anklet bells. She laughed and said she wears anklet bells just to keep the people living downstairs in dilemma to make them feel that a ghost is walking upstairs, and she can keep her adventure a secret. As we moved, a strong wind came whistling round the old house, humming and hawing, like it contains the ghosts of all the people who once had lived and died in this house. Suddenly, a swarm of bats passed over our heads. I held her arm tightly out of fear.

‘Turning her face towards me, she asked, was I scared?

I nodded in no, saying that if I were a weak-hearted I would not have come upstairs. Since the place is new and the things are creepy, I am feeling a bit scary.

‘And it is good to be scared a bit if you are on a haunted adventure, she said laughingly.

There was an ecstasy in her laugh, but the echo of her laugh coming from the corner of the house frightened me out.

Walking together, we reached the third floor of the house. She stopped for a moment and said this is the floor where Oindrila used to live.

‘Who was Oindrila?’ I asked.

‘Oindrila, the girl whose soul is believed to haunt this house,’ she replied. Oindrila was a beautiful dancer and had a spellbinding face. Anyone could have fallen in love with her at the very first sight. Poor girl, she was betrayed by the rich Babu of this mansion, her voice became heavy and she paused.

She stopped at the door of a room and said this is Oindrila’s room. The room was locked. I was surprised at her knowledge of this place.

So, I asked, you seem to be well-aware of this house. She nodded in yes and said, I have been living here for ages.

She further said this house has 11 rooms on the ground floor surrounding a courtyard and a total of 33 rooms and 63 steps in the whole mansion. There is a king’s garden in the backyard of the house which is full of night-blooming jasmine, Oindrila’s favourite flower. On a new moon night, if you stand in the center of this mansion’s courtyard just above the ground where Oindrila was buried, you can feel the blood-thirsty sky and the stars seeking for justice.

Her tone was changing, and things were getting a little scary. I looked up to the sky. Today was the new moon night.

I asked scared, have you ever seen a ghost having no facial features, only holes in place of eyes, nose and mouth roaming in this house as the visitors claimed to have seen?

‘No face’

‘No eyes, nose, mouth-nothing’.

‘Do you mean like this?’ She asked turning towards me and raised the lantern to her own face. Her face was plane with holes in place of eyes, nose and mouth.

A sort of creeping horror began to take possession of me, which I never felt before nor wish to feel again. I felt like being suffocated and was unable to move. I tried to save myself and suddenly woke up from my sleep. I was sitting on my bed, drenched in sweat on this chilly winter night. I looked around, everyone was sleeping soundly. It was a dream too hard to forget and not yet so easy to consider it delusory too. I covered myself up as well as I could and tried to sleep, but sleep was miles away from my eyes, I was trembling in fear.

It was 6 in the morning, Mr. Parth came to take us to the upstairs. Dana, Raju, Paul; all had been awaken, we came out of the room. I stood in the center of the courtyard and counted the number of rooms, it was 11 on the ground floor, looked up to the second floor and then the third, it was of same pattern similar to the ground floor. That means a total of 33 rooms were there altogether in the house. While going upstairs, I kept counting the number of steps leading upstairs, the last step count was 63. Everything was the same as I had seen it at night. We were standing in front of the room which the girl had told me was of Oindrila.

Mr. Parth opened the door, we entered inside the room. Mr. Parth pointed towards a life-size portrait and said this is the photo of the girl whose soul is believed to haunt this house. She was the same girl whom I had seen in the night, she was Oindrila.

It was too hard to believe, but it was true. I was with a ghost last night. I was numbed with fear. Suddenly, it seemed to me as if there came a breath of cold, chill air behind me. Mr. Parth had opened the window and the tempting and mesmerizing smell of the night blooming jasmine filled the room.