I never believed in Ghost or God ever since I was adolescence. Last year in winter days, I was going to my village, Tundav at night. Time was around 2:15 AM I guess. That midnight’s horrifying experience had challenged my beliefs when I encountered something paranormal.
I was going back to my village for spending time on the weekend. I traveled by train and I arrived at my village’s railways station at 1:30 AM in the midnight. My home was 5 km far from the station. I had a bag with me with lots of sweets boxes in it. I hopped out from the train along with the bag and stood at the platform. A cold wind blew on me and I shivered from head to toe! I saw few people were sleeping on benches and on the floor. They all were wrapped up into shawl and muffler. I shouted in quivering voice, “Any rickshaw driver going Tundav?”
No answer.
“I’ll pay double money…” as I said, two guys promptly woke up like a corpse from its grave.
“Ji Sahib, this is my rickshaw…” he speedily walked towards me, “…Let me take your bag.”
I smiled and handed him a bag. Next moment I was in auto on the way to home.
As I was living a little away from the station, so we had to cross a dense forested area on the stony road. This area had minimal traffic even in during the daytime. Also, there were no street lights or any shops. Only crops filled farms and huts were nearby. At night this area was seemed like pitch black darkness had shawl into its. Only the headlight of the auto and the moon was providing some illumination to drive further.
Gusty cold wind was freezing my bones. I wished under my breath to reach early at home so I can warm myself up. To my surprise, suddenly the driver stopped the auto.
I quickly grabbed my phone and turned the torch on, “Hey! Why did you stop the auto?”
“I didn’t Sahib… but I think, we did a BIG mistake by taking shortcut by this road…”
“What…? Are you drunk or what…?” My voice was irritated.
“No Sahib…”
“Then start the auto and drive. I am freezing here.” I ordered.
I noticed that he looked so frightened. He was unblinkingly staring at the banyan tree. He tried four or five times to start the auto but couldn’t start it. “It will not start Sahib. Not until she allows us…”
“What the hell are you talking about…? Do you want more money?” I angrily asked.
“No Sahib. We are trapped here in her zone! I’d thought it’s just a story to scare the people. But… Shankar wasn’t lying about this...! She appears at midnight in white saree with untidy hairs and…and… Oh God…! she…she has long slit on her neck…! Hey Ram…!”
“Hey listen up! I am giving you 500 Rs. Shut your mouth and drive me to my address Or I will walk out with my bag alone…” I gave him ultimatum.
“No…No…No Sahib, you can’t simply walk from here now. I—It isn’t a wise idea. You see… there…” He raised her brow, and I saw his frightened wide eyeball, “….that woman is not a woman… she…she is…” she opened his mouth, but didn’t say. Instead, he whispered near my ear, “She was brutally murdered by her own father two months ago.”
I grabbed him by the collar and furiously barked, “Stop your drama, greedy! I don’t see anyone there… but I do understand your tricks to get more money. If you are really scared to drive from here, then let me drive it…” As I was about to emerge out from the auto, he pleaded with both hands, “Please Sahib, I am not greedy. Believe my words…” he shifted his gaze on my bag and said, “Sahib, do you have foods in your bag?”
“What…? You want food…?” my eyes widen by his eccentric demand.
“Sahib, you won’t understand these, but if you have, then please offer me some for sacrificial.” He looked pale and sick.
My mind was in revelation hearing his peculiar demand. I opened my bag and gave him one box of sweets. He took the box and walked out from the auto.
“Hey…hey… where the hell are you going…?” I shouted loudly staying in the auto. He continued walking like a deaf.
I got scared by his strange behavior. I emerged out of the auto and flashed the light to his direction. Everything around me was pitched thick darkness. Gusty cold wind was slithering on my body. I heard a throaty voice near to my ears, “DON’T CROSS THIS AREA WHEN I AM AWAKE…!!” and then ice-cold finger slide through my throat like a knife. I instantly startled to my core and screamed on top of my lungs!! ‘AAAAAAHHHHH...!!’
Eerie cold feeling ran down to my spine and rippled through my body. I was trembling like I’d touched an electric wire!! I lost my sensed for a moment. My knees got weak as sick. My heart was pounding like a marathon runner. I tried to open up my mouth to ask, ‘Who are you…?’ but voice suffocated inside the throat.
“What happened, Sahib?? Are you okay?” He ran toward me.
“N—nothing. It was j—just an owl, I guess.” I lied and angrily barked on him, “Shall we go now if you are done!!”
“Yes, Sahib. I hope now it might start. Save us, Hanuman Ji… I am your devotee…” he prayed and chanted some mantras.
As I get in the auto, Bag was disappeared! Another shock banged on my heart. “Where is my bag now? It was in the auto!” I flashed the light in the rickshaw and around the area, but couldn’t find it. I looked at him doubtly.
“Sahib, I didn’t touch it, I swear to God. I think we must go now. You can come here in early morning to find it. This place isn’t safe to stay.” I noticed entreaty in his voice.
I thought, nothing important was in there except sweets boxes, so I said, “Okay. Let’s go.”
In just one pull the auto got started. Feared mind and body came at ease. He accelerated the auto in its full speed even on the bumpy road. As its dim light spread across the road, I saw my bag near the banyan tree. I tapped his shoulder and ordered to stop the auto. But he didn’t stop. He continuously shook his head saying, “NO…NO… NOT IN HER AREA”
Fifty feet further he stopped the auto. I hurriedly turned on the mobile torch and ran towards the tree. As I picked up the bag, I felt it very heavy. Suddenly, the cold stormy wind blew and I shivered like a cat. A throaty voice entered inside the eardrum and my body became paralyzed! “TOLD YOU NOT TO COME HERE!! LEAVE THIS BE!! IT IS MINE NOW. I LIVE HERE!!” And a white human-like shape formed next to my bag. As I saw her wicked distorted face and slitted throat with dribbling blood, my knees dropped down in shock. Her evil laugh echoed into my ears and I fall unconscious in the next moment.
*
Fortunately, I wasn’t dead. An early morning I opened my eyes. I was at my home! Mom, dad and my siblings were gathered around me. As I said, “H—how did I get here?”
Seeing me safe and sound, they took a breath of relief.
“The rickshaw driver,” Mom said, “…Such a gentleman. He brought you here when you fall unconscious on that witch’s feet! If he wouldn’t have returned to get you and your bag, then God knows what terrible would have happened to you.”
Dad furiously snapped, “Don’t you know what’d had happen in our village two month back? Mohini has become a Ghost…!!”
“W—who, who is Mohini?” I narrowed my eyebrows.
“She is the one who was murdered by his father.” He answered.
“But W—WHY…?” I asked in shock.
Nobody answered. They just looked at each other.
Dad said, “You better rest. Now you are safe.”
I lay back on the bed.
Mom ordered to my younger sister, “Lakshmi, take out all the boxes of the sweets and throw it to cows…”
My neck tightened up when I heard her. “Mom, why are you throwing it away…? It is the best in town. That chamcham is very sweet and juicy!”
Mom didn’t say anything. She went to the kitchen and brought a box of chamcham. She took the piece and brought it near my mouth. As I ate, it had no test at all! Instantly I threw it in the box’s lid.
Mom said in a firm tone, “That witch sucked out all the sweetness.”
“Then why did you let me test it?” Misery and anger mingled in my tone.
“Because you don’t believe in things until you experience, isn’t it? Now, will you tell me Ghost or evil spirits doesn’t exist, hunh??” She stared at me with mild anger.
I found myself dumbstruck to her question.
Later I knew from my siblings that, Mohini had physical relationships with her uncle. When her dad found out the reason of her blooming belly, he slit her neck with crops cutting tool and buried her body under the banyan tree. Even today I hear many travelers see her spirit roaming around the area at midnight.
***
