Laughter in Darkness
A suspense, romantic and psychological thriller
By
Kotra Siva Rama Krishna
“How………..how this dressing has come on to my body again?” Looking at herself confusingly, Sunanda said.
“Dressing has not come onto your body. That never has been taken out from your body.” Vinod said. “Just like the last time, you were forced subconsciously to imagine so Sunanda.”
“Neither the last time nor this time I have not imagined it. It was real.” Holding her head in both of her hands, Sunanda said. “I could not move any of my organs. It was just like I was bound with ropes.”
“May I see? If you let me examine you, I can say for sure if there was something like that happened on you or not.” Rose said.
“It is not necessary. As it has been done by a ghost, you cannot find any signs. I am myself not finding anything odd in my body now.” Removing her head from her hands, Sunanda said.
“Forget all about that. No atrocity has happened on you. Come downstairs and be with all of us. Then never these types of things do happen on you.” Neeraja said.
“I still cannot understand why it has happened like that not only this time but in my last time visit also. It was so life like and I cannot take it as just imagination or hallucination.” Sunanda said with a worrying expression in her face.
“Sunanda, it may be a lengthy explanation to you but to make you worry-free I have to say this.” Sitting beside Sunanda on the bed, Neeraja said. “First you have this type of an experience in this house at your last time visit.”
“On this very bed, in this very room and the time also is the same.” Sunanda said. “Anand warned me that I might be subjected to such an experience again if I was all alone on the bed in this room at the time it happened last time but I did not care. I faced the consequence.”
“The state just before falling asleep is called as hypnogogic. The hallucinations we shall be subjected while we are in hypnogogic state would just appear as real. Even consciously you did not care about your last time experience in this room, your subconscious was with full of it. Once you went into that hypnogogic state, your subconscious caused that hallucination to you. As your body was also in sleep paralysis, you could not move any of your body organs then.” Neeraja said.
“My god! Paralysis! Did I become paralytic also?” with anxiousness in her face Sunanda asked her.
“I said sleep paralysis. Not just paralysis. Why you are unnecessarily exciting yourself so?” Neeraja put her hand around the shoulder of Sunanda and said. As all the others understood Neeraja was going to put herself into talking for sometime, some of them adjusted themselves on the bed and the remaining people sat in the chairs there. Rose and Vinod were looking at Neeraja with smiles as they already knew about the topic she was going to talk. Madhuri was with Rajesh and Arjun was with Tanuja observing curiously what was happening there as they could not understand it.
“What is the bloody hell of difference between sleep paralysis and the other paralysis?’ looking curiously into Neeraja’s face, Sunanda asked her.
“Before you understand the difference between these two terms, you have to understand the sleep process. When you sleep, in fact two things do go into sleep simultaneously, one is your mind and the other is your body. Only if these two sleep at once it would be a proper sleep. And when waking up also it happens in the same way. Your mind and body do wake up at the same time.
Sometimes your body goes into sleep but your mind will go into only semi-sleep. It still to some extent works. In such situation you get dreams. As your body is sleeping it does not obey the orders of the mind then. That is why you don’t run even you get a dream that you are running in the street. The most lucky part here is whether the mind is in semi-sleep or deep sleep your body does go into sleep. If it does not happen like that you start running when you get a dream that you are running.
Sometimes your body goes into sleep but not your mind. When your mind is still awaken that you can know about the surroundings, about yourself, about where you are and you desperately try to move. But as your body does not wake up it would not cooperate with you. You do have a feeling that you are tightly tied with something. You cannot even open your eyes.” Rose’s elaborate explanation came to an end. “This is called as sleep paralysis.”
“Exactly that was the situation I have faced. You just cannot imagine how much I have suffered.” Sunanda said. “While I was helpless like that, that nasty creature satisfied itself with me.” There came an angry expression in her face.
“I can imagine. No one is an exception to this sleep paralysis. At one time or other all people do suffer with this sleep paralysis. In fact it is quite useful to us.” Neeraj without bothering with what Sunanda said in the last, said.
“How this sleep paralysis is going to be useful to us?” Sunanda surprisingly asked her.
“It makes you to stick to the bed restraining from doing whatever you are doing in a dream. If there is no sleep paralysis you do everything that you do in a dream. In fact you can come to know about this sleep paralysis only when your mind becomes completely sober. If your mind is in semi-sleep that means in a dream state or in deep sleep, you cannot be known about this sleep paralysis at all.”
“Interesting explanation indeed!” Sunanda nodded his head. “I agree with your explanation for this time experience. My subconscious might be still thinking about the last time experiences and I have subjected to it. But why I have subjected to it in my last time visit to here?”
“Mind is a very complex thing. Why it imagines or subjects itself to a hallucination we cannot say. Might be you were quite obsessed with the thinking of spirits and your body was desperately with that urge last time. The combination of it subjected you to that hallucination then.” With a smile on her lips Neeraja said.
“You naughty. I beat you if you say like that.” With an angry expression in her face, Sunanda said.
“Think logically. Then you can understand. Anyhow come downstairs and stay with us. Then there would be no problem of these types of hallucinations to you.” Neeraja said still continuing her charming smile on her lips.
“That is what appearing as the best suggestion for the present.” Sunanda forced a smile onto her lips and got off from the bed. While she was crossing the doorsill of that room her eyes became wet and tears started flowing down on her cheeks.
“What happened? What made you feel worry again?” putting his right hand on her right shoulder, Viond asked her.
“I just remember how much mom felt when I have faced this experience last time. I felt so much secured and happy in her presence.” Wiping her tears with her right palm, Sunanda said.
“Everyone feels so much happy and secured in his or her mother’s presence. I know how the loss of it also.” Neeraja said.
Then first Sunanda and next all of them went from there to downstairs.
&&&
“So you three are sure that Ratnam is mad and I need not worry about with what he has said.” looking at Vinod, Rose and Neeraja who were also with him in the verandah Rajesh said.
“He is not completely mad. Most of the time it seems he remains sane. But sometimes his mind is subjecting to some severe illusions. There sure would have been some reasons also for his illusioning so.” Thinking deeply Vinod said. “Anyhow as Rose said before he has been suffering from shared psychotic disorder. First his father with grandma and became mad like that. That influenced Ratnam a lot. He started feeling subconsciously a lot about grandma, Semanthakam, Nagaraju and his father’s madness. Automatically he developed the tendency that his father developed towards grandma and the matters related with her. Gradually he became mad.”
“I am also thinking like that” Neeraja said. “His madness is shared psychotic disorder and he was surely mad while talking like that with you.”
“Can you say that he is believing that grandma was alive when we cremated her?” frowns gathered on Rajesh’s forehead.
“I am not thinking like that.” Rose said “If he thought grandma was alive at that time he would have tried his level best to stop at that time. Did he try so then?”
“No, he did not” Rajesh nodded his head in negation. “He said that he said to us not to proceed with the cremation but he did not raise that objection at any of us then. In fact he also examined grandma to see whether she was dead or not.”
“Then just because of his madness he talked like that. Most of the time mad people don’t care what they talk. So don’t worry at all thinking that there might be truth in what Ratnam said.” Rose said.
“Just like in mother’s case.” Neeraja said. “She always used to say that our house and the house opposite to us were full of spirits. Just because of her madness, she did not know what she was talking. Yes, mad people do talk without reason and logic. Don’t worry about his words.”
“Alright” Rajesh nodded his head. “First his father Ratnakar turned mad. Now his son Ratnam turned mad. Both were closely associated with grandma. I agree with your theory of shared psychotic disorder with respect to Ratnam. But what would have caused madness in his father? Was grandmother paranormal having something sinister with her? Really something odd with grandma made Ratnakar insane?” there came a questioning expression in his face.
“There sure would have been some causes for the madness of Ratnakar. But those causes need not be something paranormal. He had been associated with grandma for a long time. The peculiar way of her talking, behaving and living influenced him a lot. The rumors that the Nagaraju and Semanthakam are in this very house as spirits and their dead bodies are in the upstairs room and some more influenced him subconsciously a lot. He just could not stop thinking about them so and gradually he turned mad.”
“But Ratnam said he found his father suddenly psychologically disturbed on a day. From then he gradually became mad. Then his madness is not because of anything specific?” Tanuja asked him.
“He might have seen something suddenly which was psychologically indigestible to him and caused sudden psychological disturbance in him on that day. Or something disturbing psychologically brewing in him for a long time and suddenly exposed like that then” Moreover…”Vinod paused for a moment and said. “It need not necessarily because of grandmother or anything related with her that they would have turned mad like that. There might be other reasons also for it. We don’t know their family positions, what problems they have been facing and what the other conditions. ”
“But Vinod, both Ratnakar and Ratnam both were quite alright for a long time. How madness suddenly started in them so?” Rajesh asked him.
“Just like some diseases madness also may not be exposed in people for a long time Rajesh. You just stop thinking that Ratnakar and Ratnam have become mad only because of grandmother.” Vinod said.
(I hope that you enjoyed upto here. I shall publish the next chapter as soon as possible. Please don’t forget to rate and review.)
