Ghost in the darkness
I have always been fascinated by ghost stories and apparitions. When I was in high school, we used to live in a rented house at Thycaud, Trivandrum . Under the pretension that I was studying, I used to stay up all night. In reality there was an ulterior motive, to watch certain Malayalam channels that used to air 'late night' songs and movies after midnight. This went fine for a few days until one day after midnight, I started hearing a faint 'Chil chil' sound. If you are wondering how I heard this faint sound above the TV volume, you have to understand the fact that these late night songs have more sound effects than the ensuing video. To make a long story short, volume is actually a give away, and definitely has to be avoided.
The initial few days, I ignored the 'Chil chil' as I thought it might actually be from the TV itself. But then, it became more and more pronounced as the days progressed. Finally I did get the guts to peek out of the window. I could have sworn that I saw someone moving. Being the dauntless hero that I am, I never ventured beyond my front door since that day after midnight. I even sacrificed my 'midnight masala' reruns for this fear. Finally I mustered enough courage to confess my findings with my neighbors. The 2 chechi's mockingly dismissed my claims and thought that I was crazy. But their mother told me that, until a few years ago, there was actually a temple where this house was built. When they sold the land to my house owner, they relocated the temple to about 15 ft to the right and adjacent to the compound wall of the house. She thought that the 'Devi' was actually walking from her previous abode to her current one and the 'chil chil' sound was actually the sound of her jewelery. This drained the final courage that I had and since that day, I never ventured outside my house after 11.00 PM. I did do a good job of hiding my fear until one of my friends, Krishnakumar stayed over pretty late. His father was supposed to pick him up at 10.00 but something delayed him by almost 2 hours. So when his dad finally came, I was reluctant to follow him outside. He asked me why, and I did have to confess about my fears and explained the story. He started laughing at me and called me names which I unfortunately cannot put in black and white. He went to school the next day and made a laughing stock out of me. Terribly embarrassed, I kept a low profile for the next few days.
A few days later, I went over to his house. The moment I met his mother, she confronted me demanding to know what story I had told Krishnakumar. I told her the sequence of events ending with how I was ridiculed by him for confessing everything. His mom heard everything patiently and finally said with a smile on her face " Mone, ever since the day you told him this story, Krishnakumar has been sleeping with me and his father in our bed. He claims he is too terrified to sleep alone. Please do not tell him any more stories like this. He gets scared even by Amar chitra kadha"
Apparently they tried to kick him out of the bed as its really awkward having a 13 year old sleep in the same bed as his parents, but he pleaded,cried and cajoled his parents into agreeing and finally just jumped right in between. Rumour has it that he even wet the bed, for the initial 2-3 days.
I left the house that day more prudent and less gullible. I did not forget to tell everyone in school, the update to my 'scary' story. The decent fella he was, he did not have enough skills in propaganda. I, on the other hand, had no shame. Soon everyone knew about KK's bed wetting story, and none knew about the precedents.
The initial few days, I ignored the 'Chil chil' as I thought it might actually be from the TV itself. But then, it became more and more pronounced as the days progressed. Finally I did get the guts to peek out of the window. I could have sworn that I saw someone moving. Being the dauntless hero that I am, I never ventured beyond my front door since that day after midnight. I even sacrificed my 'midnight masala' reruns for this fear. Finally I mustered enough courage to confess my findings with my neighbors. The 2 chechi's mockingly dismissed my claims and thought that I was crazy. But their mother told me that, until a few years ago, there was actually a temple where this house was built. When they sold the land to my house owner, they relocated the temple to about 15 ft to the right and adjacent to the compound wall of the house. She thought that the 'Devi' was actually walking from her previous abode to her current one and the 'chil chil' sound was actually the sound of her jewelery. This drained the final courage that I had and since that day, I never ventured outside my house after 11.00 PM. I did do a good job of hiding my fear until one of my friends, Krishnakumar stayed over pretty late. His father was supposed to pick him up at 10.00 but something delayed him by almost 2 hours. So when his dad finally came, I was reluctant to follow him outside. He asked me why, and I did have to confess about my fears and explained the story. He started laughing at me and called me names which I unfortunately cannot put in black and white. He went to school the next day and made a laughing stock out of me. Terribly embarrassed, I kept a low profile for the next few days.
A few days later, I went over to his house. The moment I met his mother, she confronted me demanding to know what story I had told Krishnakumar. I told her the sequence of events ending with how I was ridiculed by him for confessing everything. His mom heard everything patiently and finally said with a smile on her face " Mone, ever since the day you told him this story, Krishnakumar has been sleeping with me and his father in our bed. He claims he is too terrified to sleep alone. Please do not tell him any more stories like this. He gets scared even by Amar chitra kadha"
Apparently they tried to kick him out of the bed as its really awkward having a 13 year old sleep in the same bed as his parents, but he pleaded,cried and cajoled his parents into agreeing and finally just jumped right in between. Rumour has it that he even wet the bed, for the initial 2-3 days.
I left the house that day more prudent and less gullible. I did not forget to tell everyone in school, the update to my 'scary' story. The decent fella he was, he did not have enough skills in propaganda. I, on the other hand, had no shame. Soon everyone knew about KK's bed wetting story, and none knew about the precedents.
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