A Haunted Wedding

A Haunted Wedding – Paranormal Short Story
Photo credit: hurley_gurlie182 from morguefile.com

It’s Shimona’s wedding. The only girl child of  her father. The place chosen by her father is an old palace situated away from the noise & pollution of city near the woods. It has been beautifully decorated with flowers & lights not only to celebrate Shimona’s wedding but also her mother’s & father’s 25th anniversary.

It is a grand function & full care has been taken to entertain guests. It’s only a few days left for her marriage & her father wants everything to be perfect. Caterers,orchestra people all have been booked who are the best in the whole town. They are ready to move to the palace to start the functions of her wedding. They reach the palace which has already been decorated & it is looking beautiful. It previously belonged to a king and was quite old but looked absolutely new as it was maintained well.

On it’s walls were still the paintings of it’s previous owners who used to live over there. Shimona sees all these things & feels that she had come over here previously but cannot remember when. However she starts to get ready for the function while her mother is busy looking after the cooking arrangements.

Shimona feels hungry & goes to the kitchen to ask something to eat. But she can see nobody over there. So she thinks of finding some food for herself. At the deserted corner of the kitchen she sees a microwave oven kept on a table & looks almost new but it doesn’t belong to her. She opens it to look what is kept inside it & she is amazed to find a cake kept in it on which it is written Happy wedding anniversary. She feels that her dad must have kept it over there for her mother so she closes it & picks an apple from the bowl kept next to it & goes back to her room.

She rests on her bed & fells asleep. In the dream she sees her wedding but with someone else. Her mother calls her as all guests have arrived by now & she wakes up hurriedly getting ready for her engagement function. As she goes downstairs, she can see snapshots of  herself marrying someone &  fire all around her. She can see herself crying for help. She cannot only see but feel it too as if all is real. She somehow manages herself in front of others & as her bridegroom goes close to her she cries suddenly. She can see that person whom she married in her dream coming close to her so she cries with fear. Her parents ask her what happened & when she looks back again she finds that it was none other than her bridegroom only she feared & so she thinks that she is unwell & is hallucinating.

After the function she asks her mother about her father’s surprise before their ceremony. But her mother cannot understand what she was talking about. But seeing her previous behavior she asks her daughter to go to sleep. In her dream she sees the same thing again but this time her dreams are more visible. She can see the place of  her marriage & it was the same palace where she is now but with different orientation. The place that is kitchen now was her wedding stage previously. She is shocked to see the same dream again & can feel that something is wrong with this place & she will find it out.

The next day she goes to ask her father about the history of this place. He only knew that it belonged to some king & nothing else. So she thinks to look in the store room to find some old items which can give her more information about the palace. The storeroom was full of dust & smelt as if not opened for years. She finds all paintings of many people but only one of it grabbed her attention. It was covered with curtain & kept at a place difficult to reach out. But somehow Shimona manages to reach for it & pulls the curtain & is dazed to see it.

It’s her own photo with that person in her dream and the date mentioned below was about 200 years old. She can now understand that it’s her past life which is haunting her. But she cannot understand what to do now.  Whether to tell her parents or not. She calls her bridegroom & tells everything to him. He believes on her & takes her for a past life regression session.

There she tells all about her previous life how she fell in love with a king named Kundan & he loved him too & was passionate  for her. They were going to get married at the same palace where she is now going to but unfortunately the place met with a fire accident & all were charred to death. Her parents were same as in her previous life.

As she was telling all this suddenly she starts murmuring ” I won’t go with you. You are dead.”. Her bridegroom Ajay wakes her up & consoles her that everything is all right. Shimona tells that Kundan’s ghost has come to take her back. As they were busy talking Shimona’s mother calls her to come back to home as it’s considered inauspicious to meet her bridegroom a day before her marriage.

Shimona goes & the wedding day comes. She has been dressed beautifully in her wedding outfit & looked a pretty bride with all jewellery & make up. Ajay is dressed up as a bridegroom & looked handsome  & has reached the doorstep of the palace with whole crowd welcoming him.

Everything is ready for the marriage ceremony & the function has started. Shimona feels thirsty but all are too busy to address her so she goes to kitchen to drink water herself. As she finds the glass, she sees the same oven but this time kept where it was previously but this time steam was coming out of  it although it wasn’t plugged in. She sees that the whole place is covered with smoke & she starts feeling suffocated & fells down on the floor unconscious.

The time comes when the bride is being called. Shimona doesn’t reply so her mother goes to her room & she cannot find her over there. She asks servants to look for her but she can be seen nowhere.

Ajay tells everything about what Shimona told him & the whole family starts searching for her everywhere. Ajay goes to the kitchen where the oven was kept. He opens it. Shimona’s picture can be seen over there but he cannot reach it. He picks the oven up & calls a person he knew was expert of paranormal studies.

He tells Ajay that Kundan doesn’t want to see Shimona to marry someone else except him. He was a true and passionate lover of her & has been waiting for her since many years after his death to take her away with him. Shimona’s previous name was Ragini. And he called her Ragini. He has trapped Shimona & is not ready to leave her till he gets a way out to take her in his own world to live with him forever. Without her will Kundan cannot do so & Shimona is not ready to go with him.

The only way out is if  Kundan somehow gets ready to go back to his own world then only Shimona can get out of the picture in the oven. He has created a false world for her. Otherwise there is no way to get back Shimona to this world. And if she remains there for long she will die soon.

Ajay asks him to call Kundan’s spirit. As soon as he comes Ajay offers his own body to him where Kundan can live  only if he promises to leave Shimona alive & free her out of  that  trap. Kundan agrees as he only wants Shimona’s company as long as he exists.

After few minutes the oven disappears in front of them but Shimona cannot be seen anywhere. She is in the kitchen lying on the same floor which she fell upon. Ajay picks her up & brings her in her room. After few minutes she wakes up & glad to see Ajay by her side. She thinks all is well now & they both carry on with their marriage but this time Ajay has changed his marriage place.

The kitchen has been decorated with flowers as she  saw in her dreams but cannot understand why Ajay has planned to change the place suddenly. Their marriage completed successfully & it’s time now for Shimona to leave her parents & go to her new home to start a new life with Ajay after becoming her wife.

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