The Unforgettable Night – Short Story Suspense
Photo credit: NinoAndonis from morguefile.com
It rained profusely for 3days. I could hear the thunder and the shatters outside my house. The Lightening passed through the glass pane into my living room as I sat beside the fire place involved in a book. The sudden thunder and lightning brought shivers in me as I woke up to close the shattering window. I peeped out to see the darkness stretched for miles apart. The trees were swaying from left to right enjoying the showers of the night. Darkness had engulfed the night along with the rain giving the night an eerie feel.
I sat alone by the fireplace on my chair rocking, feeling the coldness of the night. All of a sudden the powers went off, I was also engulfed in pitch of darkness sending me shivers through my body. As I woke up to get the candle from the kitchen, my legs wouldn’t move a further it was stuck there in fear of darkness. I brought in courage and moved forward humming a tune to myself to forget the fear that had fully engulfed me by now. With a mild light of my mobile phone I started looking out for the candle. My heart was pounding, I could hear them beat heavily and strongly than before, which gave me the feel that I am still alive.
Finally I heaved a sigh of relief when I found the candle, I was about to light it when suddenly the phone rang, I gave a screech of fear throwing the candle away from hand which I had found with a lot of difficulty. I picked the call it was my mother on the other side. With a shaking voice is said “Hello”- mom asked me “ What happened” I told her that the power had gone and it had been raining here for 3 days making it difficult to move out of the house for the past 3days.
I was a business woman and had been busy all time. Since I was tired of my hectic life I thought I would take a break and spend my days in Ooty were I had hired a cottage to stay for a few days. My mom was in London right now, she had gone there as my sister in law was delivering her first baby otherwise my mom would have been with me here right now. This point of time I missed her a lot. I always had a phobia for darkness and it grew even more now.
The cottage was beautifully designed amidst of a rubber estate. We usually hired a different cottage for the holidays but this time since this plan was made suddenly I could not avail that cottage so had to take up this one. My mom’s call gave me a great sigh of relief and my fear had disappeared. I regained my strength again and searched for the candle and lit it.
I took the lighted candle in my hand and started moving to the living room. My shadow seemed larger than normal making me fear of my own self. I peeped out of the window; it was a full moon day. The scene outside looked awesome. The moon was smiling from between the trees which swayed heavily in the wind. The sound of the rain grew louder symbolising that the rain had become heavier and it showed no signs of stopping, which meant that I would have to sit in the darkness for a longer time. I went back to sit near the fire place. My own shadow was giving me fear. I just wanted to escape this fear so I decided to sleep with the hope that the rain would stop by the next day and I could go back home.
As I lay down on the coach within minutes I fell asleep. It was a loud screech which woke me up around midnight. The screeches brought in shivers to me. I opened my eyes and felt that it had stopped raining but it was still dark all over I light the candle again and peeped out of the window all I could hear were the dogs howling. I cursed them for that do they need to howl at this time only. My heart beats grew louder I could clearly hear each and every beat of it. Again a shrill sound of someone screeching loud reached my ears my blood froze was I dreaming or was it real? No it was real, someone was screaming loud somewhere faraway. I trembled with fear. The sound of the dogs howling brought me sweats even on the cold night.
I ran back to the coach pulled my bed sheet up and lay down trying to forget the fear but it was not going to leave me. The shreak grew louder and more intense. I started to tremble, I could feel huge beads of sweat running down my forehead. My heart was beating faster now. I felt that my heart would stop beating now if it ran so fast. I picked up the courage and slowly walked towards the window and moved the curtains to peep out.
My heart missed a beat and I gave a louder shreak than the one I had heard before. The powers came on at the same time maybe god had sensed it that if he left me like this anymore I would die of fear. A girl was standing just outside my window blood stained. My blood became cold I froze at this sight. No I could not move, I was so much in fear that my mind had switched off, remembered the stories my colleagues had told me before I booked the cottage.
They had told me that a young girl had been murdered brutally by her landlord and that her ghost was still there roaming awaiting his arrival to revenge on him. Many people who have stayed in this cottage have told that they have heard the screams and shouts of a girl faraway and they believe that the blood stained girl even keeps knocking at the door sometimes crying for help. And after many such incidents people stopped renting this cottage, which was why I could find this cottage at a very reasonable rate. I never believed in ghosts and all these stories just seemed funny to me, and I laughed and made fun of them. This was one of the reasons why I took up this cottage and challenged to stay alone here to show everyone that ghosts do not exist. I now thought that I was a fool and I have encountered a ghost and the ghosts do exist. How can I not believe I had really seen the girl right in front of me.
I gathered courage and moved to the coach sat there reciting some prayers. I have heard that when we recite prayers ghosts don’t attack us. I could still hear her screams and shouts. I closed my ears and sat. I was shivering literally now. No not because of the cold but because of fear. The clock struck one, I could hear the sound of the clock ticking along with the beats of my heart. Thud !Thud! Thud! No they are not my heart beats but someone banging on my door loudly. As they had told me it was the girl who was banging my door crying for help. I froze thinking that the ghost is not going to leave me. I ran and sat under the table as if the ghost was playing hide and seek with me. When one is engulfed in fear the master of our body, which makes human beings superior to animals gets switched off and does things which sound really funny when you think about it later.
I sat under the table thinking that the ghost won’t be able to find me immediately in case it enters the house through the door like they show in movies. Thoughts go weird when your scared. The most brilliant men like Einstein would also think such things when in fear. I was thinking of ways to escape from the ghost but no way was she going to leave me. The bangs grew louder indicating that she was still waiting outside. I sat under the table for almost an hour waiting for her to leave. Slowly in sometime the bangs stopped. Giving me a great sigh of relief. I gathered strength and switched on the lights of all the rooms assuming that ghosts don’t attack when in bright light. After a long and deep thinking I gathered my mental and physical strength and planned to open the door to check out if she had left.
I walked slowly to the door opened it a little bit and found that no one was there with that my fear disappeared. I opened the door wide and moved out to see if she had really left I suddenly tripped over something and fell. To my shock I found the girl lying there on the floor. I screamed with fear and went near her slowly to see if she was a ghost, no she was not, she was just a human being like me. She was badly hurt and that was why she was bleeding badly. I felt ashamed of my stupidity. I lifted her to my house and tried waking her. I splashed water to wake her up, she woke up stunned and started crying pleading me to help her or else she would be killed.
I calmed her down, gave her some water and also first aid for her wounds and then something to eat. Now I listened to her story. She said she was kidnapped by a few people and there was a gang of people for that, who kidnap children and send them for begging and earn money through them, if they do not abide by what they say they would be brutally beaten up. She was the prey to them today and was beaten up just because she refused to do what they wanted.
So this made me realize that the shreak which the people used to hear in this cottage was coming from there and not a ghost as all the people there had thought. They refused to open their doors fearing that it could be the ghost when they heard cries of help. If they would have done it then they could have saved many innocent children like her. She looked very scared and innocent. I told her not to get scared and that I would save her from their clutches and also the other children who were there.
I immediately called the police and they reached my cottage around 4 in the morning. The girl recited the entire story to them and the police nabbed the gang of 5 and also rescued the small innocent children from their clutches. The police congratulated me for my braveness and said that they would award me for my brave work from the government.
Only you and I know the story of my braveness so let’s keep it within us as a secret forever!!!!!!
__END__
