Short Story Suspense – Wilderness
Photo credit: mxruben from morguefile.com
I was within the woods , walking through it, with my eyes searching for something new. I headed forward with a little hope in my heart that I would not return disheartened that day.
I was then in the soothing place of Sevoke, searching something that would give me an idea for my school project. All these days I was looking for something that would be a little different from everyone but in vain. I still didn’t find anything and my holidays were about to get over in two days. I felt irritated.
Heading through the woods, I went deeper and deeper into it. Calm and quiet but sometimes alarming me with its strange noises, the forest seemed to laugh at me. I was tired and exhausted. To regain energy, I sat down under a tree which was the most kind one among all the trees as it was the only one which seemed to call me all the while saying ,” Come, come…. Enjoy the soothing, relaxing coolness of my shadow”.
I sat there , closing my eyes and again opening it. Taking out the bottle from my bag , I silently kept on drinking water until I saw something little far away. Till then I had had my fill and decided to move towards it. On reaching that place what I saw astonished me. I had been here several times but never seen any house here.
Yes, you people had it right. It was a house quite large with a big chimney, a broken gate, broken window panes,plaster falling off its walls. Its garden had grown wild. Seeing it made me feel that once a happy family lived here. It just looked like a house in any horror film or story. But I was so determined to collect a topic for my project that I did not care how the house looked like or what might be the consequences.
I pushed the big black gate and got in. I pushed the wooden door which made a sound like “CREEEAAK…”. What surprised me was, everything was in its place though the rooms were dirty. A broken bed covered with a filthy bed sheet , a torn sofa, a beautiful lamp which lay in pieces on the floor. Broken pieces of glasses here and there and on a closer look , I could see that the wall had something into it which looked like a bullet.
‘Something terrible might have happened here’, I said to myself.
I went through the room following everything minutely and carefully. The floor, in some places was stained with blood. As I was examining the kitchen, someone patted my shoulder. A chill ran down my spine. Gathering courage, closing my eyes, I turned back.
On opening my eyes I saw a boy, hardly one or two years younger than me . He looked at me as he was surprised I am here.
I asked,’Who are you?’
He smiled mysteriously at me and said, ‘I am Neil Bhaskar. I live nearby. I have been noticing you here for a long time. What are you here for didi?’, he asked.
‘First tell me, do you know anything about this place?’.
‘ I know everything. Come with me, I will tell you’.
I went with him and getting out of the house we sat in a bench nearby. He started narrating. ‘Here once lived a nuclear family- The mother, father a brother and sister. They were very wealthy and were known as people with large hearts because they always helped the poor and needy. Everything was going well until one day two travellers knocked their door. They asked for shelter for that night and the family happily let them live in. The people noticed that they were very rich . The travellers needed money and so they decided to do the thing that ruined the family forever’.
As he was narrating everything, I could see tears rolling down his cheeks but did not stop him. He continued.’ After a lavish meal, everyone went to sleep except the two travellers . As everyone retired for the night, they took out their guns and shot each of the family members. Taking the money and everything that was valuable, they ran off the place. The house is situated in a lonely forest , so the sound of shooting was not heard by anyone in that cold winter night.’
He stopped. ‘Its late. Your parents must be waiting for you’.
It was then that I noticed it was dusk. Getting up from the bench I said ‘ Thank You. You helped me a lot’.
He did not say a word. He gave me a diary and said that I would get to know a lot more after reading this. I kept it in my bag. I waved my hand towards him and turned to go. On walking a little further, I turned back but Neil was not there. I went back to the hotel where I had been living only to return the next morning.
That day I had my friend with me. We were in the woods and I narrated him the story. He wanted to know that who told me the story and I told him about Neil. He wanted to meet Neil. So I brought him to that place where I first met him and standing by the bench I called him by his name but in vain.
Suddenly I remembered about the diary which was still in my bag. I took it out. On opening it, my heart jumped with fear. There was a picture of a family. In that picture was the mother, father sister and brother but suprisingly the brother was Neil. Below the photo was the caption-“BHASKAR FAMILY , YEAR 1978”.
Once again a chill ran down my spine. Someone laughed at me…..
__END__
-DEBKALPA NATH
