A Baker's Dozen (A Halloween 'Not-so-Special')
(Beethoven's 5th Symphony is heard playing loudly.)
No, seriously. I can't believe the fact that a teenager, who has worked hard through his middle school and got excellent grades, who is a quasi-nerd, his nose gets into everything...
...is writing his 50th horror story.
(DUH DUH DUH DER-- * cough * * cough *)
That introduction was great. Right?
(Jim Carrey laugh)
* cough * *cough*
Hello there. This is Macabre. Monsieur Macabre. Yes, he is that guy...
...who says 'LOL' for every WhatsApp voice message.
...who just irritates others for no reason at all.
...was a great guy.
...helps everyone (doesn't care if no one thanks him).
And yes, who writes horror stories.
Stories which have a definite pattern, goes:
1. Take one/'x' no. of characters in your story.
2. KILL 'EM ALL (BY ANY MEANS AND AT ANY COST.)
3. Decorate with blood, gore, violence, bacon-and-cheese...
Sorry (ahem) again crossed the line.
But yes, you must agree the stories are pretty...
WEIRD.
After all, you won't expect a guy waking up in his old school, a guy committing suicide and scaring his friends, a radio starting up out of nowhere, a girl who murders her father, historical events disgustedly intertwined, the mock-destruction of a universe, literally blowing up Satanism, poems....
And oh, HE WROTE EVEN THE INTRODUCTION FOR THIS...(uhhh...blog? * awkward silence *)
I mean, WHO ON EARTH DOES THAT?
(wait what there were others? Oh okay..)
Alright, scratch that: Rarely authors have done that.
Today, however, I'm not going to narrate a horror- yea sorry, a horror story, but its not a fictional one.
(Du Duh DUNNN!!)
Yes, this story will consist of 13 very short accounts of some - well,
SOME REAL GHOSTS.
(Duh Duh Duh Derrrr - yo Beethoven R.I.P. )
You heard that right. What you are about to read are thirteen true ghost stories (hence the title) which I have either experienced (don't know how many of you will believe that), or have been witnessed by my elders. Some might feel too out of place..too unbelievable to believe...but I guess that's up to you, right?
But first of all, I would like to give a big thanks to those who appreciated my writings ever since the blog started. Bigger thanks to those who have read, and the biggest thanks to...
MY BRAIN FOR HELPING ME TO THINK OUT MY PLOTS (It had a rough journey, not gonna lie.)
Last but not the least, a large thanks to Redi - the creator of this blog, who discovered the trait of writing in a 11-year old schoolboy back in his fifth standard. Thanks a lot, Redi. It really means a lot. Cheers, young man. CHEERS!
Now, let's begin...and yes, the stories are not fictitious: They are 'ষোলো আনা' (Absolutely true.)
Now let's dive into this Halloween phantasy, shall we?
***
1. Two, Red Eyes...
While most of you have spent all your life in Calcutta, for me, it wasn't the same case: Lucknow (Oudh) was my permanent residence till I was 4. When I was 7 months of age, my father was transferred from Calcutta to Lucknow. And so, one night in October (some days after my deathday - er, birthday) we set off on a train for Lucknow...so yes, the Calcutta chromosome is still not infused in me. Yah!
Life in Lucknow for me was a monotonous one - attending school in the morning, sleep in the afternoon, ride my red/blue/green tricycle in the street where we lived (lovely colour combination, eh?) in the evening, and sleep early in the night after an episode of vomitting. Life in Lucknow - well, was moderately good. I didn't have any friends over there, so yeah - took time for me to break out of my loneliness...
One evening - I think it was in November - Me and my mom were returning after riding a full circle of the street on my bicycle. We had just reached our home, when suddenly we heard a commotion coming from our neighbor's. Reaching there, we saw a man standing in the compound, whose face was nearly white. Something must have frightened him, it seemed.
'What's wrong?' My mom asked him.
'I don't know what happened.' the man replied. 'I was back there in the kitchen, cooking the dinner for the night, when suddenly I heard my dog screaming aloud. When I reached there, I saw two eyes....'
'Eyes?'
'Yes, two, red, big eyes stared at me from the darkness. It looked like they were spitting fire at me - they were so frightening! Before I could do anything, the eyes disappeared! Jesus!'
It took like ten minutes for my mom to calm him down. Then, we went over to the spot where the eyes were seen. It must have been some animal...some animal or....
That night, I got into my bed maybe one hour earlier than the schedule given. It was a warm and sultry night, so the windows were kept open. The gentle breeze and the rhythmic rotation of the fan above made a baby fall asleep within ten minutes....
I don't know for what reason I had woken up. I remember the time to 3 in the morning. My sleep was broken, but a sixth sense inside me that something was wrong...it could feel it. So, very carefully, I had opened up my eyes, and saw
A terrible thing. The Eyes!
Yes, two, fiery-red, big eyes were staring at me from the darkness! And it seemed...it seemed....
It was right in front of me, on my bed!
I couldn't hold it. I screamed aloud. At that very instant, the eyes slid open, the person or whatever it was rushed towards the window, jumped out and disappeared into the darkness...
I told my parents what had happened. Though they tried to coax me by saying that it was just a dream, the incident frightened me so badly that I did not sleep that night. Those eyes....those eyes....
Later on, I heard that not only our neighbour, and a 3-year old baby, but also many residents had actually encountered them. The 'Red-Eye' continued to occur till maybe mid-December. It disappeared without a word....
Some say that maybe it was one of those monkeys. Recently, a few monkeys had escaped the zoo. (The authorities were still finding them.) Others said that maybe it was the serial killer (reports of it came as early as September. It had killed maybe 6 so far.) A third suggested another thing: a few weeks ago a girl had committed suicide due to the fact that she couldn't get to marry her love...maybe her spirit is still here...experiencing the agony of a broken heart....who haunted the houses over the past few weeks...
So, to whom the eyes belonged: monkeys, a serial killer, or the girl?
Or, was it all just a dream?
***
2. Even After Death...
My Dadaji (Grandfather) passed away on 2010 Kalipuja - 6th November, 2010. It has now been 10 years since he left us...he left me alone...
After this, 2 years later, on 12th December, 2012, a new member of our family came: my sister. I picked up her birth, because she is the main character of this account. So, its better to start from the beginning...
Things were all working out fine. We had to stay like a year in my grandma's house. It is over here, in March 2013, that the bizarre thing started happening...
One evening, as I was strolling about in the house (I mean, what else could a third-grader do?) I suddenly heard her calling me. She was only 3 months of age at that time. She was calling out to me excitedly.
'What happened?' I asked, irritated. (Ah, come on. It happens at that age. She's getting all the love-electrons, that nucleus! Meh!)
She was trying to form words (the first word was spoken four days ago), and it took a long time for her to say:
'Da..da...j..ji. Dada....ji.'
'Dadaji?'
She nodded yes. I got a bit confused at this. How come she get to know him? He was...
Already dead 2 years ago.
And also, the area where she was sitting contained no picture of him. (I mean, even though someone told about him, she....)
'Dadaji? Where?' I asked confused.
She pointed up one finger, towards her left side. I turned around, and saw
(really?)
Darkness. Nothing else. Just darkness.
Then I turned towards her, and saw that she was smiling. Smiling at someone. Then was it..?
I turned around slowly. No one.
A wave of coldness struck me. What was happening around here? Was my sister seeing things, or did someone....
Later on, as time passed, these incidents increased little by little. I remember one night finding her laughing all aloud, and saying my grandpa's nickname. And she would always smile - at someone or something, that was not at all there....
Like the Eyes, this also had a natural death. After she turned 2, these incidents stopped. Now long gone are those days where she would smile and laugh and talk with literally nothing...
I still don't know what to say about it. I told my father about three weeks before. He laughed and said that I was hallucinating...
But, can a 9-year old hallucinate this?
No, I guess this is an answer I'll never get...
***
3. The Shadow
This happened in the same month of March, in the year 2014. This one still creeps me out. Even though many times I have tried to reason that it was just a sleepy imagination...
I can't.
It was maybe the day after Holika Dahan (or so I remembered). I had a great meal for dinner. Feeling very much drowsy, I hit the bed immediately after dinner. It must have took less than 5 minutes for me to fall asleep...
I had to wake up again in the night. It was about 2 in the morning when I woke up to go to the washroom. Yawning, I got up silently, and opened the door. I went out, and was about to turn towards right, when suddenly...
I saw it. The shadow.
Yes, I saw something tall and black disappear into the kitchen!
For a few moments, I stood there frozen. Did a thief break into our house? With increasing fear, I slowly approached towards the kitchen...
I peeped inside. The moonlight had flooded in. But there was
No one.
There was no one over there. Just the moonlight flooding in and illuminating the spot.
But the fear of 'someone is in this house' continued to grow. So, without waiting there any longer, I rushed back towards my bedroom, slid under my blanket, and then closed my eyes. If the man came here...
(The man didn't come here. Lol on my assumptions)
After this, there had been no more incidents where I saw that shadow again. In fact, this story is the insignificant of the lot. I had forgotten about it, and it was only five days ago that it came into my mind...
A shadow, then? Maybe it was because I had eaten too much...
***
4. Scent
The account which you are now going to read happened quite recently (in this story's time frame, the second) and this is one of those which still continues to like haunt me. Whenever I think that it's gone, there it came: the flowery scent in the air...
Let us start from August 2016, shall we?
I take that as a 'yes'.
(ahem)
For me, August and February are the 'war months' for me. During both of these months, I have to give those ruddy school tests! Jeez do I hate 'em!
So, it was the night before our last paper (maybe it was Geography). As I struggling to soak into my brain the climatic data of Africa, and the weird life of the Bushmen, I suddenly felt my nose picking up a pleasant smell...
It was a perfume - the scent was probably jasmine.
At first, I thought it was my momma trying out a new perfume. So, I walked out of my room (pardon me, I would get easily distracted) to see what was the perfume she was using, while being seated in the living room...everything was normal.
Except the fact that there was no one on the sofa.
I returned, a bit confused. Then where did the scent come from? It had also disappeared. So, without thinking about it, I sat down and continued to revise.
But it did not stop there. The scent would come to me very often - it was the same flowery smell, coming up to my nostrils and spreading over where I was. It got so frequent that I even figured out the time when it occurred: 11 in the morning and 6.30 in the evening.
Like the others though, the scent continued to come over the past three years. I still couldn't figure out what to do. Once, I thought that maybe the scent came from the inhabitants below. Or maybe the above floor. The woman who lived had to go out for school at 11. So, while bathing, the exotic bath salts might give out...
But I was wrong at that, for the lower floor inhabitants hardly ever used perfume! Nor did the woman had so strong a perfume!
It still occurs till date. It has now stopped for 2 months. But that doesn't make me relaxed....who knows...
It might return again...that jasmine scent...of someone who might not exist...
Who knows?
***
5. The Movers Above
Every night - from maybe 2014-17 - whenever my eyes were drifting off to sleep, they would always break open due to the loud sounds which always occurred above us. Each night, at 11.30 p.m., I would stare up at the ceiling, trying to sleep, and then it would come.
The sound of something large and rusty being moved across the floor from the above. It was not one thing, but it was a quantity, which would move across making loud sounds. I got so irritated by it, that I decided to do one thing: Wake one night and see what it was about.
It was cold that night as I silently crept up the stairs to the second floor - to the flat from where the sounds came. I just stood there close to the door (damn spy), watching through the eye-piece, and hearing for any sou-
Had it begun?
I kept my ear to the door. Yes, it had begun. I peeped through the eye hole to see it was -
Darkness. Yes, only darkness. Nothing else.
Disappointed, I went back down. As I lay down in my bed, I decided to learn more about that flat from its neighbour - she was the grandma of my friend.
The next morning, when I went to ask her, I saw that the flat in question was fully locked up. It looked as if...
As if no one had ever lived over there.
And by Jove, what I just now said was - well....
THE TRUTH.
Except that there was someone who lived there, but they had died a long time back...
In the recent past, no one was living there. So....
***
6. The Birds
No, don't worry - I'm not going to fictionalize the Alfred Hitchcock thriller hit. (That man's something else, ay?)
This account is the most recent in this story's time frame, for it occurred in the months of April-August 2020. This might not be creepy for you, but it still goosebumps me a bit.
It was a hot summer day in April when I saw the first incident of it. The scene wasn't so much dramatic: Two birds suddenly breaking into a fight on the windowpane. Meh, I sighed, as I shooed the birds away.
But then, I began to notice something strange: almost all the birds would fight with one of their kind in front of our house only - nobody seem to notice it, but I did get some wrinkles about noticing it.
After this, there were the nearly-dying birds. Birds who seemed to be literally exhausted, tired to the bone, and was about to die, they would always flutter towards our windows (I mean, this was a regular phenomenon, but it occurred very very often with us. Isn't that a bit - strange?)
It even had occurred that a live pigeon had entered into my verandah and cooing loudly! It was hurt very badly. It flew away after some time. What made the bird fly over here, I still don't understand...
I don't even still understand why the birds have themselves so attached to this house.
One theory I have is: While the construction of our new house was going on, a group of sparrows had built their nests over here...they were killed by the workers because - well, they didn't want to leave the place where they almost called 'home'.
Does that mean the phantoms of the aerials are around here still, calling out for help?
***
7. Now You See It...
And then, the man saw nothing.
(ahem)
You see there was a man who worked in the police. He one day got the news to inspect an area which was under suspicion for - some reason. So, he immediately took off for the area by bus. it was night-time when he reached there. The bus-stop was located 10 miles away from the place. There was a hotel though, just walking distance on the right side. So, after 5 minutes or so, the man reached the place. The hotel was good - its food and the people. As he lay in his bed, he gave mental praises to the place, and fell asleep.
The next morning, when he woke up, he was astonished to find himself in a black ruin of what it seemed like a room of some place. He got so dazed and shocked, that he rushed out of there, and into the main road. There, he met a villager, who seemed to be returning from filing a clay pot with water.
He asked the man what was wrong, who told him about everything what happened. The old man - at the very next instant - laughed aloud, and then praised the man...
For being a very good story-teller (they are rarely found these days.) Then, he turned and went back to his house. The man just stood there, confused.
While he went towards the area on the morning bus, upon making inquiries, he found out that there was a hotel situated on the road, which had burnt down to the ground following a cylinder explosion...
15 years ago.
The hotel now just stands in ruins...
It was though - rude of the people to tell the man (alright, his true identity is...) - my granduncle that he was a good story-teller.
***
8. The Sergeant
This also happened to my granduncle, only this time it occurred in Calcutta.
One day, for some business work, my granduncle had to go to Alipore. It was 3 o'clock in the afternoon when he set off. It was late afternoon - not many taxis or cabs were out at this time. So, it was by luck he got into a taxi - a shared one, for he found out that an Anglo-Indian man was also there. He was a former Sergeant - now retired (it had been 30 years since Independence).
Once he reached Alipore, my granduncle turned to bid farewell to the man, only to find that there was no one sitting there. The man seemed disappear without a word!
'Um, excuse me.' My granduncle asked the driver. 'But where is the man who was sitting over here?'
The driver turned towards him, and said with a laugh.
'There was no one over here, Sahib. This taxi is only one-seater. You were the only one. Okay? Good day, Sir!'
And then, the driver drove off, leaving a shocked and mouth wide open man rolling his eyes!
***
9. The Reverse-chet
This occurred with my mother (yea, the least expected person I thought for experiencing the paranormal)
The morning after she experienced it, she looked way terrified. I asked her what it was, upon which I heard the strange thing she saw yesterday midnight...
She didn't know why she had woken up all of a sudden. When she woke up, she saw herself seated in a chair. The atmosphere around her contained bluish flurries, and she nearly screamed out when she saw that a lady was sitting at the head of the table (my mom was seated on its right side.) She saw two more things: the lady just sat there, as if meditating, calling out random identification questions...and two, there were others also, who were seated on chairs, looking dazed and confused.
Suddenly, out of the blue, my mother noticed that the lady who was sitting over there...meditating...
Had been dead for 3 weeks now..!
And the others were her neighbors, all alive!
That was it, and then she fainted out....according to her, it was some sort of a 'planchet', only this time it was a dead person calling out to live persons!
After this, she never took up the subject again...
***
10. Singin' in the Rain?
To be honest, this does not fall in the category of anything 'ghostly'. We can say: 'Coincidental'
It has been 13 years since I have been learning music, and had no difficulties whatsoever. There was one song though, which would be responsible for the title given above...
'মোর ভাবনারে৷'
Kind of a cute name, eh?
Anyway, I had learnt this song back on 14th June, 2014 (my remembrain is great!). It didn't bother me till the next year, when it became one of the centerpieces of all my learned songs.
It was September. 2015. At that time, I had begun learning the synthesizer - I was growing up, bit by bit. One evening, I decided to play out the song mentioned earlier in this account. So, my voice began to sing out, with the synthesizer as the accompaniment. When I was done, I couldn't help but feeling my surroundings were a bit colder than usual. Opening my window, I saw...
...that it was raining.
Yes, it was raining!
At first, that didn't seem to raise any more doubts in me.
But when the same thing happened after 5 more synthesizer accompaniments, 4 practice classes, and 3 concerts later, it now raises doubts in me.
Coincidence?
I THINK IT IS.
***
11. The Voices
Another incident which occurred when I was in the third grade. This time too, on Holika Dahan.
Time? Same.
Time of waking up? SAME.
Incident? Different.
So anyway, once my sleep broke, I saw that it was still darkness. And in that darkness, I heard them...
The voices.
It was as if, one was moaning aloud, another one laughing about, a third muttering nonsense and calling out my name, and a fourth saying:
'We are gonna take you.'
'Who's there?' a voice called out. It was my father's voice. He immediately got out, switched on the light, and stared out, searching if anyone was hiding there...
But no, there was no one over there. Just the dim surroundings stared back at him. Muttering that it was a dream, and something something, he switched off the lights, and fell asleep.
But I still don't think it was a dream...else how can two persons have the same kind of dream?
There was also a medical condition called 'schizophrenia' - where people would hear disembodied voices...
But neither me nor my father is one. So...what was it?
***
12. The Cut-throat
This incident didn't occur with me, or with my granduncle, or with anyone of my family. This was told by my sister's friend's father, who worked at a very high post at Wipro. A 24/7 busy man, he was a 'cool dude'. We travelled to Himachal Pradesh back in September-October 2019. It was in Khajjiar, during a power cut, he narrated the experience to me...
One day, back when he was newly-married and had just started his job at Wipro, he returned very late at night - it was maybe 2.30 in the morning. He usually came back late night, but today was an exception. As he was taking out his dinner from the fridge, he saw someone which creeped him out badly.
A tall, pale, thin-eyed man was staring at him. The horrifying thing was that his throat was cut, from which blood flowed down!
Uncle somehow managed to inch away from what it seemed like a corpse, and then, rushed back to his bedroom, superbly frightened. The incident happened for three days, and his wife also encountered it! Oh, the horror!
Then, he heard from some of the locals that some years ago, a man had committed suicide due to some unknown reason - possibly, broken heart. From then on, he is reported to have been seen - if not by all, by some people at least.
Yeah, it was scary, that too with a power cut! And where he lived, was rumored to have ghosts...
Ghosts who were not at all 'happy'.
***
13. Finale: Strange Deaths
The final account was also narrated to me by the same person. Only this time, it happened to one of his colleagues - a girl - back at Wipro. It goes:
The girl was a young, attractive woman. She seemed to like unintentionally, arrest the attention of the men working there (not the attention of Uncle). It so happened that four men and that woman wentt for a holiday at Mandarmani. Many would now think that a romantic scene would occur now, but something completely different happened...
The devils ditched her, and just basically tossed her away like she was nothing.
The last day of their stay, the girl - utterly broken, depresses and fed up - committed suicide.
And just one month after that, the strange thing happened.
The locals at Mandarmani were surprised to see one, fine day, that four dead bodies - all men - had floated up ashore. There was no sign of injury on their bodies - the deaths made some news, but no one was able to identify the cause of death...
And what's even more strange, was the fact that the four men were Wipro workers, who had come earlier along with a woman, and ditched her. Even the death date of the girl...
Also matched with the strange deaths...!
So, was it the vengeful spirit of the girl who was in agony even after death? Or...
Whatever the case, my uncle had made up his mind upon one thing: Never - under any circumstance - would he ever take a vacation over there. Who knows if the same thing happens to him?
***
Well, that's it. That was the last bun in the baker's dozen.
That's all I could do for my '50' milestone. I hope you'll like the stories - ahem, incidents.
If you ever feel that these stories have been written out as a phantasy of a drugged mind, read what Coleridge had said:
'Willingly suspend your disbelief to move into other levels of thinking...'
But of course, it's up to you to decide whether these accounts are real, imaginary or of a highly hollow magnified mind...
(damn did I reverse a principle of Physics?)
Once again, a big, fat and great thanks to all my readers.
I am M.Macabre.
Monsieur Macabre.
Have a great time, live your life to the fullest, and yes,
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
(now, where are my candies?')
Good night, Everyone. GOOD NIGHT.
***
M.Macabre
31.10.2020
Dedicated to: (* takes a deep breath *)
Redi, Riemann, Mr.Nemo, R.Escreva, The Alienist, Anonymous, Anastasius, Mitodru Misra, My sister, My father, My mother, D.P.D., my granduncle, my Dadaji, the man who saw the eyes and to Sanjeet uncle, who had encountered the cut-throat guy and heard the strange incident at Mandarmani...
THANKS A LOT EVERYONE....!
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