Cry of the dead: Mid night's mourning

Chapter 1: The Confrontation

Five senses which make us aware of the world, have their own anomalies. Their credibility in our life is beyond anyone can ever have, particularly the sixth sense! or intuition as we possess. When some things remain undetected by our senses we let go many incidences unnoticed. Judging by our understanding, we decide if something is in reality or just a fiction of someone’s imagination. But what about those who dwell in between these two realms? where our senses are inexplicable and our intelligence is of no use. Similar enough was my experience which changed my way of looking out through the window in silent winter nights.

It was Jan of 86,me and my friends were heading back from a dear friend Apurba’s wedding reception, he was more like family to me. It was getting late and by the time we left their place it was almost midnight. It was a stretch of about 40 miles, the brisk weather hyped as the night got deeper. It seemed like the cold breeze was going past the layers of my clothing and pinching my bones. We’d booked ourselves a taxi for the night. I was sitting next to the driver, giving him company. We drove past the village areas into an abandoned locality, it was pitch black outside, and the only visibility was from the head lights which lit the path up to a short distance. Only the sound of crickets, and the periodic howling of dogs kept us sane. The driver was not so much of a chatter, he seemed younger than us and pretty nervous, he kept to himself and answered to only what was asked. He said it was not the first time he was driving through this road, but it was the only time he was left alone; I assumed he meant as we were complete strangers. As we rode further, I lost track of time, we were driving through dense forest lands. I noticed, suddenly it was completely silent! not a single hint of life. Even though it was a tough night, for a forest such numb sensation of nothing was unexpected. It was at times like this that dark thoughts deep down ourselves find their way to surface and haunted us with the uncertainty of the situation. Such elegance was in the thrill which the night offered to her wanderers. I was unaware of the nightmare that she would leave me with! One that still haunts the bejesus out of me.

Before I move further into the story, Let me introduce myself and my mates who accompanied me in that sinister ride of ours. Bhabesh Mukherjee(Babi) and Chandan Sil(chadu) have been my friends since my P U (pre university) days, Babi had been with me since my school time! They were both students of law and I was doing my honours in history. I tutored to earn myself pocket money, both of them did invest in a local business which earned them descent money to cater to more than just needs. Babi was someone who would always get into fights because of his short temper but he was a gem of a person at heart. Chadu had a little interest in literature. He was a classy man in true sense. He often said he would try out his luck in the movies after he was done making money! I wonder how would he describe his story if only he was here to tell it.

The fog started thickening, the wipers moving up and down through the windshield made it another thing to count down the boredom. Babi asked the driver approximately how long do we have till we reach home, the driver said it wouldn’t be less than two hours as the road was not apt for speeding, Chadu too was woken up by our discussion. He asked me to change seats & take a nap, I nodded in denial. Suddenly, a thud sound & the car stopped screeching loudly! It sounded like a vast explosion in contrast to the treacherous silence of the night. As I turned towards the driver, he looked pale! I peeked in the direction he was looking and there was a cat; black in colour covered in blood. For a few seconds we all went silent, even though none of us were superstitious but it seemed very unlikely, the situation as per the circumstances. Certainly, there was something odd about this place, I could feel it. The silence that surrounded us now was different to that we’ve had earlier. It got me thinking if there is more than just mist surrounding us!

Babi asked if we had any drinking water, the driver gave his bottle and said it is all that was left. “Keep it”, said Babi “for that we might need later on”. Chadu finally broke the ice and asked, “Have there been dacoit attacks in this area? Is there any reason to be alarmed? ” . The driver’s answer was all the way more shocking than anything we have seen so far. He said, “It is not human that you must beware, she doesn’t let them wander around this part of the jungle “

Chapter 2 : The Concurrence

It’s been total silence since then, nobody knew how to react in this situation. It was killing me inside to decide between, if I should ask what was he talking about or just wait till we reached home, which seemed further away now than ever. After a brief deliberation I spoke up to him saying, “What is it about this place that you know and we don’t?”

At the very second, he shifted gear and paced through the uneven road. There was tension and as if those words of mine added fuel to the fire. With the types screeching, he took a sharp turn to the left and started panting. Now he started to sweat, in this weather it is only suggestive that he was under the effect of some kind of drugs to which he was reacting. Chandu tried to handle the situation asked him to slow down the motor and to take a break if necessary. Babi shouted, “look out!” and the driver rammed into abig branch protruding to the middle of the road. The branch went past the windshield with a large crack right in front of the driver which made it pretty troublesome for him to have a clear point of vision. Even then he didn’t stop the car, instead it was as if he was racing with someone. It was only then when I heard footsteps sprinting towards our car. It was dark, I could not see anything. At first it sounded like a child, with light footsteps moving rapidly, but then with each step as if their legs grew longer, the steps sounded heavier every passing moment. I hastily looked for the flashlight and as soon as I flashed it out the window, it made a high pitched noise, and jumped into the tree. But it didn’t stop chasing us, jumping from one tree top to the other it chased us for a couple of miles and then vanished. We knew whatever was onto us, didn’t belong to here. The Dense forest was coming to an end. We still didn’t have any clue as to how far we had deviated off course, and home was certainly not around the corner. There was no option returning back the way we came, but this was just the beginning of the troubles we were ought to face.

‘Sobbonash!‘ the driver claimed in agony as soon after the car stopped by itself, smoke coming out from under the hood. I could see him shivering very badly so I said, “You stay inside. I will go and see”. “Me too“, said Babi “I will keep an eye out“. The driver sighed with relief. As I pulled down the window glass, the sweat that was dripping down my forehead through the corner of my face froze instantly, it gave me goose bumps. I took the container and we both walked to the front. As I opened the hood, and started pouring the coolant, Babi comes beside me and murmurs, “We think the driver is a fraud, we found a pistol underneath his seat!” I looked up at him confused, certainly this thought had passed my mind, but there were reasons to believe otherwise. What happened next proved our assumptions WRONG.

Asoft sad voice whispered into my ear, the words meant nothing to me but I could feel the pain in them. I turned back and no one was there. “Ah, What is it? Just get done with it already”, said he. I started to hurry up but spilled most of it. As soon as I put down the hood, a convulsive sobbing sound of a girl reverberated all around, I grabbed Babi by the collar trying to prevent him from looking behind. All our understanding of the alive and the dead seemed to have failed assessing this situation. Our senses lacked reactions, my whole body felt numb and I could feel Babi trying hard to gather himself together. Then I looked for Chadu past the cracked windshield, and he looked like a prey looking into the eyes of his predator. The driver was about to faint, evidently it was his first time in an encounter with the tales he had heard. The sobbing started gently but by now her pitch was raised. Her tone suggested she was complaining about something, through the faint reflection on the glass I saw she looked like an age old wrinkled lady with glistening white hair wrapped in a white rag seated in the centre of the road with her legs spread wide placed one upon the other, her back arched, she mourned someone dearer to her! The more that I wanted to resist myself from looking I couldn’t. By now, her whining pitch was raised to the limit of desperation and she had started to curse!She then started throwing bits of rotten mass, worms coming out of it. The smell was unbearable, making it difficult to stand every passing moment. The driver couldn’t cope from this trauma and fainted thereafter landing on the steering wheels which honked the horn adding to the misery of the situation, Chadu too dropped down senseless. It looked like beyond trying to stick up Babi was going into a state of paralysis.

She was going to kill us, but wait till we fell apart. Either way we were going to die, but I could not let that happen. This was not where it all ends! As petrified I was, with adrenaline rushing through my veins I grabbed Babi by his belt and dragged him to the side of the car and then in the back seat. The wrinkled witch was now on her feet,and heading my way! She seemed angry now that our fate had been altered. Within the blinding sound of the car horns I pulled myself together for one last time and headed straight for the keys.

I could see she made a run for the car and jumped, the glass shattered into pieces and onto the dashboard and all over. There was pitch black darkness and nothing was visible anywhere. The awful silence engulfed the atmosphere but still something was wrong. I noticed that my senses were rather heightened but I was calm, there was no sign of fear and there was clarity in my thought process which was unmatched. Even though I could not see anything, I could feel the rotten mass has now turned into soil. A putrid stench of the dead matter from far away came striking to my nose. I believe it was the cat which died coming across our car. Also, there was a hint of sound which suggested she was breathing heavily and was hastily trying to locate us. Even though I rarely had any knowledge of combating the dead, read any horror novel or anything of this sort,my mind could clearly come up with tiny pieces of information from deep down my subconscious to inform me that FEAR is what they fed upon and it is fear which makes them stronger against us, besides me the others were fast asleep which is state of altered consciousness, which is why she was probably having difficulty to trace us. We were on the verge of breaking dawn, and with the first appearance of light in the sky, I could feel going back to my senses. I felt week, miserably cold and tensed but I knew that she was no more, there was the chirping sound of birds and insects and with it a new beginning of our life. How did it change me? It made me feel the importance of living life to the fullest, any day could be our last. I knew that I was a changed man now. I am a master of my senses, and my intuition was far better than that of anyone I have ever known.

I woke up the driver and he drove us back to home. I think we mutually felt that this was never a cherishable memory and thus it never came up in our discussions. Years later, even today I ask myself the question I had in mind that day, That night we changed our fate? Did we really defy death? Is she really going to let us live? Deep down I knew why would I still keep asking this question over and over again. It is because she never left us alone, my darkest nightmares were yet to come alive!

CHATER 3 : COUNTERATTACK

Time changed and so have changed our lives. I am Head of department in the regional university ,my two best friends lead a wealthy life in all respect but health has been a issue with both of them at certain levels. It is mostly because of their hectic lifestyle and rather because of their smoking habits that their health has gone downhill . Our families are pretty familiar with each other . Our children going to the same schools and everything was going fine. About a few weeks earlier we all received a call notifying us about the ill health of our dear friend Apu (Apurba Ray Choudhury). My heart sunk, we were very close at a time, and in many ways he was like an elder brother for the rest of us. Lately though, we’d been busy in our lives and now more than ever would be a good time to get together.

Accordingly, the next afternoon Babi and myself packed our bags and went off for Apu’s place. Chadu couldn’t manage to come at such short notice but he will be joining us later. Even though nowadays big cities were developing rapidly, still rural areas were far away from modernisation. We were moving along the highway and as more we went into woods ,more we went away from the noise of city. We had a pleasant time being back in the nature’s womb, the beaming rays of sunset through the canopy making beautiful patterns out of thin air! Babi was driving for a long time so we took a tea break, pouring out of the thermos he said, “I hope he recovers soon, his kid is so young!” Riding past, we came across the diversion that led into a more deeper part of the jungle, the road was marked by a dead and decaying eucalyptus. It brought back some disturbing memories, I was hoping that no harm would come in our way through this place and back. I wonder how would the incident must have affected the driver? how must he have told his chivalrous story among his villagers? Many questions surrounded my mind, some of which should have remained unanswered.

It was dark by the time we reached there, Apu’s face looked pale! flushed out of life. Even though he smiled at us, his eyes were sunken and it was dark underneath them . Said he was having these nightmares which would make it difficult to sleep, eventually he got sick and now all these diseases had come up. Very disheartened by his state, we sent the news to Chadu to look for a doctor in the city and if possible bring him along. The next morning I went for a stroll to find the house of the driver. Maybe he could find us some help!

Adding to my disappointment, I found their house abandoned. To my query, I was rather terrified as the lady next door explained, “They said he went crazy after coming back from that ride, claimed some witch was after him. He would not eat for days, his family would lock him indoors for he would scream for hours until he would faint, blood coming out of his ears! The village vaid tried his tricks but nothing would help! Few weeks later he went missing, a week after that two woodcutters found him hanging from a dead eucalyptus tree. Thank God ,he had the conscience to do the right thing! May his soul rest in peace” she said. I could suddenly feel the pain in his screams, the horror in his sleepless nights and the relief he must have felt parting away from his miserable life! I lost conscience and dropped almost instantly. Next morning when I woke up I found myself lying beside Apu’s bed only now He looked better . They said I had been sleeping since two days, screaming out names with burning temperature, The situation was so tensed that they were planning to take me back to the city the next morning.

But I am fine now, for what I had been through I did pretty well, didn’t I? I was clueless, I didn’t know how to proceed with the trouble in hand. My intellectual self was trying to ignore the circumstantial evidence but look for facts, but I had a hunch of what the hell were we set our foot into and it was no child’s play. No one ever endeavoured to such quarters of devil shit , which was onto us ! It was time for us to end this once and for all.