“Tina! Go to sleep!” yelled her mother as she began to put the dishes in their place. Tina finally decided to keep her book and sleep because she didn’t want to hear that for the sixth time. Tina went to bed and started thinking about whether or not she locked her almirah. She feared that if she didn’t lock her almirah her sister was going to be taking a nice sneak into it like last time. Tina wrote daily journals and kept them in the almirah, too. She didn’t want anyone to get her journals because she wrote a few things there which only she was going to understand just like she didn’t appreciate her father’s company to buy a pen.

The day her father took away her phone, she was sure that it was time for her to have freedom. Tina’s freedom fight was very simple— pack your bags, get hold of your phone and sneak out through the laundry room’s window.

She saw a shadow coming close to her while walking through the jungle, not so far from her house. Tina froze until she found out it was just one of her friends, Nidhi.

“What are you doing here?” asked Tina.

“First tell me whatcha doing here?” questioned Nidhi as she pointed towards Tina.

“WHAT!” It was always difficult to understand Nidhi for the first time. Nidhi understood that.

“I mean what are you doing here?” she explained.

Tina said to Nidhi her problem that brought her here and as a reply to Tina’s question, Nidhi said that she was also here for the same reason.

They went deep into the jungle together and half an hour later they were infront of a huge bungalow. They went inside unaware of the fact that it was haunted.

“Aahhh!” there was a scream, Tina turned back only to see that Nidhi had vanished. When she turned to her front again, she saw Nidhi lying unconscious in a pool of blood. She ran to the front door but before she could reach it, it shut with a bang. Tina saw a picture on the wall.

“Where did that come from? It wasn’t there before and what is my father doing in that picture? Who is that young girl with him?”  When she removed her eyes from the picture, she saw the girl from the picture standing in front of her.

“Who are you?” asked Tina, “and why is my father standing next to you in that picture?” she added.

“38 years ago, Jai, your father, was my best friend since childhood. Back then when I was twelve and he was fifteen, he became my guard.

One day I saw him taking gold from our treasure room, I asked him what he was doing and where he got the keys to the room from. He replied that he had killed our treasurer and took the keys from him. My father and I tried to stop him but he was armed, he shot both of us and as we were the only two in the family, he easily escaped with all the gold and other precious things from this bungalow, over the years every one forgot it but not I.” The girl’s eyes were red and she clenched her fists as she spoke further.

“Ever since Tina I am killing whoever steps in this bungalow.”

“So you killed Nidhi!”  exclaimed Tina.

“No I didn’t, the Nidhi you were seeing and thinking to be killed is just an illusion.”

“What?”

“Yes, real Nidhi is locked, alive in her cupboard, I created an illusion of her because if I wouldn’t you would return home because of fright  that you are alone, all by yourself in this eerie jungle and if you would return home your father, my  real enemy would  not come here searching for you so, I created Nidhi’s illusion and now your father is coming right here searching for you, sorry that I have to kill you but don’t worry at all.”

“What should I not worry about!?” There was no reply to Tina’s question and the spirit of the girl killed her with a knife and placed a chit in her right hand saying ‘My father is a killer’.

When Tina and Nidhi were missing from home, their parents had begun searching for them. Finally, they reached the bungalow where Nidhi’s illusion was lying unconscious covered in blood and Tina was stabbed in her stomach. They found that chit with drops of blood on it. Before Jai could read anything written in that, the spirit pushed everyone out of the bungalow and locked Jai in.

“It’s time to pay back, Jai!” she grimaced.

 

About the young author:

I am Hansuja Nath and I am studying in fifth grade at St.Mary’s, Guwahati. I am very interested in reading books though I am not really interested in my academic books. I also love to do journaling and art because these two things relax me and give me a chance to express myself. Once I received the first prize in an art competition and that’s the most memorable thing for me cause it was my first ever award. I am also interested in writing and I get ideas to write from the books I read. I got inspired by my mother and my teacher of a story writing class I attended in the summers. They both appreciated and helped me improve my writing skills. I am also ambitioned to be an advocate because I like the way my father helps people get justice and equality and I want to be like him. It’s the most honorable work for me.

 

About the Writing Coach and Best English teacher in Guwahati, Sneha Goel:

She is a British Council–certified IELTS trainer and Scholastic India–mentored short story writer. She is a published author, poet and diarist. Her reviews, blogs, poems, stories and thoughts are appreciated by writers of international repute. Apart from writing, she is passionate about teaching English to children. She teaches English grammar, literature, creative writing, academic writing, story writing, poetry writing and Spoken English to students from class 1 up to grown-ups. To know more about the best English teacher in Guwahati and the services provided by her institute, Young Story Weavers, click here.