The Haunt

A cold and cozy morning welcomed me as I lay in my bed, the curtains drawn on my beautiful bedroom’s windows. I dreaded to think I’ll be home alone for the day as mom and dad had left for Bangalore the night before. As luck would have it, bro had to be away on his business tour right in this week. I knew the enormous amount of chanting and praying that had taken me to fall asleep the night before, owing to the super-phobic girl I was, apart from the fact that I had never been left alone at home before. After speculating a lot on inviting friends home for a sleepover, I had decided otherwise, resigned to the worst and slept off with the lights on in my bedroom and a playlist of devotional songs blaring on YouTube (which I’d involuntarily switched off in the middle of the night in partial sleepwalk).

As the relieving sunrays invited me to start my day all alone, I enthusiastically got out of bed pretending to be unaware of the silent haunt the empty house threw at me.”Laptop, where’s my laptop?” was the first question that struck my mind. Once I had put on the devotional playlist once again I was put at ease. It took care of me finishing my morning chores. I was in no mood to play it for the third time, I was sure even God would shout out saying “C’mon give me a break!!”. So, I headed for my next solace- the idiot box. ‘Die hard’ was my choice of movie for the day, may be I needed some inspiration for bravery. Hunger overcame within no time and I found myself in the kitchen hunting for something that didn’t require my time or energy. As I settled down on bread and jam, I heard the TV going silent for some reason. My heart froze, not today, not now, not when I’m alone, not when I’m already scared. I put up a brave face and went to the living room to check out the TV. It was just Off! And the remote was untouched. There was no power failure. Surely, there could be something wrong with the TV.I switched it on again, ignoring my shaky hands. But Die Hard was hard to concentrate on now. My bread and jam was like paper to me now. I flicked through the various channels and BANG! There was a sudden sound! My pulse raced…Surely I hadn’t imagined that. It had come from upstairs. No way, I wasn’t going to check that out…I wasn’t going to make it through the staircase all alone. Should I call the neighbors? Surely I can save myself some embarrassment by not doing so. I chose to ignore the bang.

I thought that may be an empty house has a certain amount of scariness, so I should try standing in the balcony. But lo behold!! The balcony was locked…! Whoever did that? A padlock? And no key?? What were my parents thinking? I’ll fall off the balcony or something? Crap!! Now then, sometimes it’s good to be in the company of the idiot box. But before I could bring myself upto the creepy happenings in my house this fateful day, I heard what I did not want to hear. Weird sounds coming from upstairs again, like something getting dragged. And there was this creak coming once in a while. Looked like I had to brave the staircase after all, for all I knew there could be burglars in my house. I had to act with presence of mind.

I wished I had a gun, not that I know how to use it. I wiped sweat from my brow, prayed to God, increased the volume of TV and headed up the stairs. One stair at a time, the TV volume fading as the creaks grew louder. I must be getting close to the source of sounds. There was a chair fallen on the landing, explaining the bang that had come before. My heart was pounding; surely the sounds weren’t imaginary if there were signs like these around. The room on the right seemed to be the source of the mystery. It was dim on the landing, I could make out the door of this room slightly open.

I pulled up all the courage I ever had and pushed the door slightly, the creak growing louder and louder, I opened the door completely and …….there was a hand right in front of me, jutting from behind the door! I screamed with a voice that would have shattered the windows, what the hell was here!! But wait, the hand had a Timex watch! It was my brother!!! Jumping out from behind the door and rolling on the floor laughing….he looked at my dumbfounded face and said ‘Sis you thought I’d leave you alone when I know you get so scared, I came back yesterday night when you were asleep with your divine songs’. That explained a lot of things, the mysterious happenings of the morning most of all. I didn’t know how I was supposed to feel. I wanted to hit him, but I was so relieved to know the identity of the ‘burglar’ after all. “Well Thanks” I said, ”I’m sure I was better off alone, I hope you never get so courteous towards me again”. “Well I’m sure you’ll never get scared again” he said. Ah well, I had to agree. J