DEAD IN DWELLING

We were friends, yes, that’s a fact. But we haven’t seen each other for a long time. Spencer had been soared into studies these days, of course, it’s our exam time. I haven’t had a word with him for a month—not even in text. But today was our last exam, and I’d been totally busy bustling with a grin on my face until I received a message from him.

  “Hi, dude. We need to talk.”

  Typically, Spencer was the kind of guy who was used to typing one short message, which makes me go off as they don’t really expose any info on the matter. And today was no different.  
***

“What’s up?” I asked Spencer walking into his yard.

  “Hey bro,” he answered with a slow dull smile coming up his face. “By the way, I called you to tell you about this…” Spencer handed me a small permit ticket. “You know what this is, right?”

  I took a moment to scan the card stock paper. The first few words read: entry, dwelling, spooky, ₹1, 00,000. I was utterly confused, as mingling up these words made no sense. I blinked and saw Spencer’s blue eyes and dropped my head. “I don’t know what this is.”

  “It’s the spooky dwelling entry!” he exclaimed meeting my eyes. “Well, um, actually, I called you here ‘cos I am going out with my dad to California tonight, so I can’t go on this. So I thought I would give it to you.”

  I let that answer sink in for a moment. I think I’d already mentioned Spencer and his short answer ways, so I wasn’t totally surprised with this response. “Yeah?” I said, “What’s with it?”

  “Let me tell the simple rules,” Spencer began. “The spooky dwelling is a house with seven rooms. All you have to do is get through all the rooms till the last room, and you win 100k! But, no one actually made it till the end till now. Got the rules?”

  I was getting set off. “Why hasn’t anyone won till now if it’s so simple?” I demanded. 

  Spencer seemed to hesitate. “Well? That’s a spooky place, of course. The terraced house is almost ten kilometers from your home… if you want to go, then you can have the free ticket.” He held out his hand and looked at me suspiciously.

  I really didn’t want to go hearing that nobody had ever finished the gamble but ₹1, 00,000 sounded too good to be true. I decided to visit there the next night.

In the embrace of deep shadows, in the regale of winter’s song, the spooky house breathed deep and long. I slowly walked towards the house, the leaves crunching under my feet. I was suddenly feeling uneasy when I reached out to open the entrance door. The door creaked and screeched, but finally was wide open.

  I was expecting some ghost things in the lobby itself, but there was nothing. All that was there was a nicely glowing tube light with a poster alongside it. It read: ‘The first room of the spooky dwelling to follow. Walk through 6 more and with a 100k’.  

  It wasn’t a kind of welcome notice you’d expect—but—okay. I sniggered and made my way to the first room.

  The first room was almost laughable. There were some dumb Halloween masks and a few skulls in a corner. There stood a grinning carved pumpkin beside the only other door of the house, which I assumed to be the second room. I went on and opened it. 

  The second room was quite better than the first one in terms of technology use. It held a dim light and a few bats flying rounds on the ceiling, without any hangings.  There was something in the darkness that was like a promise, like the world before dawn. It was a matt room rather than a finished work of paint, and to me, it was all the more stirring. I took off all my thoughts and opened the door of the third room.

  The third room was when things began to change.

  I was greeted by fog just when the door opened. When the fog died out, I noticed a chair with a whole skeleton body on it covered in full blood. And the most fascinating thing was that the chair was swinging, yes, swinging. There was no window for someone to come in and move it, as I was sure I spent at least a few minutes in the first two rooms. Without thinking, I twisted the doorknob for safety.

  It was locked.

  What?! Has somebody been locking the door every time I got into a new room? Why is it locked now? I twisted and turned the knob again, but it was really and truly locked. I slowly turned my head back towards the room. That’s when I become conscious of something.  

  The skeleton was nowhere to be seen. I rushed my eyes from left to right but saw no skeleton. It vanished into thin air!

  Bumps crawled up my body. The only way to get out of this house now was to finish going through the seven rooms! Slowly and gradually, I advanced around the chair and opened the door to the fourth room.      

  This area was even spookier. In the gloomy, frightening freaky haunted room I stood in, there was . . . nothing. This room, unlike all the others, had a dull glowing lamp. I looked around, expecting to see something peculiar.

  Nothing.

  I looked up and down and that’s when I saw something.

  Or I didn’t see it. I didn’t have my shadow. No. There wasn’t ANY shadow around me. NONE. But I didn’t scream. Something was moving on my hand. A bug!

  Then as though arriving from the air, I felt more bugs starting to crawl on my hand. I looked down, but I didn’t see anything. There weren’t any bugs to be seen. NONE. But I sure was feeling them crawl all over my hand.

  I felt grim. I wanted to run, but just then I realized it still wasn’t all the surprises in this terraced house held.  

  Whispers of low voices echoed all around, creating a gloomy ambiance. Footsteps started at a far end behind me. The noise grew louder and louder until the person was right behind me. I slowly glided my head around and saw what was haunting me.

(To be continued…)

PART #2

Nothing. There was nobody behind me. In a silent and haunted room like this, I’m sure anyone could hear their heart beating. But I didn’t. I sure didn’t! And I had no time to think why as I sprinted across the room and endured to the room next door. 

  The next room was clashing. The walls were identical to the floor, and the floor was identical to the walls. I slowly looked around, which I’d confirmed by now as the first strategy while entering a new room.

  As thought, the room wasn’t weird. But I didn’t give way for anything strange to step up suddenly. I looked at the door to see if it was locked again, and it was when I realized something. The door was gone! There was no door at all!

  I rushed my head back and forth, but I couldn’t see anything. It was just dark. I felt the wall that was supposed to be having the door. It was totally solid.

  I took a few steps forward, as if I was limping, to find any door. Just after a few steps were taken, the low whispers began in the room. I took another few steps and the volume of the whispers increased. I just waited, but the sound did get any louder. It seemed as if I was experiencing déjà vu.

  Deciding that standing alone with doing nothing in this haunted room wouldn’t do anything, I took a few more steps forward.

  A few more.

  A few more.

  The whispers started blaring in my ears. Low footsteps began at my back, just as it’d happened in room 3. Tears began rolling slowly down my cheeks, giving me the confidence to sprint.

  “Run!” I yelled to myself and began tapping all across the walls. My ears badly wanted to bleed by the sound of the mysterious people. The footsteps came closer and closer, but I didn’t dare to turn around. My hands were in severe pain by smacking and scratching in just a few seconds. And just as though God had sent a gift . . .

  “A door!” I cried to myself. I began pulling out the paper or whatever it was from the wall. The footsteps seemed to be coming from inside my body now. The paper finally came off, and I could see ‘6’ marked on a door right before me. I opened it and closed it in the same second and I realized I was in room six.

My eyes were squinting, and I sat down on the floor. I didn’t ever want to see what stupid and horrifying things this room held. I began to crawl. I didn’t know what I was doing or where I was going—but—I didn’t care. I wanted to get out of this house and never ever come back!

  For some time which seemed like hours, I just sat on the floor, waiting for something to happen. But nothing did. I opened my eyes bit by bit and scanned the room.

  The room was similar to the third one. There was a similar rocking chair, but it had no skeleton to rock on it. Everything else was very alike. I began slowly towards the chair to see if there was anything on it. “Nothing,” I whispered to myself. “There’s nothing.”

  “Do you need something?” a voice suddenly asked.

  I lurched out of my position almost crying at hearing someone else speak. I looked around, expecting to see a girl by the voice. It indeed was a girl. But when my senses got adjusted to the dark spot, I realized it wasn’t a girl. It was—it was—a ghost!    

  Well, it wasn’t a ghost either, I realized.  There wasn’t a face at all and all that were there were shades and a hat just hanging in the air! I just backed to the wall with my palm fronting the ground. After staring a few dozen seconds into the place where the eyes of the creature were supposed to be, I stammered, “Who—who are you?”

  “Do you need something?” the girl repeated, ignoring my question which remained a mystery. I didn’t respond. After a few more seconds of staring, I stumbled right upon the reality.

  The glasses had light in them. I didn’t know from where the light came to the mirror, but yes—there was light in them. After a few more seconds of staring, I saw a door in the glasses. I looked in the direction where the door was supposed to be, but it was just darkness. But there should be a door there—there should!

  I lurched up and sprang towards the door. I felt my hand hit the knob and I turned it and within seconds I was in room 7 . . . the last room of this death house.

  Once in the next room, I suddenly started to feel cold. Chills ran down my spine. Feeling determined to get out of this hell, I looked up. And just as I did, I saw a figure standing in the corner of the room. A figure which I didn’t expect to see.

(To be continued…)

PART #3

The figure was just like me. The eyes, the face, and the body including the hands and legs were just like me. It seemed as if the guy was my identical. And when I slowly got closer, I realized he was my homogeneous.

  The other me was indeed crying. My heartbeat slowed down when I realized the whole room was just like my room at my house. The same bookshelf with the same books, the same bed, and the same interior. With a bit shaky hands, I asked, “Who are you?”

  “Don’t hurt me!” my identical cried. “You are going to hurt me!”

  “Okay cool cool.” I tried my best to calm the double of me but to no avail. “I’m not going to hurt you. Just tell me where am I.”

  “You are going to hurt me! Please don’t hurt me!”

  I didn’t appreciate the repetition of the same phrase. I put my hand on the guy’s shoulder, feeling quite confident that he wasn’t a ghost. It was then I saw something.

  The patch pocket had the number ‘7’ written on it. It was the door out of this house! I couldn’t believe it. But when I turned my face back to my identical, my excitement changed. From the sorrowing face ran sad tears depicting the dejected eyes. I looked around. It first seemed as though the room was totally alike mine. But there nestled a flashing knife on my regularly read novel, which had a small notice beside it that read: ‘Live in peace when you get out of the house’. 

I had no other choice. I picked the knife slowly and held it firmly in my hands. Just as I was ready to punch it in my identical’s chest, he howled, “Don’t hurt me! Please!”

  I felt wretched but was sure he wasn’t me. I was determined to get out of the house!

  Just as my hand was halfway, my duplicate’s expression changed. He got up and growled, “Won’t let you get out so easy!” He shoved me to the floor, but I was able to deflect the punch. “I will get out!” I growled back, jostling the other me to the ground. “I will!”

  I realized the guy was just as powerful as I was. But I was much more experienced than he was. With one last punch in the face, I grabbed the knife and smacked it into his chest.

  The glow of light came from the body, and it grew and grew until I was in total bright light. The sun shined on my face and I become conscious that I was back in the lobby I started from. And on the table, there was a note that said: ‘You’ll have your money at the doorstep of your house’. 

THE REST REMAINS UNDEFINED TO THE READER’S IMAGINATION.

Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of my imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or persons is entirely coincidental. || Contents of this story should not be reproduced in any manner without permission.