Fantasia...

I Will Be There

2015-05-30T02:05:00.000-07:00

Solivagant was I on the shores of the sea,

When I happened to stumble upon thee.

And then, I know not what came over me,

I was overwhelmed with sudden ecstasy.

Was it those eyes, oh completely lost in them was I,

Deep, shimmering, as blue as the sky.

Or was it those lips I so wanted to kiss,

Tender, soft, filling me with bliss.

Was it that smile, so mesmerizing and coy,

Filling my heart with infinite joy.

Maybe it was the voice, so mellifluous and sweet,

Captivating me, sweeping me off my feet.

Fortunate I felt that we happened to meet,

It felt like my life was finally complete.

Everything felt so great in your company,

Reality was finally better than fantasy.

And then when I asked to be yours forever,

You said that we could never be together.

For your heart belonged to somebody else,

It seemed like my life had lost its essence,

Tortured and crushed was I, by my limerence.

If I shed a tear every time I missed your presence,

I would have created the greatest ocean.

I felt like life taught me one of its bitter lessons,

To not love anyone with such devotion.

As I sit on the shores, crestfallen and lonely,

I seem to be hit with a sudden epiphany.

To care and love, you didn't have to be besides me,

I could do that regardless of where you be.

Isn't that how love is supposed to be?

Unconditional and selfless, oh don't you agree?

On the shores I lay, smiling and supine,

Knowing my life is finally going to be fine.

It feels like my love for you has grown stronger,

Since I don't really need you besides me no longer.

I will care for you and protect you but from a distance,

I think I've finally understood love's essence.

So if there ever comes a time when you're in need,

Rest assured your cries will always be heed.

And if there comes a time you feel like no one cares,

Look besides you and I will be there.

Fare Thee Well

2015-05-30T02:01:00.001-07:00

Before you move forward to your next journey,

Stop you I must to tell you a story,

For it was with you in this small, dull city

That I found life's most beautiful serendipity.

Remember the time when we first met

The moments we had, oh how can I forget

Our time together, as ephemeral it maybe

Will always remain, my most cherished memory

Never did I imagine how a single person could be

The single most profound influence on me

And as I realize this maybe my last in your presence

I shall close my eyes and cherish this blissful evanescence.

When I was in pain, you were my panacea

When I was lost, you were my learned Sofia

Your mellifluous voice,

Your ineffable poise,

Your beautiful face, your ubiquitous grace

Tell me o' tell me

Can I ever replace?

I know we now can never be together

But let me say this to you as you depart

There'll always be a place where you'll live forever

Right here at the centre of my heart.

It might seem like our last goodbye,

But to me,

You'd always be like the moon in the sky

Distant she is; at an unreachable place

But always at the window smiling right down at our face

My eyes they swell

From all the tears that fell

My knees go weak

I just cannot speak

My heart turns to rust

O' it feels like hell

But smile at you I must,

And I must fare thee well

Smile at you I must,

And I must fare thee well.

POKEMON X AND Y

2013-01-25T04:40:00.001-08:00

Pokemon's back again!

I have been a fan of the franchise since the first time I watched the anime almost a decade ago. In fact, I bought all my Nintendo systems so that I could play Pokemon in it. Pokemon's spanned for over a decade and a half. From a modest beginning on the Game Boy platform with a tag line of 'Gotta Catch 'em all!', Pokemon has come a long way. It has become the second most successful gaming franchise ever; only behind Mario. From the original 151 species, it has expanded to 649. And now, it looks like it is on its way to expanding its brood once again...

Since its creation in 1996, Pokemon has spanned over 5 generations. And this October, it is going to add a sixth. Yes, Pokemon's latest mainstream RPG comes out in October 2013. And by the looks of it, it's going to be one riveting adventure!

The update to it's graphics engine is easily the biggest for any Pokemon game so far. It is the first completely 3D Pokemon RPG. It is going to be released for the 3DS system; so considering the 3DS's advanced capabilities, I am sure it is going to be one of the best Pokemon games ever!

Trailer link:

Pokemon X and Pokemon Y Trailer

Pre-release screenshots:

LOST CITY OF GOLD- 3

2012-10-02T21:48:00.000-07:00

Just one thing. The Mark Of Athena is out!

CHAPTER 3
THE TIME MACHINE

‘Last recruits, Ming. They are the ones from McNeill.’ I said.

Ming nodded.

‘What are your names?’ He asked the kids.

‘I’m Thalia,’ the redhead girl said. ‘And…and this is Edward.’

I had collected two dozen recruits from twelve different places. And I had to say, these two were the most timid and feeble of the lot. I wouldn’t have believed they were recruits had their names not been Thalia and Edward and had they not been from McNeill. I was waiting for Ming to say that it was a terrible coincidence and that I had picked up the wrong people.

But instead Ming said, ‘Good. Lee!’ he called out to the entrance guard. ‘Take them in. You two, go with Lee.’

They didn’t object. But their expression suggested that they were being taken to some execution chamber.

This was the first time I was doing recruiting business. I still remembered when I was recruited three years back…

I had no parents, no family, nothing. I lived in an orphanage with the other deceased like me. I had no friends there. Except for, probably one. Ericka. She was the only one who was nice to me. She was the only one who spoke to me. And she was a lot like me. No one spoke to her either. So, we spent most of our time in each other’s company.

I had always dreamt of fairies and angels coming to the orphanage and taking me away. Little did I realize that my dream would, one day, come true.

It was gray, dull morning that day. I was sitting in my room staring at the wall in front of me. And then suddenly, one of the workers came up to me and said, ‘Sid, there is someone asking for you. And where’s Ericka?’

I was puzzled. Neither I nor Ericka had anyone who would come looking for us. I called her and we went downstairs.

Yes, there was someone looking for us. It was a young lady in white T-shirt and jeans. She was breathtakingly beautiful. The angel of my dreams.

She was Angelina, she said. A Mystery Hunter. She had come looking for us. To take us to another place. A place that I truly call home now.

Angelina had taken me to my new home. Sitnalta. Where fantasy and dreams came to life. Where nothing was impossible. Where life was a challenging, thrilling and an exciting dream.

‘Sid, I’m sure you’re aware of your…umm, mission. Preparations?’ Ming said.

I was brought back to Earth. Damn. The mission. How could I forget that? I was normally never afraid of going to places but this was different. This was El Dorado. The Lost City of Gold. Well, it was not only the city which was lost. The people who went looking for it were lost too. Maybe, they should have renamed it ‘The Lost City of No Return.’

‘Uhh, yes sir.’ I said. ‘We’re taking the time machine and going to seventeenth century Colombia. From there, we shall try and seek the Lake Guatavita. It’s supposed to be 40 kilometers away from Bogota, the capital. If the city indeed exists and if the myths are to be believed, then the city should be there, complete with its gold.’

Ming gave me a worried look.

‘That’s what your predecessors did, Sid. But none of them came back alive. So, we have no clue as to what the impending danger is.’

I gulped. I knew that. But I couldn’t think of anything else. El Dorado was near Guatavita. So, that was the obvious destination.

‘Let’s hope for the best, sir.’

Ming just gave me a blank stare. That made me really uncomfortable.

‘Who will be my comrades, sir?’ I asked trying to divert the topic.

‘Ryan and Serena. The recruits from Stone Wall.’

‘Seriously?’ I gasped. ‘How can you send them? They were recruited just today!’

‘Emira wishes so.’ Ming said.

‘But sir-‘

‘Nothing can be done. We can’t do anything against her wishes.’

‘This is stupid!’ I cried. ‘We’ll be killed for sure.’

Ming stared at me. It was apparent that he agreed with me but he was trying furiously not to show it.

‘You can take two more Hunters if you wish.’ He said. ‘That is, if they volunteer.’

‘But who would want to go to Dorado? No one’s come back alive from that place!’

‘Then you’re left with no choice,’ he said.

I felt a burst of anger. I wanted to protest. How could they send two kids? This was a suicide mission. I didn’t know what that damned dragon had in mind.

‘We’ll accompany them.’ I heard a familiar voice.

Ming and I turned towards the direction of the voice. My jaws dropped. It was Angelina and Ericka.

‘We’ll go with them, sir. That is, if you are okay with it.’

‘You know where they’re going?’ Ming asked with raised eyebrows.

‘El Dorado. The city of no return. Yes, sir. Ericka and I would very much like to accompany them.’

Ericka nodded. She then looked at me and smiled. My mouth remained open.

Ming stared at them for a minute.

‘Very well, as you wish.’ he said. ‘You better get going. I’ll get Ryan and Serena.’ Ming said and went into the Headquarters. Two minutes later, he brought Ryan and Serena.

‘Ryan, Serena. Meet Angelina and Ericka. They will be accompanying you too along with Sid.’

They remained quiet.

‘Very well, then. Shall we go?’ Ming said.

‘Where?’ Serena asked.

‘To the Time Chamber, of course!’ Ming said.

The Time Chamber. It housed the most amazing thing on the island. It housed the thing which made our missions possible. We were Mystery Hunters. We searched for the real truth behind mysteries. And that was possible only if we went back to the time when it actually happened.

They didn’t ask what the Time Chamber was. Maybe they guessed it or maybe they were too stunned by the recent events, to ask.

The Time Chamber was a building, just like the Hunter Quarters. Two storeys tall and white marbled. It was situated adjacent to the Headquarters.

We went inside. I had completed twenty four missions as a Hunter. So, it was my twenty fifth time, here. I wondered if it was the last.

We all went to the single occupant of the entire building. The Time Machine. No matter, how many times I saw it; it still looked weird and amazing to me. It was like a 17th century car with a satellite dish at the back. There was a panel at the front of the seat where the year and place had to be entered. We stood around it.

‘Time and place?’ Ming said.

Time and place. That was all Ming asked. I was planning for a seventeenth century expedition starting from the Bogota, Colombia. But before I could answer, it was Angelina who replied.

‘1570. England,’ she said.

‘What?’ I almost shouted. ‘Dorado is supposed to be in South America!’ I said.

Angelina looked at me and smiled.

‘I know that, Sid.’

‘England is not in South America.’ I said matter-of-factly.

‘I know that, too.’

‘Then why England?’ I asked.

‘Because,’ she said. ‘England is the only possibility of us coming back alive…’

I would be very grateful if you could send me your feedback and suggestions to my mail:
rounakbanik@gmail.com
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Fantasia

Visiting Fantasia... for the first time? You may as well check out my previous series:
Curse Of The Painting
Mystery Of The Borley Rectory

LOST CITY OF GOLD- 2

2012-08-19T21:56:00.002-07:00

Will say nothing here. Just keep reading. And yes, to all my Muslim friends out there, Eid Mubarak!
(In case you haven't read the first part, you can do so here:
LOST CITY OF GOLD- 1

CHAPTER 2
THE MYSTERY HUNTERS

I had read about free fall in Physics lessons and thought of it to be a pretty normal thing. But trust me, when you’re at the mercy of gravity, it can do nasty things to you. Like suck all the air out of your lungs. I guess that’s the reason balls and objects with mass ‘m’ don’t breathe.
When I regained consciousness, I saw Ryan lying unconscious next to me. And I had a tight grasp on his hand. I immediately let go. I felt a surge of heat running through my face. And my heart started beating fast. I didn’t know why that happened. Ryan was like any other guy in my class. Normal. A bit shy, maybe. But whenever I was around him, my heart always managed to beat a little faster. And I always tried to do something which could umm…make him happy and…alright, I tried to do stuff which would make him start to like me.
I rubbed my eyes. I realized my hands were covered with mud. But still, through my mud smeared eyes, I was able to make out where we were. We were on a sea shore.
Ryan lay lifeless next to me. It took a giant wave from the seas to bring him back to see his senses. We were wet. But at least it washed off the mud from my uniform.
‘Where arrre we?’ he gurgled.
‘I don’t know. Looks like some sea shore.’
‘Alright, you two, follow me.’
We turned towards the direction of the voice. It was Sid. The travel to this wretched place didn’t seem to have any effect on him like it did to us. He was standing there, fifty feet apart from where we lay, perfectly dry and clean. I noticed he didn’t wear the Stonewall uniform anymore. He was wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt which read ‘Mystery Hunters’.
‘Where are we?’ Ryan asked again.
‘You’ll come to know. Now, follow me,’ he said and started walking towards what seemed like a huge forest down south.
‘Hey, why did you bring us here?’ I asked.
‘I said you’ll come to know. Now, just follow me. I haven’t got much time. I need to find a dozen more recruits after I’m done with you.’
I exchanged glances with Ryan. Well, it was not exactly a fair exchange. Because when I caught his eye, he immediately looked at the ground. And that made me a little annoyed.
Sid led us into the forest. And it was the second most irritating experience behind free fall. The trees of the forest were huge and tall and they formed a canopy so thick that it almost felt like it was night despite the sun shining brightly above us. I managed to get my legs stuck into the vines several times. Ryan almost tripped twice. He was really clumsy. I wondered if there were snakes lurking in the jungle. Thankfully, we encountered none.
After, what seemed like almost an hour of walking through itchy vines and grasses, we finally reached open space. And when I saw what lay ahead of me, I begin to feel that the teleportation, the dirtying of my uniform, the hour long tripping and falling over vines in the dense jungle was all worth it. Because what lay in front of my eyes was a magnificent city. A fantasy land, literally.

Sid led us into one of the squares of the city. I noticed that all the buildings were built entirely out of white marble. They were two storeys tall with a dome at the top and looked like miniature Taj Mahals. There was a fountain in the middle of the square. The place was brimming with people and all of them, like Sid, wore blue jeans and a ‘Mystery Hunter’ T-shirt. The people took no notice of us, however. So, we were not big shots as I was expecting it to be.

Sid took us through innumerable identical squares until we reached what was definitely the center of the city. If the miniature Taj Mahals were awesome structures, then the building in front of us was absolutely breathtaking. For one, it had twenty times as many storeys as the others and the building was as wide as it was tall. It was looked like an emperor’s mansion.

Sid took us to the entrance of the building where we were greeted by an old man. He was short and slim and was completely bald. He had a long white beard running down well into his hip region. His eyes suggested that he was Chinese or of Chinese descent. He was wearing karate robes and wooden slippers. And even though his face wasn’t wrinkled, I could make out that he was at least a hundred years old.

‘Ming, these are the recruits from Stonewall,’ Sid said and left.

Ming considered us for a moment. ‘Ah yes, of course. Ryan and Serena, isn’t it?’

‘Uhh, yes. How did you know?’ Ryan asked.

Ming chose to ignore his question. ‘Welcome, you two. Welcome to the magnificent city of Sitnalta.’

I rolled my eyes. I tried to recall if I had read or heard about this place anywhere.

‘Uh, thanks.’ Ryan said. He still had the confused look on his face, wondering where on earth he had been brought to.

We stood silent for a few minutes as Ming shifted his glance from Ryan to me.

‘Come in,’ he said after he was finally done with his examining.

As I entered into the place, I noticed, for the first time, the name of the building. It read ‘Mystery Hunters Inc.’ and there was a huge statue of a person right in front of the building. The statue was holding a stick and its eyes were gazing at something it was holding in its right hand. It too was built of marble and it resembled Ming. I wondered if it was indeed him.

The interior of the building was as large as a football stadium. It looked at least five times larger inside than it was from the outside. I wondered if it was some kind of magic.

The place had a huge circular hall, the size of a football stadium at the centre. There were various desks at each point in the hall. I wondered what they were for. There were two fleets of staircases on either side of the hall leading to twenty odd floors. Each floor had around fifty rooms situated around the circumference of the hall.

The place had around a hundred people all with ‘Mystery Hunters’ T-shirts. And they seemed to be really busy, running from one desk to another. Overall, the entire placed resembled a busy airport.

Ming took us into one of the rooms of the second floor. I reasoned it was his office. And unlike the medieval design of the outer structure, the inside of the room resembled that of a modern office room. Yes, the place was air conditioned, complete with a PC, desk, sofa and cushioned seats.

Ming went and took a seat behind the desk.

‘Sit,’ he pointed at the chairs in front of the desk. We did as we were instructed.

‘Why have you brought us here?’ Ryan spoke a complete sentence for the first time since we arrived here.

Ming didn’t seem to listen to him. He set his gaze on the ceiling. I looked at Ryan. He was looking at the ground, desperate not to catch my eye. I felt a sudden urge to shout ‘look at me’. But instead I transferred the urge to Ming.

‘Excuse me? Ming?’

Ming was brought back to Earth. He gave an expression which asked me to continue.

‘Why have you brought us here?’ I repeated Ryan’s question.

‘Ah, yes. As you might have noticed, this is Mystery Hunters Inc. We are a secret organization that deals with solving and finding out the truth behind the mysteries that otherwise baffle the normal world.’

‘Um, I think there are people, who already do that,’ Ryan said.

‘They do rubbish. The people in your world don’t have any regard for the supernatural. They consider anything beyond their conception and understanding to be false. So, even if they see a Yeti in front of their eyes, they’d rather believe it to be a hallucination than truth. Foolish creatures.’

I noticed Ming used ‘your world’ and ‘creatures’ in his speech. I wondered if we were still on Planet Earth and whether Ming was even remotely a homo sapien.

‘My great grandfather, the great Tsu Minh, had claimed that dragons existed. He had met one in one of his expeditions. Legend has it that he had ventured into the Qinling Mountains and had made it all the way up to its peak. There he met the dragon. It had hurt her wing. Tsu Minh had helped her heal it. But in his time, he was ridiculed…’

I felt like saying that he would have been ridiculed even now. But thankfully, I resisted the urge and shut up.

‘He was exiled from his place as the people thought of him to be insane. He then set sail in search of the dragon and during his journey, he got shipwrecked. He didn’t die as you might have expected. He was saved by the very same dragon who he had met in the mountains, Emira. Emira then took Minh to this island where they together built the city of Sitnalta. Emira then asked him to open an organization that could appreciate the truth behind mysteries on Earth, truth that was beyond common human understanding.’

Now, that was a cool story. But I couldn’t bring myself to believe it. Come on, who could set sail from some place and meet up with dragons, just like that?

‘Tsu Minh hence started what we know as Mystery Hunters Inc. Every year, we recruit about a dozen people from the normal world, chosen to continue the legacy of Emira and Tsu Minh, who then take up missions to go and find out the deepest secrets of various mysteries of the world.’

‘The dragon’s still alive?’ I asked out of curiosity.

Ming gave me an ‘Are you serious?’ look. Alright, maybe it was a stupid question.

‘Dragons live for thousands of years, my child. They are eternal creatures. Emira is barely five hundred years old.’

‘Uh, where is she?’

‘Emira resides at the peak of Mount Etna. She descends only once in a year to meet the hunters.’

‘Cool,’ Ryan remarked. ‘So, you want us to be Mystery Hunters?’

‘Yes, I believe,’ Ming said.

My heart skipped a beat. Okay, as Ryan stated, this was cool and all. But I didn’t have a good feeling about this. How very right I was…

‘Wait, does that mean we have to stay here forever?’ I asked.

‘No, no, of course not. You can leave as soon as you’re done with your mission…yes, why would we keep you after that?’ Ming said. His tone lacked surety. I didn’t like that.

‘Awesome!’ Ryan exclaimed. ‘So, what do we do?’

Ming frowned. He started staring at the ceiling again. After he was done with its structure and geography, he turned to us.

‘I have a big assignment for you,’ he said.

‘We’re listening,’ I said.

‘I want both of you, along with Sid, to go and seek El Dorado, the lost city of gold.’

‘Cool! So, how do we start?’ Ryan said. He was really geared up for this. I was still pondering if this was some stupid, crazy, fantasial dream.

Ming frowned again. I didn’t like that expression on his face.

‘What’s wrong?’ I asked.

‘Are you up for it?’ Ming asked. ‘You better be. Because there is no turning back now.’

Ryan and I raised our eyebrows. ‘Why? Are we the only school kids or something? Is it too dangerous?’

‘No, there are people younger than you who become hunters. It’s this place…’

‘What about it?’ I asked.

‘I’m sorry,’ Ming said. ‘I really didn’t want it to be you two. You were chosen for this.’

‘Chosen?’ I cast a puzzled look.

Ming nodded. ‘Yes, chosen. By Emira herself. You two are destined to be the last people who would seek the lost city…’

‘There were people before us?’ Ryan asked.

Ming gave us a sorry look. And then he burst the bomb.

‘Many hunters have gone and tried to seek this elusive city of gold. But no one has ever managed to come back…alive…’
***
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Fantasia...

LOST CITY OF GOLD- 1

2012-07-14T22:39:00.000-07:00

Posting after a very LONG time. Was very busy with my school work. Anyways, I'm starting off with my first actual fantasy series in this blog. As you might have noticed, my previous posts were mostly horror and horror isn't usually considered to be a part of fantasy genre. The series is called 'Mystery Hunters'. Won't say anymore here. Just keep reading!
(I've kind of lost the script of the Borley Rectory series. I need to write them up all over again. So, it'll take a while before I post further parts.)

CHAPTER-1
THE PORTAL

26^th June, 2012. That’s the day my entire life changed. Forever. I was a pretty normal kid before that. I was 17. I went to school. I did math. I participated in sports and other activities. I did everything that a normal kid ought to do.

I was pretty aware of the fact that life was full of surprises. You never knew what lay in store for you. But this, this was way out of the line. This was too amazing and too freakish to be believed. In fact, even now, I periodically pinch myself to check if all this happened in the first place. The pinch hurts. But no, that just isn’t good enough.

My name is Ryan. I lived the life of a normal kid for 17 years. But then, as I said, everything changed. And it changed in one of the last places you would look for something extraordinary. It changed in school.

Bridgestone High. That’s the name of my school. And I have to admit, it was a pretty cool place. Barring my Physics teacher, that is. I studied there all my life. I made my friends there. It was my second home.

Okay, that’s enough about me. I’ll get down to the point. My story starts on a gray, apparently uneventful Tuesday. As usual, I had woken up in the morning, did my usual chores and got dressed up for school. Pretty normal till there.

It was yet another ordinary day in school. Mr. Bohra, our Physics teacher, as usual questioned about the emptiness of the space between my ears. I wouldn’t have minded that at all. That is, if Serena wasn’t in my class.

Serena. She was one of the prettiest beings I had ever met. Tall, fair, graceful and ever smiling, she was easily more beautiful than Kristen Stewart from Twilight. Honest. And her name, it was tailor made for her. She had the most serene face, the most serene expression. She was the most serene, the most pleasant thing in the world. And her voice, it was totally amazing. I personally thought she could give Adele a run for her money.

Bohra would use his uncertainty principles trying to calculate if I had a brain or not. The whole class would start laughing. And I would hang my head in shame. And my head, in its suspended state would glance at Serena. She never laughed. All my sorrow and shame would drain away, seeing that.

Surviving double Physics on a dry Tuesday was a Herculean task. And I, Hercules, managed to accomplish it, but only at the cost of getting mentally drained out. So, I was naturally annoyed when this guy came into my class asking for me.

‘Is Ryan in this class?’ he shouted.

I was about to surrender myself to slumber when this idiot came and disturbed my most desired activity. I sat upright. I rubbed my eyes and walked up to the guy.

He seemed to be 17 like me. But I’d never seen him in school before. And that was weird considering the fact that there were only about five dozen people in the high school building. And I knew each one of them, at least by face. I could bet I had never seen this guy before. That should have been my first clue…

‘Ryan?’ he enquired.

‘Yeah. Who are you?’

‘Call me Sid. Listen, I need to talk to you. And yeah, is Serena in this class?’

‘Ummm…yeah.’ I answered.

Now, that was totally weird. No one called Serena and me at the same time. True, we were called out of class, a little more often than the rest. But it was for different reasons. I was called to be reprimanded. She was called because she was class monitor.

‘Could you please call her?’

Now, that was something that was harder than surviving double Physics. I had this problem for my entire life. I can’t talk to girls normally. I mean, I always stammer and fumble when I indulge in conversation with the opposite gender. So, you could imagine my plight when it came to my crush. Mute. That’s the word. I was a Helen Keller when I was in front of her. She had tried to indulge in conversations with me earlier. But all I managed to conjure were ‘uhh’s and ‘umm’s. It’s been two months since I had that conversation with her.

‘Uhhh…yeah. She’s over there. Why don’t you call her?’

Sid raised his eyebrows and then he gave me a sly smile which made my cheeks flush.

‘Serena?’ he shouted.

She looked up and walked up to us. My legs started metamorphosing to jelly.

We exchanged glances and that made my face burn. Go ahead. Call me lame.

‘Yes?’ she said in her soft, sweet voice.

‘I need to talk to the both of you. Please follow me.’ He said and walked out of the class.

I didn’t protest. And neither did she. We followed him as he walked us through the corridors, down the stairs and into the school grounds.

‘Have any idea where he’s taking us?’ she was speaking to me after two months.

I closed my eyes to grasp onto my equilibrium. Know what? Even I think this was stupid. She was human after all. I could indulge in normal conversation with her.

‘Uhh…ummm…no idea,’ I managed to fumble.

She smiled. My face burned. I turned away and continued walking.

Sid took us to the middle of the school grounds. As I mentioned earlier, my school wasn’t very big. But our ground was. In fact, it occupied twice the space that the three buildings of our school did together.

‘Why did you bring us here?’ Serena asked.

‘You’ll know pretty soon,’ he said.

Sid dug into his right pocket and brought out something that looked like a mini walkie-talkie.

‘All clear?’ he spoke into it.

The thing buzzed for a few seconds. And then a voice was heard.

‘All clear.’

Sid put back his walkie talkie back into his pocket. He then dug into his left pocket and brought out another weird object. This thing looked like a pencil with a bulb on top of it.

‘Stand back,’ he said.

Both of us took two steps back.

He then started rotating the stick in mid-air. I noticed green foam forming. Definitely, something weird was going on.

The bulb then glowed to magnificent proportions. It almost blinded us.

‘Command?’ A voice came from the bulb.

‘Mystica,’ Sid replied.

The light went out. And so did the stick out of Sid’s hands. My jaws dropped as I saw it floating in mid air. And then, it started revolving vigorously giving out bright green light. I had to shut my eyes off.

And then I heard something exploding. I opened my eyes. Sid was still standing there. The stick had disappeared.

‘What is happening?’ Serena asked.

I couldn’t answer. No, not because of my selective mutism. It was because; I was amazed and speechless myself.

‘Hop in,’ Sid said turning back at us. He was smiling.

‘Huh?’ I said and walked up to him. And then I saw what he was pointing at. There was a small green hole in the ground. And though the thought was completely nuts, something inside me told me that it was a portal.

But that wasn’t supposed to be possible. Magical portals existed only in science fiction movies. Not real life.

Serena too walked up to us. And her eyes widened on seeing the portal. She grasped my hand. You can imagine the repercussions that took place as an aftermath.

‘What is that?’

‘It’s a portal. A portal that’ll take you to Mystica,’ Sid said as casually as a school kid talking about homework.

Now, that was nuts. Okay, I had this preconception that it was portal. But I’m a crackpot. I think up crazy stuff. For example, I believe Bohra is an alien from Mars. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true.

‘Portal?’

‘Yes, now keep one of your feet on it and see the magic,’ he winked.

Serena and I exchanged glances again. This was too weird to be true. I pinched myself. Unfortunately, it hurt.

‘No, I’ve got no intentions of hurting you,’ Sid said as if he were reading our minds.

I took one of my feet into the air. And then I placed it on the green portal. Damn, I should have thought about it twice.

‘Serena?’ Sid said noticing her hesitation. She had still not let go of the grasp of my hand.

It took her five solid minutes to lift her left foot up and place it on the portal. But her actions were completely justified. Because, as soon as she did so, we got sucked into it.

I really can’t explain that feeling. We fell down what seemed like a bottomless pit. All the air inside me sucked out. Everything was green around me. Except for Serena. We could do nothing but scream.

I think I blanked out after that. Because I have no recollections as to how that horrific travel ended. Anyways, when I regained consciousness, I got the shock of my life.

Remember what I told you in the beginning of this story?

Yes, my life had changed. Whether it was for the better or worse, I didn’t know.

THE MYSTERY OF THE BORLEY RECTORY- 6

2012-06-23T21:50:00.001-07:00

PART 6

Laura considered us for a brief period of time. I didn’t know what was going on in her mind. Being a 12th century woman, she definitely considered us to be strange and wacky, given our 700 years newer attires.
‘What…what can you do?’ she asked in a feeble tone.
‘Maybe try and stop you from being executed?’ Price said.
Laura was half dead when we entered the room. But as soon as Price made his unbelievable statement, all the life that had been knocked out of her, courtesy the people and the guards, returned and was clearly visible on her face.
Her jaws dropped and she blankly stared at us. I think I could understand what was going on through her mind. The whole world was against her. She was considered a traitor. A trademark of adultery. A shame to the society. She was sentenced to death. A death, that was nasty and inevitable. So, naturally we coming and offering her help was no stranger than a UFO landing in our village.
And then her face fell. She cowered a little more. Maybe, all this was too unbelievable.
‘You cannot do anything,’ she said.
‘We can try at least,’ Price said not too reassuringly.
‘What can you do for me?’
‘We will free you from this place and we’ll…we’ll make sure you go off to a far off place, out of the clutches of the people of Borley.’
She raised her hands in front of her face. I realized why. Our rescue operation wasn’t going to be so simple. Her hands and legs were chained to the wall.
‘Maybe this will work,’ Price said taking out the keys the guards gave us. There were two keys. One was obviously for the door. This meant the other could be for…
Price went up to the nun and crouched. He took her left hand in his right. he then inserted the other key and tried to break her free.
‘It’s not working. It’s not the key,’ he said after fifteen minutes in a defeated tone.
‘What do we do now?’ my sister asked.
‘We have to get the keys. I don’t think these chains can be broken. They’re amazingly strong for the 12th century.’
Laura looked a little puzzled with Price’s last statement. Clearly, people of the 12th century didn’t refer to their time period too often.
Price tried the key on her right hand and then on her legs. It didn’t work.
‘Damn it,’ he said.
‘Why are you trying to help me?’ Laura asked.
The truth was we were forced into rescuing her by her spirit friend in the Borley Rectory mansion. But I guessed, she really wouldn’t believe us if we told her so.
‘We are here to help you because we believe that falling in love is no crime,’ my sister said.
Price looked a my sister with a look of great admiration.
‘But I never was in love…’ Laura said quietly.
‘It’s okay, Laura,’ Price said. ‘We are with you. You did nothing wrong,’ Price reassured her.
‘Please! Believe me! I’m a nun. I’m married to Jesus Himself. How can I commit such a hideous crime?’ she almost screamed.
All the three of us stared at her. I remembered she telling the same words during the trial. But no one listened to her. To be honest, I did not believe her myself. I thought of it to be a desperate, last ditch attempt to save herself.
Price raised his eyebrows. ‘Please explain,’ he said in a quiet tone.
‘I never fell in love,’ she said. She was in tears now. ‘There was only one I loved. And that was Jesus. I was pure, I am pure and I shall die pure. What crime I have been accused of has been committed by someone else…’
My jaws dropped. This was so unbelievable. So unbearable. I tried to think from Laura’s point of view. So, she hadn’t committed a ‘crime’ in the first place. She was not at fault. She had been accused falsely. And now she was seen as a criminal, a criminal who deserved punishment of the most hideous kind. I tried to imagine her desperation. Her helplessness. Her anger.
‘Someone else?’ my sister said.
Laura weakly nodded her head. ‘Katherine Bell. She is a nun at the Rectory. She was married to Jesus too. But…but she was unfaithful. She fell in love. She fell in love with the monk of the monastery, William Surge.’
‘Are monks not supposed to fall in love too?’ I asked out of curiosity.
‘I suppose not,’ Price answered.
The nun continued with her story. ‘Their affair lasted almost a year. It all went unnoticed. Until the day, I saw them. Together. Embracing each other. I was furious. And in my surge of fury, I shouted at them making them acknowledge my presence. They were shocked and frightened. Willaim and Katherine begged to me. They begged me to not inform the officials about this. They told me they would be buried alive if they were found guilty. I took pity on them. I agreed…’ she said the last sentence in utter remorse.
‘And then?’
‘The very Katherine whose life I had saved betrayed me. I was betrayed. And so was William. Katherine complained to the monarch officials that William and I were committing adultery…’
‘And they believed her? Just like that?’
Laura sighed in desperation. ‘I suppose she had a thing going with one of the nobles in the monarch.’
I felt sorry for Laura. But more than that, I felt anger and hatred for Katherine. She was a person of the most hideous kind. A monster. She betrayed, probably, the two most important people in her life. One, her lover and the other, who saved her life.
‘William and I were captured. I pleaded I wasn’t guilty. William also supported me. But all to no avail. Both of us were helpless.’
‘William confessed his crime?’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘He wasn’t bothered of the fact that he would be executed. No, what he wanted, was revenge. But unfortunately, he couldn’t get any. The very next day after our capture, he was burnt alive.’
I gulped trying to picturize the scene. How horrific it must have been for him. I imagined the pain William must have suffered, not from being burnt alive, but from the fact that he was betrayed by a person whom he loved the most.
‘I see,’ Price said in a grim tone. ‘Anything else you want to say?’
‘Yes, it was what William told me the night before his execution.’
‘What?’ I asked.
‘He said about something Katherine had given to him. Something that could save my life…Something he had hidden so well that even Katherine couldn’t get hold of it.’
All our eyes went wide.
‘Thank you, Laura. We shall meet you later.’ Price said after a brief moment of silence.
Laura didn’t answer back. ‘Come on, let’s go.’
‘Where to?’ I asked.
‘Isn’t that obvious? Come on!’
We came out of the cottage and locked it from the outside. I was so eager to save her. I almost felt thankful to Sunex Amures for sending us here. We were doing something really great and humane.
Sunex Amures. Damn, I shouldn’t have thought of her. Because, when I did, I saw her right in front of us, in her spirit form.
‘So, how’s it going?’ she asked casually.
‘Very well, Ms. Amures.’ Price answered quietly.
‘Well, good for you then. But remember only four hours remain to daylight in your time. You better speed up.’
‘What do you mean? What if we don’t manage to do it in four hours?’ I asked, a chill running down my spine.
‘Ah, that’s imple. If Laura isn’t rescued under four hours, the Rectory shall catch fire and you pesky meddlers will be stuck here forever. Now, follow me. I have something important to show you.’

THE MYSTERY OF THE BORLEY RECTORY- 5

2012-06-09T22:08:00.002-07:00

PART 5

‘Where are we?’ I asked. No, this couldn’t be. I couldn’t have possibly gone back in time. The spirits, the headless coachmen, they all had to be a terrible nightmare.
‘Borley,’ replied Price in a serious tone.
‘We couldn’t have, could we?’ My sister asked nervously.
‘I’m afraid it is otherwise. We are in the village of Borley. And if Amures is to be believed, we are in the year 1244.’
‘But it can’t be!’ I exclaimed. Even though we were standing in bright daylight with no hints of haunting spirits anywhere, I was creeped out.
‘I’m sorry,’ Price said in an apologetic tone. ‘I never intended to put you kids into such trouble. I didn’t foresee this happening.’
At this instant, I felt like pulping him into bits. Yeah, right. The Borley Rectory. Most haunted house in England. What did he expect it to be? A candy store?
But then I recalled that it was I who volunteered to keep a watch on that wretched mansion. Damn. All for just a pound.
‘What do we do now? You’re supposed to be a ghost and weird object investigator. You know a way out, don’t you?’ I asked, even though, deep inside I knew the bald headed retard could do nothing about it.
‘I wish I could.’ Price heaved a sigh.
I knew it. We were doomed.
And then we heard a distant bell ring. It didn’t sound like the normal church bell.
‘What is that about?’ My sister asked.
‘Let us check.’
We found the source of sound after a minute’s walk. It was a man. A man dressed in weird clothes. I mean weird for the 20th century.
‘Hear! Hear! The trial of nun Ms. Laura Smith is to be conducted today at 12 AM in the grounds of Borley.’
‘Laura Smith!’ I exclaimed. ‘It’s the spirit!’
‘Yes, the very same. And my watch says it is 11.30 now. We have to hurry.’
I knew the village of Borley inside out. The grounds were very close to the cottage we lived in.
It was a fifteen minute walk to the ground. The ground looked similar to the 700 years younger one. It was huge, lush and green. Perfect place to relax.
But now, the ground was serving a much serious purpose. It was the place where public trials were conducted. There were already people gathered by the time we reached. We chose to stand seat ourselves under a tree.
Sure enough, at 12 noon, three elderly men arrived and took seats in front of the audience. They were so fat that they found it difficult to adjust themselves within the chair’s limited width.
‘May the accused be brought,’ the middle judge said.
Everyone turned back. Yes, Laura was being brought by two men who were dressed similarly to the bell man. She was in chains. And she had the same helpless expression as her spirit self.
She didn’t take any notice of us. Maybe she knew we were here to save her and didn’t want the people to know it. Or maybe the live, human Laura Smith never knew who we were.
Laura and the chain men stood in front of the audience besides the judge’s table.
‘The charges?’ the middle judge spoke again.
‘Laura Smith has been accused of being involved in a romantic relationship with Peter Davis, monk at the monastery. By the laws of the church, a nun is naturally married to God Himself. So, in this case, if the laws of the church are to be abided with, then we come to establish the fact that Ms. Laura Smith has committed adultery of the most unforgivable sort. She has showcased infidelity against God himself.’
‘Kill the traitor!’ a man shouted.
The crowd began to go mad. They started throwing shoes, eggs and everything else they carried at her. The guards moved aside, so as to give the audience a clear target.
‘I’m not guilty! Please!’ She was crying. She was desperate. Helpless. No one was beside her to support her.
And for the first time, I really felt the need to help her. To save her from her misery. Laura wasn’t scary to me anymore. She was helpless and one of the most unfortunate being on Earth.
How could the people be so heartless? She had just loved. Being in love was not a crime, was it? She was human after all. What if she was a nun? Nuns cannot fall in love?
Irrationality was flowing through the entire ground. Thank God, I didn’t belong to the thirteenth century.
‘Please, I’m not guilty. Please.’ She pleaded. Just then, a stone hit her head and she collapsed onto her knees. But the cries and the animal assault on her didn’t stop. She was treated like a beast. A beast chained and brought in front of the people to be tortured. To be devoured. To be killed.
‘Silence,’ the judge said after realizing that the situation was going way out of hand. Probably he didn’t want her to die…in such a painless way.
‘Any specified punishments?’
‘Execution sir. The nun has to be buried alive in the walls of the very institution she committed adultery in.’
The judge rubbed his cheek.
‘All in favor of execution?’
‘Aye!’ A thunderous roar was sent out from the audience. Their decision was clear. Kill the woman. Kill her for falling in love.
‘All against?’
I was about to raise my hand when Price caught it and shook his head. I studied the audience. Not a single hand went up.
‘Well, it is settled then. Ms. Laura Smith shall be executed on the 18th of July. She shall be buried within the walls of the monastery in penance of her hideous crime. She shall spend the days dated between 14th and 17th July in house arrest. Case dismissed.’
The crowd got noisy again. They seemed to be very happy with the judgment. Animals.
‘Please, no. I’m not guilty. Please, listen to me,’ Laura was wailing. But there was no one to listen to her.
The guards dragged her by the chains. She was too weak to stand up. She was still sobbing.
‘What do we do now?’ I asked.
‘We follow them. House arrest, they said. We shall be able to talk to her.’
‘But people aren’t supposed to speak to anyone when under house arrest! That’s the norm, isn’t it?’
‘Just follow me. I know what to do.’
We did as we were instructed. The guards showed no mercy as she was dragged by the chains. It was so ironical. Even Jesus Christ had been chained and crucified. I don’t think he would have imposed such treatment on her even if she cheated on him.
The nun’s house was apparently a cottage. It looked exactly like ours. It was situated near where Charles Lane was in the 20th century.
The guards threw her into her abode and locked the door from outside. The animals had done their job.
‘Excuse me?’ Price said as they passed by us.
The guards cast an appraising look. Maybe they found our attire weird the same way we found theirs.’
‘Who may you be?’
‘Harry Price. Noble at her Majesty’s palace. I was asked to query Ms. Laura Smith.’
‘You think he’s telling the truth?’ one guard asked the other.
‘Well, he’s dressed weirdly.’
‘Yeah, nobles dress weirdly, don’t they?’
‘I am a noble.’ Price said calmly. He dug into one of his pockets and I think, brought out his identity card.
‘See this? This is called an identity card. Every noble has one.’
The guards apparently spent all their life bringing chained prisoners to the court. They had no idea whatsoever, as to what nobles or ID cards were.
‘Me thinks he’s a noble,’ one guard said.
‘Me thinks too,’
‘Can I have the key please? You’re wasting my time.’
‘Sure, my lord,’ the dimwit guard said and handed over the key to Price.
We waited for the guards to go out of sight. Price then used the key to open the door.
Laura was there, lying on the floor. She was barely alive. But even in her half-dead state, she sensed she had company.
She cowered at once. It was expected. The treatment she was receiving, any person would have turned paranoid in seconds.
‘Who…who are you?’ she asked in a trembling voice.
‘You need not be afraid of us. I’m Harry Price. And they are Bruce and Mary Campbell. We are here to help.’

THE MYSTERY OF THE BORLEY RECTORY- 4

2012-06-06T21:50:00.002-07:00

PART 4

We turned towards the direction of the voice at once. Yes, it was another spirit. And unless I was terribly mistaken, she too was a nun. She had the same attire (if you could call it attire) and was a little more cheerful than her depressed, reserved and shy counterpart.
‘What is your-‘
‘Name? Sunex Amures. What’s yours?’
For a spirit, she was really being friendly.
‘Harry Price.’ He said. He didn’t even bother to introduce us. Not that we were terribly interested.
‘So ma’am, were you a nun?’
The smile on the nun’s face faded.
‘Were? What do you mean were? I am still a nun!’ she snapped.
‘I’m…I’m sorry. Ummm…how long have you been…uh-‘
‘Dead? Oh, you heartless beast! You ask me how long I’ve been in this pitiable form? Three hundred years!’ She screamed in her shrill, ice cold voice.
For the first time, Price seemed a little uncomfortable. He swallowed. ‘And her?’
‘Laura? Ah, even more. Seven hundred.’ She said softening up a bit.
A chill ran down my spine. Seven hundred years. That was like forever. For seven hundred years, she had been trapped in the wretched mansion, forced to wander around for eternity…a disturbed death was surely unpleasant. Its effects were nastier.
Price motioned towards the room in which Laura, the nun entered. We followed suit.
The nun was still there. She was seated on the bed, staring at her arms which were on her lap. She had the grimmest expression on her face. Her state was so pathetic that I begin to feel pity instead of fear.
‘You’ve got company Laura,’ Amures said.
She looked up and considered us for a second. She then continued to stare at her hands.
‘Where do you live?’ Price asked.
The nun looked up again. She blankly stared at Price. Then, after what seemed like a minute, she pointed towards the wall.
‘The wall?’ My sister exclaimed.
‘Yes, dear. The wall,’ Amures replied. ‘Where else can she rest? Her bones are buried in there.’
Right. I began to recall the story. Yes, the nun had been buried alive beneath the walls. So, it was all true.
Laura then begun to diffuse into the air. And before long, she transformed into the shapeless fog and passed into the wall…
My legs started shivering again. I desperately wanted to be out of this place. My wish came true…temporarily.
‘We shall leave now. Thank you, Miss Amures.’ Price said walking out of the room. I was so relieved. So happy. I vowed never to even set sight on the wretched mansion.
We had barely taken a few steps out of the room when Amures spoke up.
‘Oh, you’re not going anywhere.’ She said in a firmer, deeper tone.
My heart skipped a beat. This was definitely not good news.
Price turned back and even in the dark, I was able to see him raise his eyebrows.
‘Excuse me?’
‘You’re not going anywhere,’ she repeated. ‘You’re going to help us. Help, yes. We need that from you…’
‘How can we be of any help?’
‘Oh, you can be plenty of help. We want salvation. But that won’t be possible unless our past is changed. You have to perform the necessary changes.’
‘But how?’ I spoke up this time.
‘You go back to Laura’s time. And make sure she isn’t buried beneath the walls. You make she lives.’
‘But that’s impossible! We cannot go six hundred years back!’
‘Sure you can. And after that, you go to my time and do the same.’
‘And if we deny?’ Price asked.
‘Simple. You’re trapped in the mansion. The only other way we can attain salvation is by burning our bones whilst offering human sacrifice. So, I’ll just burn down the mansion.’
My heart started racing. I begin to think as to what would happen if we were burnt alive. That was disturbed death, so, would that mean that we would become spirits too and wander around the mansion for eternity?
‘Run!’ I conjured a scream of the highest amplitude. I caught hold of my sister’s hand and raced towards the stairs. This was just the second floor. We could make it out of the mansion if we were fast enough.
The steps creaked as we descended. The unexplained noises of the house begin to grow louder. The utensils started clanking loudly and all of a sudden, there was a huge storm outside.
We didn’t look back. But I sensed Price behind us. The old man wasn’t as fast as us but he made sure he was not far behind.
We reached the door. And I frantically turned the knob. Thank God, it opened. We were on the grounds now. We could make it. How wrong I was.
‘It’s no use…’ I heard Sunex’s voice. She was still on the second floor. She hadn’t even bothered to chase us.
The next instant I knew why. Just in front of us was a carriage. Only it was made of foggy spirit material and there were two drivers…who had no heads.
They had a hunter in their hands. They were a good twenty feet away from us. But when they lashed the air with the hunter, a surge of pain burst through my body. It was as if it had lashed me.
Price already succumbed to the hit. He lay on the ground writhing in pain. My sister fell on me for support.
‘So, are we ready now?’ Amures sniggered.
The headless carriage drivers lashed in mid air once more and this time it hit my back. It was as if my back would split in pain. I grasped it with my hands and surrendered next to Price.
‘Need any more?’
The drivers begin to raise their hunter for the third time when my sister screamed, ‘Stop it! We’ll go!’
‘That is better, my child.’
Amures appeared in front of us after a few seconds time. My back was still burning.
Price, my sister and I took a while to get to our feet. I didn’t withdraw my hands from my back.
‘You know what to do, don’t you?’ the wretched nun asked.
‘Y…Yes. We prevent the execution.’
Amures gave us a toothless grin. ‘Follow me,’ she said.
She took us to the same room where we met Laura. She wasn’t present there though.
‘You’re being sent to 15th June, 1244, Borley. Laura’s execution is on the 18th. Make sure it doesn’t happen.’
We merely nodded. ‘Good, now put your heads against the wall.’
We did as we were instructed. I withdrew my left hand from my back to clasp my sister’s right.
I closed my eyes as I felt ice cold fingers on my head. ‘Make sure she is alive. If you fail, remember, you’ll be trapped in there forever.’
‘But you didn’t tell us that!’
‘I must have forgotten. I don’t think you mind though…’
Yeah, right. As if she would oblige to us minding.
I clasped my sister’s hand tighter. I had no clue as to what this nun’s intentions were. This might have been the last time I would see my sister.
And then everything went black. I don’t have any recollection of any of the events that took place after that, that night. When I woke up, it was morning. We were in a place that looked like the grounds of the Rectory.
I turned to look at the mansion. Only there wasn’t a mansion anymore, there was a monastery.
‘Where are we?’ I asked.
‘Let us get out of here first,’ Price said.
We walked out of the grounds of the Rectory (monastery) and I felt so relieved. We had finally got rid of the wretched mansion.
I would be back at home. My sister and I. And we would be a pound richer too. Everything would be just fine.
I looked around to take a look at my beautiful, peaceful village. And then I realized. No doubt, we were in the village of Borley. Only it was 700 years younger…

THE MYSTERY OF THE BORLEY RECTORY- 3

2012-06-04T22:17:00.002-07:00

PART 3

It was very cold out there in the garden. The temperature seemed to drop a few more degrees, thanks to the presence of the nun. She eyed us for what seemed like hours. At first, she had a grimace on her face. But as time passed, her expression slowly softened. Finally when she took her eyes off us, she heaved a sigh, of desperation, of helplessness and disappeared.
I realized I was shivering. Whether it was out of the cold or the fear, I really don’t know. I grasped my sister’s hand for comfort. It was stone cold.
We stood rooted at our spots. No one moved. No one spoke. The rumors, the sightings, they were all true. My sister was wrong. Spirits did exist. Dangerous or not, they managed to knock us out of our senses.
It was the retard investigator who brought us here, who broke the silence. And after hearing out what he said, I really wished we delved in the silence, however uncomfortable it was, forever.
‘She is up there,’ he said pointing towards the Rectory.
My head swayed towards the direction of his pointed finger. No, it just couldn’t be. The nun hadn’t disappeared. We were still in her company. There she was, on the second floor balcony, gazing at us expressionless.
There was no doubt she was trying to tell us something. But I guess she couldn’t speak. Or maybe (though it sounds illogical) she was afraid of us. I figured out that either she wanted help or she wanted us to leave. I definitely preferred the latter proposition.
But that was not to be. Not as long as the spirit hungry investigator was with us.
‘We’re going inside,’ he said in the grimmest tone he could conjure.
My clasp on my sister’s hand tightened. She put her free hand on my shoulder to comfort me. But that didn’t feel any better.
There was no way I was going into the house. It was haunted. It was dangerous. But again, it was a pound at stake.
Price walked towards the dreaded mansion without even asking what we felt about his plan. We had no choice but to follow him. We were just a twenty odd steps away from the door.
The door. It was huge and it had cobwebs all over it. Apparently no one opened it for decades. We were the first fools to do so.
Price turned the doorknob. And to my distress, it opened with a shrill creak. Even though it was a full moon night, I wasn’t able to see anything inside. It was pitch dark.
The Rectory must have realized that it had visitors after a long time. It greeted us with sounds. There was a creek at the staircase at first. Then, there was the sound of footsteps climbing down the stairs. And then, there was a huge thud followed by a scream.
Price turned his torchlight towards the direction of the scream. There was a staircase. But no human who could have conjured up the scream.
At this point, my legs started shivering so bad, I found it difficult to stand in one place. The sounds that followed didn’t make it any better. I heard the sounds of utensils clanking. Someone was cooking. At least that was what it seemed like.
‘Let’s go upstairs,’ Price said.
I was appalled at his suggestion. He was insane. And for the first time, I begin to wonder if all this was worth a pound.
We climbed up the stairs. There were shrill creaks every time we climbed one step up. The steps were also covered with cobwebs. Some of them stuck to my pants.
Finally when we reached the second floor, my sister tripped over something.
‘Ouch,’ she moaned. Her voice echoed down the entire mansion.
We stopped at our tracks. Price directed his torchlight towards the culprit. It was a package wrapped in brown paper.
Again I wished we just went our way. But that was not to be. Price knelt down to examine the package. He unwrapped the brown cover. It wasn’t a present as a normal person would expect it to be.
It was a skull. A skull of a woman.
I had to clasp my mouth to stop myself from screaming. It was a horrendous sight. The skull had blood stains on it. Apparently someone had banged the person on her head so hard that her skull cracked and she died.
‘Murder,’ Price declared. Yeah, as if we didn’t know.
I begin to feel as uncomfortable as ever as Price begin to examine the skull. Talking to the nun seemed like a better proposition now.
‘Excuse me?’ I heard a women’s voice.
I turned towards my sister. She had a puzzled expression on her face. Then our eyes went wide in unison as we turned back.
It was a spirit. Not the nun. This was a spirit of a young woman. And she seemed to have the same expressionless face as the nun’s.
‘Excuse me?’ she repeated in her cold shrill voice.
‘Yes?’ Price replied as if he was indulging in a conversation with another human being.
‘That is my head.’ She said.
‘What?’
‘That is my head. Please keep it down. I don’t like people handling it.’
This time I couldn’t control myself. I had to scream my lungs out. I would have fainted otherwise.
Harry Price stood there, as if waiting for me to stop screaming. When I did, the wretched man started questioning the spirit.
‘Who are you?’
‘Marianne. It has been a while since I’ve seen humans. It’s nice to have company after such a long time,’ she said and motioned towards one of the room. She then lay down on the bed. After a few moments, the bed pushed her down. Yes, you read that right. Then, she again slept on the bed only to fall out of it again. This process continued.
I didn’t know how to react. I was really scared. I could have fainted any moment. I grasped my sister so tight, she almost ran out of breath.
And Price scored again. He managed to dig out another find. This had to be the creepiest of them all. It was the wall. And the writing on it…
‘Please help get…Marianne.’ was written on the wall. And just below it was another message, this time too, written by the same person. Marianne.
‘Marianne, light mass prayers.’
Marianne had been trapped in this haunted house, I realized. She had been trapped. She had asked for help. But all in vain.
Price signaled us to go forward, towards the balcony where the nun was still standing. As we moved closer, the nun noticed our presence and she begun to walk away. Then, just like Marianne, she entered into one of the rooms.
‘Can I please talk to you?’ Harry Price asked. The man was definitely mad.
Price got an answer. Only it wasn’t from the nun or Marianne or us. It was from another person, whom judging by the voice was an old woman.
‘Oh she won’t talk,’ the voice said. ‘She is extremely shy. Ask me whatever you want to…’

THE MARK OF ATHENA

2012-06-02T22:30:00.001-07:00

Finally! Rick Riordan has given us some news about 'The Mark Of Athena'. To be honest, the wait for this book has been the most painful. It is the third installment in the fabulous 'Heroes Of Olympus' series. In this book, the Greek and the Roman camp finally unite to resist the might forces of Gaia, the Earth Goddess.
As usual, the cover art of the book is simply fabulous. It signifies one of the major events taking place in the book. The author, however refused to state what the event actually was.
The book is expected to release on October 12, 2012. Gosh! That's still three months away. But I'm sure it will be worth the wait.
Haven't read 'Heroes Of Olympus'? Well then, what are you waiting for? Trust me, it is an awesome series. A must read for children and adults alike.
You can find out more about the 'Heroes Of Olympus' from this link:
Heroes Of Olympus
Book 1- The Lost Hero
Book 2- The Son Of Neptune
For all those who have read the first two books and are eagerly waiting for the third, well, Disney Hyperion has released the first chapter of the book. You can read it here:
The Mark Of Athena- Chapter 1
And finally, Rick Riordan, to make our wait for this book, a little less painful will release a book 'The Demigod Diaries' on August 14th, 2012 (That's still a long way!) This book will include a story by Haley Riordan, his son who first inspired him to write the 'Percy Jackson' series.

I'm currently working on the third part of the 'Mystery Of Borley Rectory' series. For those who haven't read the first two parts can do so by following this link:
The Mystery Of The Borley Rectory
Also, you can read my very first, 'The Curse Of The Painting' series:
Curse Of The Painting
I'll keep posting news coming from Riordan and his works. I'll upload the third part in a day or twos time. Till then, its sayonara! Keep visiting my blog for further updates.

THE MYSTERY OF THE BORLEY RECTORY- 2

2012-06-01T22:02:00.001-07:00

PART 2

The night arrived pretty soon. The man said he would come to fetch us at eight. He was an hour late. We didn’t mind. The time we had to keep a watch on the wretched mansion decreased by the same amount of time.
Finally at nine, he arrived in a horse driven carriage. At night, he looked even more grim and sinister. Maybe that’s what happened to you if you interfered with the matters of the spirits too much. His eyes were heavy. I wondered if he ever slept at all. Because he was into ghosts and spirits. And as a rule, they came out only in the night.
‘You children ready?’ he asked. Again, he cast a dirty look at my sister which made me greatly uncomfortable.
‘Yes,’ my sister said calmly. Judging by her expression, she didn’t like him too much too.
‘Very good. Let’s go then,’ he said and walked out of our cottage. My sister caught hold of my hand and we followed the man’s lead.
‘Where to now, sir?’ The carriage driver asked.
‘The Rectory.’
I saw the driver’s expression go pale in the light of the full moon. People hesitated to go to the Rectory even in the day.
‘I’m sorry, sir. I’m not going anywhere near that place,’ he said in a feeble voice.
‘I’ll pay you a pound.’
My eyes turned wide. One whole pound! Just for a ride to the Rectory! This man was really rich.
I was even more surprised when the driver said, ‘No sir. I’ve got too many nightmares attached to that wretched mansion.’
Harry Price didn’t try to persuade him any further. ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘At least to Charles Lane?’
The driver nodded.
‘Get in,’ he said.
We did as he instructed. I was thrilled. I had never ridden in a carriage in my entire life. It was too expensive.
But the experience was amazing. I felt the cool breeze hit my face as the horses galloped at a steady pace. Our village really looked beautiful at night. It was so quiet and peaceful and serene.
We arrived at the Charles Lane in fifteen minutes time. We got off the carriage. Price paid the man an amount which was definitely less than a pound.
‘Let’s go.’ He said lighting up a cigar.
The Rectory was a two minutes walk from Charles Lane. I didn’t really understand why the driver refused to ride us till our desired destination. After all, it would have taken less than a minute on a horse driven carriage. And he could have earned at least double of what he did.
‘So you’ve seen anything in the Rectory that might interest me?’ He asked as the distance between us and the Rectory gradually decreased.
‘No, sir. But we have heard of the incidents that took place.’ My sister answered.
‘You’ve heard of the nun?’
The nun. Who in Borley hadn’t heard the story of the nun? It was the most sighted spirit in the Rectory. And the story behind the story was also interesting, if not true.
People say there used to be a monastery there, a long time before the Rectory was built. Say, around six hundred years back. And in the monastery, worked a monk and a nun. God knows how, but they unfortunately fell in love with each other. Nuns are supposed to be married to God. And as far as I know, the monk wasn’t a God. So, when the people found out, they were furious. They hanged the monk and buried the nun alive in one of the walls of the monastery.
Now, the nun claimed to be innocent. She claimed that she never was in a relationship with the monk. Obviously, no one listened to her. And she nastily met her end. Her spirit wanted revenge. And that’s why she haunted the place, where the Rectory was situated. Not one family had lived in the place without reporting a sighting of the nun.
‘Yes, sir.’ My sister said.
‘Good. Because we will be looking out for her. I need to interact with her. If I manage to do so, I’m sure it will create a sensation all over England.’
‘You can talk to ghosts?’ I asked.
‘Yes, child. As a paranormal investigator, it is absolutely necessary that I be able to speak to spirits. Only those souls which have had the most unfortunate end become spirits. They try to avenge all the wrong that had been done to them in their life by haunting places and people. And it is the duty of my kind to negotiate with the unfortunate ones and quell their anger and dissatisfaction.’
Now this was a weird profession. Calming distressed spirits.
We reached the Rectory in another two minutes time. No one lived in and around the Rectory. It was completely deserted. And I had to accept, in the light of the full moon, it did look scary and haunted.
I lived in Borley all my life but this was the first time I ever visited the Rectory. It was huge. It was at least twenty times as large as our cottage. The Rectory was spread over two floors. There had to be at least fifty rooms inside.
I admit, I did feel a little creeped out. There was no one around us in at least half a mile radius.
‘So, where do we keep watch?’
‘Outside here in the lawn. The nun is most often sighted here. We’ll go into the house at two.’
Now this was a scary proposition. There was no way I was going into that house. But it was a pound which was at stake. I just hoped that we met the nun here itself, so that our man could have a little chat and we could go home, richer by a pound.
My wish came true after an hour. I really don’t if it was the fault of me hoping. Because we saw what we had come to see.
I did not believe my eyes at first. They were going drowsy and painfully heavy due to lack of sleep anyway. But that did not stop them from seeing the supernatural. Yes, approximately thirty meters in front of me, I saw fog forming. It came from nowhere.
And this fog, it didn't just drift away like normal fogs do. It remained static at its place of formation. And then, as if by magic it took a human form.
Yes, it was the nun. The nun who was buried alive in the walls. The nun that wanted revenge. The nun that had forced over a dozen families to move out of the house. The nun that was the biggest threat to our lives...
It had to be it.
Tall and painfully white, it started wandering in the grounds of the Rectory. It had its hands behind its back. And though it was not much of a face, I could see the grim, depressed expression on it. It didn't notice though, that it had visitors. I watched, my jaws dropped, as it begin to take rounds around the Rectory. Maybe she was looking for the monk, her lover. Maybe his spirit also roamed this place.
My heart begun to sink horribly. No, this just couldn’t be. My sister said ghosts didn’t exist. I had to be hallucinating. I turned to my sister. Her eyes were as wide as they could be and her jaws had dropped.
Price had a completely contrasting expression. He was delighted. These spirit investigators were nuts. He was eagerly waiting for the nun to notice him.
Then, what he did made me feel a strong urge to punch him. I furiously resisted it. The crackpot shouted at the nun.
What was worse, she turned to look at us. And she definitely didn’t look pleased with our presence in her territory…

THE MYSTERY OF THE BORLEY RECTORY- 1

2012-05-28T00:50:00.002-07:00

PART 1

I really didn’t like the man when I first met him. To be honest, I didn’t like any of the middle aged men who lived and visited our village of Borley. Their demeanor always suggested that they were up to something no good. And I definitely didn’t like the way they eyed my sister. But that was just what I felt. A hallucination, you can call it. Because none of the men in Borley were dangerous or sinister.
What was sinister was the huge mansion that was situated in our village. The Borley Rectory. I heard the mansion was really famous all over England.
It was regarded as a haunted house. Whether that is true, even the residents of Borley do not know. But it did attract the attention of the people with objects that could take pictures of people and places.
My sister says they even came to visit the site in 1930. That was seven years back. I was just four years old. So, I don’t really have any memories of that event.
Sightings in that mansion are reported almost on a daily basis. My sister calls it rubbish. She says it’s just one of the cheap and easy ways of earning money.
You create a sensation, people get interested and you get the limelight. I suggested we also do the same. Like tell the people we saw a ghost roaming in the grounds of the mansion. That might have earned us some money to get bread.
I’m Bruce Campbell. I’m eleven and my sister is the only person I have in this world. Her name is Mary Campbell. She’s nineteen.
My sister and I are orphans. We don’t really have anyone in this world to call us our own. My mother died shortly after she gave birth to me. So, I had never known her. I didn’t even know what she looked like. There were no pictures of her in the house. My sister says she was graceful and fair and at one time, was considered to be the most beautiful woman in the village of Borley.
My father, William Campbell was a woodcutter. He was the bread winner of the family and the only person we had in this world. But that was a few years back.
He was a victim of that terrible lung disease.
It’s almost been two years but I still remember the day he passed away. He had been bed ridden for months. I had come home from school early that day. I was very excited as I had drawn a picture of him in school during art class. My teacher had also praised it.
So, I went up to his bed and shook him gently. I thought he was asleep. I shook him harder. But he didn’t respond. No matter how weak he was, he always woke up and sat up whenever I called him. But this time he didn’t.
My sister was away, working in the farm. So, I went there to fetch her. I still remember the expression she had on her face when I told her that father wasn’t waking up. We reached home. My sister shook him vigorously crying out loud. She held one of his hands in hers. And then she let go of it. It effortlessly surrendered to gravity. I was right. My father was asleep. Only, it was forever.
I still remember the funeral, the next day. I watched, as my father, the only person who cared for us, was buried inside his coffin. I was crying. My sister wrapped me in her tender soft arms. She was weeping gently. We had lost our father. But that was not all. We had virtually lost our bread.

Apart from our late father, there was nobody in the world who could take care of us. My father had two brothers, who were also victims of tuberculosis. My mother was the only daughter of her parents and sadly, all of my grandparents, both paternal and maternal had passed away even before I was born.
So, my sister and I had to fend for ourselves. We had to earn our bread. And that was not easy. Borley wasn’t the most prosperous village in the country. In fact, there was nothing in it except for the stupid haunted mansion.
My sister took up a job as a domestic maid in one of the rich lord’s house. That earned her a decent amount. We were able to have a square meal a day. My sister wanted to send me to school but I decided otherwise. School cost too much. And with her futile earnings, it would result in us starving for half of the days.
I didn’t go out to work. I was too young to do any of the physically demanding jobs. I had applied for working as a newspaper boy for a news stall. The owner had told me that he would take me in once there was a vacancy. Six months have passed but I never heard from him. So, I had to drop that prospect too.
So, naturally the advertisement was like a jackpot to us.
It was just two days back that I came across one of the pamphlets on the road. I don’t know what made me pick it up and bring it home. Maybe it was the grim expression of the picture of the man. Back home, my sister read it out to me.
My sister could attend school till 14 as my father was alive then. I, on the other hand, attended school till when I was nine. So, I found it very difficult to read.
It was an advertisement by a man named Harry Price. He was a Para-something investigator. My sister says it means people who seek out for ghosts and spirits.
It seemed that he wanted volunteers who could keep watch on the Rectory and report any supernatural occurrence. The volunteers would all be paid.
I decided to volunteer. He was offering 50 pence for one night. That was huge money. My sister agreed to send me. She didn’t believe in ghosts. So, she was pretty confident that I would be safe there.
The next day, we met the man in his office. He was sitting behind the table, reading a newspaper. It took him a while to adjudge our presence in the room.
As I have told you before, I didn’t like the man. He was tall and lean, with the grim expression on his face. His small green eyes pierced into me as he smoked his massive cigar. He was completely bald, which gave his head, an oval egged shape.
‘Yes?’ He said as we stood in front of the table.
‘Sir, we would like to volunteer to keep a watch on the Rectory,’ my sister said.
The man raised his eyebrows and put the newspaper down. ‘You sure? You’re not afraid of ghosts?’
I opened my mouth to say that we didn’t believe in ghosts but quickly closed it. My sister had specifically told me not to say that. The man would never hire us then.
‘No sir. We don’t think the ghosts will harm us,’ my sister said wittily.
The man considered our appearance and demeanor for a short while. I found it greatly uncomfortable when he gazed at my sister with his dirty eyes. I hated it when any man did that.
‘Your name?’
‘Mary Campbell, sir. And this is my brother, Bruce Campbell.’
The man turned silent once again.
‘You know me?’ he asked after a while.
‘Yes sir. Harry Price, Paranormal investigator. You’ve devoted yourself to solving the mystery of the Borley Rectory for almost a decade.’
The man seemed to be greatly pleased with my sister’s flattery and to our delight, he said, ‘Fine. You shall keep watch of the house tonight. And I will give you siblings a pound.’
‘Thank you very much, sir,’ I said.
Bread and money. This was what lured us into this deadly, horrible trap. How I wish I could go back in time and never have picked the pamphlet in the first place. How I wish I could just sit at home waiting for any message from the news stall. Because what happened that night changed our lives forever…

THE REAL PAINTING

2012-05-23T07:07:00.002-07:00

Got bashed up in school today, courtesy my story. I had borrowed the names of some of my friends and apparently they weren't very happy with the way I had described them. So, I am kind of obliged to state this:
"The characters in my story are fictitious. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental."

***

Phew! Finally managed to get hold of one of the pictures of the painting that was responsible for the events of that eventful night. The pic might not appear creepy or scary to you but trust me, the things it that day totally creeped us out!
(Pic courtesy of Aniket Agarwal. Thanks dude!)

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CURSE OF THE PAINTING- THE FINAL PART

2012-05-18T09:35:00.002-07:00

So, I have finally managed to complete the story of that memorable night. This is the last post of the 'Curse Of The Painting' series. I hope you guys liked it. Please send your feedback to rounakbanik@gmail.com or at least do comment. For those who have not read the previous parts, please do so by following this link:
Curse Of The Painting-1

PART 8

I walked like a zombie towards the door and opened it. It was Rajesh. He was grinning broadly. And guess why?
He came into the room. He had two things in his hands. A pair of Ray Ban sunglasses and a PSP UMD.
My jaws dropped. I didn’t know how to react. So, was it indeed a curse? Now, that I placed the painting on the wall, had the curse been lifted?
‘I thought you would search for your lost belongings,’ the brat said laughing.
We just took our stuff from him. I had the urge to pulp him into bits but instead I just asked, ‘How…how did you take them?’

‘Oh, you idiots ran to the terrorist room, didn’t you? I just sneaked in and took it. I thought you guys would search for it and come and ask each and every room…’ he said. ‘Anyways, bye.’
I stood there like a statue. I didn’t know what to do. Now we had non-supernatural explanation for the disappearance but I couldn’t take it out of my head.
The rest of the tour went on normally. We got over the painting in a couple of days. Gautam’s leg healed soon (Not at a supernatural rate though) and Ashwin’s grandma was just fine.
You might find this story to be a dumb and a weak attempt at a horror story. It might be the case. But whatever I’ve told you over the last 8 posts is true. Though I struggle to believe that it happened at all…

CURSE OF THE PAINTING- 7

2012-05-17T21:56:00.001-07:00

This is the seventh part of the story. For those who have not read the previous parts, you can do so by visiting the following link:
http://rounakbanik.blogspot.in/2012/05/curse-of-painting-6.html
Also, be sure to check out this post:
http://rounakbanik.blogspot.in/2012/04/plot-overview.html
And please send your comments and suggestions to rounakbanik@gmail.com. Or please comment on this post below.

PART 7

It sounds dumb, connecting two entirely unrelated topics but they nodded. We had noticed something fishy about that painting when we first saw it. But how could it be related?
Ashwin’s phone rang just then. He picked it up but did not speak except for the ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’. Judging by his facial expression, something was wrong.
‘What happened?’ I asked as he tossed the phone onto the bed.
‘Grandma’s ill. Taken to the hospital,’ he said. A tear formed in the corner of his eyes. He was very attached to his grand mom probably.
‘Dude, she’ll be all right, okay?’ I said trying to comfort him not even knowing what had happened to her.
‘It’s the painting,’ Gautam said almost in a whisper.

This time, instead of freaking out, I felt angry. Come on. A guy is pretty shaken up with bad news and you make him feel worse by delving into the fictitious supernatural?
‘Shut up, Gautam,’ I said.
‘But it’s true,’ Ashwin squeaked like a mouse. ‘I think the glasses, the cut, my Grandma, it’s all related to the painting…’
‘Come on, man!’ I almost shouted. ‘That was just a silly stupid joke. You’re not going to take that stupid thing seriously, okay?’
But inside, even I felt it was all connected. There was something to do with that horrible painting. Something mysterious. Something dangerous.
We were silent for about ten minutes. I then decided to take out my PSP and play. I just had one game; Ben 10. I know it’s a kid’s game and all that but it was all I had.
I lazily slumped against the bed and turned on my PSP. I was just one level away from beating the whole game. I tried to start the game but the PSP said, ‘No UMD.’
‘Eh?’ I uttered. ‘Did someone take my UMD?’ I asked.
No one replied. Wait, the UMD was inside my PSP. I never took it out in the first place! But how…I opened the UMD slot and I found it…empty. Yes, my UMD was gone…
‘Guys, my UMD is lost…’ I told.
Then we exchanged horrid glances with each other. No, there was something definitely wrong. Everything couldn’t go wrong at the same time. This was just not freaking possible…
And then I knew what to do. It was stupid but the painting was really getting into my head. I needed my UMD back at any costs. I crawled under the bed and brought out the painting. The others in the room gasped. I ignored them. I hung the painting in its original position.
I know it sounds dumb but that was all I could do. My friends didn’t object to my stupidity. We sat in silence. And then we heard a knock at the door.

CURSE OF THE PAINTING- 6

2012-05-16T21:46:00.002-07:00

For those who have not read the previous posts, you can do so by visiting the following pages. Please send your suggestions or comments to rounakbanik@gmail.com. Thank You.

Curse Of The Painting- 1

Curse Of The Painting- 2

Curse Of The Painting- 3

Curse Of The Painting- 4

Curse Of The Painting- 5

PART 6

I looked back at our room. Arvind and Ashwin remained in their places due to the respective reasons. We gave a check to the whole room. Nope, no sign of anything burning.
‘No ma’am’ I said.
‘Okay,’ she said. ‘In case, we have to evacuate, I’ll call you. Till then, remain in your rooms.’
We closed the door. ‘Can you believe it? The hotel’s on fire!’ Gautam said.
All the color from Ashwin’s face drained. He was probably too scared to speak so he tried to communicate through his eyes. I think it said: Why don’t we run?
‘Rajeswari wants us to remain inside till we get further news,’ I said. ‘Nothing much, I think. Just short circuit. They shouldn’t bother us anymore.’
I went and slumped over the sofa. The night had suddenly turned interesting. Terrorists. Fire alerts.
My eyes felt heavy. I was sleepy. I was about to give in to the heavenly urge when Arvind shouted out, ‘Dude! My sunglasses are missing!’
‘Chill,’ I said. ‘It must be inside the room.’
‘It is a Ray Ban!’ he almost shouted. ‘My Dad will kill me. It costs around 5K!’
I decided to help the poor guy out. Gautam also volunteered.
‘Where did you keep it?’ I asked.
‘It was on the table,’ he said sounding frantic. ‘I saw it there just before we went upstairs!’
‘That is strange,’ I said. All of us had gone upstairs. So, it was not likely that one of us hid it.
We begin to search around the room. I searched my luggage. It wasn’t inside. Arvind was becoming more and more desperate by the minute.
‘I’m finished,’ he said shaking his head.
The wimp Ashwin also decided to help. He probably snapped out of the terrors of the painting. We searched and searched. But unfortunately, we found nothing.
We didn’t give up, though. We began researching the place. This is when Gautam tripped and his knee hit the sharp corner of the bed. He shrieked in pain.
We attended to him. The cut wasn’t very deep but judging by the facial expression, the poor guy was going through a lot of pain. I gave him some antiseptic that I bothered to carry with me.
‘Aaaah…’ he moaned as I applied it on his right knee. He tried to get up but he couldn’t straighten his hurt knee. He winced in pain.
‘It’s okay,’ I said. ‘Arvind and Ashwin and I will search. Do you want me to call sir anyway?’
‘Nah,’ Gautam said. ‘I think I’ll be all right. It freakin’ hurts though.’
And then we began searching again when the giant wimp spoke up. And I’ll admit, this was one of the only times he scared me.
‘The painting,’ he said weakly. I noticed he was shivering.
‘What about it?’ I asked a bit irritated. I thought the discussion was over.
And then it dawned upon me. Suddenly. I was pretty sure Ashwin was thinking about the same thing. My eyes went wide and I looked at Arvind. His eyes bulged out of the sockets more than usual. Even Gautam seemed to have realized the supernatural.
‘The painting,’ I repeated. ‘Ever since it came off the wall, the place caught fire. Arvind loses his sunglasses and Gautam gets hurt…’

CURSE OF THE PAINTING- 5

2012-05-15T22:38:00.002-07:00

PART 5

This is another thing about him. Added to his baby face is his baby voice. And trust me, that combined with his body was a confusing combination.
‘What happened?’ Arvind asked.
‘The painting…it fell on me,’ he stammered as if he had been attacked by some ghost.
I was seated on the floor at that time. I got up and took the painting from Arvind’s hands.
‘You’re afraid of this?’ I said teasing him.
I then looked at the painting. And a chill ran down my spine. I still do not know why. It was a painting of a princess. It was similar to the other paintings. But this one…this one was different. I had the eerie feeling about it. I’ve never tried reading painted expressions but when I looked into the eyes of the princess, it seemed…lost, desperate, helpless.
I thought I was chickening out on such trivial stuff when Arvind said, ‘But the painting does look a bit scary.’
It indeed was. The princess was dressed in a blue gown and was seated by a table. The background was dark. There was a candle on the table. The princess also seemed to have a moustache.
‘I think this princess probably lived here years back. It looks kind of sad, doesn’t it?’
And then I sprung to action. Okay, I accept I am a chicken. But I am a chicken who likes to chicken others out. Does that make sense? No? Good.
‘I think this princess once lived here,’ I repeated what Gautam said. ‘Probably she was killed treacherously by some minister.’ I tried to suppress a smile. I had gotten over my baseless fear.
Arvind seemed to understand that I was trying to create a scare. He aided me. ‘Probably the princess was murdered and her body is in this room.’
‘Under the bed,’ I added.
The wimp, Ashwin sprang up from the bed and the ground shook. That guy was on the verge of tears. What a baby, I thought.
‘Don’t scare me,’ he spoke like a five year old and sat on the bed so cautiously, I could have sworn he was looking for mines in the bed.
‘I think the princess wants revenge,’ I said. I was really beginning to enjoy this. ‘I think she thinks one of us is the murderer…’ I said trying to create an eerie effect.
‘Nobles and Ministers in those days were fat, weren’t they?’ Arvind said. We both gave dark looks to Ashwin.
‘Please…I’ll…I’ll call sir,’ he threatened. The big fat baby was on the verge of tears. Arvind and I tried furiously not to burst out laughing.
‘Guys, enough,’ Gautam said. ‘We’ve got other things to worry about.’
‘Keep it away,’ Ashwin said.
I gave him a pitiful look. I then took the painting and slid it under the bed. ‘Let it be near the body…in peace.’
After that we decided to keep silent. It would be uncomfortable and disturbing to see Ashwin break into tears. He might even call his parents up and that might mean nasty business.
I blankly stared at the wall next to me and after some time, studied the painting again. Nope, there was definitely something sinister about it. I have freaked out from seeing horror movies on numerous occasions but by a painting? That was certainly a first.
Then there was a knock at the door.
Arvind who was toying with his mobile said, ‘Who the hell is it?’ casually.
‘It is your maths teacher, Gautam Sharma,’ we heard Rajeswari’s raspy voice. We immediately stood up. Arvind went somewhat pale. I volunteered to answer the door. Arvind decided to remain on the bed, away from her sight.
‘Yes, ma’am?’ I said in the most polite tone I could conjure.
‘Boys, I think there is a fire in the hotel,’ she said firmly. ‘We heard the fire alarm. It was from this floor. Probably due to short circuit. Anything burning?’

CURSE OF THE PAINTING- 4

2012-05-14T23:03:00.002-07:00

PART 4

Guns. Yes, positively guns. There was a gun lying on his bed. The others didn’t notice it though as they stood there in stunned silence. Was I hallucinating? I thought. Then I thought, probably my friends and Harish had seen it too but they were too afraid to talk.
After continuous moments of silence, Harish spoke up. It wasn’t about guns. It was something more sensible and important.
‘Run!’ he said and jumped down the stairs. We followed his suite. Ashwin, trapped in his fat blob of a body found it difficult to keep up with the rest of us.
‘I think he’s going to complain!’ Arvind said panting.
‘We’re so screwed,’ Gautam added.
We reached the second floor and Harish parted from us saying, ‘Just sit in your rooms and don’t come out!’
We did so. Inside the room we were quite for some time. There was a flurry of thoughts entering my mind. Firstly, what if that person was indeed a terrorist? I could have sworn he had a gun. But then, how could he get through the security. Then I recalled that, even in Taj, the terrorists had smuggled weapons into their rooms.
Leave the terrorists, I told myself. It was probably hallucination. Nobody brought up the topic anyway. I begin worrying about a more realistic problem. It was that man. What if that guy complained and put a charge of harassment on us?
‘I’m getting a bit scared,’ Ashwin, who was on the bed said. He got onto his knees, probably trying to reach out for his mobile on the table when he screamed.

CURSE OF THE PAINTING- 3

2012-05-13T22:39:00.002-07:00

PART 3

‘I think there is a terrorist in the hotel, on the fourth floor,’ he said.
‘Seriously?’
‘Confident,’ Harish said. ‘We’re going to check it out,’ he said apparently addressing to my roommates.
My roommates were thrilled. This was something that had to be checked out. And we were being bored to death, anyways.
‘We’re coming,’ Arvind announced after a moment.
I felt like telling that it was a stupid rumor. But instead I said, ‘Fine, let’s go.
‘Wait, Rohan, you can’t go. It’s manly stuff. Not for chickens,’ Harish said with a smug smirk.
I gave him a dirty look. I don’t know what his problem was. I don’t remember doing anything that could have harmed him. I think he acts like that because I do not hero worship him like the others do.
‘Its okay, Harish,’ Gautam said putting a hand on my shoulders. ‘Rohan won’t chicken out,’ he said.
Yeah, thanks a million, I felt like telling Gautam.
Our rooms were on the second floor. We rushed towards the fleet of stairs, momentarily forgetting the fact that the hotel had lifts.
‘Which room?’ Gautam asked as we climbed.
‘Room 406,’ Harish informed.
‘How do you know?’ Arvind asked.
‘The seniors were talking about it.’
I suddenly stopped in my tracks. ‘Wait,’ I said. ‘What are we planning to do?’ I asked.
‘Isn’t that obvious?’ Harish asked. ‘We’re going to knock the door, of course!’
I didn’t know what to say at that time. Firstly, knocking a stranger’s hotel room was rude and unacceptable. Secondly, if the people were indeed terrorists, they would kill us on sight, wouldn’t they? I shuddered when I recalled that the terrorist attacks in Mumbai were in hotels.
But I decided against voicing my opinion. I would be labeled as chicken, that’s all.
We reached the desired floor in no time. And the next thing I knew, I was standing in front of a door that read 406.
I noticed other people from our class on the floor too. They must have heard the rumors. I wondered what the waiters would think to see twenty odd children staring at a door when they came for room service.
‘What are you going to do?’ I heard Ramesh, another classmate, asking Harish.
‘Knock the door,’ he replied coolly.
All the eyes shifted from the door to Harish at once.
‘What?’
‘Watch,’ he said. He pushed the people out of his way. I could see that he was hesitating a bit. Terrorist or not, there was a risk that he would be reported to at the reception. On the other hand, there was his ‘image’ which was at stake.
He balled his right fist and brought it close to the door. More than half the people ran. I was too shocked to move my legs or protest or do anything.
And then he did it. Mr. Cool knocked the door. And then he rushed towards the stairs and waited.
Arvind had to shout ‘Run’ before I came back to my senses. I too made it to the fleet of stairs.
Room 406 was situated in such a way that it was possible to see the insides if someone opened the door. You just had to stand on the first few ascending stairs.
The door opened and I froze. A man peeped from inside. From his face, he looked like Veerappan, literally. He had that long moustache and the rowdy type of look. He looked around and then caught our gaze. He threw us a dirty look. He shook his right index finger as if to threaten us.
He then went on to close the door. And then what I saw made all the air in my lungs gush out.

CURSE OF THE PAINTING- 2

2012-05-12T22:53:00.003-07:00

PART 2

Now, people who haven’t gone to school tours do remember that sleeping at night is strictly prohibited. But our group was on the verge of breaking that unbreakable law. We were literally bored to death.
Arvind tried to spark some enthusiasm by asking Gautam about his latest muse from the Girls wing. He, as usual, blushed and smiled and told him to shut up. I do not really understand the last part. When you are being linked to a girl (and the girl is really pretty), you ought to be happy. I would have if I was linked. But the point was, I never was. I might not exactly be a Brad Pitt, but still the way I was ignored during these talks kind of dejected me. I am partly to be blamed though. I admire my female counterparts but never find myself able to interact or befriend any of them. Studying in a single sex school all my life, I have developed a condition in which I cannot talk one-to-one with a girl of around my age. And I hate myself for that.
After Arvind got bored with Gautam’s retaliations, I tried to switch on the TV. And to our dismay, all the movies that were being aired were total baby, uninteresting ones. Kiddish stuff, as we call it. In case you’re wondering if we were expecting those kind of movies, then let me tell you, No. We wouldn’t mind it, though. But still, they could have at least put movies that were somewhere in between.
‘Shall we go to sleep?’ I asked defeated by the Television’s defiance to show us something interesting.
‘Dude, at eleven, we can watch…’ Gautam smiled. He was definitely referring to those shows.
‘Shut up, Gautam. We’re not watching that,’ Ashwin said. I would say his mind matured slowly as compared to his physical body growth. He looked like a giant with a baby face. Go figure.
‘Eleven is still half an hour away,’ Arvind said ignoring Ashwin.
‘Yeah, but let’s wait,’ I said. ‘Do any of you guys have cards?’ I asked.
They shook their heads in unison.
‘Amal’s got a PS2,’ Arvind informed.
‘Oh, come on. We won’t be able to go inside his room. There are about twenty of them inside,’ Gautam said.
That was when we heard a knock at the door. Positively thrilled at the aspect of getting out of this wretched room, I rushed to open the door. It was Harish.
Okay, now look, I’m not very fond of Harish. He’s tall, he’s handsome, he’s the cool dude of the glass. He has also got a highly disproportionate number of girls flocking behind him. And yes, that does make me a bit jealous.
Harish didn’t bother to acknowledge my presence at the door. He said, ‘Arvind, Gautam, Ashwin, come fast! I’ve got news!’
The three of them rushed to the door and literally shoved me aside.
‘What is it?’ Arvind asked.

CURSE OF THE PAINTING-1

2012-05-12T09:53:00.002-07:00

For those who read my previous post, Sorry! It's just that I thought it didn't sound right, so I decided to do it all over again. So, please do read. I would be truly grateful if you could spare your time to comment or offer suggestions! :)

PART 1

I was the one who started it. I admit it. But trust me; I had nothing to do with some of the horrible things that happened that day. Okay, not some, all. I would never dream of doing such stuff just for a prank. And most of the things that happened were stuff I couldn’t do, at least in my sane state of mind. Before I bore you to death with my confessions, let me change the topic and bring it to why you are reading the story. The curse.
Oh, by the way, my name is Rohan Mehra. I’m not really fond of my name. I mean, my first name is okay but my surname, Mehra, is just very annoying. People who like to annoy me, which is about ninety percent of my acquaintance bray like a goat when they say Mehra.
I study in D.A.V Boys Sr. Secondary School. It is one of the best schools in the country or so they say. I’m fine with the school, the teachers are kind of okay and I’ve got some good friends to hang out with but the major drawback, as you may have already guessed from the name, it is a single sex school. We’ve got a Girls wing which is just down the road from ours. But due to some chauvinistic brats in the management, we have been ‘separated’. The brats feel that ‘we may deviate from our studies.’ Bah, that’s so dumb. They talk as if they are the only ones who have opened schools for both genders, as if there aren’t any ‘good’ co-ed schools in the country. Plus, I don’t think their little precaution works well because the guys who are into girls always make it a point to flirt with the objects of beauty on the road, after school. (I do not fall into that category, by the way)

I’m in tenth, right now. And thanks to a gentleman named Kapil Sibal, I do not have to face the Board Exams, which is synonymous to terror according to the unfortunate seniors. The incident I’m going to narrate took place around two years ago, when I was in eighth. (And don’t ask me why it took me two years to write.)
Okay, my story starts the day when Mrs.Rajeswari, our grumpy little Maths teacher came into our class after recess. She announced about the ‘educational’ tour to Hyderabad, our school was planning to take us to after Quarterly. I don’t know what’s so educational about it. Anyways, almost all of our over enthusiastic class began discussing about it and began sorting themselves into groups.
‘Coming, Rohan?’ Arvind, my bench partner cum friend asked me. He is one of the nicer guys in the class. The vice versa isn’t true though. With his bulgy eyes and curly hair, he has earned the nickname, ‘Noodles head’.
‘I don’t know,’ I replied.
‘C’mon man, don’t be a chicken. You can live without your parents for three days. Trust me, it won’t kill you.’
‘Hey!’ I protested. Okay, I admit, I was a chicken at that time. There wasn’t a single day in my life that I spent without looking at either of my parents, except for the day when my brat of a brother was born seven years back.
‘You’re coming this time,’ Arvind said firmly.
‘I’ll…I’ll ask my parents,’ I muttered.
The good news was that my parents agreed to send me. I don’t know if I was very happy at that time. I really didn’t want to waste precious few days of the Puja holidays on that tour. But I decided I would go.
And then, as was planned, the exams took place (I think I did pretty well) and the day of the tour arrived. My Dad dropped me at the station. My mom embarrassed me over the phone, asking me if I had packed enough underwear. Thankfully, no one was listening to our conversation.
We had to go by sleeper class. And by Indian Railway standards, I had to admit, the compartments were really clean. I put my only luggage under my seat and took out a novel, I had been reading. The train started and I had to put off the book inside my bag due to the racket we were causing. Seriously, they acted as if they had never been on a train.
We arrived at Secundarabad, early next morning. To my dismay, I found that my face had been sketched by some brats who hadn’t bothered to sleep. I boarded Bus 2 with my group. My group consisted of me (obviously), Arvind, Ashwin, a plump six foot guy and Gautam, a short guy who liked to cook. (Yes, you read it right.)
We reached our hotel, the place of the curse. It was a four star. ‘Amrutha Castle’ was its name. And it was indeed a castle. At least, it looked like one. It was huge, appearing to be built of grey stones like typical castles. There seemed to be towers in the castle with cone shaped tops. I instantly liked it.
Inside, the hotel looked like a five star, really. It appeared to be a fantastic blend of ancient and modern. Ancient, because there were paintings of fictitious prince and princesses on the wall and there were knight armors too. Modern, because, it just looked like one f those brilliantly lighted and architected place. Why, it even had a fountain and a pool inside.

My group got one of the best rooms, I should say. It was perfect. Cool, with a split AC, a sofa and a comfy bed. There was a bath tub in the bathroom. The TV was also a twenty nine inch one.
We had to leave the comforts of the room pretty quickly as we were asked to bathe, brush and come down to the buffet hall where we had breakfast. We went to visit the Salarjung Museum and the Charminar that day. But that’s not important. What was important was what happened in the night.
So, we came back from the Charminar, completely exhausted. We washed our faces and freshened ourselves. We went to dinner after that. When we returned was when the action started.

Who Was You Favorite Character?
	Rohan
	Arvind
	Ashwin
	Gautam
	Harish

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