That Night

Many people may not believe this story but this is a real incident that happened with a man who lived in a small village a few decades ago. One day his cousin who used to live thirty-two miles away came to meet him. When his brother arrived, he was very happy seeing his brother. They both were very happy to see each other after many days. The man invited his cousin inside and offered him food and they talked about their lives. Slowly it was growing dark and the sounds of fox and insects were growing louder. Both the brothers had their dinner and went to sleep.

The next morning, they woke up, had their breakfast and then the man went to the field and his cousin went to work for which he came here. At sunset, they both returned home and had their meal. The man said to his cousin, “There is a function in the next village, they have called me there for singing, let's go or we may be late.” His cousin replied, “I will not go, you go alone, I am very tired today, please don’t mind.” So, the man went on his own to the function. His song was appreciated by everyone and by the time the function has ended it was one o’clock at night. People who went there from different places decided to stay there as it was late at night but this man thought of returning home as his cousin was at home alone. As his house was twenty minutes away from the village, he thought of returning home on foot.

The man lighted a cigarette and started walking towards his house. It was very dark all around and from both sides of the road, there was the sound of insects and no moon in the sky was making the surroundings look darker. Far away from someplace, he was able to hear the sound of a fox who was calling out loud to inform the darkness of the night. The silent and dark environment was making the man’s heart thud loudly and his skin crawled, he was able to hear his heartbeat in the silence of the night. For one moment he stopped and thought of return back but then he took the name of God and set forward towards his home. He was walking with a lighted cigarette firmly held with is lips. He was walking carefully and very cautiously in the pitch dark and hearing the fox howl, dogs bark, owl hoot, and insects sounds.

He was walking on his way home when he suddenly got an urge to release his nature calls. He went to a nearby bush and started to release his bladder when suddenly a chill chased up his spine, his heart thudded, a fear clotted his throat and pulse pounded in his ears. He looked forward and saw a shadowy figure was standing a dozen feet away from him. His feet froze all of a sudden, he was unable to move any of his limbs, his throat was becoming extremely dry and his gaze fixed at the figure which seems to be looking back at him. He was gazing at the shadowy figure for a few seconds which seemed for ages. Somehow, he gained some courage and picked up a thick stick which was nearby and started walking towards the shadowy figure at a slow and steady pace. Sweat was running down his forehead and his stomach knotted as he held the stick in his strong grip. His young blood of twenty-two helped to build up his courage. Though fear he was being brave still he was in fright. He went near the shadowy figure and started beating it with the stick which he picked up. But what happened next relaxed him and he was laughing on his own. The shadowy figure which he thought was a ghost, was a dead tree whose worn-out leaves and scattered brunches made it scary enough to bring the soul out of a living body.

The man took a relaxing breath, then again lighted a cigarette as he knows that ghosts are afraid of fire and started walking towards his home again. Though he was relaxed, he had a fire with him, he was also a little happy about the fact that the shadowy figure was a tree and not a ghost. But still, his fear has increased now and he started walking at a fast pace. When he was nearly half a century steps away from his home, he saw a married woman standing in front of a house in red saree and covering her face with a veil as married women were supposed to cover their face most of the time. The man thought that the woman was the new wife of the house owner and is out to go for doing toilet as in the early days, people used to go to fields for nature calls. So, the man ignored her and went towards his home.

Finally, he reached home and threw the cigarette, went inside his home and informed his cousin of his arrival and both went to sleep. After a few minutes of him lying down and as soon as he was feeling sleepy, he felt that someone was sitting on his chest and he was not able to breathe as the weight on his chest seems to rob him of breath. And soon fear clenched like a tight fist on his chest. He was not able to move as he gets the hunger for air, out of the struggle to take a breath he was throwing punches on the invisible entity who was sitting on his chest taking his life slowly. But unfortunately, none of the punches were hitting the phantom and all the punches were hitting his cousin which woke him up. When his cousin woke up and saw that his brother was hitting the air, he understood what was wrong as he was familiar with spiritual beings and used to practices tantrism. He took out a cigarette and lighted it and as soon as the flash of fire made the room bright, the life-sucking invisible ghost entity ran away leaving the man to hold for his breath. That night the man lighted a cigarette and lighted incense in the house and then went to sleep with a fright deep down inside him. The next day, his cousin gave him an enchanted amulet and protected the house with an enchanted shield and went back to his village. He understood, that if he is not protected well, then the spirit may again come back and if he will not be there, then anything can happen. Thought his life was saved for then it was quite difficult for him to sleep for a few weeks. An unknown fear used to haunt him till everything went normal in a few weeks when he started feeling safe.