Stutee's work

GOTHICA ........ PART 2.
The very next day…."Come here, Neha." I called her near the backdoor of the dorm."What?", she replied, sounding as disinterested as ever. She had not still forgiven me for the prank I last played on her." Come on now ! Don’t be that pissed at me. Come here I have something to show you", I tried persuading her to peep out of the keyhole of the backdoor."What is it? And look don’t try and scare me. Trust me you'll pay through nose", she made her point crystal clear."Fine you do not want to see it, then don’t. I just wanted to show you how beautiful is the forest lane looking under the moonlit sky."She seemed to have fallen prey for the well planned trap. Excitedly she bent towards the keyhole, half expecting to see something not less beautiful than Rome. After half a minute, she was fuming red." Listen, just because I do not happen to be one of the bullies out here, doesn’t mean you can take me for a ride every time. Enough with you and your sick pranks. Never talk to me again." I swear, I had never seen her that angry before. My trick for a little fun as usual, seemed to have failed.Right outside the giant door, lay a dead snake being bitten to pieces by an owl.Neha made it a point, not to talk to me at any given cost. So did the other dorm mates.A week passed, nobody budged a micrometer from what they had decided. It was a Sunday evening, feeling quite left out, I decided to go on a walk on the forest lane. A lush green, quiet and snaky road.I decided not to return before supper that day.The mist had settled low as I walked into a quiet hollow out of sight. The fog made it look like heaven here. It was drizzling. I watched the raindrops caress my face. As the raindrops started falling a little harder, I could feel my body disappearing bit by bit into the mist. What a place to be? Far from the prosaic fights with friends, never ending lectures from the teachers and ever increasing course to study.A breeze rustled past me, carrying with it a beautiful scent from the woods and clearing the very foggy sight. Twenty steps ahead were two benches where I had always come and sat every time I was sad. Today, I was a little not looking forward to sit there as I thought that the wet benches might spoil my clothes. Another rustle of breeze blew past me and the view became even more clearer.Sitting in spotless white, on one of those benches, was a woman pretty tall." I am afraid you will stain your clothes", I shouted, from a distance."doesn’t matter, I have a stained soul", she replied, without moving even a tad."Excuse me?"" Wish God could excuse me, for the sinful life I once led."Having said this, she got up and started walking away. I was curious to see who this one was? I mean, for lord sake, she sounded like somebody walking straight out of a purgatory. She was literally pacing now. (also, given how weird this sounded, I was having a feeling that this was nobody else but my friends trying to prank me)"Hey, excuse me miss. If you could just..", I also started walking faster."If I could just, what?", her voice sounded distant."Stop for a moment", I was having a lot of difficulty keeping up with her.By now, I was more than sure, that I was being treated with a dose of my own medicine. And off course, I did not want to be fooled at their hands. Her reactions seemed far from scary, overtly so. This made me all the more headstrong over finding out who she was. I wanted to catch hold of her , even if it led to a face off." I have never seen you around. Who are you? This road is the school's property. What are you doing here?", I was shouting by this time."Its time to go", she was hell bent not to look my way"Listen, either you turn and show me your face or I ask guard ji to leave the dogs on you", I was very stern by now. Also, I knew that Sonali, who I was sure was the girl behind this spotless white hood, was very afraid of the dogs."Stop, I said", I was not to let her go that easily."Stop and do what?", came the reply."Stop and show me your face, for lord sake, I know its you Sonali. Your pranks wont work on me, alright", I commanded. I was glad at my tone of voice.Fifteen steps away from me, she stopped. Even I took a halt. I was breathing heavily by now also because of the mist I couldn’t see her properly. She turned. She was looking down."Look up, I know who you are, don’t you try and fool me", I repeated , the same tone of voice.There was a sudden change in her voice, which was till now very shaky."Here have a look. May be you really know me."Fog was swirling around her now. Seemed like wisps would carry her away. As she looked up, I saw a pale white face. Spotless, fearless and featureless. Yes , she had a face minus features.Dumbstruck, I stood like a pillar, unable to move, right in front of her. She kept gazing at me. Unable to think and decide what is going to happen next, I knew I was witnessing something, I wont forget a life time, i.e, if I would be alive after this. She moved a little towards me and then stopped. I had nothing to offer. I was loosing my mind. I dreaded the sight. I felt as if I was nearing the end. I was sweating and shivering. I knew I was about to faint.Suddenly, I saw her body disappearing bit by bit into the mist.From somewhere in the mist, a voice whispered to me ," run for life. I'd regret, if u meet the same fate."Stuck to the earth, I found myself unable to take those heavy steps towards life. After fifteen minutes of standing alone and aghast , I mustered the courage to turn and run. Run for life. Never to look back.Not to stop before I reached my room.I never shared this with any of my friends. Not because, I thought that they'll get scared, but because I guess I was indeed taught a lesson for mocking these unseen, unknown dwellings around us.Later, on enquiry, I found out that this woman had been seen by many on forest lane. Believed to be a spirit of an english woman who committed suicide after killing her two children.

GOTHICA !!!
" So, girlies who all are virgins here? ", asked my senior Divya . ( we were being ragged ). Presuming that 'virgin' must be some kind of an abuse and playing smarter than Nancy and Ruby ,who happened to raise their hands, we replied, " no ma'am, we are not virgins. Only these two are. We are not."I still remember seniors literally rolling on the floor after that one answer.I am talking about the time when we'd hold a pen in between our fingers and pretend to smoke. A bunch of unruly girls had just left the primary school behind to step into the senior school. Life seemed all the more exciting.We were shifted to the new senior school and to a new dorm too. Which was the oldest building, right next to the chapel in our school, which happened to be like 200 years old. Gradually when we befriended seniors they told us stories about this dorm. They said it was haunted. Specially because it was the nearest to the graveyard.In boarding schools things like '13th the Friday', 'spirits', 'headless chawkidars', are nothing new to be discussed. We'd sit for hours together to discuss this never ending thrilling topic. Everybody had a story to share. Each and every girl would tell how her friend's mother, a maternal aunt or for that matter some bua ji's brave husband saw a spirit or a ghost.But since I never met somebody who said that he or she had personally seen some 'BHOOT '. I just listened to them to amuse myself and to get my work done by all of my dorm mates who happened to be damn scared of the 'bhooooooooots'. I'd just have to tell them one little story and they 'd do me all favors so that I keep my gob shut. How sadist of me.So night time, I used to be the lord of the dorm. Which to my dorm mates was nothing but sheer 'gundaraj'. I had a strong feeling that all my friends were just looking for that one chance, to teach me a lesson. I could read their minds. That something's being cooked. But I was hell bent not to fall prey to their 'evil designs'. I'd always be on an alert. And to their dismay they could never outsmart me. I was the 'lord' after all.I still remember it was '13th the Friday', the most gothic day of the year. Supper time we were told by the seniors that tonight you'll see headless chawkidaars, so dare not peep out of the window. All my dorm mates were like scared to death and they decided to sleep early that night. But how could I not take kicks out of their petrified faces that night. How could I let go ? As soon as everybody settled in the bed and the sister switched of the main light at 11. I got out of the bed and walked towards the window.to be continued....