A Whisper in the Dark

NOTE: there are some Indian/Urdu words in this story!

Bhai: means brother, so even though the other character is my cousin, its normal in Pakistani culture to call your cousins brother, Bhai, or sister, Bhan.

Haveli: a big mansion, usually very old.

It was a dark chilly night, though the heat in the car made sure to oppose the coldness on the outside. Rain was lightly falling, splashing down on the car windows in a rhythmic trance around me. My cousin and I were driving home from after a fun night at the theater. I had begged him for a month to take me to the theaters, and tonight he had finally agreed. The theatre wasn't close to our house, so it was a long drive home, though I was sure it would be filled with soft Indian music and some crazy story about his job. I looked over at him as he was explaining what happened at work that day. I pretended to listen, as I looked outside at the different stores and homes we speedily passed by.

My cousin was around 20, and I was only 15. Despite our age differences, we had tons of fun together. He had dark skin and dark hair, that contrasted with my light skin and dark hair. We didn't look like cousins, but our personalities were very similar. We were shy at first, but then as we got comfortable with you, we talked non-stop, as he was doing right now.

"Hey, did you watch that new horror movie called 1920? About the couple that moves into this haveli and the girl goes crazy?" He said.

You see, we are from Pakistan, and being Pakistani, we loved movies! What he was referring to was an Indian horror movie. I loved Indian movies, but horror was one genre I stayed away from...

"Bhai, you know I don't watch horror movies! Yeah, I love horror books, but horror movies are just too realistic for me!" I said.

"Oh come on Amara, don't be a scaredy-cat, be brave!Do you wanna know what happens in the movie still?" he said.

As I said, I loved scary stories. So I thought, why not just hear it so he can shut up and stop bothering me about it?

"Yeah ok fine, what's it about?"I said with a look of extreme boredom on my face.

"Ok!"he began excitedly, "so this couple gets married, sadly against the will of the guy's parents. The guy , who's name is Arjun is an architect, and he is going to renovate the haveli into a hotel. So they go to live in the haveli. At first they are happy, and everything is fine. Then, weird things begin to happen around the haveli, that only the wife, Lisa, notices. She feels like there is some evil presence in the haveli, but the husband ignores it. Objects begin to move around, she hears weird sounds and whispers at night, white figures float about the place, and random streaks of blood form on the walls. The servant there sees the bad things happening there, and goes to consult with a priest. The priest examines the haveli, and finds an evil spirit haunting the place that is targeting Lisa. Arjun comes home, and sees that Lisa has been possessed by the spirit. He even finds her eating a cat at night, with her hair all messy and the cats blood all over her face. More bad things happen. They find out that the spirit was of some soldier that the owners of the haveli a century ago had killed. He wanted revenge. Arjun was trying to renovate the haveli, and the soldier's spirit didn't want that. Lisa ends up killing the servant and priest, who tried to exorcise her, by ripping out their throats by her hand. In the end, Arjun somehow saves her. The end," he finishes.

I look at him with pure terror on my face. Sure, he was a good story teller ,I knew that. But my active and vivid imagination managed to display each scene colorfully in my mind. I had memorized every single detail of that story even though I didn't want to. My mind took a snap shot of what I imagined the girl would look like, all demonic with dark eyes and messy hair. My mind kept on taunting me by showing her face to me. I shivered.