Sun, Moon & Stars Volume I Horror Of The Musk

CHAPTER - 1

Once built right from its foundation, and the inhabitants start living, a house takes a tax, knowingly or unknowingly. It demands one sacrifice for the future happiness of the dwellers. Rituals, ceremonies or worshipping nothing could stop it from taking one life. But Bose Villa was different. Very different.

The two-storied house didn't stop at just one, it kept taking the tax almost like that king who had an insatiable thirst for more. No matter how much you gave. It was not satisfied. Pages after pages of different ritualistic practices have often mentioned that there's always an end to such torments and that comes after the right sacrifice. But Bose Villa was not looking for just one right sacrifice.

Heavy maintenance work was going on at the house from the past few weeks. The neighbours were definitely curious about the new tenants who would occupy that wretched house but they hardly cared. They knew the present owner must have fed lies to the tenants and now tried to cover up by giving the house a brand new look. If only he knew that it was not the exteriors and interiors that mattered, it was the soul of the house that will not let anybody live a happy life there. 

 According to the elders in the neighbourhood, the Vastu of Bose Villa was to be blamed that nobody could live in that house for long. The bungalow would attract anyone who has a keen eye for beautiful homely architecture. But this beauty was a curse.

It was half-past four in the evening and a taxi halted in front of the Bose Villa. The ever-curious Jhumpi from the next-door hid behind the curtains of her bedroom and looked down watching everything that happened in front of the house like a hawk.

A middle-aged woman came out from the taxi and was settling the bill when a little girl struggled to jump out from the passenger seat. Jhumpi watched carefully and craned her neck to check if there was a man with the family.

The neighbourhood very well knew Jhumpi's character but since no one had ever caught her red-handed she was allowed to live in the area. She was a forty-two-years-old married lady who couldn't keep her hormones at check and pounced on every man in the locality. There was hardly any left out to satisfy her thirst. She was bored, as she had already bedded the men in this locality irrespective of their marital status and age. And now she was in search of a new prey.

When another girl, probably in her teens, came out from the other side of the taxi Jhumpi let out an angry breath. "Huh! I have to play with my old toys now!" she muttered. She was about to pull the curtain but frowned noticing another young woman coming out from the taxi. Jhumpi craned her neck a little more to have a good look at her face. She looked very familiar. Jhumpi frowned concentrating on identifying her.

Jhumpi took out the binocular from the bedside drawer and tried to get a close look at that particular woman. The young woman turned and smiled speaking to the teenage girl. As the binoculars showed Jhumpi her face properly she gasped. Sweat started appearing on her forehead. How? Just how was this possible? She thought. Jhumpi's heart started beating faster and a strange fear appeared on her face. She looked exactly like that woman but how was it possible?

If her calculations were right then the woman she knew should be in her early fifties but the girl standing in front of the Bose Villa looked exactly like that twenty-two-year-old woman whom Jhumpi feared and hated the most.

Then again another thought disturbed her mind. If she had come back what will the thing inside that house do with her? It was surely not going to let her go away once again. Jhumpi combed her fingers through her long hair and paced in her room.