Abhay was a 13-year-old boy. He was a very curious child. Inquisitive with everything that has mystery and unknown written all over it.
One day in school they were learning about Akbar's Navratnas. When they came to Man Singh I one of Abhay's classmates stood up and asked, "Wasn't the Bhangarh Fort made by him?" At that moment everyone started buzzing about the fort, Abhay could hear bits and pieces of his peers' conversation. He could hear words ''haunted", "black magic", "black magician", "princess", "beautiful" and "curse".
The school was filled with local and middle-class people's children. Abhay was a child of a middle-class family but they were not originally from Rajasthan. They had come here with job opportunity prospects and settled here. This meant that Abhay was away from all the gossip of the locals as his parents found it futile to know these uninformative things that are of no use to them and their son.
When everyone started having exciting conversations on this fort and sharing the stories they have heard about it. They even started sharing the ghost stories that were recited to them by their mothers, Abhay was making plans of researching this fort so that he can also involve himself in this exciting atmosphere.
As soon as school got over he bolted home. Due to being a child of working parents, he had learned to be independent from a very young age. Since his school was walking distance from his house it was an advantage for him and his parents. They drop him off in the morning and after school, he gets back on his own.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Abhay POV
When I reached home. I flung my bag onto the couch and ran to the computer we have in the living room. This was a system used by all of us. I looked up Google for information on Bhangarh Fort. It has a very intriguing story to it. Made at the time of Mughals that also one of the most famous rulers of Akbar's time. As I read more about the fort, it became more interesting but finally, my parents were back and it was getting late so I had to eat dinner and go to sleep.
In my sleep, I felt this strong pull that is dragging me to consciousness. Suddenly it gave a hard tug. I sat up startled looking around with my defences up looking for the reason because of all this feeling. I see that the door in my room is open ajar which is very unusual since I go to bed after making sure that it is closed. Slowly I walk towards the door to close when I reach it. I have this overwhelming urge to look at my bed. As soon as I look at my bed and see myself still sleeping I am dragged out of my room. Suddenly when I look around I am no longer in my house. It's a very unfamiliar place that I am currently in. When I look around all I see is that I am standing under a long arch that looks like it is made in the ancient era. As I am looking around I suddenly come face to face with a lady wearing what can either be interpreted as a royal attire or a wedding outfit of a bride. She smiles at me sweetly and says, "Aren't you a curious little thing! Do you know why you are summoned here?" When I shook my head as a form of conveying that I have no idea, her face forms in a look of understanding. She turns and starts walking when she realises that I am not following. She turns sideways to look at me and says, "No, need to fear me. I am not going to bring any harm to you. Also, you are not physically here anyway. I have just brought your spirit here while I have left my loyal servants to look after your body." By now I had recovered from my initial shock of this lady appearing out of nowhere. So I looked into her eyes and asked her, "Where am I? Who are you? What is your name?" She smiled at me and said, " You are in Bhangarh Fort and I am the princess of this Fort. My name is Princess Ratnavati." Saying I was surprised would be an understatement, so I asked her, "Why am I here?" She told me, " You are here because I saw how curious you were about this place and for knowledge so I have deemed you worthy of knowing what went down here." With this, she started walking again and this time I followed close behind her. She leads me up to an open area which is looking at the edge of the wall. Looking down I saw it was a steep spot when I turned to look at her silently asking why she brought me here, I saw tears brimming in her eyes. She had a sorrowful faraway look in her eyes and facial expression. She was really beautiful. As soon as that crossed my mind she turned to me as if reading my mind and said, " That was my flaw, my beauty was the downfall of this place. You see, child all I wanted to do was live my life and serve my subjects after the death of my father. I was destined to serve the kingdom after my father but this greedy magician not only wanted me for my beauty but also for the wealth and kingdom. This I wouldn't allow so I acted along with his plan by accepting the bewitch cosmetic and poured it on a stone so that it would kill him and I would be free from him forever. The only reason I killed him was that he wouldn't listen to my rejection or the fact that I didn't want to marry anyone. Also, this was the only way to save my subjects from being ruled by a tyrant. All of this I did but I never thought he would curse the whole place. Do you know, child, why I am still roaming around the Fort as a spirit even though I could move on and spend my afterlife in peace?" When she asked me this all I could do was shake my head. At this, she said sniffing, " It's because his spirit is also still here. He is still lusting over revenge and every night at sharp 3:15 he will appear trying to kill me or harm my spirit. If I wasn't here he would harm all the other people around this area to save them from his anger is why I have chosen to continue to roam these walls forever." At this, we heard an evil laugh. It was loud and scary, it shook the whole place I was shivering with fear. Ratnavati looked at me with fear not for herself but for me. All she whispered was, " He is here." Then she closed her eyes and whispered, "برگشت" (Return).
Suddenly I sat up looking around to see I am in bed looking around I saw everything is normal. The door was closed and nothing was misplaced. When I looked at the time I saw 3:15 and there was a loud bang at the door but nothing happened.
