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.
"Ok ok, I've heard enough. Yeah it sounds good. And see, I'm not so scared!" I exclaimed.
He laughed and shook his head as he parked the car in our driveway. "We will see just how brave you are. I know you will have nightmares tonight because of this. Just watch," he said slowly with a menacing look on his face.
"Oh yeah, very smart of you Bhai to give my mind ideas of how to scare myself more. Oh my God, I am so scared,"I said sarcastically.
Despite my greatest efforts, my mind instantly registered the new idea of how to scare the crap out of me even more. Great. I ran up the steps to my house and quickly went to my room, locking the door behind me so that he wouldn't follow in and scare me more. My parents were already asleep, so I started to get ready to for bed.
My plain white room was covered with stuff on the floor. I carefully dodged my way around small paint cans, rolls of wallpaper, boxes of new furniture, and a rusty looking chain-saw that reminded me of the ones you see in horror movies. My room was being fully renovated. Painted, wallpapered, everything, and they were fixing up my crappy closet too. My dad, who was helping with all of the work, was the one who planned it all, and he had promised to make it look brand new. I felt really excited about the idea of a new room, and couldn't wait for it to be completed!
After completing my bedtime routine, I jumped into my comfy bed. I had just went out to watch a movie, yet I was so exhausted. Like always, my mind started to wander and drift off to daydream land rather than dream land. Weird, yes. I started thinking about every thing...recalling today's events....school...my shopping trip on Saturday...that cute boy at school...the scary story my cousin told me... STOP! Why was I thinking of that?! Of all the things, my mind begins to think of THAT story, still so vivid in my mind. Dumb brain. And unable to stop myself, I began to think of the story with more detail....and soon I drifted off to sleep.
A whisper. I heard a whisper. I opened my eyes to look around, but I realized that I was paralyzed! I couldn't move! Laying on my side, I tried to look at the time near the foot of my bed, but was unable to make out anything. I tried to look behind me to see if there was someone at the door. There was.
I felt chills run down my spine. My hands and feet went cold. Desperately, I tried to move but failed. Near my door, I saw something floating in the air. It looked like a cloud of smoke that was taking the shape of a distorted figure. A body with no legs, just arms and a head. I could make out nothing on its face, no eyes, no nose, but only its mouth, that was shaped in an small O.
I wanted to scream. I wanted to scream so badly but I couldn't. Then it whispered something...
"Amara...Amara...i'm here to take you away...away to the haveli...where we will feast on cats...and I will live... live INSIDE of you...and take you to hell with me. Come...come away with me,"
I wanted to scream bloody murder. I wanted to get up and yell at the top of my lungs, but I couldn't move at all. I felt the blood drain from my face. My blanket engulfed me, which I had wrapped around me to keep warm, making it harder for me to move. And I could still see it floating there with its hands reaching out towards me...
Somehow, I managed to make a small whimpering sound in my throat. And that saved me from my paralyzed state. The smoke rushed towards me and vanished, leaving a coldness in the air. I had finally woken up.
Was that a dream? What had I just seen? It felt so real. So very real. Yup, I think just had a nightmare. And I was definitely going to kill my cousin for that. Or maybe I won't tell him...don't want him knowing I got scared because of that dumb story.
I got up from my bed. It was 3 a.m. I walked cautiously to my bathroom and turned on the lights. After being momentarily blinded by the light, I looked up at the mirror. I looked very pale, and my hair was all disheveled from tossing around earlier in my sleep. Red lipstick was smeared all over my face, though I swear I remembered taking it off before I went to sleep...
After a few minutes, I walked out of the bathroom. As I entered my room, I felt like I hit something lightly with my foot. I looked down and was amazed by what I saw. It was my plush toy cat. But that wasn't the frightening part about it. No. Someone had ripped my cat apart. The fluff on the inside was all over the ground. Some of it was tinted red.
I looked up at my dresser, where more fur was, and saw my red lipstick that someone had opened and broke the lipstick bullet in half. There were smears of lipstick on the dresser. Something was written on the mirror of my dresser with the red lipstick. I walked towards it. There was a number smeared on it: 1920. I screamed.
My cousin ran in. He looked around and tried to make sense of what he saw.
"What happened here! What happened to you!" He asked.
I looked at him. I started mumbling something unclear to me. I faintly heard a growling coming from my throat. My vision became darker as my irises turned bigger and darker. I started shaking . And then I ran towards him, hands outstretched towards him. My long nails began clawing at him. He yelled. A piercing gurgled scream came out of him. Then silence.
I looked around my room, and hated all of the things that were being changed. I suddenly hated the change. Who was trying to change my room? Oh right. My dad was renovating my room. My dad...
I began walking towards my parents room, where I heard a snoring sound. That sound had always disturbed me. Not anymore.
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I came out of my parents room. Blood dripped from my face and poured off my fingers as little droplets. This house will be peaceful now. No changes. Nothing will scare me. I crouched down and sat by my destroyed cat. I started hugging it, tears coming out of eyes. Whispering surrounded me again.
"Good job, Amara. Come, let's go to the haveli now. You have done good here." said the voice.
I slowly got up, and walked out.
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Out of the two times I have seen a ghost, this is based off of the second time. I might make a story about the first one, but it would be really short!
The movie I mentioned is an actual movie. Everything in this story is true until they reach the house. Then I made things up XD
I did experience being paralyzed and hearing a whiper though. But no, the whiper only said my name, it didn't say all those other things. Lol. And everything that Amara did afterwards or saw was made up too!this story is loosely based off of my experience. I hope you like it!Please give me honest feedback and please vote!!
PLEASE VOTE/COMMENT/FOLLOW ME IF YOU LIKE THIS STORY!THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT! <3