"You don't belong here" Shimla, India (2010)
Holidays meant fun. Fun meant road-trips and road-trips definitely meant a visit to my friend's farmhouse in Shimla. Secluded from the hustle and bustle of the city. 'Villa top' was located in the serene forests in the valleys of Shimla. I had been here before with all my friends many times. There were rumors about the mountainside being haunted so none of the local residents had encroached into the forest. My friend's father, a strict army officer did not pay heed to such rumors, the space within the forest was economical and it was not a bad bargain either. Thanks to him, we can now spend all our vacations in this giant villa away from the city in utter peace.
Like always the seven of us had reached early morning. The villa was waiting to welcome us with open arms. We rushed in like a bunch of terrorists at a tea party and took over our rooms. The villa had eight rooms in total segregated equally on two floors. The floors and the walls were made of the finest teak wood and the windows were large like the French Riviera to let in a lot of sun in the morning and enough serene moonlight by the night. The ground floor had a humungous kitchen custom made to make food for a huge feast and right in the center of the ground floor was a magnificent drawing cum dining room.
The walls were lined with exquisite tapestry and expensive paintings. Overall it gave the impression of one of the old French building that had been left back after the invasion but in reality it was really very new. Before I proceed forward with a day-to-day recount of our stay here and how it came to be our last stay in this house let me introduce you to the Homo sapiens who had taken over this quiet and huge mansion suddenly.
I was the leader of the pack, for all of you who have been reading my life experiences so far, would already by now have had a rough idea of how. Without further ado let me discuss about the other six. Sharanya and Rishi, they were my friends since college and had been dating for the past three years, marriage was way out of the question but they had been living in for a while now. Sharanya was working as a marketing consultant for BCG and Rishi was working for Google. Nitant and Seema; the second couple, Nitant was the owner of this magnanimous establishment and Seema his girlfriend, well; she was much of a baby. They had been engaged now for a month and were due to get married soon. The other two were Akram and Hasnain; brothers they were, we literally allowed them to tag along as they could cook amazing lamb.
The day was pretty much like usual vacations. Playing tag in the forest followed by jungle Frisbee and jungle volleyball. When the sun had literally settled down behind the mountains Sharanya and Rishi opted to take the vehicle to town to get some booze while Akram and Hasnain proceeded to the kitchen to cook food. The rest of us were so tired that we fell down here and there in the drawing room to rest. None of us really ever dined on the dinner table for two primary reasons 1) the tapestry was expensive and so was the cutlery and crockery 2) All of us were too lazy to eat like civilized people, eating for us meant putting less in our stomachs and feeding more to the inanimate objects around.
After our ritualistic eating it was finally time to put on the music groove and get high. The clubbing ritual went on till two in the night. The couples decided it was time to beat the stress by making out. Akram and Hasnain were sloshed and out on the two couches in the drawing room and I was sitting on the second floor landing reading a book in the moonlight issuing in from the giant windows. Don't believe me! This was not the city there was less of industrial smoke. You could literally drive here on the road without headlights the moonlight was that clear. As I looked at the watch it was almost two thirty. The couples had retired to their rooms and the brothers were still asleep
The only audible noise was that of the pendulum of the wall clock, which was attached to the wall near the kitchen on the ground floor. Maybe I was too engrossed in reading or maybe there was some past story in my mind, I felt as if I could here a distant whisper like people talking to each other. I suffered from mild sleep issues and I did imagine things sometimes so I was not really worried. Generally the voices in my head would calm down within a minute or two but things were very different today. I felt as if the voices became louder by the second. I tried closing my ears for a while and mumbling to myself that it was all fake but the noises did not seem to stop. On analyzing further I realized the voices were real, they were coming from the kitchen on the ground floor.
I kept my book aside and walked to the edge of the hallway. I slowly started descending the steps trying to make the least noise possible. The house was completely made of wood and the teakwood made horrible noises under my foot. I finally reached the bottom of the stairs with much caution and started advancing slowly towards the kitchen. The brothers were still asleep on the sofa unaware of anything. The kitchen was almost dark except for a few patches of moonlight, which were filtering in from the gaps in the exhaust vent. I was hoping to find one of the couples in the kitchen but on reaching the spot I saw nothing. The kitchen was as empty as a graveyard at night; strangely the voices were gone too. My mind had managed to deceive me one more time. After this I too closed the book and retired to the room for the night
People woke up at different times the following day. The couples slept longer for obvious reasons. I was generally the first to wake up but strangely the khan brothers were awake before me. They were playing catch in the backyard. Soon the house was live again. People were awake. I thought of sharing the experiences of the previous night but I did not wish to feel like a total pansy in front of these guys.
The day continued as usual. Crazy stuff, play fights, music, guitar dance, smoke up and repeat. This ordeal once again continued till twelve in the night and once again people were in a hurry to rush into their rooms. Everything was ok till a woman's scream echoed from the first floor. Most of us were on the ground floor. Seema was the only one missing. All of us immediately rushed up the stairs nearly toppling over one another till were reached the door of the bedroom. Seema stood frozen near the door pointing her fingers to the French window in the room. In the moonlight we all could make out the dark figure of a person sitting on the chair beside it. Nitant's adrenaline kicked in and he switched on the light. There was nothing. Absolutely nothing. The room was untouched and un-invaded. The paranormal crossed each of our minds till Akram spoke " It's the green stuff speaking guys we should all hit the bed. The though of the paranormal flew out of our minds as quickly as it had flown in and we all retired to our rooms.
I was still in pretty much of my senses and I could not quite digest the presence of the shadow in the room. I decided to pull out the history of the forest and the area around. Sleep was a distant though so I plugged in my laptop to the wireless and started my search. A million pages opened and each page opened a new chapter to the history of the region. Massive massacres during the British ages, corporal punishment and even the rape of a woman; the place had seen enough to actually be quiet about it. It was now spilling its secrets, it wanted to be left alone and pristine
I was distracted by a loud crashing noise that came from the floor below. And I was very sure I was not the only one to hear it. I unlatched my door and ran towards the stairs. Sure enough each and every one of the others had heard it, they were already there at the bottom of the stairs, their eyes were transfixed on the expensive dinner table in front. There were pieces of glass and bone china everywhere, someone had yanked the table cover and had broken each and every peace of glass and chinaware. Nitant stood frozen. His father was going to strangle him to death. It was damage worth thousands. What was strange was there was no one else apart from us in the house and definitely no one with strength enough to yank a long table cloth all by himself.
The home that was our haunt had suddenly become our worst nightmare. Voices in the kitchen, shadows by the window and now this, all of the things were pointing to the fact that the worst was yet to come. We took a conscious decision of leaving the very next day and while all of us were at it one of us would be keeping a watch for anything abnormal that could happen. We gave the liberty to the ladies to pack first while each of us stood at different corners on different floors. My duty was near the kitchen a place I did not like at all. We called out our names loudly in every fifteen minutes to just check on the other and also it gave us strength to stay together in this time of utter fear.
About an hour into the night I could once again here the whispers they were coming from the kitchen "we were happy, we were free till they came. This place was ours but we don't think we belong here anymore". The whispers were crystal clear and I turned back in horror. By the moonlight coming in through the kitchen window I saw three figures to males and a lady. I immediately switched on the light of the kitchen and once again the shadows were gone. I kept the light one and turned around
But when I did my worst fears came to light. I felt a touch on my shoulder. I started sweating, my heart ran faster and my blood froze and I heard a whisper in my ear "Please do not switch on the light, it hurts". I ran from there like mad tripping over the couch and falling face first on the teakwood floor. My nose was wet and I could taste my own blood at the back of my throat. I had burst a nerve but that was the least of my concerns as of now. The house was haunted and we had to get away as soon as possible. I summoned the courage to shout out Akram's name. My friend was down with me in minutes. I was limping my knee hurt badly from the fall and my nose was bleeding profusely. Akram assisted me onto the first floor and went down to guard the kitchen himself. I sat on the topmost stair holding my nose.
I was hoping that I should be the first and the last to be injured but my hopes faded when I hear another scream of a lady from one of the room's in the corner. With whatever strength I had I limped to the room still holding onto my nose. Rishi was already in the room. He too had reached recently after hearing Sharanya's scream. The French window in the room was broken. We were both scared of the same thing. We ran together to the window and looked below. Sharanya lay motionless in the garden below. Both of us without wasting a moment rushed out of the house.
We reached the garden at the back and knelt down beside her. She was still breathing. The fall though had broken one of her collar blades. She winced in pain as Rishi lifted her up. I instructed him to go to the car put her in the back seat and start the engine. I ran into the house limping on one leg and as soon as I entered the dining room I screamed, "leave you belongings and move out". The brothers were the first ones to rush out followed by the couple. Once in the run we did not look back at the house
Once everyone was in the car. I was the last one standing outside. I turned around to look at the house in the moonlight. The lights inside were flickering violently and in many human whispers I could here the same phrase in unison "You do not belong here anymore". We started the car and were soon far away from the forest on the main highway driving away like mad men at four in the morning
We reached Delhi the next morning devastated with fear. None of our friends or parents believed our story. Sharanya was grounded for a weak and I was well given a good thrashing. Nitant was slapped to crap by his father once he told him about the damage. The father was looking for the so-called real truth which even Nitant did not know.
And the funniest part was Nitant's father sent one of his friends residing in Shimla over to the farmhouse gauge the extent of damage. The friend laughed on the phone and told him "you son must be joking with you everything is fine". Everything was back in its place as if nothing had happened. Even the window in the room was fixed. What was more eerie was someone had neatly packed our baggage and left them outside the main door. It was really true.... They had made it very clear.... "We did not belong with them anymore"