The Mysterious Village

I opened my eyes, my vision was blurred, I couldn’t see clearly. But after opening and closing my eyes a few times, I could finally see a huge ceiling fan just above me. I was confused. I didn’t knew where I was, how I reached here, and what happened to me before.

I looked around the room, there was an almirah and a small table by my bed. The paint on the walls of that room was so old and dirty from many places. On the wall just in front of me were photos of some people. I thought that they were the owner of this house.

I didn’t really looked well at those photos and tried to get up. But, as soon as I got one inch above from the bed my back ached like hell. I...I couldn’t get up. The pain was too much, I laid down on the bed again.

I tried to think about what had happened with me last time I was conscious and how I reached here. I remembered the hospital, how I escaped it, saw that lady on that road. And then...the accident. Oh, so that’s how I got here, and that’s probably why my back pains like hell.

When I was just remembering all that and was trying to think who saved me, suddenly an old lady entered that room.

I was looking right at her, she was so shocked to see me and as soon as she saw me, she ran back saying, “He’s up, come here quick”.

I was really confused right now. Is she the one who had saved me? I wasn’t sure about her, but I couldn’t do anything at that moment either.

It felt really unsafe for me to remain here any more second. And so I tried to get up once again. My back still ached a lot, but this time I took the pain and got up.

I haven’t even gotten up completely when that lady returned with an old man with her. The lady was slightly smiling while that old man had a blank expression on his face. I was still confused.

The man asked, “Are you feeling good now?” while entering the room and coming towards my bed.

“Yes, but my back pains a lot.”

“Don’t worry she’ll apply ointments to your back. It’s a miracle that you even survived that accident.” He was standing before my bed now.

“What happened to me?”

“Don’t you remember your truck crashed into a tree. Luckily, the tree was on the left side of the truck and not in front of you. You fell out of the truck, breaking the glass and became unconscious.

The accident happened right in front of us, and we were shaken by the sound. We found you in a puddle of blood, so we brought you to my home, here. And then you remained unconscious for a whole week.”

“For a whole week!”

I was so surprised to hear that.

“Yes, in fact that’s very low for the injuries you had. But we’re happy to see you alive now.” He said while smiling and then he was back in his blank expression.

It took me a whole minute to digest everything he had just said, and I was still thinking about it when he suddenly spoke again.

“So where were you headed to?”

“Huh?” I had no clue, I just couldn’t stop thinking about the accident and how I nearly died there.

“You were in an ambulance when we found you. There aren’t any hospitals nearby so you must’ve come from a long way. So, where were you going?”

Now when I finally stopped thinking about the accident and looked at his face, I recognized who he was. He was one of those men who were smoking just when I had that accident. Things started to make some sense now. He must’ve saw me and brought me here.

Then suddenly my head started aching. The pain was too much, I closed my eyes and put both of my hands on my head and said my head is hurting, to him.

The lady came near me and said.

“Oh! Darling don’t worry everything will be all right. Here, lay down and rest. Don’t think too much about that night.

My head was really hurting a lot. I don’t know if it was hurting because of any injury or from stress but it was really painful that I couldn’t even open my eyes.

Then the old man who was standing just beside me started saying.

“You can come out to walk in the farms with me when you feel fine. She will give you clean clothes to wear.”

I looked at him from a crack between my eyelids. Saying this he left that room.

Then that woman sat near me and said, “You don’t need to go if you don’t feel like it. Take some time to get rest.”

She had a plate in her hand, she placed it on the table beside me and left the room. And I was left alone in this room once again.

I tried to peek what was on that plate. I think it was some medicine to apply to my injuries.

The pain in my back and head was too much. I couldn’t tolerate it and before I could even know it I was asleep once again.

…

I woke up, I didn’t knew what time it was and for how long did I slept, but I was feeling a lot better now. My back and head weren’t hurting anymore.

Then I remembered what that old man had said. He asked me to come to his farms with him.

I slowly got up, my back was fine this time. I looked at the table that was beside my bed, it was empty this time. I got up from the bed and looked inside the almirah.

The whole almirah was empty. There was nothing but a pair of clothes. They were possibly put there for me. I took them out to take a look at them and yes, they were my size.

Although, I was happy for them to be this nice to me but, sigh, I never wore clothes this simple and cheap. They were probably made by that old lady herself.

I wasn’t wearing any clothes already so I just wore those shirt and pant. The shirt was blue and the pant was grey.

I looked around the room last time before stepping out of the room. While leaving the room I was still eyeing the room back for, what if I might forget anything important, because I didn’t had anything with me. And just when I stepped out of the room and started going forward suddenly that lady came in front of me. I nearly bumped in me.

She had a plate in her hands, just like before.

She asked me, “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to the farms. He asked me to join him there just a while ago, remember.”

“That wasn’t just a while ago, it was yesterday. You slept for the whole day.”

“A whole day! That’s impossible.” I was quiet after that.

“Don’t think about it too much. It’s fine, you should rest, you just had a terrible accident.”

I didn’t say much to her and just asked where I may find that man.

…

I saw him walking between two small farms of different crops.

“You came. Do you know what crop is this?” He said while pointing to the crops on his right.

They were green leafy plants. I didn’t knew what they were. I haven’t really seen crops by myself. This was the first time I was seeing these crops and I didn’t know what they were, so I simply said, no.

We were both walking forward and he just simply looked at me for a moment. Then he said that they are white radishes.

“You must be from some city right?”

“Yes”

“This air must be pretty fresh to you.”

“Yes, it sure is.”

“I just wanted you to walk in the fields and feel better from the calm environment of here. I thought you might feel better walking here rather than staying in a closed room all day. It’s so fresh in here, you can even watch trains go by on that side.

Well, you stay here, I need to do some work. Try to remember what you can about yourself, OK?”

“OK”

And then he left.

While I was watching him leave, I saw a man squatting in some distance. I knew what it was and I didn’t even want to imagine it, so I looked away.

When I turned back, I saw a girl my age, walking towards me. I was looking at her, and she stopped just in front of me and asked,

“Who are you? And what are you doing here?”

“Nothing, I’m just walking around.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m Rohit.”

“I know everyone here. You’re not from here. Where do you live?”

“Ah-I’m no from here. I had an accident-”

“Oh, so you’re that boy who had that accident. I’m Nisha.”

Then she spoke again, “You’re staying at Ramkrishan’s house right?”

“Who?”

“That old man who saved you.”

“Oh, yeah. He left me just a minute ago. And I have to walk here now, till he comes back.”

“Till he comes back? You don’t know your way back, do you?”

“Maybe, I don’t know. I’ve always had problems remembering my way back.”

She smiled and asked, “Do you want me to show you around?”

I smiled and said, “Sure, how can I turn down a free tourist guide.”

“Well, then the first thing you would want to do is get out of this place. Because this place is not exactly the best to wander around at this time.”

“And Why’s that?”

“Look behind you.”

I turned around, saw that man again, and understood in a second, why she said that.

“Alright, so where do you suggest we go, tourist guide.”

“You’ll have plenty of time to see the village. So let’s go the other part of the village.”

“The other part? This village is divided.”

“Oh no, it’s not it’s just that, that part is haunted so we shouldn’t be there after sunset.”

“Haunted? And you’re still gonna take me there?”

“Well yes, usually there’s nobody around so it’s fun. And what? You’re afraid of ghosts?”

Till now we were walking, but now I stopped and turned towards her.

“Yes, a lot. And I’m not going anywhere haunted.”

“Oh come on, It’ll be quick, and fun.”

I said nothing and was just staring at her, and then she suddenly took my hand and dragged me there and I couldn’t even utter a word.

When we were just about to reach there, she said, “Don’t be afraid, ghosts aren’t real. And even if there are, then we can say hi at least.”

“You don’t know, they aren’t fun. I’ve seen them.”

“Oh, so you’ve seen ghosts? Tell me about them. How were your ghosts? How did they looked”

“They aren’t fun. She killed my dad.”

“Oh, I’m sorry about that.”

And then we were in front of that house.

“Woah! Is this a castle of any king or something.” I said.

“I don’t know. It’s been here for a very long time. It’s ancient.”

It was very big, it looked pretty old and maybe it was a castle. Even the front gates were pretty big and were made out of heavy steel.

She opened that gate and It made a lot of noise in the opening.

We went inside, and now we were in the huge garden of this castle. There were trees on both sides. I even saw a massive pool, and well the castle itself was pretty huge and old. It was made out of yellow stone.

“Oh look, there are monkeys there.” I said.

“Oh yes, they live here. You can find them here at any hour of the day. But, not at night exactly, nobody stays here at night.”

“Why? This place looks amazing for someone who wants total peace and privacy.”

“like?” she asked.

“Drug dealers.”

“Yes, that’s what was remaining. That even my favourite hang out place is captured by drug dealers.”

“I’m just suggesting. I don’t know, you can be a drug dealer, I don’t know you, do I?”

“Yes, and I just ruined my million dollar business by showing you this place.”

And then suddenly some monkeys jumped into the pool.

“Wow, they’re really having a good time.”

Then she went to the doors of that castle and asked, “Want to see the inside?”

“Yeah, sure. Let’s see which king lived here.”

She opened the door. They made a loud creak sound when she opened them.

But when I reached her and saw the inside. It was devastated. Everything inside the house was either misplaced or broken as if someone broke them on purpose.

“What happened here?” I asked.

“Oh, nothing. It’s just that this place is very old. But don’t mind this, it’s better upstairs, so we should go upstairs instead.”

“Ok.”

There were two pairs of stairs on either side. Just like they do in rich houses, but only that these ones were made out of stone and were also pretty huge.

On the stairs, I was wondering why these walls didn’t had any paintings on them. There weren’t even any marks on those walls.

We reached the room and that room was actually a lot cleaner than the rest of the house. She said it’s cleaner because she always spends time here.

I entered the room and saw many paintings on the wall. They were rather smaller than any painting I would expect in this royal house.

“These paintings, they don’t look like they belong here.”

“Yeah, they are made by me.”

“You made them? Wow, they’re really pretty.”

“Yes, It’s my hobby.”

I was looking everywhere with excitement because it seemed like she had tried to decorate every corner of that room. The bed was clean and had a lot of stuff toys on it, all the walls had tons of paintings on them, some were even painted directly on the walls themselves.

While I was wandering around the room she laid down on the bed.

There was also a desk with a lot of colours and brushes on it. There was a canvas on that desk, I sat on the chair.

“Careful, It’s meant for the princess.” She said.

She was probably trying to say something funny, but my eyes were stuck on that painting and I barely noticed what she said.

I was trying to figure out what that painting was about.

She said, “Do you like it? I made it a few weeks ago. I don’t like to hang it on the wall, instead, I just like to stare at it for hours.”

I think it was working for me too, because I was just staring at it constantly.

It was painting of a horse running in the air going upwards to the sun. And the whole sky was blue. But it looked pretty strange.

“Why is this horse flying to the sun? He’ll burn himself.” I said.

“It’s a mare.”

“Whatever.”

“And she’s not flying in the sky. She’s swimming underwater, trying to reach the surface.” She said it while making quotation marks with her fingers.

And then she said many things about the horse leaving all her problems and following the light. I didn’t really got anything she said, so I just kept agreeing with her on everything.

I only said, “Hmm...oh...ok.”

And then...I don’t know what triggered it, my agreeing or her own behaviour. But she started explaining me all of her paintings. And I had no option left, but listen to her.

“Hmm...oh...ok.”

In the end, she asked me to draw a painting.

I said that I will only waste the canvas, there’s no need to.

And she said, “I know. I’m giving you a paper to draw.”

“Oh”

“Actually I think that canvas is more fun to paint on.”

“You’ll trash them.”

Well, that was hurtful. But anyway, I think I spent a lot of time in drawing because I was nearly at the end, but suddenly she said,

“Alright, you can complete tomorrow, it’s evening now, we should go to the village.”

I left my masterpiece at that house. I was trying to make a seascape.

Then we went to the village. I had no idea where that man lived who saved me so I asked her about him and she took me to his house. When we reached there she said namaste uncle to him and then I too remembered and did the same.

She went back to her house and I couldn’t ask where she lived. Plus, I didn’t wanted to take a risk of getting lost in this village. Especially at night.

I noticed a small plastic bag in that man’s hand. I asked him what it was and he said that they are ointments and medicines for me. He asked me to come inside so that he could give those medicines to me.

We went inside that same room in which I had woken up before. I sat down and he gave me some tablets and water. I asked him what these medicines were and he said that they are painkillers mostly and will also help you to cure soon.

He gave me four medicines and normally I would have never taken those medicines from anyone just like this. But he had just saved me, so I suppressed that feeling and took those pills.

I don’t usually take pills, so I had to take them one by one and drank nearly three glasses of water.

After taking those pills he asked me to join him on the rooftop of his house and take a look at this village from above.

His house wasn’t really tall enough for me to see the whole village from above. And not only that but also that it was night, and this was a village. So there was practically no light to see anything.

But the breeze on that rooftop was pleasuring and that was literally the only reason I was still on that roof with him.

Then he leaned against the side of the boundary of that roof and I too stood there. But then, suddenly I started feeling dizzy.

I told him, “I think I’m feeling dizzy suddenly.”

“Oh yes, you should sleep in your bed now. I gave you a pill to help you sleep better.”

“What? But why? I wasn’t having any problem in sleeping .”

“The person on the medical store said that it’ll help, so I gave it to you.”

“I think he robbed you or something.”

“Why do-Who’s that lady over there with that lantern?”

“What lady-” I turned around to see what he was talking about but just as I turned around I was shocked. It was that supernatural lady!

My body went numb, I didn’t knew what to do and I was also feeling a lot dizzy because of the medicine he gave me. My mind was empty and I didn’t knew what to do.

She was looking straight into my eyes. She was holding that lantern to her face level and I could see that wicked smile on her face.

She was standing in darkness with only her lantern.. but in front of her there was a pole with a street light on it and then she looked at it.

I got confused and looked there too and what I saw was equally terrifying and unbelieving. In the light from that street light, I could see dozens if not hundreds of those creatures of dark slowly moving towards this house.

Even though my mind was completely empty, after seeing that swarm of those creatures my mind went in a sudden state of panic and I started thinking of ways to get out of here.

Then I looked at that lady again she was still looking at those creatures but then she looked at me with a blank expression on her face. I didn’t knew why she was doing that.

And then suddenly she started smiling and I noticed that she wasn’t exactly looking at me, but that man who was standing with me.

I turned around again to see why she was smiling and I saw that he was turning into those creatures of the dark. He was becoming like them very slowly. It seemed that, that dark was eating it because he was screaming and it was all happening in front of me.

Have you ever been in a situation where all ways seem to end and you have nowhere to go, nothing to do, every way is a dead end. Plus everything is happening so quickly that you don’t even have any time to think about something. But everyone is coming to kill you, to attack you, to get you out of your comfort zone and do something and so you do something stupid in the fire of the moment but regret it just the other second.

Well, I was in that situation at that time, and I did that. Something stupid. I jumped from that roof on the tree beside that house.

Forgetting, that I haven't even recovered from that deadly accident yet and my body was aching like hell a minute ago and my back is probably broken from the accident.

And only after jumping I noticed that, this tree didn't had many leaves, but only a few big branches.