The gate

‘Look at the house overlooking the cemetery, it’s supposed to be haunted. The colonists built that bungalow and it housed many eminent personalities. With the decline of the colonial power, the house lost its glory and charm. The last of the occupants, Ms. Barthory was a supposedly a witch practitioner and under her rule hundreds of girls were tortured and murdered, the reasons unknown to this day. You see the graves over there, they are supposed to be of those dead girls’, saying this Sam sighed.

Tommy looked at me and said, ‘No wonder they call it the haunted house’ and Sam nodded and continued, ’This is your chance pal, sneak into the house, click snaps of all the rooms and then come back, we’ll admit that there are no ghosts’

‘But before that, a word of caution. Legend has it that anybody who goes into the house never returns. The ghoul of Ms. Barthory still haunts the house and enslaves them before finally killing them’

‘I just don’t believe in ghosts and spirits, remember I stayed all alone in the Westhoff cemetery last week, at night’ saying this, I started to move across the graveyard to the house.

I reached the gate and an address board read ’1001 Villa, Aston Street’. ‘That’s an odd number for a house address, very queer’ I thought.

I opened the gate and slowly walked inside. It is indeed creepy with few bats flying over and the full moon that shone over the central tower of the building. I jumped in fright when I heard a gong sound and I looked up. ‘God, it’s a clock on the tower’ wiping the sweat off me and proceeded towards the door.

The door was locked from outside and so I stepped down onto the garden to pick some stone to break it. When I turned back to the door, I could feel some hundreds of eyes watching me. I suddenly turned behind and there’s nothing but the graveyard.

‘Just my imagination coupled with the fright these guys have injected into me’ I told myself. There was a huge blow and it fell to the ground, the lock and I opened the latch and pushed the door open.

‘Creak….’ There was a big scraping sound and the flutter of bats which ensued after that, but slowly the creepiness was restored and the ambience was calm and silent once again. After hearing a lot to the honking of the cars and shoutings of the people in the city, silence seemed to be spooky, forget the existence of a ghost, the eerie milieu itself seemed to kill me out of fright.

As I walked into the house dusting the cobwebs I reached the stairs which divided into two with one running to the left and the other to the right. I just climbed the stairs to look at a portrait on the wall at the place where the stairs split into two.

As I approached the wall, I could lucidly see the portrait. It was of a beautiful woman of high nobility. Long hair, long nails and piercing looks, the portrait itself seemed to be very haunting. ‘Wonderful painting’, I thought as I ran my fingers over it. I could feel the cloth of the woman in the painting and distinctly I heard a girl laugh and I pulled back in fright.

And I started to run upstairs pretending to be brave, but in one corner of my heart I could sense the fright. Occasionally my body squirmed involuntarily and my pulse ran faster. As I reached the first floor of the building, the entire place was pitch black. The ground floor at least had the hearth where wood was burning and so there was light…

‘Oh my god, how was the wood burning? And I started to tremble in fear’ and I tread back slowly to see the hearth. There was nothing. ‘How did I manage to see the portrait, something’s wrong with this place, I need to get out of here’ and I removed the mobile from my pocket and pressed some key for light.

As I turned back I felt a cold wave pass across me and I saw a figure move across and my heart sank. There is definitely a negative force in this house. As I was about to walk further, I felt I was walking on a fluid when I bent down to see what it was. ‘It’s blood….’ And I was about to faint, when I felt some one lay his hand on me. With a shriek, I ran away from the place towards the stairs.

When I reached the stairs I could hear heavy thuds as if someone big was following me. Unable to withstand the fright I leaped and ran down the stairs and rushed to the door only to find that it’s not opening as if it has been locked from outside. I was pulling the door when a hand lay on my shoulders and I looked back in fright.

‘Tommy, what were you doing inside’ I asked him astounded by his presence.

‘Sam asked me to go with you and frighten you, but now, I myself see that the house is truly haunted’ saying this he fell onto the ground pronely. And there were nail scratches across his back as if somebody dug her nails deep into his back and he was bleeding heavily.

And I said my last prayers before I felt a stinging pain in my back…..

The next day Sam came searching for us with a few other friends of ours. When he was at the gate, he saw the address board at the gate.

It read ’1003 Villa, Aston Street’.