“The Haunted Lady”

I don’t know if I should call this a story… because my heart pounces in fear as I write this…

This is a story of a woman who lived with her husband and her two sons in a small hut near Jaydevpur. The woman’s name was Samina and her husband’s name was Zahir. Her elder son’s name was Samy and he was 5 years old. Her younger son was only a year and his name was Jamy. Samina had a happy family. Her husband worked at the confectionery near the Jaydevpur train station.

Every day, Samina cooked breakfast for her family. Her husband and her elder son loved whatever she cooked for them. All of Samina’s neighbors were happy with her. Samina would make delicious homemade cakes every weekend and she used to send some to her neighbors’ houses. Every other person in the area loved her and her cakes. She was a great cook indeed.

Life was going very smoothly until… let’s talk about the disaster that shook this whole family forever!!!

Like a daily routine, Samina woke up and started making breakfast for her family. She was making egg omlettes with homemade breads for Zahir and Samy. She couldn’t find her husband at home. She thought maybe he had gone to take shower. So she didn’t bother much at first. Zahir returned after an hour, tired and sick. Samina found that Zahir was suffering from fever. His temperature was increasing and his body was warm like fire. Quickly, Samina covered Zahir with warm blankets.

Samina was pouring water on Zahir’s head and sponging his body but the temperature didn’t go down. She called in a local doctor for prescription. The doctor prescribed some medicines and told her to bring those and give him immediately. But Samina couldn’t go out leaving her husband and children unattended; however, one of her neighbors was kind enough to go and buy the medicines for her.

It was night and by that time, Zahir’s fever came under control. Since it was the rainy season, there was no routine for rainfall. In the morning, it’s sunny but in the evening, it rains like never before. It kept raining and hence it’s cold at night. Samina put some sweaters on Samy and Jamy. Then she put some extra blankets on Zahir and went to sleep.

In the morning, Zahir felt better but was really weak to go to the shop. So he stayed home and Samina took care of him. Samy and Jamy stayed at home too as the last night’s rain have clogged all the roads. During the evening, a strange thing happened. Samina went to the well near her house to get some water. She took her pitcher with her. While going back to her house after taking water, she met an old woman with yellow teeth and gray hair. The old woman was looking at her and giving weird glimpse; and she grinned like an evil soul. This old woman’s evil laughter scared Samina. But Samina didn’t show it. Being a kind hearted person, Samina asked the old woman politely if she needed any help. But the old woman kept grinning. Samina couldn’t figure out what was going on. She had a sick husband at home waiting for her and so she hurried on her own way to home.

Again night came. & it was raining very heavily. In fact it was a stormy night. The roof was shaking at the roar of the lightening every time. Zahir didn’t sleep well the previous night but it was strange that he slept peacefully tonight. So Samina didn’t call him for dinner. The children slept too. Samina shut all the doors and windows so that water doesn’t come inside the house. Then she went to her husband. She touched his hands and found that they were as cold as ice. She thought Zahir was sleeping but actually because of the high fever and weakness, he died in his sleep. Samina tried to call her neighbors but none came because of this storm. She kept crying and praying to God.

Right at that moment, there was a knock at the door. Samina thought maybe one her neighbors had come to help. She opened the door but there was no one…

She was closing the door but then a woman of her same age stopped her from closing the door. She said, “Please let me in. I have no shelter to spend the night in this stormy weather; please let me stay in your house for the night”. Samina couldn’t say anything. She just lost her husband, her heart was broken and she had no reason to refuse a helpless woman. So she let the woman come inside her house. But when the woman came inside the house, Samina noticed something really strange. It was raining so heavily outside, but that woman didn’t get wet. Not a single drop of water on her dress or on any part of her body. Samina was a bit confused but she didn’t care much about all this as she was only thinking about her husband who was lying on the bed…dead and cold. She gave some hot milk to the mysterious woman and slept in another room with her children. Zahir’s body was in the front room.

Suddenly Samina woke up at the strange noise that was coming from the front room. She got so scared that she didn’t dare to go in that room. But she gathered courage to look through the holes of the wall that partitioned the front room from the back room. And she saw……………

There was her beloved husband, lying on bed, with blood all over the body. The whole bed was oozing in his blood. And she could see the woman whom she gave shelter for the night. It was not the woman anymore. It was something else, more horrible than any wild animal. It was a strange creature that was eating Samina’s husband…it was drinking Zahir’s blood, playing with his bones by breaking them and then it ate Zahir’s heart like a muffin. Samina lost her voice to speak….she was numb… She couldn’t scream or run as that creature might come to the next room and eat her children too. She knew that she couldn’t save Zahir but she would do every possible thing to save her sons.

There was a back door of the house. Slowly Samina managed to call Samy. Samy was surprised to see her mother shaking in fear and wanted to ask something but Samina stopped her from saying anything. She just pointed the back door to Samy and told him that they have to run away as fast as possible. Taking Jamy in her hand and holding Samy by another hand, Samina tiptoed towards the back door. She could still hear the scary noises of that creature while coming out of the house. It was tough for her to leave Zahir in that condition but she had to save her sons from this hungry ferocious creature. She ran with her sons as fast as she could. It was still raining but she didn’t have much option other than saving her family’s life. She crossed a large field and managed to get to the station where people were waiting for the next train. she managed to find the owner of the confectionery where Zahir worked and told him about whatever she saw. The owner sent some men to Samina’s house in the morning but Zahir’s body wasn’t there. And there was no sign of that creature. The whole bed was wet with blood and Zahir’s bones were scattered here and there.

Samina left that area and moved to the city. After that she worked in a garments factory and her sons joined school. But never again she allowed an outsider to stay in her house. She never found out what that creature was…

[Based on a true incident]