Chapter-5
1168 Words
"Aaaaaa..."
"Open the door" Jeet screams.
A burst of laughter spread in the room.
Light came.
"open the door, please." Jeet didn't turn back he was tapping the door in fear.
"Hey..."
"What's with him? Hey, lights came." Veer tried to calm Jeet.
But it was no use. Jeet was so scared that he assumed the door to be locked from outside.
"Please, someone help."
"Look, hey milky boy."
"Please....pl.." Jeet started panting.
"What's happening to him? Hey..." Sam got scared.
Jeet fainted, leaning on the door.
"Is he dead?"
"I don't think so. Let's lift him up and lay him on the bed." Veer says.
"Veer, his body temperature is high."
"He caught the fever."
"Unlock the door and leave the room."
"What if we get caught? Veer, what should we do now?"
"I said to unlock the door. Let's get out of here. And inform the peon. He will handle it." Veer said.
"It's nearly 3 am. He will kill us." Sam said in fear.
"I'll go. Don't worry."
They did the same. And they were about to leave through the open window.
"Veer! Hurry up." Sam calls.
Veer saw Jeet shivering. He draped the quilt over him.
***
In the morning.
"Jeet, tell me what happened last night without any hesitation. Whoever is behind this will get punished." Warden said with a rage in his eyes.
Sam looks at Veer nervously. The warden stares at Veer. But Veer was standing calmly.
"Speak up, kid." The doctor said.
"I don't know." Jeet replied.
"What? What do you mean by you don't know?"
"Sir, I don't know what happened last night. I just got scared. That's it. I don't remember much."
On Jeet's statement, all students start mumbling.
"There is a real ghost."
"This room is haunted."
"I won't come near this room."
"Oh my God!"
To quiet them all, the warden shouts.
"There is nothing called ghost. He is here alone that may be the reason. Jeet I will talk to him will you change your room?"
"No sir, I am fine here."
"But you almost.."
"It won't happen again, sir. I won't share the room with that boy." Said Jeet.
Listening to that, Veer leaves the crowd in front of Jeet's room.
***
Jeet skipped a day due to that incident. Because of that, Riya got punishment for not having the notebook.
When Jeet meet her, she scolded him.
Jeet explained to her and Ram what had happened to him that night.
"A haunted room?"
"Yes. It was so scary."
"Why don't you just change the room?" Ram asked.
"The only place I'll get is that Veer's room. I don't want to share space with him."
"Yes, nobody wants to. But your case is different. It's about your life and death situation." Riya said with a sigh.
"No. Nothing can force me to change the room."
"Then, what will you do today?"
"I don't know yet. But I have to do something."
"What about last night?"
"Nothing."
"No ghosts attack?"
"No"
"What about...we trap the ghost?" Riya says with excitement.
"No way. If ghosts are real, then we should not mess with them. And you are a girl you can't get inside a boy's hostel." Ram said to Riya.
"If a ghost is real, then God must be real too. I will take God's help. My mom gave me a photo I will place it there."
Jeet looks satisfied with his idea.
***
During lunchtime, Jeet again saw that boy begging to Veer. The group was sitting underneath a banyan tree. Veer was raising his hand seems like he was saying no to that boy's plead.
'What's going on?' Jeet thought.
"Jeet....." Ram calls him out.
"Yes,"
"What are you staring at?"
"That boy... he is our classmate, right?" Jeet queried.
"That? He is Rajanikant, such a sycophant. He sticks around teachers all the time. Yet he gets the second position in exams."
"Who get's the first?"
"That boy with a gang."
"Veer?"
"Yes"
"Because of his dad?"
"No. He is a super genius. Many girls tried to get close to him so that he will help them out. But he kicked them out. He is such a rude guy."
"Oh,"
They were gossiping with a constant glance at Veer. When Sam suspiciously looked at them. They turned their eyes.
They soon walked to the canteen.
In the canteen, everyone was staring at Jeet.
The mumbling sound soon echoed in the canteen.
"What's going on?" Jeet asks Ram.
"You became famous in just one night." Said Riya.
"Hi" Jeet greeted her.
"Hi, the possessed boy."
"What?"
"Riya, what are you saying?"
"I am not saying. The whole school is saying. A boy staying in the haunted room of the college's hostel. The one who denied changing the room. Why? He must be either mad or possessed. So what are you? Possessed? Or mad? I will prefer mad."
"News spread so fast in here." Ram said.
They walked near the counter and stood in the queue.
Soon everyone stepped aside.
"Are they making way for you?" Ram asked Jeet.
"Don't know. But it is awkward."
"This is cool. You became a celebrity. Let's go" Riya said and dragged them to move ahead to the counter.
These kinds of weird behavior of students towards Jeet continued. In the washroom as well students after seeing him walk away.
This bothered him a lot.
Everyone isolated him.
"Ram, I don't like this kind of isolating behaviour of others." Jeet said in an upset voice.
"For that, you should change the room." Ram advise.
"No. I won't."
"Then. You should prove that there is no ghost at all." Riya said.
"From where you popped up? You always eavesdrop our conversations." Ram scolded Riya.
"Sorry about that, but I am your cousin. And aunt gave me the responsibility of yours. I am older than you."
"Just one month."
"Thanks for the advice, guys. If I stay in that room for more days without any fear. Then Riya's point will be proved. Only one incident won't confirm that ghosts exist."
"Good luck. But I must say, you are crazy. Crazy enough to think like that."
***
Jeet went to the room. He closed the window and even tied the handle together with a rope.
His door is not locked. He placed the photo his mom suggested placing at his room.
He let the light stay on the whole night.
He gets inside the quilt.
He waited for any paranormal activity to happen. But nothing happened.
He started to doze off.
In the midnight, he heard a faded voice of someone crying.
He looks around. No one was there. The voice seems to be coming from outside.
He steps out of the room. The corridor was dark. Yet he decided to follow the voice.
This time he let the door of his room open.
"Tap...tap...tap.."
His footsteps were echoed in the corridor hall.
He was approaching the voice. Closer. Closer.
"Ahhh.." Jeet screams.
- Writer
