Ghost Story: You Killed Me

@Mistt and @periamma
Many thanks to you all for liking the story.

 

Thanks GK for the encouragement!

 

You are right! Writing scary story which is not cliche is not easy. Thanks for the comment!

 

Welcome Deepika23! Very happy to see your comment. The next part is almost ready. I will publish it tonight.

 

Chapter 5
Transfer to Jamalpur​

We immediately brought Sara to a reputed nursing home in Kalyani. But, the doctors said it was too late. She died of excessive breeding. The local police were clueless about the mishap. She could have fallen down from the stairs, but no body could explain the sharp cuts on her entire body. Some people thought it was a case of suicide. But neither a sharp object was found on Sara's room, nor any suicide note could be seen. I was thinking about the same fetid smell that I noticed on my house at Joynagar. Even being a science student, I could not give a satisfactory explanation to myself.

I became morose, and reticent for an entire year. I didn't change my house, but I remained very sceptical during my stay on the house. What did Sara actually see on the pond? I looked at that pond several times during a day, but could not find anything suspicious. I also saw the water monitor couple of times near my windows, but there was no fetid smell emanating from it.

Time passed by, and my grief subsided slowly. I could again concentrate on work, but never thought of involving in a relationship. Whenever my parents said that as a thirty years old eligible bachelor, I should seriously think about marriage, I just swatted the proposal, saying that I didn't recover from the shock.

I became very relieved when my tenure of 3 years came to an end, and I was eventually transferred to a new place of posting at Jamalpur, a nondescript village town in eastern Burdwan district. This time, I didn't get an entire building for rent, but I was allotted the entire 1st floor of a 2-storeyed building. The landlord, a local shop owner, aged around 55, lived with his wife, aged around 45, and a daughter, aged around 17 on the ground floor. The family was good, and the rent was cheap. So, I didn't hesitate to take the deal.

Jamalpur proved to be a cool place. During my tenure in Joynagar, I had been constantly bothered by political turmoils. Angry people used to barge into my chamber with various problems. They thought the more you shouted, the more powerful leader you were. That's why they exhibited the full strength of their lungs whenever they spoke to me. But here, the local politicians were polite, the incidents of violence were nominal. The water in Jamalpur was so healthy that my nagging problem of constipation vanished in thin air.

Cooking seemed to be the only headache, as no good cook was available there. I tried hotel food for few times, but the quality of oil and water was below standard, every time leading to loose motion. Though my landlord seemed to be very helpful, and wanted to make an arrangement with me regarding food, I didn't want to bother him. So, I decided to try my hand at cooking. It was not as if I would be cooking for the first time, as I had a fair bit of cooking experience. Being a gourmet, I had criticised a lot the food prepared by my mother and my sister. Flabbergasted by my constant criticism, once they challenged me to show them what good food meant. I took up the challenge, and even myself was surprised by the fact that the first item cooked by me, an egg curry, was a huge hit.

Chapter 6
How to avoid Sona​

Things had been going on pretty smoothly for the first 3 to 4 months. But, after that period, a nagging problem seemed to have cropped up. It was my landlord's 17 year old daughter Sona. She would visit my flat with some excuse or other. Initially, it didn't matter much to me, as I thought she was too young to take note of. She would enter my flat to enquire about trivial matters. After every two days she would bring some food items for my dinner. She would boast about her culinary skills. It was true that the items were very palatable, but I didn't praise much in fear of more food being offered.

She would occasionally come for help to solve some class 12 mathematical problems. It was my mistake that once I told her father that I was a science student. Her father had pressed me hard to tutor her. I told him firmly that since my job had no spefic timings for return, it wouldn't be possible for me to do that. Thus far, I was a bit irritated, but there was nothing more than that. But the problem began soon.

My rented building had a nice compound full of trees, bearing both fruits and flowers. There is an interesting fact about mofussil areas which many readers don't know; here people built toilets outside the main building, and not to forget about some poor people who did the job in fields as they had no toilet in their house. Out of curiosity, I asked some people about this strange custom. I must say the answer was pretty convincing. They said, "How do you city people tolerate the beautiful aroma of kitchen to mix with the awful smell from toilet?" Anyway, here also my toilet was in midway position between ground and first floor, and the toilet of my landlord was outside the main building. In my way to the gate I had to pass by their toilet.

It was out of design or not I didn't know, but everyday when I went to the market at 8 AM, Sona would come out of the bathroom after bathing, with a steel pail in her hand. She used to wash her clothes at the same time. The washed clothes were in the pail. She would bend down right in front of me to take the clothes for putting them on the rope tied from veranda to veranda for drying. There was nothing wrong in that, except the fact that the motion would reveal her cleavage.

Sona was around 5 ft 3 inches, on the taller side compared to the other girls in the village. She had a bright complexion, and a slim but beautifully-shaped body. She could melt the heart of any boy with her downturned hazel eyes. Whenever she looked at me, I could see a glint in her eyes. But, as I said, I thought she was too young for my liking. So, I never gave any indulgence to her. But, that act had toppled me a bit. Her kameez was so loose that I got a glimpse of the 50 percent of her C-cup breasts. I was embarrassed, and immediately turned down my eyes. She minutely observed my reaction, and laughingly stareded some trivial conversations with me. I thought it was a one-off incident, but to my dismay it became a routine.

Most of the times, I could avail a vehicle for my journeys related with work. But on certain days, due to more serious work, the cars had to be allotted somewhere else. One was such a day, when a lot of our employees had to be provided cars for election related work. But being the DDO of the block, I had to go to the Sub-division for some treasury related work.

Travelling in train was no big deal for me. The only problem was that most of the time, the train compartments used to be overcrowded. During my return journey, I found the train to be thronging with people. Since the journey from Burdwan to Jamalpur was not more than 30 minutes, I didn't go too deep inside the train.

In the next station, to my utter dismay, I saw Sona getting on my compartment. She was probably coming from attending her tuition classes. I tried to feign that I didn't see her. But within a few moments, she saw me, and came close to me. It was too close for my comfort. But since the train was crowded, I could not express my disgust. It felt very awkward when her small firm tits pressed against my body.

Chapter 7
The fetid smell comes back​

I could not believe that she was doing it intentionally. So, I tried to move back, but to my dismay I found my back firmly placed to the iron railing. She was smiling, but didn't speak as there was too much noise in the compartment. To my utter disgust there was surge of hormones in my body. I constricted my throat. She saw that, and again she smiled. There was a very clear wickedness in that smile.

I prayed to the train God to run quickly to my stoppage. I was sweating and breathing heavily even in winter. However, at last, our destination came. After alighting from the train, she wanted me to go with her in a rickshaw. I humbly lied that I had some marketing to do. She said she would accompany me. To that I had to firmly tell her, " No, thanks!" She seemed to be heart-broken, but trudged towards the rickshaw stand.

To avoid her, I went to the office, even though it was 6 PM. Our office generally remained open all the time. Majority of the staff used to go back home by 5-30 PM. The Headclerk and the BDO remained there up to 6-30 PM, and after that there was only the night guard. That day I didn't want to go home early. So, I did some official pending work, and then played a few computer games.

When I was done, it was 8 PM on the clock. Only our night guard Shyam was present. I told him to switch off the unnecessary lights, and walked towards home. The moment I left office, for a very brief period, I sensed the same putrid smell which I noticed in my previous residence Joynagar. Despite being a man of undisputed courage, I got instantaneous goosebumps. I always carried a torch in my bag. I immediately took it out, and frantically looked around me. But, there was nothing unusual there.

There was no street light in that mofussil area. It was completely dark in the road. Only light that was coming was from a few scattered houses. But it was not a densely populated area. So, most part of the road was dark. My only piece of hope was the flickering light from my age-old torch. Unfortunately, this torch could not be switched on continuously. So, I kept blinking it. The winter in mofussil had been severe. The cold was biting. But, I didn't pay any attention to it.

For the first time in my life, I became a triffle scared. This happened probably after the shocking accident of my colleague Sara a few years back. Even though I told myself that it was an accident, but somewhere in my sub-conscious mind, a sense of fear must have crept in! I walked at a brisk pace, and nothing happened in the journey. But, when I entered the building premises, I stumbled on something, and fell down.

"What the heck", I cried out in pain. When I got up on my feet, I knew I twisted my ankle. But, what was it that I stomped?

When I switched on my protesting, ramshackle torch, I was in a shock to see the barbie doll that I had seen on a shelf in Sona's house. Sona had told me that it was her most favourite doll since her childhood. In the meantime, Sona and father came out as they probably heard the swear words that came out of anguish, or maybe the thud of my falling. While enquring about my well being, they switched on the veranda's lights. I quickly explained the precarious situation I was in.

"How come it came outside?" Sona squealed, quickly grabbing her favourite doll.

"Oh my God! Somebody broke her neck!"

I could see tears in her eyes. I minutely observed the doll. It appeared to me that someone had forcefully twisted the neck. The neck was merely hanging from the body. "Could it happen due to my stomping", I asked myself. Maybe, was my answer. So, I apologized to Sona. But, Sona started crying, and her father was scolding her for her negligence. Somehow, I dragged myself to my room, and without eating retired for the day.

To be continued​

 

Correction of typo: In the 5th chapter, somehow "bleeding" became "breeding". Don't have the edit option now!

 

Thanks for the comment Mistt! A significant portion of the story is real, based on my experiences. Why Sara was killed can be realised in the end only.