Introduction :
As an English project i was assigned to write a short story. So here goes.
“The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead.” -Albert Einstein
Chapter 1
When I think about the incident I m going to tell you I can‟t help but pinch myself. By the end of this story you might think I m insane that I m a lonely teenager who had lost his head. But I am not. I had friends - AJ, Ashwin and Meghna, but by the end of the incident even they began to doubt my sanity. My name is Karthik Krishnan. When I m writing this I m in my second year at VIT, Chennai. You can say this story started 5 days back but no it really started many many years back. But for me it all began 5 days back on a Monday.
I remember that day as if it was yesterday. The sky was covered with a thick canopy of dark clouds. The smell of rain and wet sand filled the air. It was the last day of our CAT exam. The last exam was physics. Last year this was the paper I flunked. I was not going to let that happen again. I had read every page of that 180 pages quantum physics book at least four times. I could almost recite the first few pages without bashing an eye lid. I sat hesitantly in my allotted seat and looked back. Meghna was always just a few seats behind me. She gave me a reassuring smile. It was a big help I could actually breathe properly again. She always somehow managed to top the class in all subjects. You see the thing about girls is that they seem to have fun all the time but somehow they squeeze in some work too. Eventually I was handed the paper which I received with my fingers crossed. Life was much easier when I was in school since it did not matter what marks you got in school as long as you passed but in college each and every exam could well decide if you get employed by Microsoft or Indian
Railways. I read the paper very carefully and slowly at first and faster towards the end. The questions were familiar unlike last year. A wide smile spread across my face. I looked like I had just hit the jackpot. I reached out to my pen and started writing the answers as fast as I could.
30 minutes left and I had to finish four 6 mark questions. How the hell did that happen? I can‟t waste my time thinking about that, I need to think what the fundamental theories of wave nature of particles were. That was when it happened. The boy in front of me rose up slowly and went up to the teacher gave his paper and walked out of the examination hall. All eyes were on him. His name was Rishab, Rishab Dhingra. He was an above average student not the type that tops the class but the type that always just manages to get 8 marks below the topper. Then I looked at the people who generally top the class. They were the ones who were staring like they were ready to strangle him.
Over! CAT over. Thank God. I felt like a huge burden had just been lifted off my shoulder. Now we can have some of that much needed rest. I wanted to sleep badly but Ashwin and AJ were already talking about going to the 13th floor. The 13th floor was off limits to students, it was the last floor in our building and it could not accommodate anyone as it was just below the helipad or something like that and also it had an open window which kept breaking whenever they tried to cover it which the college blamed it on the wind. But everyone knew the real reason, last year seniors had made sure of that. Last year we were in the adjacent hostel building. This building was especially for second year students. So the second year students tried to tell the scariest stories they can about the 13th floor which is unique to this building. We always wanted to check out the 13th floor but never summed up the courage to go. Rumour has it that unfortunate things befall the ones who go to the floor and we were not eager to test the theory with our cat exams near so we decided to wait until the CAT was over.
Meghna couldn‟t come, girls were not allowed into the boys hostel but she was all the more eager to know more about the 13th floor. If it was any other girl in her place she would have warned us against going but no Meghna was encouraging us to go. She was that type of a girl. My head was paining and I badly wanted to sleep. But I even more badly wanted to check out the famous 13th floor also some people had already gone there so there was nothing to be really scared of. Just yesterday Rishab Dhingra went there to win a bet. If he could do it we could very well do it. So there we decided to go there in the evening. That was the biggest mistake I have ever made in my life.
Chapter 2
Before going to the thirteenth there were some rituals we had to follow. First all the rumours that we knew about the 13th floor must be told aloud. Then we must close our eyes and say the words “kami meminta roh dating” three times it is supposed to mean come out thy spirits. So the rumours. AJ went first. He started with the most common rumour of all.
There was once a boy five years back in the same building. He is said to have been a B-tech mechanical student like me. During the winter holidays when most of the students went home this boy Kuldeep did not go home as his parents had gone abroad because of their jobs. So he was the only boy in his entire floor few boys lived in the bottom floors but he was the only one in his floor. One night he heard some noises coming from the 13th floor. Kuldeep was too afraid to venture out alone so he told the boys in the bottom floors to come with him. So a group of three people went up fully armed with flashlights. Mysterious things started happening. Like wailing noises seem to come from behind walls and water and oil seemed to be wherever you place your leg. This was weird because the water supply to the 13th floor had been cut off long back. The three boys ran back too scared. But just as they were coming down the stairs, Kuldeep ran back up to get his mobile phone which he dropped. But the boys were too scared to go with him they just ran down not looking back even once. They went straight to the warden‟s room and narrated the whole incident. Within hours the warden and two security guards went to the thirteenth floor only to find the dead body of Kuldeep clenching his mobile phone. The story was not complete yet. An even stranger thing happened. The only relation Kuldeep ever had were his parents who happened to pass away on the very same day due to the 9/11 plane crash.
We looked at AJ with our mouths open. It must have been the tenth time we are listening to the story but it never stopped to awe us. In addition AJ had always been the best storyteller. Next up was Ashwin‟s turn. He told the story of how VIT built the hostel.
You see when VIT acquired the land to build the college a rishi was using the land for the hostel building illegally for his ashram. The rishi was said to be well learned in the arts of black magic and spirit magic. So when he refused to leave, VIT hired a gang of rowdies and forcibly removed him. It is said that they left him with his underwear on the road. He is said to have cursed the building. Normally a hostel building takes 3 or 4 year maximum to get completed but this one building took 13 years to get completed. The construction was filled with mishaps obstructions and accidents. That is why when the 13th floor was not completed properly the management did not care to redo the floor for fear of more accidents.
Now my turn. I told the oldest of the stories. It was said to have happened 200 years ago. There lived a family in this very land. Surrounding this land was a village called Attipatti. They were the most respected and richest in the village. One day a fight broke in between the two brothers in the family over the family wealth. The younger brother was jealous of his older brother‟s power and the respect he got from the villagers. The elder brother gave the entire family wealth and went away with his family with nothing but the clothes they wore. But as luck would have it misfortunes befell the younger brother‟s family - poverty struck. The younger brother committed suicide out of guilt while the rest of his family went insane. The elder brother, hearing the news returned with his family and took care of the younger brother‟s family. Years passed the villagers had got used to the wailing from the younger brother‟s family which continued all night. The elder brother passed away in time. His son
took over. Some say his son‟s name was also Kuldeep but I highly doubt that. I think this was a recent addition to the story. The son could not take the wailing in the night and started having strange dreams. He decided to kill of his uncle‟s family to put an end to the misery. So he poisoned their food one night and had them killed. But the dreams did not stop they increased multifold. So he is said to have left the house and migrated to another village with his family. As soon as the family left, famine struck the village. Crops did not grow. Cows started dying suddenly. Slowly the villagers too were forced to migrate away. And thus the land has been barren ever since, until the rishi took over. He is said to have talked to the ghosts who haunted the land and controlled them using black magic, for which he is said to have beheaded 13 virgin girls and boys as a sacrifice.
Chapter 3
Life would have been a lot simpler if we had just cancelled our plan. But that was not supposed to be.
The lights had been switched off. It was midnight. The security guards would be sleeping in the ground floor. We put our phones in silent; the last thing we wanted was to wake everyone up though it seemed unlikely that any of us would get a call at midnight.
We crept up the stairs trying to make as little noise as possible. We reached the thirteenth floor. I thought I saw someone run past us but guess that was my mind playing tricks so I just kept it to myself.
The floor was really quiet. We couldn‟t even feel the wind. We slowly made our way across the floor. Not a single living thing. Usually shouldn‟t spiders, rats and cockroach populate such deserted place? AJ tried scaring us from time to time but I could feel his fear through his feeble attempts. I know that none of us believed in ghosts. But what if we were wrong?
Suddenly we heard voices and the sound of running water. I looked at the others. Their faces were filled with fear. Their faces, in the light from my torchlight made a small chill run across my spine. I convinced them that it was probably coming from the twelfth floor. But I found myself not convinced. We started to move a bit faster across the floor. All the rooms were open, doors were half rotten. All the windows open but there was no wind rushing through them even in this height. I thought I saw someone in a few rooms but by that time we were running so fast I dint know if it was true or not and was in no state to back track and check. We were running so fast. I felt like we were running on a wet floor but I couldn‟t see anything it was too dark and our torches were switched off though I don‟t remember switching it off. We could see light at the end of the passageway that meant we were close to
the stairs we ran like there was something chasing us but the truth was we were too afraid to even look back. We reached the stairs and rushed down the stairs making as much noise as possible unlike the way we came up. We were not shouting only because the ability to speak or shout had failed us. We ran down the stairs tripping on each other. We dint stop until we reached our room. I fell on the bed out of breath and buried my face under a pillow. What the hell just happened? I took a second to get back to my normal self.
Then I looked up. AJ was sitting on the table and Ashwin on the bed beside me. We stared at each other for at least two minutes. And then we started laughing. I don‟t know why we were laughing but we were laughing like crazy old fools who had just heard the funniest joke. Then Ashwin managed to say trying to control his laughter “the look on Karthik‟s face was worth a crore rupees". I continued “and how you were running like a dog was chasing you or something PRICELESS”. We laughed for sometime then went to sleep not uttering even a word about the strange things that happened. I closed my eyes thinking about how this will be a story I will one day tell to my kids. Little did I know that this would be a story I would never even by chance tell my kids. They would immediately renounce me as not their dad and label me as mad. I thought I would never be able to sleep but the opposite just happened as soon as I closed my eyes sleep took over.
Chapter 4
I heard somebody calling out my name. I got up from my bed. I looked around my room. The room was empty, where were AJ and Ashwin? Maybe they left for mess without me. I looked at the time it was two o‟clock. Oh god I hadn‟t even slept for one hour. But no way had they gone to the mess at this time. Where were they? Some part of me was making up horrible theories about where they were based loosely on ghosts, thirteenth floor and blood but the other part of me was searching for a logical explanation.
I tried to open the room and found the room was locked from the inside. If they had gone out I was the only person who could have locked it but that was not possible as I don‟t remember doing any such thing. I checked the room once more. I even checked under the bed. Maybe they were playing a prank on me. I opened the door and I found the floor empty. No one. I mean it was night and there was supposed to be no one but what I am trying to say is all the rooms were open, the doors ajar and no one in any of the rooms. Had some fire broke out or something. I started to panic. I ran down the stairs.
But the stairs didn‟t seem to end. I ran down and down but the end just kept pulling away. Then I stopped at one of the floors and looked at the floor number. It read “13”. My heart was beating as loud as our sports day drums. I ran down again. I looked at the floor number and found it to read “13” also. I heard the sound of water splashing somewhere. It was not long before I could see the source of the sound. Water was flowing down the stairs. Only when I looked closely did I realize that it was not water that was flowing down the stairs. It was BLOOD.
I woke up sweating all over. It was just a dream. Thank god. I looked around and found Ashwin and AJ sleeping soundly. I looked at the time. It was seven.
Chapter 5
“You went to the 13th floor yesterday?”
“It was legend wait for it ... dary. LEGENDARY!”
“But hope nothing happens to you”
“Those are just rumours dude. Ghosts don‟t exist”
“Didn‟t you hear that Rishab boy is missing?”
I started running to my hostel room.
AJ and Ashwin told they will cum late for physics but they never showed up at all. In fact I haven‟t heard a word from them since morning.
I burst into the room to find AJ sleeping. Thank God. “Why didn‟t you come to physics?”
“Bunked, I was having a headache” he said smiling.
“Did you hear about the Rishab guy?”
“Ya I spoke to his roommate just a few minutes back. Rumour dude, he changed college and as it is he does not have any friends so not many know.”
“Oh that‟s a relief. I got scared for a minute. Where is Ashwin?”
“What do you mean where is Ashwin he went to college?”
AJ got up and called Ashwin on his mobile. He gave me the phone.
It was engaged. No it cannot be.
Chapter 6
We had searched every corner of the campus, asked every person who ever knew we existed in the college and we called his number at least a thousand times. It was too much of a coincidence Rishab and Ashwin.
After an unfruitful half a day of searching we went and told the warden. The warden for his part started calling all the numbers that were listed under his name. All the numbers were engaged or kept ringing. The warden then told us not to worry and sent us back to our rooms. My head was paining and my eyes were bloodshot. We walked back to our room without even looking at each other. Why was this happening to us? It was all because of that stupid idea to go test the thirteenth floor. I collapsed onto my bed.
After what seemed to be thirty seconds but actually thirty minutes we were called to the warden‟s office. We ran hoping for some news on where Ashwin is. Maybe he just got locked up in some room or something by mistake. The warden was waiting for us behind his desk with a smug grin on his face. He looked at us and started smiling. Turns out someone had picked up Ashwin in the morning before class citing some emergency situation. He even showed his leave form. I looked at the name of the person who had come to take him. It was his father‟s name. But the signature was not his fathers. I knew his father‟s signature as I had one day months back delivered the same leave letter to his the warden in this very room. The warden started giving a speech of how not to rush into decisions and not to break the rules of the hostel and to sleep before nine or something like that. I was going to point out to him about the signature but somehow restrained myself. I knew it was the wrong thing to do but maybe I was just making it a big issue. The warden finally told us not to speak a word about this to anyone else. It seemed more like he was threatening us. We went back to our room AJ smiling all the way. Guess I should be happy too, we had just found out our friend was safe.
But then I had a feeling that something was wrong. I convinced myself it was nothing. But it was unfortunately not nothing.
Chapter 7
Two days since our bizarre experience. The story had spread like fire that the ghosts of thirteenth floor had claimed the lives of two boys we were showered with questions all day, all night. No one cared for the part where Ashwin was not actually missing. They just wanted to hear the thirteenth floor adventure. It was not like we were the first people to set foot on the thirteenth floor in a long time. Every other night some one or the other always went there, some for talking privately on the phone and others who went for the thrill of it like us. But the night we went we knew no one else would be there as it was the day after the exam everyone would either be sleeping or watching movies. But why we stood out was because we were the only ones who had actually accompanied the supposed „victim‟ of the thirteenth floor.
We still hadn‟t got any call from Ashwin which did seem a bit strange but neither I nor AJ were ready to go back to our ghost theory. We wanted to believe nothing happened to him. And whenever I got the topic up AJ would joke it off. Meghna would occasionally listen to me rambling about the incident but I knew she was not the least interested. The warden was really angry with us as he believed we were the ones who were spreading the rumour.
Chapter 8
Two days is not actually a long time but to me it seemed like an entire week. That night I just couldn‟t sleep. For some reason I kept feeling thirsty. The past two nights we had slept at nine itself. Maybe we were scared or just tired. But tonight was different I just couldn‟t sleep. I looked at AJ. The correct expression to describe him would be “sleeping like a log”. I crept out of my sheets and searched for some water. No luck there all the bottles were empty. I took an empty bottle and went out to get some water from the water dispenser on our floor. Cold water rushed out of the dispenser, I took a huge gulp. It quenched my thirst for the moment. I was walking back to my room when I suddenly froze. I heard footsteps. Lots of it. I looked at the time it was twelve. Not my most favourite time in the world. I followed the sound of the footsteps. It led me to the staircase. It came from the top. I was imagining the exact same thing you are thinking. The thirteenth floor. My legs froze in fear.
I could make out from the footsteps that there was more than one person on the top. They were talking amongst themselves. Maybe it was some boys who had gone to check out the thirteenth floor like I had gone a few days back foolishly.
I tried to make out what they were speaking but only managed to catch a few words. These were enough to make my mouth go open in shock. Here is what I could make out. The voices said “Did u haunt the second kid too?”
“No I did not”
“Then some other ghost did?”
I must have looked really freaky standing in front of the staircase with an open bottle in one hand and a horrified expression on my face and staring up into space. Well it was enough to
scare some boy who happened to come up the stairs at that exact moment. He let out a silent squeal which would have become bigger if I hadn‟t convinced him that I wasn‟t a ghost.
“Did you hear the footsteps and the voice too? “
He looked at me as if I was joking for a moment and after a second of hesitation seemed to believe me.
“No I didn‟t hear any voices or footsteps, but...but..” he stammered.
“But what?” I asked.
“You must promise not to laugh. It is a bit crazy”
“Believe me I won‟t laugh I have been in crazy for the past 2 days”
“2 days? Well it happened 2 days back for me also. I had gone up to the twelfth floor to borrow a book at around midnight. Well I heard footsteps on the thirteenth floor and a few voices.”
I guess that would have been us.
He continued “I waited in the stairs to see who it was as I knew they would eventually come down. I waited for some time. Then suddenly somebody or something dressed in white seemed to run down the stairs in astonishing speed. I tried to follow it the other day but it was too fast. Yesterday I came around midnight to check whether the same thing happened and to my surprised it happened again. But I was too surprised yesterday to follow the white thing. So today I thought I will somehow follow it and see who it is?”
I looked up the stairs and for a moment I thought I saw a face staring at us from the top flight of stairs.
Chapter 9
Yesterday night‟s incident was still etched in my mind. I tried to talk about it to AJ but he just as usual started joking about it. That boy, what was his name? Bharadwaj. His story did not seem like he had made it up. This was the first time I was meeting that boy but I had a feeling that we were much like each other because both of us were seeing things we both were supposed to not see.
That afternoon I spoke to Meghna about the whole thing. She told me to go check it out tonight or I would never be able to get it out of my mind.
That night I tried to convince AJ to come with me to check out the white thing but he seemed the least bit interested. Then I used my last straw I told him about the signature on the leave letter. He was shocked. His mouth was so wide open that you could have stuffed an entire burger into it. “Why didn‟t you tell this to the warden before?”
“I didn‟t think it was important ... at that time”.
“My god how stupid can you be. Wait maybe you are right it is nothing maybe his mother signed instead. Big deal. Anyway whatever you say I m not getting into any more trouble and I m not coming with you tonight.”
I wanted to say that it was not his mothers signature also as I had seen that too but then stopped. I knew there was no changing his mind anymore so I stopped trying.
It was 15 minutes to midnight. I and Bharadwaj were waiting on the twelfth floor hidden behind a wall. At sharp 12 we heard footsteps. This time he heard it too.
And right as he said somebody or something covered in a white bed sheet ran down the stairs. And then two more similarly dressed figures also ran down the stairs. We ran behind the
figure maintaining safe distance and making as little noise as possible. I could feel my heart beating like it had two days back. The figures seemed to slow down when they reached the second floor. Now they moved more cautiously, making sure no one was watching them. We maintained enough distance so they couldn‟t see us. After a final check to see no one else is around they opened the first floor window and jumped out. I know it is only the first floor, but if you have seen our hostel you would know that to jump from the first floor is a suicide mission. For that height you would at least break a leg or two. After the three figures had committed „suicide‟. Bharadwaj and I rushed to the window. Outside the window we saw some construction made a few months back when they had to block some hole in the wall. The figures had used this construction as a ladder and had climbed down.
We followed suit and climbed down. By the time we climbed down the white figures were not to be seen. Bharadwaj led the way. He said something about a gut feeling.
I ran behind him. Unlike two days back I was not dressed for adventure. I was wearing a loose shorts and a sleeveless T- shirt. Well if that hadn‟t been bad enough it was freezing out there. Bharadwaj seemed to be wearing the same kurta he wore yesterday. It must have kept the cold away as I did not see him shiver even a bit.
We went into an old deserted construction site. This building had never finished construction so far and was always empty. But tonight we could see that it was far from being empty.
Chapter 10
We crept behind a pile of pipes and looked at what was going on. The white figures stood at the centre and they seemed to be accompanied by three more white figures. But what shocked me was the four boys who seemed to be kneeling in front of them. They were crying. Then the white figures slowly shed their hide to reveal themselves.
They were not ghosts they were students. One of them I recognised was actually in my English class. And the boys who were kneeling down they were juniors. This was not some ghost haunting. This was ragging. I could have stood up and confronted them but there were six of them and one of me I did not like the chances at all as they all seemed to have been hitting the gym regularly.
What I was watching was not the simple ragging you see in college buses and in movies. Not that I supported it. No, this was extreme and I m not going to describe them to you because of three reasons. It is not important. Second, the four students had suffered enough I did not want to go about explaining their plight to everyone and increasing their pain. Finally I do NOT want to put ideas into that head of yours.
I must complain about this tomorrow to the warden or the chancellor. I looked at Bharadwaj. He was still looking at the ragging. His face was filled with anger. He looked like he would get up and start fighting them. But I knew he had a lesser chance when compared to me. He was quite skinny and short.
I told him “let us get out of here”.
He told me to get the warden while he waited here.
“We can tell the warden tomorrow. Besides if the warden finds out that we were outside we will get into trouble.”
He looked at me with the frown still on his face. “Get the Warden now. We will not have proof later.”
It was more of a command then a request.
I said okay and slowly crept out from behind the pipes. I stealthily crept towards the window from which we had entered. Did I mention that I was not dressed for adventure? Well that was precisely what led to my bad state. You see I had just worn slippers and came. And when they seemed to make a lot of noise I had removed them also. So I was walking bare foot when something seemed to crawl up my leg.
Cold climate, ragging boys, missing friend and ghosts all came back in one second combined with something crawling up my leg was enough for a high pitched squeal to come from my vocal chords.
What happened next seemed to happen in slow motion.
I knew my cover was blown and ran to the window. Two of the ragging boys ran to catch me. They were not only well built but could run fast too. I jumped head first into the window and landed on my butt on some stones. By the time I got up. My predators had reached the window and were climbing out. Fear was the best pain killer I have ever experienced till date for the pain in my butt seemed to vanish immediately. I started running towards the hostel building. But one of the predators tackled me from the back and we both went on the ground biting dust and what not.
The boy held me across his arms tightly so I couldn‟t escape. The other boy looked at me and said “Who are you and do you know who I am?”
I knew the answers but as I said earlier I m not that good in answering quizzes.
Well somebody from behind answered it for me.
“I m the Chief Warden of this building and you are... in big trouble.”
All of us looked back to find two watchmen, the assistant warden, the chief warden and AJ.
I did not know for how long the chief warden had wanted to say this dialogue for he was smiling all over (shouldn‟t he be angry) but the timing could not have been better. And then AJ spoke “I told you, you would get into trouble so I got some backup”.
Chapter 11
The next day morning both AJ and I were called to the warden‟s office. The warden thanked us for helping apprehend the raggers. He warned me not to venture out alone and to come to him next time. All pleasantries and advises exchanged we were about to leave when I remembered about Bharadwaj.
“Sir, one more boy helped us his name is Bharadwaj from room number 812”.
“Karthik, do you think it‟s funny? The room has been empty for years now. The only Bharadwaj I know who stayed there was the famed Kuldeep Bharadwaj from the rumours. Is something wrong?”
“Sir, yes sir! No sir! Sorry sir”;
And I left the office.
AUTHORS NOTE
The leave letter was not signed by his father or mother as I had said. Later I found that it was signed by Ashwin‟s driver as his parents couldn‟t come to pick him up. He had to leave in a hurry as his father had planned a surprise vacation to Ladakh where the phone signal was pretty bad so they had switched of their mobiles. Rishab Dhingra had been ragged by the „white figures‟ and it was one of the reason for which he changed college. That is why I heard the „white figures‟ asking whether one of them had ragged Ashwin too and made him leave.
The „white figures‟ are in jail currently, but I don‟t expect them to be there for too long as money speaks a lot in this country and their parents have a lot of money.
Ashwin came back today that is 5 days after the incident.
And Bharadwaj. I couldn‟t find him in any of the rooms. I checked even the list of all college students and their photos to make sure someone had not just told they were Bharadwaj to scare me but could not find a single match. There was one more rumour I failed to mention. That day Bharadwaj died. He didn‟t die because of ghosts. Some seniors were just trying to scare him. But they did not know Kuldeep Bharadwaj had a weak heart. That may be the reason why he wanted the „white figures‟ caught. The 9/11 plane accident must have been a coincidence I guess.
Believe me or not..... This is my story and I swear it happened.
As an English project i was assigned to write a short story. So here goes.
“The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead.” -Albert Einstein
Chapter 1
When I think about the incident I m going to tell you I can‟t help but pinch myself. By the end of this story you might think I m insane that I m a lonely teenager who had lost his head. But I am not. I had friends - AJ, Ashwin and Meghna, but by the end of the incident even they began to doubt my sanity. My name is Karthik Krishnan. When I m writing this I m in my second year at VIT, Chennai. You can say this story started 5 days back but no it really started many many years back. But for me it all began 5 days back on a Monday.
I remember that day as if it was yesterday. The sky was covered with a thick canopy of dark clouds. The smell of rain and wet sand filled the air. It was the last day of our CAT exam. The last exam was physics. Last year this was the paper I flunked. I was not going to let that happen again. I had read every page of that 180 pages quantum physics book at least four times. I could almost recite the first few pages without bashing an eye lid. I sat hesitantly in my allotted seat and looked back. Meghna was always just a few seats behind me. She gave me a reassuring smile. It was a big help I could actually breathe properly again. She always somehow managed to top the class in all subjects. You see the thing about girls is that they seem to have fun all the time but somehow they squeeze in some work too. Eventually I was handed the paper which I received with my fingers crossed. Life was much easier when I was in school since it did not matter what marks you got in school as long as you passed but in college each and every exam could well decide if you get employed by Microsoft or Indian
Railways. I read the paper very carefully and slowly at first and faster towards the end. The questions were familiar unlike last year. A wide smile spread across my face. I looked like I had just hit the jackpot. I reached out to my pen and started writing the answers as fast as I could.
30 minutes left and I had to finish four 6 mark questions. How the hell did that happen? I can‟t waste my time thinking about that, I need to think what the fundamental theories of wave nature of particles were. That was when it happened. The boy in front of me rose up slowly and went up to the teacher gave his paper and walked out of the examination hall. All eyes were on him. His name was Rishab, Rishab Dhingra. He was an above average student not the type that tops the class but the type that always just manages to get 8 marks below the topper. Then I looked at the people who generally top the class. They were the ones who were staring like they were ready to strangle him.
Over! CAT over. Thank God. I felt like a huge burden had just been lifted off my shoulder. Now we can have some of that much needed rest. I wanted to sleep badly but Ashwin and AJ were already talking about going to the 13th floor. The 13th floor was off limits to students, it was the last floor in our building and it could not accommodate anyone as it was just below the helipad or something like that and also it had an open window which kept breaking whenever they tried to cover it which the college blamed it on the wind. But everyone knew the real reason, last year seniors had made sure of that. Last year we were in the adjacent hostel building. This building was especially for second year students. So the second year students tried to tell the scariest stories they can about the 13th floor which is unique to this building. We always wanted to check out the 13th floor but never summed up the courage to go. Rumour has it that unfortunate things befall the ones who go to the floor and we were not eager to test the theory with our cat exams near so we decided to wait until the CAT was over.
Meghna couldn‟t come, girls were not allowed into the boys hostel but she was all the more eager to know more about the 13th floor. If it was any other girl in her place she would have warned us against going but no Meghna was encouraging us to go. She was that type of a girl. My head was paining and I badly wanted to sleep. But I even more badly wanted to check out the famous 13th floor also some people had already gone there so there was nothing to be really scared of. Just yesterday Rishab Dhingra went there to win a bet. If he could do it we could very well do it. So there we decided to go there in the evening. That was the biggest mistake I have ever made in my life.
Chapter 2
Before going to the thirteenth there were some rituals we had to follow. First all the rumours that we knew about the 13th floor must be told aloud. Then we must close our eyes and say the words “kami meminta roh dating” three times it is supposed to mean come out thy spirits. So the rumours. AJ went first. He started with the most common rumour of all.
There was once a boy five years back in the same building. He is said to have been a B-tech mechanical student like me. During the winter holidays when most of the students went home this boy Kuldeep did not go home as his parents had gone abroad because of their jobs. So he was the only boy in his entire floor few boys lived in the bottom floors but he was the only one in his floor. One night he heard some noises coming from the 13th floor. Kuldeep was too afraid to venture out alone so he told the boys in the bottom floors to come with him. So a group of three people went up fully armed with flashlights. Mysterious things started happening. Like wailing noises seem to come from behind walls and water and oil seemed to be wherever you place your leg. This was weird because the water supply to the 13th floor had been cut off long back. The three boys ran back too scared. But just as they were coming down the stairs, Kuldeep ran back up to get his mobile phone which he dropped. But the boys were too scared to go with him they just ran down not looking back even once. They went straight to the warden‟s room and narrated the whole incident. Within hours the warden and two security guards went to the thirteenth floor only to find the dead body of Kuldeep clenching his mobile phone. The story was not complete yet. An even stranger thing happened. The only relation Kuldeep ever had were his parents who happened to pass away on the very same day due to the 9/11 plane crash.
We looked at AJ with our mouths open. It must have been the tenth time we are listening to the story but it never stopped to awe us. In addition AJ had always been the best storyteller. Next up was Ashwin‟s turn. He told the story of how VIT built the hostel.
You see when VIT acquired the land to build the college a rishi was using the land for the hostel building illegally for his ashram. The rishi was said to be well learned in the arts of black magic and spirit magic. So when he refused to leave, VIT hired a gang of rowdies and forcibly removed him. It is said that they left him with his underwear on the road. He is said to have cursed the building. Normally a hostel building takes 3 or 4 year maximum to get completed but this one building took 13 years to get completed. The construction was filled with mishaps obstructions and accidents. That is why when the 13th floor was not completed properly the management did not care to redo the floor for fear of more accidents.
Now my turn. I told the oldest of the stories. It was said to have happened 200 years ago. There lived a family in this very land. Surrounding this land was a village called Attipatti. They were the most respected and richest in the village. One day a fight broke in between the two brothers in the family over the family wealth. The younger brother was jealous of his older brother‟s power and the respect he got from the villagers. The elder brother gave the entire family wealth and went away with his family with nothing but the clothes they wore. But as luck would have it misfortunes befell the younger brother‟s family - poverty struck. The younger brother committed suicide out of guilt while the rest of his family went insane. The elder brother, hearing the news returned with his family and took care of the younger brother‟s family. Years passed the villagers had got used to the wailing from the younger brother‟s family which continued all night. The elder brother passed away in time. His son
took over. Some say his son‟s name was also Kuldeep but I highly doubt that. I think this was a recent addition to the story. The son could not take the wailing in the night and started having strange dreams. He decided to kill of his uncle‟s family to put an end to the misery. So he poisoned their food one night and had them killed. But the dreams did not stop they increased multifold. So he is said to have left the house and migrated to another village with his family. As soon as the family left, famine struck the village. Crops did not grow. Cows started dying suddenly. Slowly the villagers too were forced to migrate away. And thus the land has been barren ever since, until the rishi took over. He is said to have talked to the ghosts who haunted the land and controlled them using black magic, for which he is said to have beheaded 13 virgin girls and boys as a sacrifice.
Chapter 3
Life would have been a lot simpler if we had just cancelled our plan. But that was not supposed to be.
The lights had been switched off. It was midnight. The security guards would be sleeping in the ground floor. We put our phones in silent; the last thing we wanted was to wake everyone up though it seemed unlikely that any of us would get a call at midnight.
We crept up the stairs trying to make as little noise as possible. We reached the thirteenth floor. I thought I saw someone run past us but guess that was my mind playing tricks so I just kept it to myself.
The floor was really quiet. We couldn‟t even feel the wind. We slowly made our way across the floor. Not a single living thing. Usually shouldn‟t spiders, rats and cockroach populate such deserted place? AJ tried scaring us from time to time but I could feel his fear through his feeble attempts. I know that none of us believed in ghosts. But what if we were wrong?
Suddenly we heard voices and the sound of running water. I looked at the others. Their faces were filled with fear. Their faces, in the light from my torchlight made a small chill run across my spine. I convinced them that it was probably coming from the twelfth floor. But I found myself not convinced. We started to move a bit faster across the floor. All the rooms were open, doors were half rotten. All the windows open but there was no wind rushing through them even in this height. I thought I saw someone in a few rooms but by that time we were running so fast I dint know if it was true or not and was in no state to back track and check. We were running so fast. I felt like we were running on a wet floor but I couldn‟t see anything it was too dark and our torches were switched off though I don‟t remember switching it off. We could see light at the end of the passageway that meant we were close to
the stairs we ran like there was something chasing us but the truth was we were too afraid to even look back. We reached the stairs and rushed down the stairs making as much noise as possible unlike the way we came up. We were not shouting only because the ability to speak or shout had failed us. We ran down the stairs tripping on each other. We dint stop until we reached our room. I fell on the bed out of breath and buried my face under a pillow. What the hell just happened? I took a second to get back to my normal self.
Then I looked up. AJ was sitting on the table and Ashwin on the bed beside me. We stared at each other for at least two minutes. And then we started laughing. I don‟t know why we were laughing but we were laughing like crazy old fools who had just heard the funniest joke. Then Ashwin managed to say trying to control his laughter “the look on Karthik‟s face was worth a crore rupees". I continued “and how you were running like a dog was chasing you or something PRICELESS”. We laughed for sometime then went to sleep not uttering even a word about the strange things that happened. I closed my eyes thinking about how this will be a story I will one day tell to my kids. Little did I know that this would be a story I would never even by chance tell my kids. They would immediately renounce me as not their dad and label me as mad. I thought I would never be able to sleep but the opposite just happened as soon as I closed my eyes sleep took over.
Chapter 4
I heard somebody calling out my name. I got up from my bed. I looked around my room. The room was empty, where were AJ and Ashwin? Maybe they left for mess without me. I looked at the time it was two o‟clock. Oh god I hadn‟t even slept for one hour. But no way had they gone to the mess at this time. Where were they? Some part of me was making up horrible theories about where they were based loosely on ghosts, thirteenth floor and blood but the other part of me was searching for a logical explanation.
I tried to open the room and found the room was locked from the inside. If they had gone out I was the only person who could have locked it but that was not possible as I don‟t remember doing any such thing. I checked the room once more. I even checked under the bed. Maybe they were playing a prank on me. I opened the door and I found the floor empty. No one. I mean it was night and there was supposed to be no one but what I am trying to say is all the rooms were open, the doors ajar and no one in any of the rooms. Had some fire broke out or something. I started to panic. I ran down the stairs.
But the stairs didn‟t seem to end. I ran down and down but the end just kept pulling away. Then I stopped at one of the floors and looked at the floor number. It read “13”. My heart was beating as loud as our sports day drums. I ran down again. I looked at the floor number and found it to read “13” also. I heard the sound of water splashing somewhere. It was not long before I could see the source of the sound. Water was flowing down the stairs. Only when I looked closely did I realize that it was not water that was flowing down the stairs. It was BLOOD.
I woke up sweating all over. It was just a dream. Thank god. I looked around and found Ashwin and AJ sleeping soundly. I looked at the time. It was seven.
Chapter 5
“You went to the 13th floor yesterday?”
“It was legend wait for it ... dary. LEGENDARY!”
“But hope nothing happens to you”
“Those are just rumours dude. Ghosts don‟t exist”
“Didn‟t you hear that Rishab boy is missing?”
I started running to my hostel room.
AJ and Ashwin told they will cum late for physics but they never showed up at all. In fact I haven‟t heard a word from them since morning.
I burst into the room to find AJ sleeping. Thank God. “Why didn‟t you come to physics?”
“Bunked, I was having a headache” he said smiling.
“Did you hear about the Rishab guy?”
“Ya I spoke to his roommate just a few minutes back. Rumour dude, he changed college and as it is he does not have any friends so not many know.”
“Oh that‟s a relief. I got scared for a minute. Where is Ashwin?”
“What do you mean where is Ashwin he went to college?”
AJ got up and called Ashwin on his mobile. He gave me the phone.
It was engaged. No it cannot be.
Chapter 6
We had searched every corner of the campus, asked every person who ever knew we existed in the college and we called his number at least a thousand times. It was too much of a coincidence Rishab and Ashwin.
After an unfruitful half a day of searching we went and told the warden. The warden for his part started calling all the numbers that were listed under his name. All the numbers were engaged or kept ringing. The warden then told us not to worry and sent us back to our rooms. My head was paining and my eyes were bloodshot. We walked back to our room without even looking at each other. Why was this happening to us? It was all because of that stupid idea to go test the thirteenth floor. I collapsed onto my bed.
After what seemed to be thirty seconds but actually thirty minutes we were called to the warden‟s office. We ran hoping for some news on where Ashwin is. Maybe he just got locked up in some room or something by mistake. The warden was waiting for us behind his desk with a smug grin on his face. He looked at us and started smiling. Turns out someone had picked up Ashwin in the morning before class citing some emergency situation. He even showed his leave form. I looked at the name of the person who had come to take him. It was his father‟s name. But the signature was not his fathers. I knew his father‟s signature as I had one day months back delivered the same leave letter to his the warden in this very room. The warden started giving a speech of how not to rush into decisions and not to break the rules of the hostel and to sleep before nine or something like that. I was going to point out to him about the signature but somehow restrained myself. I knew it was the wrong thing to do but maybe I was just making it a big issue. The warden finally told us not to speak a word about this to anyone else. It seemed more like he was threatening us. We went back to our room AJ smiling all the way. Guess I should be happy too, we had just found out our friend was safe.
But then I had a feeling that something was wrong. I convinced myself it was nothing. But it was unfortunately not nothing.
Chapter 7
Two days since our bizarre experience. The story had spread like fire that the ghosts of thirteenth floor had claimed the lives of two boys we were showered with questions all day, all night. No one cared for the part where Ashwin was not actually missing. They just wanted to hear the thirteenth floor adventure. It was not like we were the first people to set foot on the thirteenth floor in a long time. Every other night some one or the other always went there, some for talking privately on the phone and others who went for the thrill of it like us. But the night we went we knew no one else would be there as it was the day after the exam everyone would either be sleeping or watching movies. But why we stood out was because we were the only ones who had actually accompanied the supposed „victim‟ of the thirteenth floor.
We still hadn‟t got any call from Ashwin which did seem a bit strange but neither I nor AJ were ready to go back to our ghost theory. We wanted to believe nothing happened to him. And whenever I got the topic up AJ would joke it off. Meghna would occasionally listen to me rambling about the incident but I knew she was not the least interested. The warden was really angry with us as he believed we were the ones who were spreading the rumour.
Chapter 8
Two days is not actually a long time but to me it seemed like an entire week. That night I just couldn‟t sleep. For some reason I kept feeling thirsty. The past two nights we had slept at nine itself. Maybe we were scared or just tired. But tonight was different I just couldn‟t sleep. I looked at AJ. The correct expression to describe him would be “sleeping like a log”. I crept out of my sheets and searched for some water. No luck there all the bottles were empty. I took an empty bottle and went out to get some water from the water dispenser on our floor. Cold water rushed out of the dispenser, I took a huge gulp. It quenched my thirst for the moment. I was walking back to my room when I suddenly froze. I heard footsteps. Lots of it. I looked at the time it was twelve. Not my most favourite time in the world. I followed the sound of the footsteps. It led me to the staircase. It came from the top. I was imagining the exact same thing you are thinking. The thirteenth floor. My legs froze in fear.
I could make out from the footsteps that there was more than one person on the top. They were talking amongst themselves. Maybe it was some boys who had gone to check out the thirteenth floor like I had gone a few days back foolishly.
I tried to make out what they were speaking but only managed to catch a few words. These were enough to make my mouth go open in shock. Here is what I could make out. The voices said “Did u haunt the second kid too?”
“No I did not”
“Then some other ghost did?”
I must have looked really freaky standing in front of the staircase with an open bottle in one hand and a horrified expression on my face and staring up into space. Well it was enough to
scare some boy who happened to come up the stairs at that exact moment. He let out a silent squeal which would have become bigger if I hadn‟t convinced him that I wasn‟t a ghost.
“Did you hear the footsteps and the voice too? “
He looked at me as if I was joking for a moment and after a second of hesitation seemed to believe me.
“No I didn‟t hear any voices or footsteps, but...but..” he stammered.
“But what?” I asked.
“You must promise not to laugh. It is a bit crazy”
“Believe me I won‟t laugh I have been in crazy for the past 2 days”
“2 days? Well it happened 2 days back for me also. I had gone up to the twelfth floor to borrow a book at around midnight. Well I heard footsteps on the thirteenth floor and a few voices.”
I guess that would have been us.
He continued “I waited in the stairs to see who it was as I knew they would eventually come down. I waited for some time. Then suddenly somebody or something dressed in white seemed to run down the stairs in astonishing speed. I tried to follow it the other day but it was too fast. Yesterday I came around midnight to check whether the same thing happened and to my surprised it happened again. But I was too surprised yesterday to follow the white thing. So today I thought I will somehow follow it and see who it is?”
I looked up the stairs and for a moment I thought I saw a face staring at us from the top flight of stairs.
Chapter 9
Yesterday night‟s incident was still etched in my mind. I tried to talk about it to AJ but he just as usual started joking about it. That boy, what was his name? Bharadwaj. His story did not seem like he had made it up. This was the first time I was meeting that boy but I had a feeling that we were much like each other because both of us were seeing things we both were supposed to not see.
That afternoon I spoke to Meghna about the whole thing. She told me to go check it out tonight or I would never be able to get it out of my mind.
That night I tried to convince AJ to come with me to check out the white thing but he seemed the least bit interested. Then I used my last straw I told him about the signature on the leave letter. He was shocked. His mouth was so wide open that you could have stuffed an entire burger into it. “Why didn‟t you tell this to the warden before?”
“I didn‟t think it was important ... at that time”.
“My god how stupid can you be. Wait maybe you are right it is nothing maybe his mother signed instead. Big deal. Anyway whatever you say I m not getting into any more trouble and I m not coming with you tonight.”
I wanted to say that it was not his mothers signature also as I had seen that too but then stopped. I knew there was no changing his mind anymore so I stopped trying.
It was 15 minutes to midnight. I and Bharadwaj were waiting on the twelfth floor hidden behind a wall. At sharp 12 we heard footsteps. This time he heard it too.
And right as he said somebody or something covered in a white bed sheet ran down the stairs. And then two more similarly dressed figures also ran down the stairs. We ran behind the
figure maintaining safe distance and making as little noise as possible. I could feel my heart beating like it had two days back. The figures seemed to slow down when they reached the second floor. Now they moved more cautiously, making sure no one was watching them. We maintained enough distance so they couldn‟t see us. After a final check to see no one else is around they opened the first floor window and jumped out. I know it is only the first floor, but if you have seen our hostel you would know that to jump from the first floor is a suicide mission. For that height you would at least break a leg or two. After the three figures had committed „suicide‟. Bharadwaj and I rushed to the window. Outside the window we saw some construction made a few months back when they had to block some hole in the wall. The figures had used this construction as a ladder and had climbed down.
We followed suit and climbed down. By the time we climbed down the white figures were not to be seen. Bharadwaj led the way. He said something about a gut feeling.
I ran behind him. Unlike two days back I was not dressed for adventure. I was wearing a loose shorts and a sleeveless T- shirt. Well if that hadn‟t been bad enough it was freezing out there. Bharadwaj seemed to be wearing the same kurta he wore yesterday. It must have kept the cold away as I did not see him shiver even a bit.
We went into an old deserted construction site. This building had never finished construction so far and was always empty. But tonight we could see that it was far from being empty.
Chapter 10
We crept behind a pile of pipes and looked at what was going on. The white figures stood at the centre and they seemed to be accompanied by three more white figures. But what shocked me was the four boys who seemed to be kneeling in front of them. They were crying. Then the white figures slowly shed their hide to reveal themselves.
They were not ghosts they were students. One of them I recognised was actually in my English class. And the boys who were kneeling down they were juniors. This was not some ghost haunting. This was ragging. I could have stood up and confronted them but there were six of them and one of me I did not like the chances at all as they all seemed to have been hitting the gym regularly.
What I was watching was not the simple ragging you see in college buses and in movies. Not that I supported it. No, this was extreme and I m not going to describe them to you because of three reasons. It is not important. Second, the four students had suffered enough I did not want to go about explaining their plight to everyone and increasing their pain. Finally I do NOT want to put ideas into that head of yours.
I must complain about this tomorrow to the warden or the chancellor. I looked at Bharadwaj. He was still looking at the ragging. His face was filled with anger. He looked like he would get up and start fighting them. But I knew he had a lesser chance when compared to me. He was quite skinny and short.
I told him “let us get out of here”.
He told me to get the warden while he waited here.
“We can tell the warden tomorrow. Besides if the warden finds out that we were outside we will get into trouble.”
He looked at me with the frown still on his face. “Get the Warden now. We will not have proof later.”
It was more of a command then a request.
I said okay and slowly crept out from behind the pipes. I stealthily crept towards the window from which we had entered. Did I mention that I was not dressed for adventure? Well that was precisely what led to my bad state. You see I had just worn slippers and came. And when they seemed to make a lot of noise I had removed them also. So I was walking bare foot when something seemed to crawl up my leg.
Cold climate, ragging boys, missing friend and ghosts all came back in one second combined with something crawling up my leg was enough for a high pitched squeal to come from my vocal chords.
What happened next seemed to happen in slow motion.
I knew my cover was blown and ran to the window. Two of the ragging boys ran to catch me. They were not only well built but could run fast too. I jumped head first into the window and landed on my butt on some stones. By the time I got up. My predators had reached the window and were climbing out. Fear was the best pain killer I have ever experienced till date for the pain in my butt seemed to vanish immediately. I started running towards the hostel building. But one of the predators tackled me from the back and we both went on the ground biting dust and what not.
The boy held me across his arms tightly so I couldn‟t escape. The other boy looked at me and said “Who are you and do you know who I am?”
I knew the answers but as I said earlier I m not that good in answering quizzes.
Well somebody from behind answered it for me.
“I m the Chief Warden of this building and you are... in big trouble.”
All of us looked back to find two watchmen, the assistant warden, the chief warden and AJ.
I did not know for how long the chief warden had wanted to say this dialogue for he was smiling all over (shouldn‟t he be angry) but the timing could not have been better. And then AJ spoke “I told you, you would get into trouble so I got some backup”.
Chapter 11
The next day morning both AJ and I were called to the warden‟s office. The warden thanked us for helping apprehend the raggers. He warned me not to venture out alone and to come to him next time. All pleasantries and advises exchanged we were about to leave when I remembered about Bharadwaj.
“Sir, one more boy helped us his name is Bharadwaj from room number 812”.
“Karthik, do you think it‟s funny? The room has been empty for years now. The only Bharadwaj I know who stayed there was the famed Kuldeep Bharadwaj from the rumours. Is something wrong?”
“Sir, yes sir! No sir! Sorry sir”;
And I left the office.
AUTHORS NOTE
The leave letter was not signed by his father or mother as I had said. Later I found that it was signed by Ashwin‟s driver as his parents couldn‟t come to pick him up. He had to leave in a hurry as his father had planned a surprise vacation to Ladakh where the phone signal was pretty bad so they had switched of their mobiles. Rishab Dhingra had been ragged by the „white figures‟ and it was one of the reason for which he changed college. That is why I heard the „white figures‟ asking whether one of them had ragged Ashwin too and made him leave.
The „white figures‟ are in jail currently, but I don‟t expect them to be there for too long as money speaks a lot in this country and their parents have a lot of money.
Ashwin came back today that is 5 days after the incident.
And Bharadwaj. I couldn‟t find him in any of the rooms. I checked even the list of all college students and their photos to make sure someone had not just told they were Bharadwaj to scare me but could not find a single match. There was one more rumour I failed to mention. That day Bharadwaj died. He didn‟t die because of ghosts. Some seniors were just trying to scare him. But they did not know Kuldeep Bharadwaj had a weak heart. That may be the reason why he wanted the „white figures‟ caught. The 9/11 plane accident must have been a coincidence I guess.
Believe me or not..... This is my story and I swear it happened.
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