One fine afternoon I was chilling on my couch in my hometown, Mumbai, when an abandoned castle’s picture appeared on the news show. It reminded me of my grandmother’s grand and royal castle, which had been bewitched by a maid! The maid was murdered by my neighbour because of some theft and she became a banshee and bewitched the castle as revenge! I didn’t believe that! It makes me laugh. And to prove that I decided to go and live there.
First, I drove down the hill, over the bumpy road and beside the old playground. I saw a tall and thin creature covered with a white blanket and red spots like blood splashed on it in the middle of the road. “Looks like it’s not a good start, but who believes that, ha!” I thought.
As soon as I reached the castle, I could hear hissing sounds all around me. I went to the entrance and it started to rain and thunder, and the smell of the rain was stinky. The reddish colour reminded me of blood. I walked ahead and felt like I was being sucked into the ground. And then I ran to save my life from the swampy and marshy ground.
Next, I got horror-stuck when the brown, vintage and mossy main door opened by itself and closed as soon as I entered with my stinky shoes. I saw that the floor was stained with blood. I ran to the stairs and an eerie voice shouted, “GO AWAY!” in my ears.
I bumped my head on the ghostly stairs and suddenly a choking voice exclaimed, “FEEL THE FEAR!” I was white with fear when I saw hundreds of skull-shaped red glass lanterns flying around my head.
Soon I saw a door. I was as delighted as a free bird flying in the sky. I rushed towards it but saw a graveyard! My knees turned to jelly. I stepped back but was pushed by a banshee wearing a long, white frock with a pet frog who hopped on my neck. I grabbed it and threw it. It fell on a grey grave and turned into a huge, green ghoul who looked like a skeleton with thin limbs like spiders. We were staring at each other; I grabbed the door handle to escape but as soon as he saw my hand on the handle he shouted, “ATTACK!”
I stood still trying to figure out how to escape; when I couldn’t think of anything, a zombie came to me and said, “If you want to stay alive, you’ll have to do whatever we say.” I agreed without thinking. They told me to clean their entire house and mop the blood-filled floor too. Then they told me to make a whole basket of blood-filled popcorn, which was kept on the shelf. I followed their instructions blindly and just as I handed the popcorn bucket to them, I heard a voice, “KNOCK KNOCK!” They covered my eyes and mouth and locked me in a dark, threatening corner of a room.
Then all I could hear was the continuous knock on the door. A few moments later, someone said, “ANYBODY HERE?” He repeated thrice. “I was called to fix the vent here. It’s me, the engineer!” he said after clearing his throat. After that, all I could hear was a terrifying scream and awful laughter. They locked the man in my room. As soon as he saw me, he released the cloth off my mouth and eyes.
The first thing I saw after opening my eyes was a vent behind the man. I pointed my small, blue eyes towards it. He knew how to open it easily without a screwdriver. He opened it. We went in but a strange stinky smell entered our noses; it smelled as if many mice had been murdered there. Soon we saw the vent’s exit. We headed there and entered the ground floor of the house. The main door was right in front of us. We rushed towards it, but the maid’s hand grabbed our legs! We kicked it with all our strength and finally came the moment we all had been waiting for—we escaped the house!
