Spooks Tales

She opened her eyes. Her head was still throbbing in pain . She looked around. She saw Kabir’s uncle standing in front of her with his new assistant whom she had busted few minutes back. She looked for  Kabir. He wasn’t there. She grew furious and tried to get up. But her hands and legs were  strapped to the bed. “Why the hell have you strapped me for ? Don’t you have guts to fight me ?”, she growled at him. “Come on, Shaina ! I don’t like my prey to be challenging . I love straight kill.  No fights . No drama.”, the uncle spoke calmly like he spoke when he first introduced himself as doctor to her. He got closer to her. “You know what! Even though I like my prey less challenging, I gave you lot of opportunities to let you fight me but you never used it. Now I am bored of this cat and mouse chase.”, he continued. She tried to scratch his face. But the strap held her back. He laughed . “Get me the papers !”, he ordered his accomplice. The young man took out the papers...

Her sleep was disturbed by sound of door shutting hard.  She woke up with her head still longing for sleep. She stretched her hands and got up. She wondered whether it was wind or anything. She slowly stepped out of her bed and headed towards the door. She opened the door and looked around. The  usually lit corridor was weirdly dark.  There was no one. Before she headed back towards her bed, she wanted a glass of water. One of the housekeeping staff would always place a pitcher of warm water on the table next to her bed. But there was no pitcher of water on her bedside table. She assumed they might have forgotten and headed towards the kitchen. Suddenly she saw some strange shadow running  few meters in front of her. She felt sudden sense of fear inside her. Paranoid, she ditched the idea of going to the kitchen. She turned back towards her room. She sped up her pace and momentarily turned to see if that shadow was still there. Her eyes grew wide when she found ...

Three days passed by quickly and Shaina was struggling to find any evidence against Kabir and his uncle. An idea struck her. She would check the grass root of the problem. She travelled to his native which was a small town located at outskirts of Jaipur and heard stories of how his family disowned him when he tried to sell the family house without telling them. His family lost contact with him and no one knew his whereabouts except one of his close friend .  The friend asked her to meet him few miles away from town. When she arrived at planned destination, he narrated rest of the story for little money. “After that fiasco, Kabir had then joined his uncle who was his mother’s cunning cousin and was conning people for living. I heard he had trapped a rich girl now and  fending himself with her money. But madam, if you don’t mind, can you tell me why are you interested in Kabir’s story?” “ I have paid you the price to tell me his story. Now you have to pay the same price if yo...

She stared at the doctor with desperation for him to spill the truth out. The truth that was hidden to her for five years by her husband. The doctor was finding right words to begin the story. He was aware that how sensitive people become when they listen to stories of their closed one’s betrayal. “Well, the doctor who impersonated me isn’t really a doctor. He was my former housekeeper staff. Kabir is his nephew and assistant in all his crime.”, he finally spoke. Her eyes grew wide. She couldn’t believe that her husband could ever do anything wrong. She wondered what more was going to come up now. “This uncle - nephew duo would con my patient in my name and prescribe wrong medicines in my absence . Sometimes they would charge them exorbitant fees or turn as robbers and loot them at their homes . One fine day, my close friend barged into my home with the police to arrest me . I was taken aback.”, he continued but stopped when he remembered the time he was wrongly accused by his frien...

She felt more guilty whenever she looked into her husband’s eyes. She did everything to make that feeling go. She prepared his favorite dishes personally. She treated him extra special . But nothing could minimise the guilt in her. She decided to visit Dr. Prabhakar to ease her pain. Next day, she visited the clinic. She sat at the waiting area.The doctor seemed busy in his clinic as the door was closed with only whispers of the doctor and his patient coming out. An hour passed by, the doctor didn’t arrive. Unlike the first day , she remained patient. Finally the door opened and two men came out. She assumed both were patients and got up to meet the door inside his examination room. But one of men interrupted her. The man was tall and stout. His grey hair and wrinkled skin spoke of his age and life experiences. “Hi , do you have an appointment?”, the man asked calmly. “Yes, I do. I have an appointment with Dr. Prabhakar.”,she said slightly irritated. “I am Dr.Prabhakar.”, he sai...

Shaina’s mind was fixed on to the news. The newsreader  spoke with the poker face. She mentioned the state of Joseph when he was bought to hospital and the number of times he was stabbed. She also mentioned that police was on lookout for the killer. Shaina switched off the TV irritatedly.  She wondered whether her husband was the killer. Immediately she changed her mind thinking it couldn’t be him as he was too gentle to kill anyone. Last month’s fiasco with Joseph reminded her how coldly he had dismissed him and said how much she mattered to him . The question again began to torment her - Did he kill him to avenge the trauma she been through. She was engrossed in her thoughts that she didn’t notice Kabir entering the room. She only realised his presence when he sat next to her. He noticed her confused expression and spoke, “What’s the matter?” “ Where were you the whole night ?”, she asked. He became nervous. “Why do you ask ?”, he quipped. She was astonished by his c...

Joseph got frustrated while thinking about how he was going to get his revenge now. His plan was messed up and there was no way to get back into royal palace . Now everyone in the palace would be cautious about his movements. He rose up immediately as if something struck him hard. He wondered why this idea hadn’t strike him before. He was to find out the man who has contacted him before he found out how Kabir was able to deduce he was the culprit within a day. Next morning Kabir woke up and stayed in the bed, watching Shaina sleep peacefully. He was relieved by the sight after so long. He had seen her waking up traumatized by her nightmare every night. He prayed that she slept peacefully forever like this. He was about to kiss her forehead when her eyes opened wide. “Good morning!”, she said huskily with head still in need of sleep . He greeted her back with a smile. “I stayed all night watching you sleep.”, he said as he brushed few strands of hair from her forehead. “Aww! But ...

The night was normal. There were no monster or ghost terrorising Shaina. She slept soundly after long time. However Kabir was no where to be found. She assumed he was busy searching the person who had played this horrible prank on her. Next morning she woke up to Kabir’s voice. “Come down to the dinning area. I have something to announce .”, he said. She was curious. “Did he find that trickster?”, she wondered. She arrived at the dinning area after washing her face and brushing her teeth. She didn’t even change her night wear or brush her hair. She was excited to know who was the person. She waited while each and every staff arrived. They were all curious as Shaina was. Kabir arrived last. He seemed cold. His expression weren’t warm and compassionate as usual . They were stern now. A wave of guilt engulfed her. She regretted not approaching him first. “ I have some news. It may affect few. It has impacted badly and shook me hard when I found our loyal staff, Joseph did this impecc...

The doctor prescribed her some meditation exercises. He also advised her to take few days off from writing ghost stories. “Apart from these , we will conduct therapy sessions daily starting from tomorrow .”, he said. She nodded and got up to leave . On their way towards home, Kabir spoke, “ Why didn’t you tell me about this ? I am feeling guilty for letting you suffer silently .” She brushed his hand gently to relieve him from his guilt and said, “ I didn’t know that it was due to my past I was seeing things and I didn’t want to reminisce about the nightmares of my past.” . They reached home. Kabir wanted some time alone and thus he headed to the library. Shaina didn’t stop him instead she headed to her room to get hot shower to refresh her mind. After the shower, she was searching for comfortable clothes from the wardrobe. Suddenly she stepped on something soft. It triggered her the memories of the last night. She screamed out of fright and moved aside. It was the same carnivorous ...

The doctor started with questions. The first few questions were basic. It was about her family, childhood and friends. She was reminiscing the fond memories of her dad gently pushing the swings , her mother preparing her favourite dish - pooris with aamras , her granny sharing tales of her ancestor’s famous battles and playing hide and seek with her friends . But remembering the memories of one particular hide and seek game  made her shiver with fear. The doctor noticed that. He dwelled more into the game to get answer to this riddle. “It looks like you loved hide and seek game as a child. Do you want to share some fond memories ?” , he asked. She became nervous. “ Everyone loves hide and seek as a child. There’s nothing special I could recall about.”, she said tensed. “Are you sure? Well , I enjoyed the seeking part of the game . It was amazing time for me to find people  in their hide out and I would find them all. What did you like the most - hiding or finding ?”,he said...

She looked at her feet . It was dark. She couldn’t see what was holding her. She tilted her face and called out Kabir’s name. He didn’t hear her voice. He was deep in sleep. The grip on her feet was tight. She tried several times to pull her leg out of the grip. She cried in pain. The thing dragged her swiftly towards the small storage room which she didn’t know existed. Suddenly she felt something release her leg. The light switched on its own. She finally discovered what had dragged her. It wasn’t a monster. It was a tall carnivorous plant with fanged jaws that were dripping with large drops of saliva dripping on her feet. It bent down to devour her while she closed her eyes and screamed loudly. Next morning, Kabir woke up and found her missing. He immediately rose up from the bed and started looking out for everywhere. At last he found her crawled up in the tiny store room. The room was stinking of pee. As he lifted her up, he found out she had wetted her night gown. He took he...

She hadn't noticed how long she had slept.  She opened her eyes slowly and noticed it was already night. It wasn't dark. She was relieved to see everything was normal. The lights were as usual on. She switch off the TV and got up to fetch a glass of water in the kitchen. Her mouth felt dry.  She smiled as she walked towards the kitchen. The long corridors  looked elegant with bright lights and the red carpets made it look majestic. The kitchen was pitch dark in contrast to other rooms she had come across. It felt strange. She wondered where the housekeepers and butler had gone as they were expected to be in kitchen at this time. She switched on the light and was taken back when she saw the cook cutting the vegetables.    "My god ! You scared me . I thought no one was there. Why are cutting vegetables in dark ?", she said.  The cook didn't speak. He silently cut the vegetables. She felt weird and walked closer towards the cook. "Are you fine ?", ...

The place was eerie and dull. The patient bed she was lying on was replaced by a silver metal bed. The bed contained the wash and drain unit attached on both ends of bed.  There were sharp surgical instruments neatly kept inside the silver bowl on silver trolley. She looked at herself. She was shocked. She wasn't wearing the clothes she had worn while coming. Instead she wore white patient gown. She almost fainted . But she took deep breath to maintain herself. The monster tried to pull her back to sleeping position. She fought back and started to run towards the main door. When she reached the door, the door seemed locked. There was no latches or key hole on the door. She was confused. She turned back. The monster was almost close to her. She started banging the door and calling for help. No one seemed to hear her cries. Suddenly she felt someone hold her. She assumed it was the monster. Immediately, she closed her eyes. He was able to turn her around towards him. She opened ...