Sayantani Das, Class 5, Epic Public School shares this short story about a whispers in the forest, when she encounters a terrifying monster in a nightmare, and later discovers a haunted garden near the Rajbari.
As I was walking through the forest behind our backyard, I thought I heard a whisper, but there was no one in sight. This had happened to me quite a few times before, but in a different way. Let me narrate it from the beginning.
It was around dusk, as the sun was kissing the western horizon, when I went for my usual evening walk. It was the end of April, yet I could feel a chill in the air, which was quite unusual for this time of year.
As I turned a corner, I felt something strange. It was as if a cold human body—perhaps like a spirit—had suddenly hugged me. I ignored it and assumed I was just feeling unusually cold, nothing more.
But then, like a nightmare come to life, a monster appeared in front of me. I turned to run, but the monster started chasing me. I glanced back—it was still there. I could see blood dripping from its mouth, and it wore a necklace made of human bones. I heard it whisper, “You are next.”
I screamed and tried to run, but the monster spoke again: “You are next. I am going to kill you if you cannot answer me—what is 1897 × 2795?” Then it asked, “I am going to kill you if you cannot recite Topsy-Turvy Land.” I tried to run again, but failed miserably. I closed my eyes and heard someone say, “You will be late for school.” I tried to open my eyes, but waves of water splashed over me. Then I heard, “Wake up… you will be late for school.” I opened my eyes and…
…I saw my mother splashing water on my face. “You were speaking gibberish. Were you dreaming about something?” she asked.
It was then I realised I had been having a nightmare. I also realised that I should not overeat at night. My mother asked me again, “Anything wrong, dear?”
I did not reply, except for a nonverbal ‘no’, and got ready for school. Once at school, I soon forgot about the dreadful monster as I attended classes and played with my friends. But my happiness was short-lived; all the fun and games vanished with just one piece of news that came from one of my friends.
“Do you know the garden near Rajbari?” she asked.
“You mean the place that used to be a garden and now is almost a ruin?” I replied.
“Yes. It seems something strange is happening there.”
“What?”
“I don’t know. One of my neighbours told me she saw something strange there last night and heard a whisper.”
“What did she hear?” I asked, quite intrigued by now.
“She saw something unnatural, whispering something—it could be a spirit or a ghost or something.”
“Oh, come on! There’s no such thing as ghosts. It’s just a state of mind,” I laughed, but then I recalled the nightmare I’d had the night before.
When I was returning from school that day, I passed the same garden my friend had told me about. Out of curiosity, I looked at it and realised it really did look scary. The few flowers that once bloomed were all dead. The birds had gone, and honestly, the garden showed no sign of life at all. I started to walk away, but then a cold wind began swirling around me. I froze. And then I heard it—the infamous whisper. I tried to overcome my fear and told myself, “There’s no such thing as ghosts; it’s just my imagination, since I heard about it.” But then I started feeling dizzy…
When I woke up, I found my parents sitting next to me, looking deeply concerned. I asked, “Was it real, what I saw?”
