Shreejit Jha, a sixth-grader, shares an exhilarating story about facing ghosts one summer night in Delhi. Join him and his friends as they bravely confront supernatural beings in a basement, relying on unity and courage to triumph over adversity.
Ghost is a subject of interest for many. But for me, it was something strange. I always felt something spooky when it was dark, surprisingly the feeling disappeared when it was bright. So for me, the presence of their absence or the absence of their presence remained doubtful until the incidents of that horrific night.
It was one of those summer days when the sun refused to go down until as late as 8 in the evening, and the heat in Delhi is truly untrue. I mean can you imagine the mercury rises to 48 degrees? With such hostile weather, we were forced to stay indoors until sunset. It was only at night we could go and play. Thankfully the grounds of block six were well-lighted.
One evening around 10:30, my friends joined me in the block 6 ground for a thrilling cricket match. I was batting, and as soon as the ball left the hands of the bowler, I realized it needed a cover drive. I did that and the ball crossed the boundary line and started rolling towards the basement of the building. I scored a six, I was happy but the momentary happiness was shaded by sadness, as now I would need to go and fetch the ball. I mean that was the rule we initiated some months back that whoever hits the ball which rolls down to the basement would need to fetch it himself.
I walked towards the basement and to add to my trouble the lights went off as soon as I reached the steps. Recalling all the horrific stories my friends told me earlier I ran as fast as possible. After the electricity was restored, it was time for me to go again. Fortunately, my friends joined me this time. All except three as Adi informed, “Me, Tanisque, and Samarth are not going with you and your foolish friends. We are rather waiting here.”
So four of us started walking down to the basement. We found the ball shortly, but then a frightful noise caught our attention. It was coming from the darkest corner of the basement. We started running out of the basement, but then Duggu fell while running. I tried to save Duggu but Arav and Netex caught both my hands and pulled me out of the basement. “We have left Duggu behind,” I told them.
“Oh my, we did not notice that he was left out. I told you to hold his hands.” Netex was angry.
“Yes, Netx told you to hold his hands,” Arrav added.
“I never heard it,” I argued and what followed was a series of war of words with no result. Finally, after we had had enough we decided to go back to the basement. But as soon as we reached the entrance, to our relief Duggu came out and said, “Run, run two ghosts are after me.”
“Are you sure Duggu?” Tanisque asked.
“What? Do you think I am joking, of course, I am sure.” Duggu shouted and then what we saw left us speechless. The two specters were right in front of us. We started running in two different directions. Arrav, Adi, Netx, and I to the right, while Duggu, Samarth, and Tanishque started running to the left. The ghosts were confused with this and we reunited in a while. But to our horror, the ghosts reappeared in front of us. We started running again as fast as possible but my movement was suddenly interrupted as my hand was hit by a knife which the ghosts had thrown. I could feel blood but did not stop running.
I don’t know how long I ran, but after a while, I saw Adi pointing towards a temple. We rushed inside and felt safe. For the first time, I saw the wound in my hand, it was deep and I felt extreme pain. We offered our prayers and went to the block. We reached the 3rd floor by the stairs and we could see the ghosts again. We all rushed back from the stairs and jumped from the balcony where we found 10 torches.
We took them and were ready for the monsters. As soon as we saw them again, we switched on the torchers shocking the ghosts, and they disappeared only to reappear with knives. But now we were prepared, we caught the knives and threw them back to the other ghosts. Soon the place was filled with blue blood. Duggu, Tanishque, Netx, and Samarth were injured in the process. But we attacked the ghosts with all our might. Arrav and I threw many things but it did not affect the shadows. Finally, we defeated them with the light of the torch which me and Arrav pointed toward them. The battle was won and we returned home at 2 a.m.
So this is how we saved our lives on that frightful night from that dangerous ghost. That night we all realized the power of unity, we understood the power of staying together at a time of distress. When we narrated the whole incident to our parents, they did not believe us, but we the children know the reality that will stay in our memories.
