This story by Pritha Ghosh of class VII features a thrilling trek through the Ajodhya Hills turns mysterious when a group of friends hears a haunting bell echoing through the forest.
The morning sun stretched lazily over the hills as our bus stopped near the trekking hills…
One week before the puja vacation started, my friends planned a trek, through the Ajodhya hills. But being a scared person, I declared that I was not going anywhere. But my way to determined friends than me, showed no interest in my words. So even unwillingly I agreed to follow them to the trekking hills- Ajodhya hills.
One week passed and the day arrived of the trek. Excited, me and my friends boarded the bus.
The bags packed, the tents all set, cell phones fully charged along with our energy. For the next two days, we had a lot of fun, having delicious meals, playing games, singing, dancing, gossiping and enjoying the scenario of nature from the windows of the bus. And finally, after those two days…
The morning sun stretched lazily over the hills as our bus stopped near the trekking hills. One by one, we all climbed down the bus. Arjun, Vrittika(me), Brinda, Farhana and Ayush- we all stood there, mesmerized by the hills’ beauty.
Brinda was the first to speak.
Still looking at the hills, she said,
“What a beautiful site! But see how dense the forest is! How will we manage to trek through it?”
Both me and Farhana, agreed.
But, Arjun said, “It may look dense but it is not that dense.”
Agreeing to Arjun, Ayush added,
“Yes, we will have a lot of fun trekking through this Ajodhya Hills.”
So, after a brief discussion, we decided to continue our trek. We tightly packed our bag, zipped them up and wore them in our shoulders.
Then, our bravest member- Arjun at the front, followed by me, Brinda, Farhana And Ayush, we started our journey through the hills covered with forests. After walking a few distance, the forest started to look more mesmerizing, more peaceful and denser.
All the trees were full of birds who were chirping softly, flowers bloomed in almost every colour possible- from shades of pink to varieties of violet to the ultimate shades of black. After clicking a few pictures there, we all began walking again. After walking a few steps ahead, I heard a faint noise, as if someone was ringing a bell from afar.
I asked,
“Did you hear that noise?”
Brinda replied,
“Yes, a faint noise.”
Annoyed, Arjun turned back and said,
“Which type of noise? We didn’t hear anything. You both are scared, aren’t you? Forget these things and enjoy the trek.”
So, without any further delay, we continued walking. But, after sometime. We heard the same noise again.
This time, Farhana said, “I am also getting a faint noise. As if someone is ringing a bell from afar.”
I and Brinda too got the sound and told the same to Arjun and Ayush. But they didn’t believe us and after a brief disagreement and quarrel, we decided to continue walking. But Brinda had a condition and that is, she wanted to be at the last of us.
We told her that it can be risky but she didn’t listen. So, we decided that Arjun will lead us and he will be followed by Farhana, Ayush, me and at last the line will be ended by Brinda.
So, with the new formation we began walking. It is not that we didn’t hear the faint noise again, but we chose to ignore it and kept walking. After a walking for a bit long time, our feet started to ache, so we decided to take some rest there. We stopped near two big oak trees and sat under it.
As we all were tired and a good breeze was blowing, we fell asleep, we didn’t even notice when. I woke up only to hear that Ayush was calling me…
“Vrittika! Vrittika! Wake up! Quick!” Startled, I woke up to find Ayush standing beside me with a tense look on his face.
He said hurriedly, “Have you seen Brinda? She is nowhere to be found.”
I looked at where she was sitting and then replied,
“What the hell! Where is Brinda?”
We hurriedly woke everyone up.
Arjun asked,
“What happened?”
Farhana too asked at the same time, “Yes, what happened to you both? Why are you looking so tensed?”
I explained them everything briefly. They also looked tensed. And then after a brief discussion, we decided to follow the sound of the bell.
Farhana said, “Probably the sound is coming from the southern direction.”
So, we decided to go towards the southern direction. Here, the forest was denser compared to the eastern and northern sides. After walking for a few miles, the scenario changed.
The forest was dense and the soil was rather wet. The atmosphere suddenly started to feel eerie, the wind was also blowing fast. Suddenly, I noticed something on the ground. On examining it carefully, we understood that they were footprints.
Ayush commented,
“These are fresh marks of footprints. And most probably these belong to Brinda.
So, we decided to follow the footprints. After walking a bit further, we found a piece of a torn cloth or scarf. And of course, it was Brinda’s. Taking it with us, we started to walk even faster than a bullet train! While this time, we started to get a sound of flowing river, not so far from us.
And finally, after walking for over 5 miles, we saw something that truly shocked us. We were facing an abandoned temple, in front of which lies a flowing river.
And at the entrance of the temple, there lay Brinda, unconscious.
There were a few scratches on her face and her scarf was also torn, from which one part was with us. We quickly ran to her and spread some water to her face. After sometime, she opened her eyes, looked towards us and sat up.
Then she asked,
“How did you all reached here? And what happened to me? My head is still reeling.”
We then explained her how we followed the sound of the bell and her footsteps and found her out.
Then Arjun asked angrily, “Why did you come here without informing us?”
I said,
” Yes, do you know, how worried we were!”
“What would happen if we didn’t find you? Added Farhana.
And after a heavy rainfall of such questions on her, she replied, “Sorry! But I had nothing to do. The sound of the bell was attracting me and you were all asleep. So, I thought to follow the sound alone. And, as soon as I reached here, a heavy wind blew and a heavy branch fell in my head and made me unconscious.”
Then after taking some rest, we decided to go inside the temple.
We followed Brinda into the inner chamber of the temple. There, we saw a statue of a Queen, but her hands were missing. Below her feet was an ancient script.
Ayush read it slowly: “The Queen of the Hills gave her own hands and her voice to the Earth in a ritual to stop a 100-year drought. She sacrificed everything—even her ability to speak—so her people wouldn’t starve. The only way she can communicate now is through the sound of the bell.”
“So, the bell is her voice?” I asked, touching the cold stone.
Suddenly, a ghostly woman appeared. She had no hands, and her face looked tired and sad. She wasn’t scary, instead, she looked like a mother who had sacrificed everything for her children.
“She’s crying,”
Brinda said softly. The ghost pointed towards the river, which was starting to overflow from the rain.
“She’s telling us to leave before the path floods,” Arjun realized. “She’s still protecting travellers after all these years.”
We all bowed our heads deeply toward the spirit. “Rest now, MOTHER QUEEN,” we whispered.
We made it back to the bus just as the river flooded the path behind us. We were safe because of her.
A week later, back in the city, I was cleaning my trekking bag. I found a small, ancient silver coin in the pocket—one that wasn’t there before.
It had the Queen’s face on it. I held it to my ear, and for a split second, I didn’t hear a scary bell. I heard a soft, motherly voice whisper, “Thank you for listening.” I looked in the mirror, and for a moment, my own reflection smiled back with the Queen’s eyes.
