Late...

It’s about mid night. The lights of Rohan Villa are still on. Except the villa, everywhere there’s dark silence. By the way what anything else we can except at such a time. Ya, I forgot to mention, there’s also a sound of some creatures hidden in the dense grasses in the surroundings. And who could be awake to listen to those creatures. What is your guess? Is there no one? No, this guess is wrong. There’s someone at the gate of the Rohan Villa. A pair of eyes, that are sweet, watery, dusty, tired of waiting for one more pair of eyes. The night is trying to make those eyes to give up, but hope is such a thing which makes possible many things.
These eyes are of small, cute little 4 year boy Rohan who is waiting for someone. Let’s see whom he is expecting at such a time.
Rohan’s mother Sunita is searching Rohan everywhere in the house and at last she founds him at the villa’s gate.
Sunita: Rohan….Rohan. What’s this? This is the time to sleep my son. Let’s go to the bed dear.
Rohan: But mom, I am waiting for daddy. He must be in the way. Let him come and we will sleep together.
Sunita: But dear, it’s already late and you know that how much daddy has to work. So he may arrive late in the night. You do one thing, go to sleep and I will wake you up in the morning.
Rohan: Alright mom, promise me you will not let daddy leave for work in the morning, unless I meet him.
Sunita: Ok son, promise.
Little Rohan runs on his little legs and jumps on the bed making noises and he is happy to meet his daddy in the morning.
The night reaches its brim. Even the noise making creatures have gone to sleep. Rohan is in deep sleep but he his still murmuring that he wants to see his daddy.
Finally the birds start chirping and with their sweetest songs they welcome the rising sun. It’s bright orange, cool and pleasant.
Rubbing his eyes, Rohan opens his eyes, jumps from the bed and runs to his daddy’s bedroom to see him. But he has already left for work. Rohan’s face drops down with sadness. He calls his mother and asks about the promise which she made the last night.
Sunita: My son, you know how much your daddy works. It’s all for you dear. When daddy was leaving for work, you were asleep and lost in dreams. I was going to make you awake but he stopped me doing so.
Rohan: But why daddy did so.
Sunita: Because my son, he loves you very much. He will bring you a lot of toys for you. Similar toys like in your bed room.
Rohan: But I already have toys.
Sunita: You know the teddy bear in your room has a small baby.
Rohan: No I don’t. Where is it?
Sunita: He’s in the market. Daddy will bring that for you.
Rohan: Really.
Sunita: Ya son.
Rohan: Alright, but I will play with that baby bear, sitting on the shoulders of daddy.
Sunita: Ok son, now come and brush your teeth and have your break fast.
The breakfast is ready. Several dishes are there on the table. Rohan is having his breakfast with his mother.
Rohan: Mom
Sunita: Yes son
Rohan: What work daddy does?
Sunita: Dear, he has to go far in the fields and he does hard work there and earns money for his son.
Rohan: Mom
Sunita: Yes son
Rohan: Daddy loves me na.
Sunita: Yes son.
Rohan: Then why he never meets me. He never talks to me.
Sunita: Timing my son. It’s the odd timing and nothing else.
Sunita: Now you go and play.
Rohan forgets about his daddy and he is lost in playing with his toys. Night approaches. Again Rohan is seen, standing at the gate of his house and waiting for his daddy. After some time his mother again approaches him to take him to the bed. But she stops some meters before. Rohan is bending on his knees and he has joined his hands and his praying to God.
Rohan: Oh! God, I want nothing. You take my toys back. I will give you my favorite teddy bear also. I don’t want that baby bear also. I love my daddy. I want to play on his shoulders like before. I want to hug him for couple of minutes. I want to sleep in his lap for some nights. I don’t want to trouble my mom; therefore I am asking these things from you. She is already overloaded with so much work. She makes me breakfast, washes my clothes and loves me too. What more can I ask from her?
Sunita cannot bear the scene and the situation more. She wipes out her tears with her sari and asks Rohan to go to sleep giving him the same reason. Rohan goes to bed happily as before. Sunita is close to her bed singing him a sweet sleeping song. Rohan closes his eyes and goes to sleep in a hope to see his father in the morning.
Sunita puts a warm blanket on his son and walks down to the gate of the house. Is it the turn of Sunita now, to wait someone at the gate? No, she steps out of the gate and sobs, watching the nameplate of the villa.
On the name plate its written- Late Mr. Asutosh Sinha.

Room on the Third Floor

[It was mid July and every where the water droplets were showing their vivid nature. To some it was good, to some bad, to some exciting, to some pathetic and to some…something.
This is a story of a dark night followed by a darker dawn, when these water storms mixed with mischief’s opened the darker side of one's mind.]
I still remember the day. It was raining heavily outside our hostels. Everywhere there was a gush of water. Of course it had been two days and I was not able to admire the shining sun and the twinkling stars. I forgot the original color of the sky, though it was false but I loved it.
On that day, I saw a beautiful girl outside our hostel gate, with a tiny umbrella. She was trying to save herself from the unbounded rain droplets. The rain droplets were playing with her body. Sometimes they sprinkled from the left, and sometimes from the right. Alas, the poor girl after all closed her umbrella and started unloading her briefcase and other items from the rickshaw. No body went to help her and bring the things in the hostel. In fact I was also just standing and watching her getting troubled by the mixed events.
At last she was allotted her room and after two days the Saturday night came. In my life many Saturday nights came, but that Saturday night still haunts me in my dreams. I still remember that night, oh my God! It was the darkest night I had ever seen.
I was in medicine 2nd year and our work on Saturdays night was to call and gather the 1st year medicine students for ragging. We still were not allowed to rag the 1st year students. We were permitted to stand at the corner and watch how the 3rd year and final year medicine students ragged and harassed the first year students.
The moment came and all the first year students gathered. It was still pouring over the hostel roofs. One by one the girls were called by the seniors and they were pounded by a number of questions.
Then came that beautiful girl’s turn, whom I saw two days before battling in the rain with her items at entrance of the hostel.
Her name was Stella and she was as innocent as her face. But she was an adamant too. When her seniors asked her to sing and dance she denied. After many persuasions she remained still. The seniors asked her to leave to her room.
Stella thought that she escaped ragging and it was a very good bargain for her. But No, the seniors were more adamant than she was. They were not only adamant but also cruel.
It was already mid night and the rain started gaining its speed and the night started becoming darker and darker. I saw some seniors in a group, planning and discussing something.
I could feel the sound of air, the sound of the wet eucalyptus trees, the crying dogs, the croaking frogs and the dancing rains. The devil had occupied the minds of our seniors and they were planning something very very notorious.
After an hour, when the ragging was going on, I heard a loud scream. It was the scream of Stella, that beautiful but poor girl. My heart started gaining beats. Beats per beat, beats per beat, my God. They were pulling her forcefully upstairs by her hairs and her hands. I was praying to God, that Oh! God please save this girl from these monsters. We followed our seniors. They pulled her to the first floor of our hostel, then to the second floor and then to the third floor. My God, the third floor, there was nothing above the third floor but the sky and a small room. The sky- black and dark, evil and cunning. And the room big and darker, evil by practice. There were no lights in that room. But I could make out from lightning in the sky, the things present in the room. It was a single room on that floor and every where there was space- haunting. In the room there was a single bed with a pillow and an almirah in the corner. And to my horror, I could see something below the pillow. It resembled like fingers of a man. To that, later I came to know that the seniors placed a chopped hand of a fresh corpse under the pillow. But I think Stella didn’t noticed about that when she was outside the room.
She was screaming to leave her. She was shouting at the seniors. As she was asking the seniors to leave her, they left her. They left her in that room-alone and aloof. They locked the door. She screamed more, she banged the doors from inside asking for help, asking for rescue. But no one came for the help. Her voice was lost in the sound of the thunder and the noise of the rain. Her scream was echoing in the Hostel. The reflected sounds were hitting each other but nothing happened. It was worse because the warden of the Hostel was on leave for that day.
I was on the second floor in my room. She was still screaming. I was helpless due to the pressure of the seniors. On that night it rained for hours and she also screamed for hours.
In between when the rain gained its intensity, Stella’s scream also gained its intensity. That night I was not able to sleep. I was tensed, frustrated and angry on myself and the seniors.
When dawn approached, every where it was silent. It was still dark but the raining had stopped and so the screaming of Stella. I was still on my bed, thinking about that poor girl, her condition and the haunting situation which she faced the previous night.
When the day came, I heard a noise of many people coming upstairs to my floor. I came out of the room just from the bed and saw that many students and Warden were going upstairs, on the third floor. I also joined them. I reached the third floor of the Hostel and reached to that room. All other people joined me. I could hear no sound of crying or weeping from the room. First I thought she must be sleeping. But then I thought how she could be sleeping when I was not able to sleep that night. Anyhow, I and all the people were going to get the answers of their questions in some minutes. The gate keeper broke the lock of the room as it was not revealed that who was having the key of the lock. The gate keeper started moving the latch. Its sound was horrible. I was not in the mood to face that scene. I was somehow forcing myself to stand there and to give stress to eyes and to my mind.
Finally the door made a noise and was opened. Straightaway, my eyes went on the bed. I could see the stains of the blood on the bed and the pillow but there was no Stella on the bed and on the ground.
Just then my heart started beating more and more, beats per beat, beats per beat. I started trembling when a thought came to my mind. I looked at the fan but there was nothing at fan. Just then I saw something on the top of the Almirah. I stopped breathing. I stopped blinking. I saw a creature with unlaced hairs and torn clothes. She was Stella. She was sitting on the top of the almirah and was rupturing the flesh with her red teethes and eating the flesh of the chopped hand which the devils placed below the pillow.
I still remember, Oh my God! She was eating the flesh, nodding her head, looking at us and smilingly offering us the breakfast.
I never saw that beautiful girl again in the hostel. I heard that she became psycho after that incident. The third floor room was locked and sealed. The senior students involved in the ragging were rusticated. Still the Ragging goes on in the hostel in the name of Introduction.
Today also, in the month of July when there is a Saturday night and it pours, she screams from the room in the dark-please open, else I will die, please let me go, or something will happen……