Tuesday, September 29, 2009

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……

3 comments:

MOHAMMED FARHAN KHAN said...

My God, mind blowing description ....u binds me ....in every stanza
how do u write these things?
one of ur classics ....waise ...its a part of novel or just a short story or a description of ur creative mind....?

SanKarpoems said...

Got stunned man.. It is "moving".. Is it a real incident? I tried guessing the climax, but it is far away from my imagination..

Great description, makes me get struck to it..

I love it.. And i hope it is not a real incident..

Regards..

Unknown said...

wow...i luvd it..ap kaise likh lete hain?climax was really vry gud