This is my second story in YGS and it dates back 6 years during my undergraduate days in Chennai, India. It is going to be long so please forgive me.
It was dec 31st 2007 and I was into my early twenties. Myself and my college friends wanted to do something really good than the usual parties and stuff. So 4 of my friends and myself went to a liquor store and bought a few beers. I started driving in a famous freeway called the East Coast Road (ECR). To describe about this road, it is a scenic beauty with the beach on the left side of the road and bamboo trees all along giving it a spooky feeling if you are driving in the night.
While driving in the road, all of my friends were drinking and shouting out "Happy New Year" loud to passerbys on the road but I did not have the liberty to drink that much as I was the designated driver. So, I just had a beer and was happy driving my friends who were enjoying the moment.
Now, one of my friends suddenly suggested if we can go the "Ghost Beach". To first give a gist about it, I think everybody knew about the Tsunami that hit the southern part of Asia in 2004 (Dec 24th) before Christmas and killed more than 5 lakh people around the Asian countries. In India, we had lost around one lakh people. So basically, the "Ghost Beach" got its name only after the tsunami washed away an entire fishermen village in floods and it is believed that the beach is haunted. We all decided to go to the beach before 12 and party there for New Years... Not a good idea, but then we wanted something different for the New Year, so we decided to go.
We were not that scared after we reached the place, but we decided to stick on together as we wanted to face "everything and anything" together than getting caught alone and suffering. As soon as we entered the place we were all sad and one of my friend started talking about his deceased girlfriend and cried. The other one started speaking about how his mom died and we were all down. We did not know why were talking about all those, but the place made us really gloomy.
We went and checked out the broken building, schools that still had the broken toys of the kindergarten students. It was very very depressing. So we drove to the shore and started drinking. We would have not even sipped the beer and suddenly we heard a woman screaming like she was calling out to people around the neighourhood for help. We thought somebody was trying to rape a girl and we thought we should help and my friend went and started the car to turn on the lights. We could not see anybody. But all of us wanted to help so we started running towards the voice and then we suddenly realized it is a deserted place and nobody would be there at this time of the hour and that too a woman.
I shouted at my friends to stop running and we regrouped immediately to find that one of my friend is still missing. We tried calling his mobile phone but he would not answer it... We turned on the flashlights from our phones and searched for him everywhere but in vain. So we got back near the car and there he was sitting inside the car and crying. He stopped the ignition and turned off the lights immediately. We got scared and told them it was us, but he wouldn't believe and he pushed us away. I went and sat next to him and comforted him and told we will all leave the place immediately. All of us got in.
It was a single road and so we had to reverse the car and will not be able to turn the car until we reach the highway. As soon as I started the ignition, I saw a old woman standing in front of the car with her head down. Her hair was covering the face and it looked as if she was staring at us... All of us screamed and I screeched the car to take reverse and the lady slowly started running towards us with her gaining speed with every passing step. And luckily we came to the highway and sped to the city limits immediately. We did not even utter a word to each other and my friend was shivering. He was down with fever for the next week and we all met him frequently to check whether he was okay.
Later, when we were discussing about it to the locals near to the village, they said it is common that people hear and see this woman. It is believed that on the day when Tsunami struck the village, she was calling out for help. The ambulance could not reach the village as the road was too small and many of her villagers and eventually she died there. So whenever she sees people, she calls out for help and runs towards them.
I do not know what would have happened if she stopped us. But I really felt bad for the entire village and the woman whose cries for help went in vain. I am not sure if I would have had a pleasant sighting if we stopped the car to help the lady, but whoever it was I felt she was not there to harm us, but was actually trying to call us for help. No matter what, it was a New year that none of my friends will forget for the rest of their lives.
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