Chilhood Memory

Though I have been An active visitor of this site for many years. This is my first story so bear with my lack of experience to narrate a story. So here goes the story.

Since the time I was born to the time I reached the double digits age we lived in a rented house. We were six people in total, me, my sister, mom and dad, my cousin brother and my maternal grandmother. The house was a very old house and one family could rent only three rooms maximum. So the three storied house had about 10 - 15 residents and many rooms were vacant.

Let me give you all a layout of the house. The house was surrounded by a medium sized compound and big boundary walls on every side, which were impossible to climb since it had glass pieces inserted on top and was about 7 feet tall. The house was oddly located at the side than the centre and the remaining entire plot was dedicated to vegetable gardening. The house was close to the front gate and the back plot was again given for gardening. So if you were to enter from the main gate of the house only then would you get access to the gardens and you had to return the same way to come out.

So here is where my story begins. I was about 8-9 years old when my older sister got her first period. In hindu culture we have a tradition of keeping this type of girls away from direct sunlight and men for 11 days. The girl is kept in a room locked and she cannot see any male in this period. (sounds like a scene from 80s doesn't it?) anyway and it is also believed that if a girl dies in this period her soul will never rest in peace and be very angry. Now my sister was placed in one of the vacant rooms on the ground floor.

This particular room never used to be opened but we needed a vacant space to perform the ritual. When we entered the room it had all kinds of religious markings on the wall. There were om signs made with red color and pictures of god and godesses. So my sister had to live in this room for 11 days and since it was summer holidays I was supposed to accompany her.

The first few days went smoothly, then on the fifth day I was talking with my sister facing the window. I was so engrossed in my talk... Then suddenly I see this dark figure of this girl with medium height and hair tied in a pony put both hands on the window and look from between them (in a peeking sort of way) then she went away towards the garden. I went running outside thinking that she had come to steal some herbs from the garden (this is very common in Nepal). I ran as fast as I could towards the garden but upon reaching there I could find no one there.

I looked around every place but I could find nothing and I have told before there is no way out except returning back the same way I came. This freaked me out but only a little. I went back inside and continued talking. Then the remaining six days were a nightmare for both me and my sister.

At night while sleeping an unknown force used to slap us or pinch us and wake us up. First I thought it was my sister but when I wake up she would be fast asleep and I had to shake her and wake her up. This continued for a few days then on the 9th or 10th day something happened that sends a chill down my spine to this day.

My siater was not allowed to bath in this 11 days and her hair was long so had to be plaited. That job was assigned to my mother as I was too small then. My sister was having stomach cramps so was in a fragile state. So once when my mom came to plait her hair she was too tired to sit properly and was in a half sleepy stage. So my mother let my sister's hair loose and combed it to remove the locks and ordered me to come with her upstairs to fetch some pillows to support my sisters back. We went upstairs and fetched some pillows and upon returning found my sister's hair was perfectly plaited in a neat manner and in such a way that someone must sit back and plait it. My mom and I were horrified and when we asked her she told us that she never realized we had gone upstairs and when someone was plaiting her hair she thought it was my mother! She could actually feel someone lift her hair and plait it!

This did it for my mom and upon inquiring found that many years ago a little girl just like my sister had been placed in that room to perform these rituals but sadly she had died on the fifth day due to some complications and her parents fearing that their daughter would not rest in peace had the room cleansed but on opening the room now had released her angry soul...