Her Bloody Handprint

This happened in 2007. My friend (I'll be calling her Maya) and I were going to Maya's village for some religious ceremony (this story is from India, so I would like to clear up a few things for the international readers: in India, almost everyone has their roots in some sort of village which they visit from time to time. People from these villages (some people, not all) are quite superstitious and still believe in things like curses and stuff). This ceremony required the participation of three children (I don't really believe in these ceremonies and curses, but I went along with it). Maya, her cousin (JD) who lived in the village and I were participating in the ceremony. When we reached Maya's village on April 22nd, the pandit (a.k.a priest) explained to us the reason for being brought there. He told us a local story of a witch. He told us that a witch lived in their village 80 years ago. This witch was a very prestigious woman and was respected by everyone. She was young, in her early twenties at the time, but she never seemed to age. She helped the people of her village by using some magic to make their crops flourish. But after a while the children of the villagers started to mysteriously die due to some disease. Of course when people didn't find a explanation, they blamed the witch. So the witch was tied and beat up by the villagers and finally killed by burning her alive. So since then annually and unexpectedly, there was a month of weird sightings and horror. Bad things happened and the witch was sighted in the village at the times. People died, crops failed and people claimed to see the witch who scared them to death. The villagers called this time "Kale Jadu ka mahina" (Month Of Black Magic). People held ceremonies every year during this time as they believed it would lessen "the evil". And that was what we were there for. The priest explained our roles we had to play in the ceremony. Mostly it was praying and making holy gestures etc.

The ceremony was on the following day on April 23rd. We were staying in Maya's uncle and aunt who were newlyweds at the time. We were told to go to bed early as the ceremony started early in the morning. We obeyed and went to bed.

Maya and I shared a room that night. Her cousin was in the adjoining room. Maya's parents and Uncle and aunt were on the first floor. That night, around 1 o' clock, we heard knocking on the front door. Maya's uncle went to check it out but found nobody outside. He bolted the door and told us to not open the doors or windows in any case. After a while the knock started again. They came in trios, KNOCK...KNOCK...KNOCK and stop; KNOCK...KNOCK...KNOCK and stop. These weren't regular knocks either it was like someone was pounding on the door with their full hand. After an hour or so we heard pounding along with kicking on the front door. Everybody told us to sleep and ignore the knocking saying it was the evil witch and that she was just playing tricks on us. They told us that this happened in a lot of houses during the black magic month. But they sorta made things worse for us. We couldn't sleep. Around sunrise, the pounding stopped. Silence filled the area. As soon as we were sure it was alright to come out, we went outside.

And there they were. All over the metal door - dents made by some kind of skinny hand - and the dents were so deep that no ordinary person could make them. And there were so many of them. There were even skinny footprints on the door - probably made by kicking. But that wasn't as scary as what was inside the dents. The dents - all of them - were bloody. It was like the "person" who made those dents had bloody hands. It terrified us. The priest insisted that we go through the ceremony anyway. The ceremony was what every evil vanquishing ceremony is like (chanting and stuff). But all along I was thinking about those bloody hand prints. Maya's parents insisted on taking us home right away after the ceremony and just like that we were on the ride back home.

But that visit left me with a lot of questions. Who did that? Was it a prank? If it was, then who could be sick enough to do something like that? Was it the witch? I never got to know. Savannah told me that no incidents had occurred after the ceremony and people thanked us for being a part of it. But I've always wished that I could go back and see what happened there. But I never got the chance.

So I guess that's it guys. Thanks for reading. I know it was quite long (sorry). I look forward to your views on the story. Maybe you can help me with some of my questions.

AUSTRIA.