With the rain pouring unabashedly for hours on end, and with any hint of sunlight a whole night away, you see no choice. You don't know how you got here and you don't know where to go. You can only see that which is right in front of you, and well, it isn't a welcome sight. You take uncertain steps on the broken driveway and make your way towards the imposing door. As if on cue, it opens with an awkward groan and lets you in. Now inside, you dare to look around. Taking the surroundings in, a bolt of fear suddenly zaps through you as the door closes with an earth-shattering thud. You’ve never felt so alone.
It’s dusty. The sparse furniture in the room is covered in what were probably once sparkling white sheets. But now, torn and grey with grime, you realise that it’s been too long a time since this house was a home. Well at least the spiders didn’t care. Cobwebs shine by the hundreds in the faint wisps of moonlight weeping in through the cracked, tiny windows. Noticing a staircase to the side, something inside you guides you towards it. You climb one cautious step after another, as the stairs shriek under your weight. The thunder bellows outside and the rain pours without a break. You’ve never felt so scared.
The first floor is empty, but you hear sounds. You hear laughter. The kind that is so loud, cruel and manic that it makes your skin crawl. Is it you they are laughing at? All of a sudden, you hear nails being scraped on a board, somewhere close by. And then, there is screaming. An ear-splitting, gut-wrenching scream that just doesn’t stop. Hot tears stream your face and with flushed cheeks you run further up the stairs. You don’t know where you’re going, you just run. You’ve never felt so helpless.
You find yourself surrounded by walls plastered in old, torn wallpaper. Sensing a pair of eyes boring into you, you take a quick look around. Nothing. And then you feel it. A bony hand on your shoulder sends a chill down your spine and abruptly, the walls start to close in on you. You want to run out of this haunted house. You want your legs to take you anywhere…anywhere that’s not here. But you can’t move. You feel paralyzed and incapacitated. You’ve never felt so vulnerable.
It only lasts a second. The next thing you know you’re propelling up the stairs like it’s nobody’s business. The walls are still closing in on you. Those eyes just won’t stop staring at you. You don’t pause at the next landing, you just keep on going. Logic dictates that the stairs stop somewhere, but you’re past the point of logical thinking. There’s only one thought in your mind – ‘why?’Why you? Why tonight? Why here? What did you do to deserve being here? So alone, so scared, so helpless, so vulnerable…why? There are a million questions thudding about your mind and it all starts again. The laughing. The screaming. Doors banging open and closed. The wind. The thunder. Flashes of lightning eerily illuminate the all-consuming darkness of the stairwell for split seconds.You are now drenched in tears and sweat but you don’t stop. You can’t. There is something inside you that doesn’t let you. It forces you to keep going, keep climbing…and keephoping. Because there just has to be something better than this. And you know you deserve it. And even though you couldn’t be more lost, you've never felt so brave.
The inevitable end does come, though, as the stairs abruptly stop. You find yourself staring at a door. It is locked but there is a key taped on it. You think it’s odd but you take the key and unlock the door anyway. You realise, unexpectedly, that it is quiet. Somewhere along the way, it stopped raining. You wait for the door to open as if on cue, but it does not. So you lightly push it open and to your astonishment, you find yourself outside, on the roof. You take brave steps forward, out into the night. The crisp air feels cool against your tear-stained face and your breath comes out in silent smokes of translucent white. The moon peeks down at you through billowy clouds, stars twinkle through the hazy sky and for the first time, you realise it’s a beautiful night.
Every so often, our lives mimic haunted houses in the most disturbingly accurate ways. We find ourselves in the hardest of situations, desperate for a way out, little realising that all we need is a fresh perspective. All we need is some hope and some optimism to guide us along the way. Sometimes, it is through the voice of friends or family. But some other times, and perhaps in the most profound situations, our hope and optimism are sourced from the strangest of places – ourselves.
Submitted by Disha Ramanan
B.Sc (Maths) Hons IIIrd year
