Finally, the nightmare came. It was about twelve thirty in the night. Uday was as usual in my room at the guesthouse. We were watching television. Suddenly, he nudged me with his elbow.

“What?” I asked.

“Did you hear something starnge...like some sounds coming from the door?” he asked, suspiciously.

“No, nothing,” I replied.

“First lower the volume of the TV,” he said.

Before I could do that, he literally snatched the remote from my hand and muted the television. We became attentive and paid our heed towards the door. The door of my room was hardly five feet away from the bed. There was a bizarre sound, just from the other side of the door. We looked at each other’s faces. We were stunned. A current of horror just ran into our spines. He looked in trauma. My condition too was no better. What to do next? Should we switch off the lights, turn off the television and sleep covering our faces? No one was sure.

On the other hand, I was sure that someone was at the door making that sound. I said, “Nothing. I don’t think that someone is there. It’s just our imagination.” I stuttered.

“No Arjun, something is there. How can we sleep like this?” he said.

“Then, what to do? Okay, let’s try to understand the noise first. What it can be? It’s about twelve forty. I think the most appropriate time for the evil spirits. They are on a tour.”

“Tour?”

“I don’t exactly mean that, but we can’t rule out that possibility.”

“Think positive, Arjun. I’m afraid.”

“Me too, but…let’s wait for another sound. We may get any clue,” I said. After a while, the noise again generated at the door. We tried to understand what kind of noise that was.

“Brother, I think someone is trying to open the door,” I said.

“Oye…shubh-shubh bol. It appears that some cat or dog may be there,” he responded with some apprehension.

“But I don’t think an animal can produce that sound. Anyway, I hope you are right. But until we make it sure who is making the noise at the door, we can’t sleep. We’ll always doubt and tend to truly believe in the ghost story of this guest house,” I said.

“True. You go, open the door and check. I’ll be supporting you from here,” he proposed.

“Why me? You go ahead. You’re a robust person like Dharmendra. You should lead from the front. I’ll be behind you,” I said to him in a suppressed voice. The situation was such that neither of us dared to go ahead and open the door.

“Leave it, Arjun. Switch off the lights and let’s sleep calmly,” he insisted.

“No…we can’t sleep like this. We have to find out the source of the bizarre noises. Otherwise, we could never be able to stay in the guesthouse. We’ll always be panicked,” I said.

“Okay, then you should open the door,” he said promptly.

“No…no, you’re stronger and taller than me. You’re a hero. Agatha has chosen you. You should show some bravery,” I tried to lure him.

“So that the ghost can eat me…”

“Any way, we’re going to be eaten by the ghosts sooner or later.”

“Okay, I’ll open the door as soon as the sound appears but you’ve to remain just with me,” finally Uday agreed. For himself and me or for Agatha, I didn’t know. Anyway, we were ready for the ambush upon the alleged stranger who was harrowing us for last a few minutes. The strategy was that as soon as the noise at the door occurred, the leader among us would open the door and the person standing behind would be ready to attack with a kitchen knife, if necessary. Both of us were ready for the action. The noise at the door occurred and within a second, he opened the door. No one was there. We were surprised. Then who was it who produced the sounds there? If it were a dog or a cat, it was impossible for the creature to jump all of sudden that stretch of straight stairs exceeding at least twenty in number. We were even more horrified. We shut the door and waited for another brief spell of time when that bizarre sound generated again. Now, I was at the front and Uday in the role of the supporting man. He was relaxed a bit since he had escaped from the clutches of the ghost. Now, it was my turn. I was now a little more afraid. After sometime, that bizarre noise started again and I immediately opened the door but could not see anything. Again, similar thoughts came to our minds. How could anything disappear so quickly? It had to be a ghost, definitely one of the souls visiting this haunted place.

Our brave attempts were in vain. I told Uday that we should sleep as no one was there at the door. It was just an imagination. He asked me how two different people could simultaneously imagine the same thing. He suggested me to make one last attempt to detect the mystery of sound. Otherwise, we could not sleep. We were ready for our final attempt. This time we decided that we would immediately jump downstairs to chase the mysterious creature if he actually existed there. Let’s see, how far could it go? After a while, again that weird sound generated. I opened the door. No one was there. We immediately jumped downstairs two-three treads in one leap. We were soon on the ground floor. We rushed towards the main gate of guesthouse. A black dog was panting there with his vibrating red tongue dangling out of his open mouth. He was staring at us with his shining eyes. The dog’s eyes were looking horrifying in the night.

“So it was you who was disturbing us. How dare you to frighten us?” Uday started firing his pent up fury upon the dog.  

“Let’s go, it’s too late. We’ve to sleep. Now we can sleep. This was your evil phantom. It disturbed us a lot,” I said to Uday. We turned back to go to our room. The black dog howled. I turned back and cried, “Rush to the room, Uday. It’s not a normal dog.” We were in the room within a few seconds, sweating and breathing heavily. “What did you see when the dog howled?” he asked me in a trembling voice. He was still panting. “Nothing...it was a normal dog,” I said. I further continued, “Come on. The drama is over. Let’s sleep.”

We slept that night finally.

*****

Next morning, we ate our breakfast silently. Uday suddenly asked, “I’m afraid of last night’s event. Please tell me, what did you see while you turned back when the dog howled?”

“Nothing special except the black dog had two long horns!” I said calmly chewing a piece of sandwich.

“Horns!” he exclaimed in fear. He could not swallow his piece of bread. “I’m not staying at this place anymore,” he declared.

Later, in the evening he lit incense sticks before an idol of Lord Hanuman in my room and rubbed a lump of holy ash on my forehead as well as on his own forehead. “Now, bhoot kya, bhoot ka baap bhi hamara kuchh nahin bigad payega,” he declared in absolute confidence.

Sometimes superstitions may also generate self confidence in a person. It was amazing that we lived in the guesthouse comfortably from that day on. Lord Hanuman was our rescuer, at least Uday absolutely believed that.