Aatma

Burnt House Part 2

The ring is continuous Vinita runs and picks the phone so as to stop the ringing , she hears a women crying her hair on her body stands up , she throws the phone to Meena and stares in fright chewing her nails , Meena sees her reaction and is scared too she takes the phone and slowly keeps it on her ear she hears a lady from the other end begging her to help.She tell her save me please save me and again cries Meena immediately disconnects the phone she removes the wire and hides the instrument in a cabinet. They both hold each other tightly and wonder what is happening in their flat they have been sty in this flat ever since they came to Kolkata ,they never had even a guy troubling them they lived so peacefully in this society now all of a sudden they have been troubled by some unknown energy .They feel very scared is someone trying to scare them and chase them away from the society .The flat owner stays abroad and they had told them as long as they pay their rent on time , they are not bothered about them staying there.for any number of years.Why would and ghost choose them to trouble ,what have they done to anybody they both talk and then go towards the window and open it to take fresh air , they see in the opposite building there is light on in the rooms , and they wonder why so early morning some one has kept the light on ,they see the balcony door opens and a lady wearing white tunic and trouser combing her shoulder length thick hair coming and standing and looking down ,they feel a chill in their body , they move away from the window and sit down against the wall and after some times slowly they kneel and close the window shut cover the curtains and crawl back to their bedroom they don’t want to stand and walk and be seen by her whoever she was .They sleep under one blanket holding each other and wondering who she might be as they haven ever seen anybody in that flat before. Next day though it is a week off they decide not to step out of the house and just be at home and relax.They also plan how to go and meet the lady of the diary , the decide to apply for a weaks leave and then find out about the lady talk to her and return her diary and then look for a new flat as now they have lost their confidence after seeing the lady in white in their opposite building , they are too scared to keep the window open . They make up a reason to tell their boss that one wants to leave as her brother is getting engaged and so have to go to Mumbai and the other will tell them some problem regarding the family and she has to visit her hometown. They plan to give the leave application the next day itself so that they can put an end to all their problems . The day goes by peacefully. They have copied the address from the diary and have nicely covered it to be given to the owner of the diary.Next day in the office both give their leave application ,it goes to their boss ,he agrees to grant them their leave. They are very happy now they can complete their mission fast. The day their leave starts they first decide to go and search the house of the lady first to get that work done and then spend the rest of the day hunting for a new flat.In the morning they get ready and take the diary and go on their scooter and first they stop at their favourite corner and have their chicken roll as they had not done breakfast..Then they ask the counter fellow for the address he show them the direction of that area they happily go towards that excited to see the couple . they reach the location and check their address but can not see any houses ,Standing there and trying to find out about the exact place.At that point a postman on his cycle crosses them they call out to him to stop.He stops and looks at them irritatedly they apologise for stopping him but they tell him they are searching for the address from long time and who best than him to guide them . He sees the address and gives them a dirty look and tells them are they jobless, don’t they have anything better to do they feel insulted they tell him they have something to be given on that address and they are bank employees .He gets down and tells them to follow him they start the scooter and follow him after ten minutes he signal’s them to stop . He parks his cycle and tells them to do the same and walks through a muddy road with no house in sight . He then points out to a house which was burnt the window , door everything was burnt.He looked at them and said the family lived here four years back , where they stay now , he has no knowledge about it. And he takes their leave as he has lots of work pending . They thank him , and look at each other in disappointment .But as they have come so far they decided to enter the house and see for themselves. They enter very cautiously. They see dogs lying there and a lot of cobwebs the house had nothing left .There were three rooms , the last one was a kitchen and a washroom next probably the bedroom and then the hall .What might have happened on the day her brother and father might have visited her , did they escape the fire and shift from here to another place ,How will they know .When they are seeing around both feel they are not alone suddenly both see the lady in white whom they had seen opposite to their flat . Standing in front of them and looking at them .they both are holding each other and stuck to the wall .The lady is seeing them with her white eyes there was no pupil she had all burnt marks on her fingers and face they could smell her burnt flesh , they are shaking in fright and want to run away they ask her why is she following them ,she tells them it is they who took her with them the diary belongs to her. And they used to disturb her every night by opening her diary , now she wants them to help her and she starts crying they remember the cry from the intercom .They realise they are in deep trouble they have got involved with a ghost .They ask her how can they help her instead she should spare them and they try to escape , she laughs loudly and tells them wherever they go she will follow them till the don’t help her.They ask her what does he want from them.She tells them in a very strange voice which was coming directly from her throat her vocal chores were burnt , they could not comprehend anything they were shaking violently with fear..She told them .She was preparing a elaborate dinner for her brother and father , her husband had come home early and was helping her , then in the evening when all the arrangement was done she got ready and so did her husband ,then they heard the bell ring it was ringing continuously , her husband opened the door she was still in the kitchen . She heard two people talking to her husband , she thought one was her dad and she was about to enter the hall . when her brother came in and started talking to her and asked for a glass of water and took her to the kitchen , she had turned her back to him and was pouring the water from the bottle to a glass and was asking about her father .He said father is coming directly from his office and he has given him the address .and when she is about to turn to give the glass of water she saw he was not in the room but the room was light with fire , she coughs and calls out to her brother and husband but nobody replies she could not see anything as the whole house had caught fire and there was smoke and she only remembers being burnt in that fire and she was alone and could not see sny body and she does not remember anything . So they both have huddled together like a ball in a corner . They ask her what help she wants them to do .She looks at them . with her devilish white eye and tells them she wants to know what happened to her husband and where he is ,she cannot find him. And who did this to her. And until they do not help her she will be with them .They get up and ask her how can they call her to tell about her husband she tells them just open the diary and she will be in front of them .But she will be keeping a watch on them . They both runout of the house holding hands and without looking behind ,the dogs also chase them barking at them , they fall over each other while dodging the dogs , they get hurt but still they don’t stop till they sit on the scooter and start it. They reach home and close the door and keep the diary in a cupboard and lock it. They sit quietly for hours without talking and one by one they take shower and come out .They make tea and drink .They message each other and plan to leave the city and go to their hometown.But after some time they realise they will have to face it and solve the problem and come out of it, as there is no escape the ghost has told them she will be watching them.They slowly go towards the window and hide and see the flat in the opposite building ,they are shocked to see lights on and a figure sitting on the bed and combing her hair. They both cry a lot and go to sleep holding hands. In the morning they have their breakfast and think only way they can get any information about her family is through the police as the house was burnt down and the lady died in the fire and the husband was missing so definitely there be would some information with the police.They feel little better but the problem is what will they tell the police why they want information , they will not give information to just anybody. They decide to tell the police they are from the bank . The couple had taken some loan and the bank has been sending letters for many years and they are not getting any information and so they want to know about their surviving relatives .They feel it is the only way in which they will get some clue.They get ready and go to the police station near the couples house as he the case would have been filed under their jurisdiction.They tell them they have come from the bank and want to know about a very old case .The police is very impressed by the girls and want to help them , they readily go through the files and tell them the case was five years old and it was a murder case .The girls are shocked , the police goes on to say the lady’s brother had visited the couple on a particular evening with his friend and when they entered the house they attacked the husband and he fell unconscious then the brother went inside o the kitchen and poure oil and burnt the sister and then they both dragged the husband and while running away the brother saw to it his sister does not escape he pulled her inside with her hair and poured more oil and aw to it the whole house got burnt and then he and his friend pulled his sister’s husband and threw him in the car and drive away.Meena and Vinita ask the police why the brother killed the the sister the policwe says , he wanted to punish her for eloping with her teacher and bringing shame on the family name ,so when he got her where abouts he planned to destroy her and he took help of his friend .Meena asks the police what they did with her husband where is he ,police tells them they dragged him out of the car and threw him infront of a moving trin so as to make it look like he comtited suicide after burning his wife .So he will not be suspected for the murder.Vinita asks but how was it proved the brother and his friend killed both of them as there was nobody to see them.The police says yes their plan was good ,but the victim’s father who was also invited reached latter , when he got down from his car he saw his son and his friend where beating his daughter’s husband black and blue and later threw him in the car .He hid from them and when the car drew away, he ran towards the house to check on his daughter when he reached there the house was fully on fire and the smoke was reaching the sky he could no go in and search for his daughter.So he called the police and then the fire brigade.when the police arrived with fire brigade and the ambulance they found the whole house had burnt nothing remained and a burnt charred body for a lady was found..The man told it was his daughter and he gave the statement accusing his son who has done this gruesome act as he just saw him running away and dragging his son in law in the car.So when the son was arrested he confessed to the police he hated his sister for marrying a tution teacher and was always waiting for an opportunity to kill her .When he called him for dinner along with his father he took the opportunity and with the help of his friend planned to kill both.He gave a wrong time to his father so he reaches after the act and he will not be a suspect. He confessed after burning down the house along with his sister he and his friend beat his brother in law and took him to a railway track and pushed him in front of the train , and he was killed on the spot .As nobody came to claim the body ,the police cremated the body.Meena asks them to give the name and address of the lady’s father so that the bank can send a letter to him .The police gives them the details .They are more then happy as they have completed most of the work.and now can get rid of the ghost.They thank the police for the cooperation ,but also ask what happened to the brother and his friend .They come to know they are put behind bar for life time . They soon go to the address given to them and come in contact with the lady’s father aftr talking to him and telling him how their daughter’s soul is searching for her husband , only he could give her salvation by telling her soul the whole story.He agrees to go with them to their flat .They reach their flat and remove the diary from the cupboard and show it to her father he touches it and cries .Then both the girls open the diary and start reading ,immediately a wind blows and they can see her standing near the window .They tell her to talk to her father, and ask him the whole story. She sees her father and cries her father can not see her but can hear the voice he is initially too scared and then when Meena holds him he relaxes his daughter tlls him she loves him a lot and also misses her mother , why didn’t he bring her along , her father tell she expired when she heard about her death by burning .The ghost screams loudly she wants to know who did it and where is her husband.The father tells her the whole story as he was the winss to the incidence and also tells her her husband’s body was cremated and now its time for her to go away from this world and not to trouble the innocent girls. She thanks the girls and tells her father to burn the diary in front of her and she will be gone .The girls bring matches and some clarified butter and keep the diary in the middle of the hall, the father pours the butter and lights the fire as the diary catches fire they can see the lady in her original form without burnt marks she smiles at them and the father can also see her one last time she waves out to him and suddenly turns into a smoke and gos out of the window towards the sky and merges with universe.