Girl In The Toilet

Who was the Kidnapper?

There was a big crew of police outside Surender's house. Surender and Janaki were strict and extremely caring parents. They never expected this day was to be faced by them. Their son was missing for more than 48 hours. They waited for a ransom call which never came. Believe me when I say Surender can pay any amount demanded of him. So, they requested for police's help to find their son. They had the default questions in a kid's missing. Was the father abusive? Was the kid angry with the parents for something? Were there any enemies to Surender and Janaki? All these questions did not take the police anywhere. The cyber team started to verify the digital footprint, if any, of the kid. They searched all the public and private CCTVs in the locality, none of the footage gave any clues. The next step was to head to the school. The police asked the teachers many probing questions. They found problems around the school in their probing, but no clue about the missing kid. When the officers were ready to leave, they got help from somewhere they never expected. It was Deepu he volunteered with information about the missing kid.

Deepu went to the police, who were in the headmaster's office, and said, "I know who took him".

Police immediately asked every one of the office staff to leave the room and started to enquire Deepu.

"What do you know?"

"I know who took him and when."

"How do you know?"

"I was with him when this happened. A group of our friends was with him on that night."

"Is it? Tell us who took him?"

"He was taken by a ghost".

The partners in crime

As was everyday happening Shiva and his friends sent out of the class. They loved this part of the school for two reasons. One, they can skip the dreaded history class. Two, they can hear one more of the ghost stories from Shiva. Shiva, Karthik, Sumanth, and Deepu

were all naughty kids. Shiva was their group leader. They just followed Shiva's orders to the tee. Shiva had crazy stories and crazy experiences to share with the group that made all follow him blindly. That day, Shiva asked everyone in the group not to do the homework. As planned, no one did their homework, and all were in the school lobby. Shiva, however, was not yet there. The anticipation started to hit the group. They started discussing what was going

to be the plan for today.

"Maybe a new ghost story", said Sumanth, his foresight.

"It will be a really scary story", predicted Karthik.

"Do the stories have ghosts in it? I like the spooky ghost stories.", expressed Sathya.

Everyone started wondering why Sathya was here. He was not part of their group. Who asked him to be here? If Shiva knows this, he will not be happy. How to tell him to go away? Shiva came in then and asked all to follow him. Deepu, the on-the-face one in the group, asked Sathya not to follow them. Sathya was disappointed but was about to stop when Shiva asked him to follow. The others looked at each other puzzled. Shiva started to talk with Sathya and asked Sathya did he know the place. Sathya nodded a confirmation that he knew it. Others had no clue what Shiva and Sathya were talking about. Sathya, who just came in, started to get all the attention. They suddenly felt orphans in their group. They wanted to quickly know what was so special about Sathya and this place he was talking about. Before they could ask anything, Shiva and Sathya were discussing something else and planning.

"Do you think we can go today?", asked Shiva.

"Today night will be a good time", replied Sathya.

"How far is the place from here."

"It is not far from the school. If we meet here, then we can walk."

"Okay, let us meet here tonight", decided Shiva.

The others were still waiting to know what was going on. Deepu asked Shiva.

"Where are you planning to go?"

"You guy are also coming", said Shiva.

"Where?"

"There is a haunted house on top of the hill we are going there", said Shiva and Sathya in unison.

Karthik dropped the water bottle he had in his hand. Sumanth and Deepu looked at each other. Shiva understood the others were scared.

"Don't worry, there is nothing to be scared about", said Shiva.

"We will not go too close. We can watch the ghost from a distance and come back", added Sathya.

The group discussed the plan and the preparation for the night for the rest of the day. They also should pack a torchlight and wear good shoes. The path they are going to take is going to be bushy and thorny. There is also a possibility of some snakes along the way. The meeting point, as discussed, was the school away from the probing eyes of the night security at 9 PM. The spooky happenings start around 10 PM. By 11:30 at night, the sounds in the area will get very loud. The plan was to head back to their homes by 10:30 PM.

Perpetrator

Sathya moved to a new school in the middle of the academic year. He was in St. Joseph's School the first half of his ninth class. From 1st to 8th he was in a different town. In St. Joseph's, he was not able to make any friends. He feels the reason for him getting bullied was that he had no friends. So, he decided, the first order of business was to make friends. So, he enquired and found Shiva was the guy to make friends with. After a little more inquiry, he found out about the fascination with ghost stories. Luckily for Sathya, his old school had a ghost story that every one of the students knew. The angry girl, haunting the old toilet behind the headmaster's office. The school had a strict rule restricting kids from going near the place. Behind the school was a church and a cemetery. The burning candles and secluded area added to the reasons for believing every story about the toilet and the ghost. Sathya's cousin, who was an old student told him many stories of which the 10 PM sighting of white light and a spooky sound was backed by many in the school. To get the attention of Shiva and join his friends' group Sathya told this story. He even told Shiva that they were to plan and visit one day. He never expected this was to happen that quickly. His cousin too was out of town. Now Sathya has no other option but some miracle to fall. Because he had a strong conviction about ghosts, that there are none.

The sighting of ghost and more

Sathya told his mother he was heading to a friend's house. She was surprised to hear this. But she was happy that Sathya is making friends. He asked him to be careful and come back before 9 PM. She was not aware at that point Sathya's friends were only to meet him at 9 PM. Sathya thought it was better to ask sorry then explain now what they are planning to his mother. Shiva, Karthik, Sumanth, and Deepu reached the vantage point at 9 PM. Sathya was already there. Each one checked their torches and headed to the journey of their life.

They walked through a few roads before coming near the hill. To reach the hilltop, they must walk up the steps. The path had no lights, and the sides of the pathway were covered in trees with no house or light in sight. The torch lights came into action. The path could hold only one at a time. Shiva was the first, followed by Sathya, Deepu, Sumanth with Karthik last in the line. Karthik does not like where they are going. Not just because he was scared, every one of them was scared in some form or other. But with Karthik, he never lied before this to his mother. A few steps and there was a screeching sound. Karthik jumped off the step and was to fall when Deepu caught him. All of them tried to see where the sound came from but could not locate anything. Shiva said, "let us move faster". Karthik moved to the middle and Deepu stood behind as a guard. Now they all picked up the pace to reach the top quickly in fear. They did not realize the irony in the situation, their destination was a ghost house. They almost reached the top when there was a loud thud sound and a metal sound. Sumanth immediately said it could be the girl's anklets. Karthik had his heart in mouth. Deepu quickly pointed his torchlight to the side where the sound was coming from. But he did not see anything. The sound of metal was heard again this time from a different side. Deepu moved his light that side, this time they saw a red-colored dress moving. Karthik shouted it must be the girl's dress. Quickly all ran to the top of the hill and reached the school gate.

"Please, let's go back. The girl was there I am scared", said Karthik.

"Do you understand what you are saying? We have to take the same path back.", said Shiva.

"I don't know that this all became too real."

"The girl's ghost never leaves the toilet in school. It could not be that girl's ghost.", said Shiva.

Sathya was also surprised by the story of Shiva. He never told him that. It could be a ploy by Shiva to give some courage to Karthik. Deepu said, "He does not want to come. Why should we force him? Let us go and come back some other day."

Shiva got angry with the words.

"Whoever wants to go back please go with Deepu and Karthik. I and Sathya, will go and see the ghost. ", said Shiva.

Shiva becoming close to Sathya made the others worry that they are losing him.

"It was not that. We have come this far let us go as a team", said Sumanth in a compromise.

Shiva looked and Sathya as if asking "How to go from here?". They cannot go through the school as the gates were closed. The walls also were too tall to climb. The wall was fitted with broken glass as well, which means they must take the route from the rear side. The entrance through the cemetery. Sathya was about to say, "let us go through rear via." and was stopped mid-sentence by Shiva.

"Show us the way," said Shiva. He does not want Karthik to worry again about hearing about the cemetery.

They reached the cemetery gate around 9:30 PM. Sathya said, "We have to wait another 15 minutes before going any further."

"Why?", asked Deepu.

"The headmistress does some prayers at this time. She will come to the church and walk back via the cemetery to the school."

"You never told headmistress will be here.", asked Deepu. He was a little more comfortable learning there are adults around.

"You never asked me that", replied Sathya.

"Don't take that tone with me," said Deepu.

"I did not take any tone."

Shiva noticed things were going out of hand. He asked Sathya to tell everything he knew about the place. That way they can pass the waiting time, and Deepu will cool down. Sathya started telling others the story of the uniformed girl ghost or whatever little he heard.

There was a girl, Asha, in the school who always came first. All the teachers liked her. When things were looking all good, a new teacher, Veenitha joined the school. She felt the girl was arrogant from getting accolades from everyone. One day she asked Asha to walk to the church and bring some textbooks. Asha was about to start when the teacher asked her to take the path through the cemetery. Asha said she cannot take that route. Asha promised to run fast and bring the book quickly. The teacher insisted that Asha must go through the cemetery. The other students volunteered to go, but she said, "No". The teacher only wanted Asha to go. Reluctantly, Asha brought the book from the church. The next day Asha did not come to school. Veenitha gave a test and failed Asha. Veenitha did the same thing a few more times. The school had a rule if someone fails a subject many times, they lose the seat. Asha was asked to leave the school. Asha begged everyone to stay in the school. But, Veenitha had a lot of power in school administration. They could not do anything. Asha went out crying that day. That night Asha died, and from that day everyone hears the cry of Asha in that toilet. 

"How does anyone know it was Asha?", asked Deepu

"The cries were indistinct, but many heard the words please teacher I don't want to leave this school.", said Sathya.

"Why did she not want to go through the cemetery, that too in the morning."

"Some say it is because the route had a security guard who shouted at the kids. Some said her religion did not allow them to go to a cemetery. "

That was when Shiva noticed someone going through the cemetery. The person was wearing a black and white gown. It was the headmaster. She had a candle in her hand and was walking towards the school. Till that all happened exactly as Sathya told them. The next step was what they did not see happening. The headmaster walked towards the back of school instead of heading to her house on the school campus. They all followed behind her to see where she was going. She walked for a few more minutes and stopped. Sathya realized where they were. He never planned to come this close. He forcefully stopped everyone and signaled to come back. Shiva stopped and signaled to ask, "What?". He cannot tell him that was the toilet he was talking about without being heard by the headmaster. He was not very good at dumb charades to signal that out. The time hit 10 PM, and the crying started. Karthik and Sumanth got scared by the sound and almost shrieked. Shiva and Deepu realized what their mistake was. They ran from there holding Karthik and Sumanth respectively. Sathya, who had no belief in ghosts, was confused by the sound. He came all this way promising to show the others a ghost. But that sound was something unexpected and scary. He lost his sense of what was going on and remained there. Shiva, Karthik, Sumanth, and Deepu ran fast and were now watching what was going on from the cemetery. Their eyes were fixed on the headmaster and what she was doing. The headmaster kept her light down and was dragging something out. They could not hear from that far what she was talking about. They could only see her actions. She was looking inside that room and asking something to come out. Her actions felt as if she was dragging something out, holding a long chain. But they could not see the chain or thread. A few more drags and they saw a white light coming out of the room. They could not believe their eyes. The cry was back again. "Please... madam.. please...". She was dragging harder now. The boys could only see the light nothing else. Everyone was scared event to peep a sound. Suddenly Karthik felt something. The light started to take shape. It now started to look like a girl. Deepu, Sumanth, and Shiva saw the image. They don't know what they were looking at, but in their mind, it was a ghost. The girl's ghost started to cry louder as she was moving away from the room. She was crying again and again, "No". The headmaster was dragging the girl out of the room. Suddenly there was a big shrieking sound. The headmaster started to fall and was being dragged. They felt the girl wants to go back now. They were all transfixed by this. Karthik was more scared than excited, but he could not take off his eyes from the light. That was when the head started to turn. It was turning to see something. The head of the shape turned towards them. Shiva, Sumanth, and Deepu quickly hid behind the cemetery wall. Karthik was scared beyond words, he could not move, and his mind wanted to scream. But, the sound in him and the courage both evaporated when seeing that ghost. Shiva quickly pulled Karthik by his hand. A few seconds passed before they noticed Sathya was missing.

Deepu quickly wanted to peek and check for Sathya. But Shiva stopped him. He cannot let Deepu also to take a risk. After a few more seconds, both Shiva and Deepu slowly peeked from under the wall. The light was no longer there where it was earlier. Suddenly they heard another sound this time it was from a boy, Sathya. Sathya was shrieking. When they turned towards the sound of Sathya, they noticed the light hanging on top of Sathya. The headmaster was on the floor and was not moving. Sumanth said, "The ghost killed the headmaster. It will kill Sathya too."

Shiva asked Karthik to be silent. Sathya too was no longer shouting. They could not see Sathya anymore. They looked around to find him. They could not find him, was it due to the dark or the trees they were not sure. Deepu said he was going back to search for Sathya. Shiva said, "Don't be stupid."

Deepu did not hear what Shiva had to say and turned when suddenly they felt the ghost behind them. Karthik finally got his lungs back and shouted out loud. A few seconds passed before realizing it was not the ghost but the light from one of their torchlights. Deepu got up and started to walk when Shiva noticed the ghost again. This time the light was for real. It was moving to the other side of the cemetery. Shiva and Deepu slowly followed the ghost without getting too close. Karthik and Sumanth stayed back.

Shiva saw the light cross the cemetery cross the church doors and head to the library behind it. Shiva and Deepu reached the library door. The door was closed. They could not see the ghost anymore, they continued walking around the library searching for Sathya. Thud, there was a big sound. As was the instinct Shiva and Deepu ran the opposite side of the sound. Now Shiva too was scared. Deepu was scared, but he was worried about Sathya more. Deepu heard Sathya's voice once again. He was shouting for help. He started to move towards the sound, Shiva followed him reluctantly. A few steps forward, they saw the light, the ghost. Shiva and Deepu stopped. The ghost seemed to head towards them. They waited to confirm if it was real or another light reflection. The ghost got a big mouth, and it shrieked and showed them a scary face. Even then Deepu did not move his only goal was to find Sathya. The ghost shouted out loud one more time and started to move towards them. Shiva turned around and started to run. The ghost too was chasing them fast, Deepu had no more courage left, and he started running and caught up to Shiva. They saw a door of the church open, possibly left open by the headmaster, and hid inside. They saw the ghost going past the window of the church a few times.

After waiting for another half hour and not seeing the ghost anymore, they came out. Shiva was heading towards the cemetery to meet Karthik and Sumanth and leave. Deepu walked the other side to find Sathya. Shiva tried to stop him, but he did not listen to Shiva and headed to where he heard Sathya the last. He wanted to call out "Sathya". But he was worried that he might be giving away his position. He too was now fully scared. One more sighting of the ghost or whatever that was, he cannot take it. Luckily for him, there were no sounds anymore. After a few more rounds around the library, he went back to the cemetery. The others, even though scared, were waiting for him. Deepu still was not ready to go away. He said he was to do a final search near the school toilet. Karthik thought Deepu had gone mad. Deepu did not wait for permission and walked to the toilet. The others were watching Deepu from the cemetery. Five minutes later, Deepu came back to where his friends were.

"Did you find Sathya?" asked Sumanth.

"No."

"Did you see the ghost again?", asked Shiva.

"No".

"What did you see?"

"The room was locked. There was no headmaster or her candle. I could not see anything there. "

"Is that all?", asked Karthik.

They all decided to leave and go to their homes. The next day at school, it was agreed between them to stick to the same word. "They don't know what happened to Sathya." But Deepu felt guilty and told everything to the police.

The search for the ghost

The police went to the school and told the story to the headmaster. Deepu who came with the police was surprised to see the headmaster alive. She laughed at the police's story. She said it was all a hokum. The headmaster told Sathya to hear some stories in the school and believed them. It all was gossiping by the students. No student died or anything of that sort. Police asked about the story, Deepu said about seeing the headmaster walking at night.

"I go to the church at night to offer my prayers. They could have seen me but after that, whatever they said is a crazy story."

"Why should we lie?" said Deepu.

"Maybe for your friend Sathya. We let him go. He must be angry."

"But he left on his own accord. Why should he be angry?"

"That was what he wants others to believe."

The police had no reason to doubt what the headmaster was saying. Deepu, however, wanted to see the room and check for himself. With no other clues, the police wanted the headmaster to take them to the room. They did not believe there was a ghost or anything. But it could be possible one of the kids locked Sathya inside the room. They told their theory to the headmaster in private. She agreed and opened the room. To Deepu's surprise, there was nothing. The room was not being used, so it was damaged and was in a bad shape. Deepu wanted to ask why it was not used. But police stopped him for any other inquiries.

Deepu was not giving up. He requested the police to search the school, library, and church. The headmaster was readily agreeing. They searched all over. After searching for hours, they found a cloth lying in a corner on the library floor. They started to enquire and found the dhoti belonged to a priest. The priest lives a few blocks from there and comes occasionally to the library. They went to his house and to their luck Sathya too. They arrested the priest. Sathya was taken from there and dropped at his home.

The police came to the school after a few days. The police told the school the priest was innocent. The priest found Sathya, fainted in the library, and took him to his home. It took a few days for Sathya to come to consciousness. Before we went and arrested him, he was coming to drop Sathya at his home. That day Sathya was back in school. Deepu and Shiva asked him about everything. Sathya said, "I did not know what happened the two days. But the priest gave him food and asked me for my address to drop me. I told the same to the police."

When everyone thought things are back to normal Deepu asked, "Do you want to go back and know what happened?".

Karthik shouted, "No".

Everyone agreed they were not going back. But only Sathya and Deepu know they were going back.

P.S.: Sathya and Deepu head to the school one more time. They see the exact scene again. The white light being dragged out of the room. The cry and everything. The only change was that the priest was there with the headmaster this time. They made sure the ghost does not see them this time. But they decided they will come back one day to find and catch all the culprits in this case.