Room No.7

Love and trust are two important things one should have in any kind of relationship, especially in between a couple. It is rust only that makes a relationship strong and long-lasting and happy. On the other hand, if there is no trust between the couple, then even small factors can create rift and dissension among them, suspicion and doubt creeps in and causes a lot of problems in marital life. That is why it is most important to have trust and love bonds strong in marital life. Otherwise, a hint of doubt can destroy a happily married couple, and not just have fatal consequences for themselves in this life but also,  can be dangerous for others as it happened in the following story.

Anurag and Preeti were a newly married couple and had gone to a hill station for their honeymoon. There they were looking for a hotel to check into but unfortunately, most of the hotels were booked due to tourist season so they were not getting any success. So they kept on asking from one place to another and also silently cursing themselves for not having booked the hotel early on when Preeti suddenly said that “Is there a Moon Ridge Hotel nearby?”, which surprised Anurag and the locals whom he was asking about a place to stay that she had not come here before, then how can she know of such a place?.

When Preeti asked nonchalantly replied that “I must have heard it from someone but let’s go and find out that if there is any room left or not?” The locals told them where the place was and after 15 mins walking distance they were glad that they might get a place here. Here also they were disappointed at first as the manager at the front desk told them that there were no rooms, but when he looked at their forlorn and gloomy faces, he again checked and said that there was a room no.7 which has been empty for quite some time and if they want they can check into that. Hearing about the room no, the other members of the hotel grew a bit pale and wanted to stop the manager from offering the couple the room but, he paid no attention to them and completed all the formalities with them and with a big smile, wished them well. Even the porter was a bit hesitant to bring the couple’s luggage into the room and said that “Sahib I will leave the luggage outside and you can take it in and I am sorry I won’t be able to come to the room as I have other work”.

 This seemed strange to both Anurag andPreeti as porters wait eagerly for a tip and this guy did not even take a tip and hurried off as if he has seen something frightening. Anyways as both of them were dead tired and wanted to rest so they did not pay much attention to it and went to the room. As soon as they entered the room, Preeti had a strange feeling and said that “I have been here before and they have changed anything in this room”, this again surprised Anurag and he asked that “Preeti, why didn’t you tell me that you have been here before and we could have gone to another place?” Hearing this Preeti gets out of her reverie and says  “what are you saying, I have never been here and anyways I am dead tired”.

Anurag is both surprised and confused by Preeti’s sudden change in behaviour, but, chose to ignore it and gets ready to freshen up a bit. As Preeti is in the washroom freshening, she suddenly feels that someone is watching her and she screams loudly which startles Anurag and he rushes in and asks “what’s the matter”. Preeti tells him that there is a man who is watching her taking a bath which makes Anurag alert and he checks out the windows and finds that they are four stories up, so there can be no one possibly so tall from the ground. He even jokingly taunts Preeti that “ We are on the fourth floor and either some has to be abnormally tall to peek in through the window or someone was floating in the air; that is to say that it had to be a ghost who is so enamoured of her beauty that it has decided to pay her a visit”. Hearing this Preeti gets annoyed that she stomps out of the room leaving Anurag feeling guilty, but then he regrets having made fun of her and apologises to her and she readily accepts his apology and they quickly make up again.

 As time passes in the room and they are slowly settling down on their first day, Preeti has a continuous nagging feeling that someone or something is watching her. She even tries to tell this to Anurag but feels that he will again make fun of her so she keeps to herself about this. During dinner, they go out for dinner where they meet another couple and after introductions settle for dinner and during that time  when the couple asks about them “ in which room are you staying in?” Anurag tells them that they are staying in room no.7. It is here that the couple suddenly gave a glance at each other. This seemed pretty odd to both Anurag and Preeti. Anyways after dinner both Anurag and Preeti are dead tired and they just fell on the bed and went into a deep sleep soon afterwards.

It was somewhere half past midnight when Anurag suddenly gets awakened by his wife’s screaming which both terrifies him and also he cannot believe what he sees in front of him. Preeti is floating in the air and she is screaming that “someone please help me….. he will kill me”. When Anurag quickly tries to jump pull his wife down, he is pushed aside so violently that he falls to the ground so far and knocks him unconscious. All this while, Preeti is screaming for help. After some time when he regains consciousness, he finds that he was surrounded by people and Preeti is soundly sleeping on the bed, he quickly rushes to the bed to check whether she is okay or not, as he touches her he feels that she is not breathing and there is no pulse. The doctor is called and he declares her she has died dead due to a massive heart attack. Anurag is so stunned upon hearing this that he is unable to say anything for a few seconds and then exclaims that “how can this be possible?” As she was hail and hearty." Also, she had no physical problems or any heart condition. He then recounts to the Hotel manager and the police and everybody present that what had happened.

Although the police don’t believe him and the doctor is also a skeptic on these things, but, the Hotel manager says that “That’s why we don’t give this room to anyone, as 5-6 years ago another couple had come to stay in the same room for their honeymoon, where the husband was of such a suspicious nature that his poor wife used to suffer a lot because of him which was even evident to the hotel management staff for the time being they were there. Then one day the husband in a fit of doubt and rage killed his wife and later jumped from the window to his death”, from that day onwards, the manager says that they don’t give this room to anyone as few people have experienced strange things but nothing this dangerous”. When

Anurag asks that "why wasn't I told about this?" Also, why did the Assistant manager give them the room, the manager apologises and says that the assistant is pretty new to the job and did not know about this.

Anyways still grieving Anurag decides to find out about this couple and asks for the address of this previous couple who had stayed here in the same room from the Hotel Management and to find the root cause of this tragedy that had befallen him. So he finds that this couple also Naveen andSheila used to stay in a big city and work in a big firm and they had also come for their honeymoon to the same hotel. During the investigation, Anurag finds out that though Naveen used to dearly love his wife Sheila but was also a bit of a suspicious nature. That is why he was a bit hesitant in completely trusting his wife and used to follow her to her office and check with whom she was talking,  even used to cast suspicion on his neighbours if he spotted them talking to her jovially, to make matters worse whenever Sheila used to go to her house after marriage to meet her parents and brothers, he even used to follow her there and check whether truly she was at her house or not.

This had been almost a daily routine according to Sheila’s parents when asked by Anurag during his investigation and this had also been very annoying for her family to see that their lovely daughter suffering silently due to the suspicious nature of her husband. So they had planned this honeymoon trip for them so they could spend some time together and sort out all the doubts and come back as a happy couple. But destiny had chosen something else, when Anurag went to Naveen’s place, there also his parents said the same thing that Naveen was also unnecessarily of suspicious nature about his wife’s comings and goings and always tried to control her and dominate and poor Sheila used to put up with him as she loved him so much. Anurag finds out that Naveen was like this even before his marriage and his family was really very sick and tired of his nature and were hopeful that he would change after marriage, but unfortunately, that did not happen and something else, something fatal took place because of his behaviour which resulted in this tragedy and which in turn affected Anurag and Preeti’s lives also.

One day when Anurag asked for a photograph of Naveen and Sheila, he was both stunned and shock to see the photos as Sheila looked very similar to Preeti in every way, even her smile was like Sheila’s. 

It is then Anurag understood that why did Preeti say that she had been there earlier in that hotel, and also, why she was so afraid

in the room and why she said that someone was watching her. It was because Naveen’s malevolent spirit thought that Sheila had somehow survived and remarried and had come to the same hotel and to the same room to tease him.

 

Although knowing all this did not bring Preeti back but it somehow gave Anurag some kind of solace that he had loved his wife dearly and she also loved him dearly and now she is in a better place. Time passes by and after two long years, Anurag with a few of his friends again visits the same hotel. Where the manager recognises him immediately and said that room no.7 has been permanently sealed and no one is even allowed to go near it even in daylight. This makes Anurag sadder and he decides to write upon his own experiences and also spread the message that “Without Love and Trust, you cannot have any kind of relationship”.