The Encounter

It is said they when we go by the law that “every action has an equal and opposite reaction”, then we might have to believe that there exists some negative energy to balance the positive energy around us. Most of us would have heard of terrifying ghost stories from someone at some point of time. But at times, it becomes hard to believe such stories until and unless one encounters such incidents in real life.

This story deals in the same situation. There was a 9-year-old charming, bubbly and cute girl called Rukku living in Gurgaon, Haryana. She was intelligent, active and more matured than other girls of her age. She was the youngest in the family, so she was quite pampered. Her elder brother was working in an office at Gurgaon itself. Her mother was a house maker. Her father was working in a govt job and used to travel a lot due to his postings at different places. Rukku loved his transferable job as she enjoyed different remote places, its culture and traditions. One day she was playing piano and no one was at home during the day. Mother had gone out to buy some fruits and vegetables and her father and brother had gone to their office. She was all alone by herself at home. So to kill her boredom, she started playing the tune of “hundred miles”. At that time someone knocked at the door.

She opened the wooden door but the second door with the front net. She looked at the man with big red eyes, wrinkled face, thin skin and wearing lot of colorful necklaces made of beads, having a beard and long unkempt hair. He was smoking a chillum. She didn’t like his scary face and before she could ask him the purpose of coming, he left the place murmuring some words she could not understand. She shut the door. She got disturbed and started thinking about him. When after an hour her mother returned, she told her about that man. Her mother panicked and instructed her not to open the door when she is alone. With time she forgot this incident.

After few months, she came to know that they would be shifting to Jharkhand as her father got the news of new posting. They packed the stuff and three of them were ready to move. The brother was supposed to stay back as it was his new job. They reserved the first class coach of the train and boarded the train on the due date. She sat near the window and enjoyed the open green fields outside on the way. As the night approached, nothing was visible except some road lights passing by. She felt sleepy, so after having her dinner she shifted to the upper berth and her mother and father were at the lower berth. In that compartment, there was no other person. Suddenly around midnight the light went off and the compartment was full of darkness. The train was running at full speed. It started drizzling with light thunderstorms outside. The train was passing through the jungle. She kept on sleeping but after few minutes, she felt as if someone was tickling her. She felt the coldness in that warm night. When a ray of light passed through the open window, she noticed a strange looking face near her berth. But in the second moment, no one was there. This tickling kept on for 2-3 hours. But as it was 4am in the morning, she saw no one. She was a brave girl hence she did not utter a single word regarding this to her mother as she believed in super natural things.

In the evening they reached their destination. They got down and hired a taxi and went to a hotel as the govt quarter given to them needed a whitewash. So for two days, they stayed in the hotel. They enjoyed the weather and the greenery over there. On the third day, they entered in the govt quarter which was at the end of the lane. Leading ahead was a deep forest area. It had lot of greenery around with huge trees Gulmohar, Neem and Laburnum blooming with red and yellow flowers. Everyone loved that peaceful and calm area. They started arranging their things in their rooms. Out of 5 rooms, 4 were used as the fifth room facing the forest was having broken furniture, some old suitcases, a tool box and few old toys dumped in. so the 4 rooms were sufficient for them. They settled down soon and her father joined his office after a week. There was no one nearby as the next two houses were vacant. One day Rukku opened the 5th room out of curiosity just to see what was lying there. She found a red old ball there. She liked it and brought it along with her. She played with it and at night after dinner, she hid the ball in her bucket of toys.

That night was a nightmare of her life. When she was in deep sleep, she heard some voices of a child in her ears. She got up and saw there was no one in the room. She again slept but after sometime the same voice uttered some words and she found the red ball was on her bed. She thought she may have kept it on the bed by mistake. But the story didn’t end here. When she again tried to sleep, she felt that someone was lying next to her on her bed. She gathered her courage and strength and turned her face to see what that was. She literally shrieked as a mutilated body of a child was lying there. Blood was oozing out of his head. It was a boy of her age. She requested her to help him. She got freezed and was unable to move out of her bed. She closed her eyes out of fear. After few seconds she opened her eyes and found no one there. Even her bed was clean. She pinched herself to feel that she was not dreaming. She didn’t tell this to her mother thinking of it to be a bad dream.

This continues for many days. Her health started deteriorating. She looked pale and sick. During the day she used to sleep all the time but no one knew that she has encountered the presence of a dead child. She felt as if her body and mind was being controlled by the spirit of that boy. But now she was used to it. He didn’t harm her. He used to play with her and requested her to help. She wanted to get rid of him so she got ready. She wanted to know what had happened with him. The boy told her that he was Raunak Gupta and was the only son of his parents. His parents were rich and well known in their locality. His father’s business was at the peak and his competitors were jealous of him. One of his close uncles was also in the same business. He knew very well that his father had made his will in Raunak’s name. He wanted his father to join hands with him as a partner but his father was not interested. He belonged to Madhya Pradesh. One day, when he had gone to school, he got the news that his parents died in a car accident. Now he was left alone. His so called uncle took charge of him and his father’s business. He didn’t treat him well. He used to drink a lot and one day he was heavily drunk and said that he had killed his parents in so called car accident. And one day he would kill Raunak also to grab his property. Raunak heard this and got scared of him.

One dark night, he took Raunak for a long car drive on the pretext of buying some balls for him. And later he pushed him down from a hill. He died on the spot and no one could know who he was. Then the uncle moved to Jharkhand. As his last rites were not done, his spirit kept wandering. He wanted his uncle to be punished for his sins and his funeral rites to be performed. Rukku told him that even if she wanted, no one would believe this. Then he said that  he could take her to his uncles house and the body which was lying at a place. Then he said that he rests in that red ball with which she was playing. The reason was that on the pretext of buying this red ball, his uncle took him for a ride and the ball was with him when he died. This house where Rukku’s family was staying then belongs to uncle and he had dumped the ball after his death in this fifth room. No one helped him but when Rukku played with it, Raunak thought that she could help him.

Next morning, at the time of her breakfast she told about Raunak to her parents. Her mother got scared and wanted to leave the house within a day. But Rukku requested her to encounter the presence of Raunak in the ball at night to believe in all this. That day her father did not go to his office. He stayed with her. Around midnight, the ball jumped on her bed. Rukku requested him to make her parents know the truth. He became visible to them. Rukku’s mother closed her eyes on seeing the boy’s body. The boy told them his uncle’s address. Rukku’s father took help of the police to re-open the case of Raunak’s death. First they laughed but later they caught hold of his uncle at the given address. After the 3rd degree torture given to him, he opened his mouth and accepted that he had killed his parents and him. He also showed the place where he had dumped his body deep in the forest next to his house. When the body was recovered, his last rites were performed. The uncle was sent to jail for murder. That night Rukku and her parents were sitting in that room and prayed for Raunak’s peaceful departure for his heavenly abode. Raunak appeared at midnight and he looked cheerful and happy. He said final goodbye and thanked Rukku for her help. He gifted that red ball to her as a gift from his side. After this, he vanished and never returned. All lived there peacefully for the next 2 years till the next posting of Rukku’s father to Dehradun.