The Haunted Treasure

Dr. Rajat who was an archaeologist, told his friends, "I have a plan to be rich. All you have to do is to take some risk and spend some days in the natural beauty of Satpura valley."

Mahmood, who was an artisan and has always short of money, said "What the hell will we do going there?" 

Prakash, who was a salesman said, "he thinks that there are trees laden with money or a mine of diamonds or a hidden treasure in the Satpura, go and gather."

Rajat said, "Prakash, you are right. There is a treasure hidden around a village named Khamla in the deep forest of Satpura. This treasure worth millions. I am going to Satpura in search of the treasure. If you are interested, you are welcome."

Two other friends named Vishal and Abraham are Adventurous and greedy by nature. Vishal is an unemployed man having nothing to do and Abraham is a teacher in primary school. Both of them were ready for the sake of adventure and money.

Prakash and Mahmood thought and discussed for a while and then got ready to go with Rajat. All the friends were ready on the condition that Ranat will carry all the expenditure in this treasure hunting. 

They spent their next two days purchasing necessary equipment and tools. 

Next day, they started early in the morning by two cars and after a journey of about six hours, they reached Amarpur, a small and beautiful town in the valley of the Satpura mountain range. They took lunch here in a small restaurant. Then they visited an old and famous temple. Here Rajat and Prakash prayed to God. Rajat asked the priest for the way to village Khamla. The priest told him that the village was about forty miles away at the foot of a hill. He informed that the way to the village is rough and they had to start early to reach the village before dark. They set off immediately after taking tea from a nearby read vendor. 

The way to Khamla was rough, narrow and full of potholes. They had to drive slowly and it took them about two hours to cover the distance. They reached Khamla by the evening. It was a small village of about a hundred small houses and huts. Surround by a thick forest and the hill behind the village was a small and beautiful village.

When they reached the village, some stray dogs began to bark and run behind the car. The children who were playing in the streets began to running behind the car. Rajat asked a passing by villager the address of the headman of the village. The house of headman was at the end of the next streets. His name was Ramlal. He was at home at that time. He was a man of age about fifty years. He asked them the reason for coming to the village. 

Rajat told him that they had come in search of a hidden treasure. And the treasure was hidden somewhere in the dense forest around the Khamla. The headman listened to him attentively and then asked, "who told you that there is a treasure hidden in the forest?"

Rajat said, "I am an archaeologist. I read about this treasure in an old scripture. And I have some clues that tell the presence of treasure somewhere in this forest."

The headman was not a well-educated person and didn't know the meaning of archaeology and who was the archaeologist, neither was interested in knowing the meaning of this word. To him, Rajat was an interested person. He thought for a while and then said, "some people had come to this forest in search of treasure years ago and nobody knows what happened to them. This forest is a dangerous one and filled with all types of animals and other dangers. I will not advise you to go to such a forest and that for such a nonsense work."

Saying so he began to smoke a cheap cigarette.

Mahmood said to the headman, "do you know any man in the village who was able to guide us in the forest." 

Headman looked at him and thought for some moments and then said, "there is a man who often goes to deep forest to collect forest products and for hunting. He can help you people. His name is Premlal. He lives on the next street. You can meet him tomorrow but he would not like to take much risk for you. Nobody would take the risk for this rubbish work."

Headman looked at them for a moment and then asked "where will you people spend the night?" 

The headman didn't wait for their answer and said, "there is an empty hut behind this house. You can spend your night there." 

They spent the night in the hut. The hut was big enough to accommodate all of them. 

The next morning they met Premlal who was about thirty-five years old man. At first, he refused to be their guide in the forest. When Rajat offer a handsome amount of money to him, he got ready to become their guide. He was a greedy and poor man. Rajat gave him some money in advance to buy some necessary things for him. They spent the day in the village as a guest of Premlal. 

    The next day they began their search for the treasure early morning. They entered the forest on foot leaving behind their cars in the village. 

Premlal told them there was a cave on the hill. Hearing this Prakash suggested, "we should climb up to the cave and looked in for the treasure. There may be treasure in the cave. Mahmood and Abraham supported this idea for they were fond of mountaineering and they had a chance to enjoy climbing. So they began climbing up the hill. The hill had a gradient not so sharp. It helped them to climb with no much difficulty. The hill was covered with the trees, thickets, and vines through which they had to make their way. They had to cut down the vines and thickets to make their way. They took about two hours to reach the cave. The entrance was wise enough to allow one person to enter at a time. Rajat allowed around in the light of his pocket torch in the cave and saw a long and narrow passage as far as the light went. Being curious he entered the cave. Prakash, too, entered the cave behind Rajat. Rajat was observing the walls and roof of the passage and he found nothing special there. They walked about fifty meters. Then the passage opened into a big chamber of size about Twenty feet long and fifteen feet wide. The height of the chamber was about three meters. They carefully observed the chamber for any trace of treasure. On a corner of the chamber, Rajat saw a small statue of a deity of a tribe and some writings in an old script and a small map on the wall. He went to that corner and threw the light on the writing. He knew how to read this old script. He read the inscription. It said that "there is another hills some miles away from the cave and on this hill there is a cave of death. Don't try to enter that cave." He copied the map on his notebook.

Reading this inscription, Rajat got excited and happy. He took the photograph of the inscription and told Prakash about it. Both came out of the cave immediately.

Coming out of the cave, Rajat said to his other fellows, " I have got a clue to the treasure. We are going to be rich. Hearing this all got happy. Premlal told them there were three hills about twenty five miles to twenty miles away into the deep forest but he had never gone to those hills. The forest was full of wildlife. 

Hearing this Abraham said, "we have guns for those animals." 

They decided to go to these hills. The forest ahead was dense. Sometimes they had to make their way through thickets and trees by cutting them down. After walking for two hours they stopped at a water stream. Here they took bath and cooked their lunch. After their lunch, they take some rest and then proceeded further. 

After walking about two hours they reached a spot where there was fewer vegetation than the rest of the forest. It was four o'clock and they decided to camp and spent the night here. They set up the camp and collected woods to lit the fire. When they prepared the meal, the sun was about to set. 

After dinner, they were enjoying the tea sitting around the campfire. A cool breeze was blowing and the sky was clear. The moon was spreading moonlight. 

They went to sleep at about nine o'clock. Vishal was guarding the camp. He had a pistol to use if the situation arises. He was sitting near the campfire, to keep the sleep away from his eyes, he was reading a novel. There was no sound in the forest except the noises made by insects. All of a sudden, Vishal felt that some insects were crawling on his leg, before he could remove the insects, he felt a chill in his legs and the next moment he felt as if hundreds of insects were crawling on his body. And then thousand of needles pierced his body. Next moment he was writhing and crying for help. Hearing his cries, Rajat, Prakash, Mahmood, and Abraham rushed out to see what was happening. What they saw out was scary enough to send a chill down their spine. They found Vishal covered with hundreds of centipedes. Centipedes were biting and nibbling his body. Seeing this scene they got petrified. It was Premlal who took the initiative he took a burning wood from the campfire and with the help of this burning wood he began to burn away the centipedes. Abraham fetched a blanket from the camp and began to rub Vishal's body with the blanket to remove centipedes from his body. 

Somehow they managed to remove centipedes from the body of Vishal. But it was too late. Centipedes had already removed a large part of his skin from his legs, hand, and other parts of the body. He was writhing and crying with pain. They could not do anything more than giving him first aid but first aid was not sufficient. He succumbed to wounds in the morning. 

Seeing the plight of Vishal, Premlal decided to go back to the village. He said to Rajat that he did not want to die like Vishal. Rajat tried to make him understand but he didn't listen to him and run away from the camp. 

They dug the earth and buried the dead body of Vishal. They pray for him. 

After the horrific death of Vishal, returning to their homes was the best option for them but it was their greed that made them proceed further in search of treasure. 

Rajat, Abraham, Prakash, and Mehmood studied the map and found that the hills are still about fifteen miles away. 

Prakash said, "the hills are only fifteen miles away. We will easily cover this distance by tomorrow. Let's move. 

They moved forwards carefully through the dense forest towards the hills. They were watching their every step. After walking for about three hours, they came across a water stream. Here they took a bath one by one and prepared their meal. After taking the meal they started again. They wanted to cover more and more distance before sunset. 

When they were passing under a canopy of trees, all of a sudden, something like a long and thick rope drop on Prakash's head, and within an instant, it tightened on Prakash's body and began to suffocate him. It was a python. 

Now Prakash was on the ground with python. The python was tightening its grip on Prakash instant by instant. But with a long knife in hand, Rajat was ready to take action on any such type of incident. Without wasting a second he began to stab the python. Seeing this Mahmood too brought out his knife and began to stab the python. Within seconds the grip of it on Prakash began to loosen. They kept on stabbing the Python till it dies. Prakash was petrified with fear. It took him several minutes to recover. He had never seen such a big python in his life. It was about ten feet long. 

Mahmood unexpectedly took out a bottle of wine from his bag and said, "let's enjoy the hunting of python." Enjoy was just an excuse. They were trying to lessen the fear and pain. 

After taking two shots of wine, Rajat said, "it is a matter of a few kilometers and some problems. After this, we will get the treasure."

All were agreed with him. They walked towards the hills for another hour and reached a place that was suitable for their camp. They decided to stay here and spend the night. They could see hills from this place. Now the hills were not more than five or six kilometers. They were near the destination. They set their camp and cook their meal. After taking their meal, they gathered around the campfire. They were alert with their weapons on hand to take action on any danger. They took a sleep in turn. Mahmood was on watch duty. All others went to sleep in camp and soon they plunged into a deep sleep. 

Rajat was dreaming. He saw in his dream that some shadows were calling him to the hill. He saw himself entering a deep and dark cave and after entering the cave found himself unable to come out of the cave. He got afraid and he awoke. He found Abraham and Prakash already awoken. Before they could talk to one another, they heard two gunshots one after another. They rushed out and found Mahmood standing beyond the campfire. Rajat shouted, "what happened?"

Mahmood said, "I heard a growling sound, and when I looked at the direction of growling, I found two glowing eyes behind that thicket. I took no risk and fired my revolver. 

It was twelve by their watches. Rajat took his turn to guard. Abraham stayed with him. Abraham told him that he was not in the mood of sleeping and he would like to accompany him. Mahmood and Prakash went to sleep.

Rajat told him about his dream. Hearing this Abraham got surprised and told him that he also dreamt the same dream. 

The rest of their night passed peacefully. In the morning after taking tea, they proceeded to the hills. 

Rajat felt that someone was calling them. He was feeling a strong desire to reach that hills as soon as possible. They were now passing along the water stream coming down from the hills. The cool breeze was blowing and the sun was behind a big chunk of clouds. All of a sudden, they heard a rustling noise. They draw their weapons immediately and looked around to find the direction from where the noise coming. they again heard rustling. Prakash looked up but too late. A leopard hid in the foliage of a tree pounce on him. Next instant, the leopard pierced its teeth into his neck and began to drag him away into thickets. Prakash got unconscious. Rajat, Abraham, and Mahmood got so shocked at this sudden attack that they could not move an inch for some moments. It was Abraham who recovered first from the shock and fired at a shot with shaking hands. The shot was misfired. Then another shot by Rajat and the shot hit the leopard on the chest and leopard fall on the ground and the blood was gushing out from it. The leopard was dead within the next few moments. They rushed to Prakash, blood was oozing from his neck. The wounds were deep and fatal. Rajat felt his pulse. No hope to save. Prakash was dead within the next minute. Seeing the dead body of Prakash, tears came to their eyes. 

Despite the death of Pradeep, it did not come to their mind that they should return to their home. No one knows whether it was their greed or something else which force them to proceed further in search of the treasure. There was only one thing in their mind - get the treasure as soon as possible. They didn't care about the dead body of Prakash. Leaving the dead body behind they move forward towards the hills. After walking for about three hours along the water stream, they reached the foot of the hills. Rajat began to look at these hills through his binoculars and soon he found an entrance amidst the rocks and thickets on the biggest of the three hills.

He said, " this must be the entrance to the hidden treasure." And he gave binoculars to Abraham. 

They took a bath in the water stream and took their meal. After taking some rest they began to climb up to the entrance of the cave. They took about an hour to reach the entrance of the cave. The entrance was about five feet in height and about two feet in width. 

First Rajat entered the entrance and he could not see anything beyond some feet due to the dark. He lit the torch and asked others to come in. They moved forward on the narrow and dark corridor of the cave. The corridor got narrower as they moved forward and it got so narrow that they had to get down on all fours to move forward. And then the corridor opened into a big chamber. The floor of the chamber was uneven and filled with small stones and dust. In the light of torches, they saw the rough walls and rough ceiling of the chamber. The chamber was about twenty meters long and fifteen meters wide. All of a sudden Mehmood's eyes fall on a corner. It seemed to him as if someone were sitting there. He got afraid and shout, "who is there?" Taking the knife in his hands, he moved towards that corner. Rajat and Abraham also went behind him. They found a skeleton there in a sitting position. Some tools were lying around it. The mouth of the skeleton was open wide. Looked at the skeleton for some moments and then said, "this person might have died of a painful death. 

All of a sudden they heard the sound of rattling. This sound made them spring from the ground. A chill went down their spine. They looked around on the floor and found nothing. But the rattling sound was still coming. All of a sudden Abraham felt something chilly crept around his waist and the next instant he began to cry with sharp pain. Rajat saw in the light of his torch a snake running down from Abraham's waist. He immediately sprang away from the spot. The snake was moving towards him. Here Mahmood came into action. He picked a big stone and rushed to the snake and throw it on the snake. The stone hurt the snake badly and the snake began to writhe. It gave a chance to Rajat to attack. He picked a stone and began to strike the snake with stone. They stoned the snake to death. 

Abraham was crying with pain. The snake was poisonous. He got paralyzed due to poison. Within minutes he died of snake poison. 

They felt no regret at the death of Abraham. Rajat and Mahmood both were thinking only about the treasure. It was as if someone were calling them. They began their search. 

They focused on the walls of the chamber. They were feeling the walls with their hands and with spades. On one side, the wall consisted of a big solid rock having no chance of digging into it. On their other side, the wall was consisted of two rocks having a narrow gap between them. The gape was some centimeters deep. They found that on the corner of the third wall there were some small and loose-jointed stones. These stones were as if had been set to close an opening. They began to dig these stones out. They had to work hard to remove first some stones. After it got easy for them to remove other stones. It took them four hours to make a hole by removing all the loose. The hole was big enough for them to crept through it. 

They reached into another chamber through the hole. It was a big chamber. They saw many pots and containers in this chamber. They went to the pot and boxes and saw these were filled with coins, precious stones, pearls, jewelry, gold, and silver. The chamber had several statues made of precious metal. They jumped with joy finding the treasure of millions of rupees.

And they saw a big box on the corner of the chamber. They opened the box with great curiosity. A chill ran down their spine when they saw a bright white light in the box. All of a sudden, they saw movements in the light. Being afraid they moved back by two or three steps. All of a sudden, the light came out of the box and took the shape of a human silhouette. Seeing this they got so afraid that without wasting a single moment they turn to run away. But as soon as they turned back they found another silhouette standing near the hole, blocking their way out.

Then they heard a voice coming from the silhouette, "Welcome friends, we are waiting for someone to come here to relieve us from the duty of guarding the treasure."

Mahmood asked timidly, "who are you?"

The voice sounded, "this is a haunted treasure. We are the guards of the treasure. Those who come here in search of treasure become the guard of the treasure after their death."

"We are the souls of people who had once come here in search of treasure like you came here." 

Hearing this Rajat and Mahmood both began to shudder with fear. 

There was a silence for some moments and then came a voice, "our greed had made us come here despite the death of our fellows just as you have come here despite the deaths of four other fellows. Coming here we were killed and were trapped here to guard the treasure by souls of those who had once been killed by the souls of somebody else and trapped to guard the treasure. And now it is your turn to die and become the guard of the treasure and relieve us of this duty."

Rajat and Mahmood both were shivering to see their death before them. All of a sudden two snakes came out from amidst the pots and boxes. Seeing these snakes, Rajat and Mehmood tried to run away but they didn't move even a single step. Snakes bit them and they fall on the earth and within a minute they died. The two old guards got disappeared through the hole. And two new guards appeared to guard the treasure and to wait for someone to come to relieve them from the duty of guarding the treasure.