The Horse River

Up at the hour of the wolf, Ravi woke with a start. He was excited to visit the farms with his grandfather. Ravi’s grandparents had initially asked him to stay home for this set of farms; his mom could not understand the reason behind it and decided to ask her mother about it.

“This set of farms is next to the “Horse River” and it is that time of the year now” her mother replied.

As soon as Ravi’s mom heard this, her face dropped. She started sweating heavily and said to her mother,

“Maa, now I understand the reason why you and Papa were so tensed and changing the topic so many times; please stop Papa from taking Ravi with him to that farm.”

“Don’t worry dear, your father will not let Ravi wander anywhere near the river. Your father and all the workers are aware of the dangers and will be extra cautious over the next couple of days” her mother replied.

It was time to leave for the farms but suddenly it started raining heavily; everyone waited for around an hour but the rain did not stop or even mellow down for a minute. Grandpa looked at all the workers and called it a day.

Ravi was disappointed by this, he looked at his grandma and saw her looking towards the sky and praying something; he went near and heard her saying,

“Thank You great lord for saving my grandson.”

Ravi was surprised by these words and started asking her the reason behind such words. Grandma was surprised a bit but she knew she had been caught and tried doing and saying everything in her capacity to avoid the topic but Ravi was adamant and kept asking her. His mother and grandpa came to speak to him but he looked at them and said,

“Mom, I heard you and grandma talking to each other last evening and you seemed worried about something; I could hear grandma say something about “Horse River”. What is it about and why were you worried?”

His mom and grandma looked at each other but had nothing to say; Ravi then turned towards his grandpa and said,

“Grandpa, I heard this term when accompanied you to the meeting that was conducted a week ago where all the villagers were present; you all were speaking about the same topic then. What is the problem and what is wrong with this place called “Horse River”?”

Grandpa looked at Ravi and said,

“This incident goes back 53 years back. The place we were about to visit today has a river right next to it. In those times, this river used to divide two villages.

There was a wooden bridge constructed over the river by the villagers to ease the commute. It was a symbol of unity between the two villages. However, the bridge had started becoming weak over the years and could not carry heavy loads.

One evening, there was a wedding in the opposite village; the bride belonged to that village whereas the groom was from ours.

There were more than a hundred people in the baraat; the groom and bride mounted a decorated horse cart. They arrived near the bridge and had to cross it to enter the village; the proceedings started crossing the bridge which was not more than 25 to 30 meters long. The proceedings reached the middle of the bridge and it suddenly collapsed.

All the members along with the horse cart fell in the river. This river had never been too deep and wild and neither was the bridge too high; there could have been many injuries after this accident but something strange happened that night.

There was chaos in the village that night itself as the members of the groom’s family who were waiting for the proceedings to arrive home had informed the entire village that they had not. The entire village started looking out for them and when everyone reached near the bridge, they were shocked to see the scene there. Some of the baraat members were dead near the riverbank. There were no signs of most of the people in the proceedings. Some of the villagers just dove into the river and one of them screamed, “There are bodies inside the river”.

The most suspicious thing was that there were no signs of either the bride and groom or the horse cart that carried them; they had just vanished without a trace. Every person who was a part of the wedding proceedings was dead and their bodies were found either on the bank of the river or inside it. There were many strange things surrounding the incident.

The bridge wasn’t very high for someone to die immediately after falling; the river wasn’t deep enough for someone to drown in it; neither was it wild enough for the huge cart and the bride and groom to have washed away with the flow of it. Most of the villagers – including men and women – who had lost their lives – were good swimmers and the majority of them had grown up swimming in the same river. Everything was suspicious, everything was strange, and everything was just eerie about this incident.

About a year later, on the same day of that incident; there was a news about one little girl drowning in the river. She was playing near the bank of the river while her mother was washing clothes.

We thought that it might have been a coincidence, but such incidents kept happening every single year. The year next to that, there was a tourist who drowned on the same day as the horse incident, and this is when the villagers started to notice a pattern. During the same time frame, there was some or the other person who drowned in the river. Everyone started staying away from the river during that time, but despite the number of efforts taken, there would be some or other person who would go near the river in those couple of days and get consumed by it. It was as if all these people were somehow attracted by some invisible and unnatural force that kept pulling them towards the river and made them commit a forced suicide.

At any other time of the year, the river looked and behaved just like any other body of water but on the two days of that incident, it would need someone. It was as if the river wanted its share of humans and devised a technique to fulfill it. We have seen that if the river doesn’t get a share of its kill in those two days, then it starts making a grunting sound and in one way or the other it manages to lure someone into its trap and kill. There has not been a single year when it has failed to kill someone. Last year, a bunch of travelers stopped near the river to fill their water bottles and then, the inevitable happened. One of them fell in the river and despite being a good swimmer, was drowned in it.

Despite all of us making so many efforts to prevent such happenings, it is not at all avoided at any cost; death falls upon anyone who goes near the river. It is because of all these events that the river got named “The Horse River”.

Yesterday marked the anniversary of that black day but the river did not get any share of its kill, this has created a buzz around the village that the river will try to kill someone today. This is the reason your grandmother was so relieved when we had to cancel the day’s work and stay home.

There was silence in the room for some minutes; Ravi just sat in one place silently. He did not speak a word after this; the story was too heavy for him to digest. That evening, Ravi came and sat next to his grandfather and said,

“Grandpa, if it doesn’t rain tomorrow, will you take me with you to the farms?”

Grandfather thought after listening to such a dangerous story, Ravi might have changed his mind about going to the farm that was located near the river but he was wrong. Ravi still wanted to visit the farms. Grandpa had to agree one more time.

The farms were located at a 20-minute walk from the house and were located exactly next to the river. Ravi and his grandfather reached the farm and started the work. Grandpa asked him to sit near the shade of the banyan tree but he refused; he wanted to work with all of them. So Grandpa gave him a tool and asked him to work the field; he also showed Ravi how to plow the field with the help of oxen. The day went as usual and finally, it was time to go back.

Grandpa heaved a sigh of relief, as the day had passed normally and Ravi had not spoken about the story. Grandpa looked back and was shocked to see Ravi missing; he had been sitting and chatting with him for the last 20 minutes but was nowhere to be seen. Grandpa was seriously worried and started calling Ravi’s name; he searched for him nearby but he was nowhere in sight. Grandpa had started sweating now and asked some of the workers to go and look for Ravi. One of the workers started screaming and calling Grandpa at the top of his voice; everyone just ran towards the source of the voice. Grandpa reached the worker who was calling his name and was shocked by what he saw next; Ravi was standing right on the bank of the river with his legs in the water.

Grandpa ran straight towards Ravi; he grabbed Ravi’s hand and started pulling him away from the water but Ravi wasn’t moving an inch. It seemed like he was hypnotized by someone. He just kept looking towards the water with a locked gaze like someone was looking back at him from the river. Grandpa pulled him with all his might and managed to get him out of there. As soon as they managed to get Ravi out of the water, everyone got a shock of their life. They heard a loud excruciating scream; this scream came right from under the water. The river was screaming as its prey had been snatched from its clutches.

Grandpa, along with a couple of workers, managed to drag Ravi out from the river and brought him to their field. Grandpa hugged him and became emotional but Ravi had no idea what was happening around him; he had been in a kind of coma all this while.

Grandpa asked him to stand up as they finally got ready to go back home; Grandpa wanted to sit back for some time but he sensed that it was getting dark and Ravi’s mother and grandmother would start worrying if they didn’t reach home on time. They started walking back home and kept quiet all the while. Ravi’s grandpa tried talking to him but he was silent throughout the journey back home; he was not in a state to talk anything. It took a while for him to cool down and come to his senses.

That night, Ravi had a mild fever in his body and slept early; all the members were sitting right next to him. Grandma asked Grandpa about the incident and just thanked God once again. Grandma was thanking God because her grandson was saved; Grandpa was thanking God because the two days had passed and no one had become prey to that river. They were about to go to sleep and just then, a worker came running to find Grandpa; he looked worried so Grandpa went out to speak to him and asked,

“What happened Chotu? Why do you look so scared?”

Chotu somehow grabbed his breath and said,

“Sir, there was a tourist couple who stopped near the river to take some photos; they are dead. Their bodies are being recovered from the river now.”

Grandpa just sat there with chills running down his spine; his blood pressure dropped and shivering hands.

The Horse River, like every single year, had taken its prey.