An Unusual Trip

My sister Yamini, my cousin Rajat, my batchmate Riya, and I planned to attend a competition in a nearby village of our town, Udaipur. The village was famous for its green and magical forest. Well, "magical" might sound immature, but soon you will understand why I used this word. The four of us wanted to go there together, just us, with no one else. As usual, my parents reprimanded us for this small request and suggested we take our driver, Shera, with us. We were going by train, and they were skeptical about our plan because they knew it was the first time we were going somewhere together without any grownups. Anyways, Yamini convinced our parents, and we left early in the morning by train for the village to participate in the contest. The competition was not very attractive for any teenager, as it was a singing competition, and as far as I knew, none of us were enthusiastic about singing. Our plan was to visit the magical forest and uncover the strange things we had heard about the place, specifically the bungalow in the middle of the forest. These were just what we had heard.

In four hours, we arrived. "There is actually a competition, funny," said my sister Yamini. We all looked at the venue, a small ground, scoffed, and headed towards the forest. Each of us carried a small backpack, as we were only allowed to stay for two days. The forest was amazing, with extraordinarily giant trees no one had ever seen before, small huts, and no signs of any animals or birds in the beautiful green area. It was quite odd, but that was what we wanted to see. Our feet made crisp sounds on the dry forest floor covered in leaves. Gradually, we began to feel scared by the forest's quiet loneliness. All of us were scared, so we stopped talking to each other and continued moving ahead. There were no sounds, no animals, no birds, and not even clear sunlight due to the giant trees. Suddenly, Riya suggested we take a U-turn, as there was nothing there and it was more frightening than adventurous. Yamini and I quickly agreed, as we had been waiting for someone to say something like that. "Just walk a few more steps; I heard there's a pond here with sparkly fish, and people live nearby. It's like a small village itself. I don't want to miss that village; I heard a few people there can do actual magic, which is why they don't disclose the existence of the place," said Rajat. We all had two choices: to walk a few steps and go to the village, which was almost our goal for coming here, or to turn back because it was too scary.

Obviously, we chose the first option and pretended we were not scared of anything. After a few steps, we didn't find any pond, but we saw the bungalow we had heard about. We all ran towards it to explore the place. There was a small fence around it, perfectly placed and maintained, making it clear someone was living inside. We were right when we saw a middle-aged lady come out and ask in a clear voice, "Hello, kids, what can I do for you all?" She had shoulder-length white hair, a bright face, and a nice smile. She was wearing a clean ankle-length dress and was very polite. We felt relieved upon seeing her since we had been scared for quite some time.

"Can we come inside your house? We are tired," I asked. "Yes, sure, you can come and sit. I am going to the village to shop for some groceries and will be back soon," she said. Well, that's not what we wanted, but it wasn't a big problem. Our phones weren't getting any signals, and we were hungry, so it wasn't a bad offer. We went inside and started exploring the house after she left. It was so strange that she didn't even know us and left her house in our care for a few hours. I was tired of noticing the weirdness of the place ever since I started my journey in this forest, so we all ignored it. There was no food, not even furniture. The house was empty, looking as if she had just moved in. But where was her packed luggage? Maybe it would take time since it's far from the village. All these thoughts were battling inside my mind. Being the oldest, I started worrying about my siblings and friend. I was scared and just wanted to go back home.

I called everyone to the living room. Everyone came except Rajat. He was on the first floor of the building, according to Yamini. We all went there, finding an empty floor - not a new discovery. The question was, what had attracted him so much, and where was he? I called his name loudly, "Rajat, come quickly! It's already 9:00 PM, and I want to go back to the village as soon as possible." No one replied. He loved pranks, so I thought he must be playing a prank again. So I shouted, "Come quickly; we're leaving right now!" Still, nobody answered. "It's 9:30," Riya said. We got scared because Rajat was the youngest and not brave enough to play hide and seek in this strange house. We decided to stick together and find him. Suddenly, I heard the front door of the house open. I looked out the window and saw Rajat running away with a terrified face, not even looking back or calling us. We all started yelling after what we saw. It was now exactly 10:00 PM. The three of us ran back to the ground floor, panicking and shouting. We saw the owner returning, the woman we had met earlier. We all ran towards her and asked for her help in finding our cousin. That's when I noticed she had no groceries with her, in fact, she had nothing in her hands. She said our brother was inside the house. We all became scared of this unusual statement. Yamini and Riya ran away with the excuse of going after Rajat. I was left there, standing right in front of that strange and "always happy" lady.

I was so scared that I felt my hands and legs lose their senses. I moved around the bungalow, in the garden and behind it, trying to find him. I was helpless; nobody was there, and she stood with that annoying smile on her face. I noticed the fence surrounding the house slowly moving upward, trapping me. I looked back and found no one where the lady had been standing. When I turned around, she was now standing in front of me. It wasn't her – this lady was a witch. She was pale, wearing weird, dirty clothes, and looking terrifying. I screamed for help and ran out of the garden, jumping over the fence before it grew too high. It seemed like this place became haunted after 10:00 PM. "Oh, that's why we didn't find any animals or birds here. Oh God, where are my siblings? Where is my friend? Is she chasing me? Will she kill me here? Did she kill them too?" These words rang in my ears as I ran, panicking and screaming for help. I found Yamini and Riya on the way. We left the forest in no time and felt relieved when we saw other people. But where was Rajat? He had run out of the house right in front of my eyes. We called our parents and told them everything. They were on their way to the village, but it would take four hours for them to arrive. In the meantime, we couldn't leave Rajat alone, possibly with that witch.

I asked a woman who was closing the door of her small house, "Can you help us? We lost our brother in that forest. We were in a bungalow with the owner, who is a lady, and my brother ran out without telling us. When I asked the lady about it, she just smiled and said he was inside the house. I think something is wrong with her. Please help us." The villager laughed and said, "You are fools. Nobody enters the forest without asking us, and when they do ask, they don't go because a witch lives there. She eats one soul every day at 10:00 PM. That's why there are no birds or animals in the forest, and the trees are abnormally large – she created the forest to hide herself. Your brother is probably dead by now, as it's 10:30 PM, or if he's alive, he's trapped. He must have run away because he saw the room where she kills people and animals. It's very disturbing for a child like him, and I heard the witch usually knows when someone enters that room."

After hearing this, we all grabbed the lady and brought her with us to the forest, as we could only trust each other at that point. We forced her to come with us and somehow managed to get her there quickly. We saw Rajat standing behind the glass on the first-floor window, looking at us patiently, as if he had no energy to shout or didn't bother to. Then he turned around and walked into the darkness. My sister started crying. I told Riya to stay with her outside while the villager and I went in. As soon as I stepped into the house, it seemed like daytime again, just as it had been when we first arrived. I saw my brother, my sister, Riya – everyone. They were all roaming around, apparently unaware of what had happened. I called everyone to gather, but this time, nobody replied. I ran out of the house as fast as I could and saw Yamini crying with Riya standing beside her. "Where is the villager?" I asked. Nobody had a clue. 

I was filled with anger. "This witch will not kill my brother tonight; the only person who will die will be her!" I shouted. I entered the house with my sister and Riya. I found Rajat hypnotized, sitting patiently in a room full of various blades and the stench of blood. Scared again, we took him with us and quickly left the house. Suddenly, a voice said, "You gave me this villager; they will never forgive you." It was the witch. I heard another sound, like a group of people approaching. They were my parents and the villagers. "Leave her or die!" I shouted at the witch, and we ran towards the people. While running, I noticed no one was behind me; I was running alone. I stopped in front of my parents and started crying helplessly.

We all gathered in front of the building's fence and yelled at the witch to release our children. I knew it was meaningless, so I told everyone to go inside, and we all entered the house. I found everyone in the same room, tied up and hypnotized. Shocked, I thought, "How did I not notice when they were taken? They were running with me." We all came out with the villager lady, too. No one was left in the house this time. "How could it be so easy to take the witch's hostages?" I listened to the crisp sound of my footsteps as we walked out of the forest with everyone, including my siblings, friends, and parents. I was happy but doubtful about the ease of the process. It was now 12:00 PM. I looked at the ground while walking and thought about everything that had happened in the last 3-4 hours. I managed to turn my head back to see if she was chasing us again. It was dark behind me, so I turned to walk with everyone else.

Suddenly, it was morning. We were walking inside the forest, just the four of us, like we had that morning when we met the lady. This time, she was smiling warmly. I looked at her, smiled back, and calmly told everyone, "Turn back no matter what; there's nothing for us in this forest." This time, no one questioned my decision, and we turned back to attend the competition. It was as if she didn't want to kill us but rather wanted us to leave. Was it pity or something else?

I turned back to see her one last time, smiling as she stood in the lonely, beautiful green forest. I realized that time changes everything if you know how to play with it correctly. She stood there until we left the forest. It became clear that she never ate people – she ate animals, all of them. She didn't want us to know that, so she played with our minds and perhaps with time. After this incident, no one saw her again. She may have relocated; who knows?

A few days after returning home safely, we boarded a train to visit relatives in another city. No one spoke to one another; everyone seemed deep in thought and remained quiet. As we neared our destination, we saw the same trees and the strange, lonely forest far from the railway tracks. Some people said it was a new forest that had suddenly appeared, while others thought it was an agricultural researcher's area with different plants. We all looked at each other and smiled.