Girl In White

By Pratichi Satpathy

It was a few days ago, when I was visiting my village for the first time. I was going there to meet my cousins, Mini and Mona, and I was a bit nervous.

I woke up to the pitter-patter of rain hitting the glass panes of the train window. It was late at night; we were about to arrive.

When I got off our train and I saw the welcoming smiles on my cousins’ faces, my nervousness vanished. We walked through the grass, which had streams of mud flowing through. Just like cousins do, I snuggled up in bed with Mini and Mona, thinking that I would sleep peacefully. Oh how wrong I was.

I sat up on my bed, to see a girl in a frilly white dress, sitting on the chair. She looked at me with a perfect, but unnerving smile on her face. All of a sudden, the girl hovered at the foot of my bed, laughing. It was a deep sound, and it went hehehehe.

As I woke up in my bed, my heart was pounding as loud as the thunderstorm raging outside my window. I scanned my room until I was sure it was ghost free.

I turned around to find a look of sheer terror on Mini’s face and Mona’s face was as pale as the dress of the girl. “That was the worst dream I ever had,” Mini said. Mona, the older one, suggested that we talk it out. I started describing my dream, making both the girls grow paler and paler. “What?” I asked, not being able to take the suspense any longer. “I had the same dream,” they said in unison.

Mona and Mini decided that it was a coincidence, and went back to sleep. I was not convinced. The next morning, both seemed to have forgotten about the dream and were their usual cheery selves. It was not the same for me. Although I was still a little shaken from my ephialtes, I tried to shrug it off.

That night, I tossed and turned endlessly. I woke up sweating and panting. I had had the same nightmare repeatedly. The shadows under my eyes were evident. I was bowled over. I looked over at the window. Yet again, there was a thunderstorm raging outside. The rain splattered onto our window, and the sky was dark grey, even though it was already six in the morning.

My uncle suggested we go and smell the petrichor outside and have fun. My cousins were delighted, as they would get to show me the “haunted bus”. It was an abandoned red double-decker bus just on the opposite side of their house. As we walked, Mini explained, “It used to be very popular, you know. But one day, when the driver fell asleep, it crashed onto the side and everyone died. We were forbidden to go into it. Today, let’s bend the rules.”

I gagged as we entered the bus. There was a smell of rotten flesh in the air. “Must be some animal,” I said sadly, “How desperately it would’ve tried to escape!” The bus was pitch dark inside, even with our flashlights on. On the last seat, the long one, there was a doll. I picked it up, looked at it and dropped it immediately. The doll crashed to the floor and broke into a thousand pieces. “What did you do?” Mona whisper-screamed. “It was perturbing, for some... ohhh,” a gasp escaped my lips. I started trembling from head to toe, in fear. “That doll looks like the girl from our nightmares,” Mini said, voicing my thoughts.

“That’s because she is the girl from your nightmares. Hehehehe,” said a voice from the front end of the bus. Our heads spun around so fast, that our necks almost got sprained. “Wh-who was that? Show yourself!” Mona shouted, trying and failing miserably to hide the tremor from her voice. “Hehehehe, don’t you know?” she said, gliding towards us. I tried to hide Mini behind me, she was younger after all, wasn’t it my duty to protect her?

“Tsk-tsk, kids these days don’t know how to speak to others. You see, I was a kid like you someday. I sat right here on this bus, every single day, when I went to school. That fateful day, I was feeling uneasy, but somehow boarded the bus. When it crashed, I got crushed with it. No one came to take my body away. I lay there for years, and then got trapped in this doll.” She flexed her fingers. “It feels good to be free again.”

I side-eyed Mona. She looked red with anger. “What kind of prank is this? A sick joke?” she shrieked. The ghost girl smirked. “Do you know what else is a sick joke? Your life!” screaming with laughter, she snapped Mona’s neck into two, sending her head onto her shoulder and her body thudding to the floor.

I screamed loudly. That gained the attention of the cops from the police station nearby. They barged into the bus, followed by my uncle and aunt. Their mouths rounded into perfect o’s as they saw the three of us – one dead and two alive. My uncle looked furious, and my aunt started crying inconsolably. “Take them away to the station,” he motioned to the police men, with anger. Mini was grasping my hand tightly now. I was shaking. “Don’t take us away, rather, find someone to investigate this darn haunted bus,” I said. “We realised you have both done something wrong, and traumatising, which could lead to hallucinations. Can you come to the police station and tell us why you did this?” the inspector asked in a voice of forced calm. “We didn’t do anything! You’re capturing the wrong people! TRUST ME!” I screamed as the two of us were handcuffed.

As I write this, awaiting our trial in a dingy cell, I wonder, “What would’ve happened if we had not stepped into the bus this morning?”

By Pratichi Satpathy