The Presence

Finally, the day I was waiting for came today. Last week , I got promoted to the rank of Major and won a gallantry medal for my performance in the battlefield in my career of 3 years as an army officer. I am throwing a party to my old school friends in my house as I am currently on my leave. In my school life, I didn’t had much friends. I have invited those who were very close to me. Luckily most of them are coming tonight.
By 7 pm, the party started. And my guests kept there promise. After meeting everyone , we gathered in the drawing room, talking about every one’s current condition. Amit , is a software engineer working for Wilco. His brother Sumit is currently a game developer. Ayesha is a dentist, Deepakshi is doing PHD in Microbiology. Amit told me, “ Bro, really never thought that you will join army.” Ayesha added, “ Yes, he was very shy and introvert during the school days, we thought that like others, you will also try to be a doctor only.” Sumit told , “ I knew he had potential to join military .” Then we started chatting about each other’s work, family and future planning. While talking about various topics , it came about ghosts and spirits. It was started by Deepakshi. She asked, “ I know Raghav that it’s your duty and not a crime, but still have you ever felt guilty , sad or feared.” I replied, “ I once felt guilty , while I had to kill a child and his mother who were armed with c 4 explosive. Their vision haunted me for about a month.” Amit said, “ Man that’s really very hard and scary as well. Hope they rest in peace.” I replied, “ You guys won’t believe me but  I have felt the presence of the boy and his mother many a times. In my barrack , I have heard a child running around my bed and a shriek of woman many times. Once , I felt a cold touch of a child’s hand.” Deepakshi replied, “ Maybe it was short term Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Because of your traumatic experience it boosted your nightmares.” I replied, “ May be you are right ,  but the night I felt the touch, one of our guard dog was found dead. It's neck was broken. ”
We dined after that. The food came from Oudh 1530 restaurant. After dining, Ayesha told me, “ Raghav, I also have a similar experience like you.” I replied, “ Seriously?” She replied, “ Yes and if you want, I can tell you.” I replied, “ Sure.” Then she started her incident.
“ You guys may remember , in the year 2011, when we were in class 9, I went to K V Command hospital to represent our school for a group dance competition. I was there along with Sakshi, Debjani, Rehana and Chitra. We reached there by 8 pm before the day of competition. We were supposed to sleep in the classrooms. It took us about 2 hours to search for our room and to finish all the formalities. While walking towards our room , Sakshi whispered me, “ Ayesha, isn’t this building a bit uncanny?” I replied , “ What do you mean ?” She replied, “ Can’t you feel the atmosphere a bit heavy and melancholic?” I won’t lie to you, I really felt but to prevent her getting scared , I lied. I told, “ Maybe you are tired .”
At 11 o clock, we were given dinner. It consisted of roti and dal and a boiled egg. Our trainer told us , “ Tomorrow is your competition. You will get better food tomorrow.” After dinner while I was going to my room and then only I saw that in the biology lab which was near the room I was supposed to sleep was dimly and on the teacher's desk there was food kept on a plate. It contained biriyani, chicken curry and curd. But there was no one present in the lab. After entering the lab, I saw that a silhouette resembling a man was there. Just before I was about to reach the table, a male voice came from back addressing me, “ Hey you, you are not supposed to be here. Go back to your room.” It was a peon of the school. Out of fear and surprise I replied, “ I am sorry, I just came here to know to whom does these dishes belong too?” He told, “ That’s none of your business. Get back to your room or I will complain your trainer .” While going back to the room, I felt that I was being followed by someone. Upon turning , I could only see dust and fog. That night, I saw a very bad dream which is so bad that I won’t be able to tell you guys.  Next day at 4 Am, we woke up and were getting ready for practice. I decided to peek in the Biology lab silently. Upon peeking, I saw that the plate was empty and it was understandable that someone ate the food from it not long ago because of the smell coming from it. Anyways, the rest of the day practiced till the competition ended. The competition ended by afternoon. And as promised by our trainer, Mrs Geeta Das, a small picnic was organized in the playground. Unfortunately, Chitra couldn’t attend the picnic because of she was feeling ill due to her anemia. At 9 pm when we were just going to begin dining, I went to bring Chitra for dinner, as I reached the floor, I heard Chitra screaming . I rushed the room and kicked the door to open it. It was dark inside the room and in the darkness, I could see a pair of red eyes for a couple if second and soon after, I felt an unholy presence behind me . I just grabbed Chitra who was not trembling with fear and rushed out of the building to the ground. After drinking water and coffee, she told what she saw. She told, “ After all of you left, I decided to sleep till dinner. I started playing music in my phone and tried to sleep. After I woke up, I found that I was in complete darkness but I could remember that I left the switches on. I decided to call you guys, but found that the phone didn’t had network. So I decided to reach the playground myself. As I was about to reach the door, I was pushed with a terrible force inside the room.  I could smell a rotten smell  approaching me from the door. And then I saw a silhouette of a man with a couple of glowing red eyes who was laughing viciously.  Luckily Ayesha came and the apparition disappeared.” After saying all these, she lost conscious. As a coincidence the same peon who was screaming at me the day before came and asked , “ What’s the matter?” I angrily asked, “ We have the same question. At first, a lot of food is served for someone who is neither seen or heard by anyone. Moreover the food was eaten by that person. I was feeling that I was being chased and a while before, my best friend was attacked by someone who can vanish into thin air, so I ask you what the fuck is going on here?” I didn’t even cared that our teacher was there. The peon replied, “ Miss, I am extremely sorry for misbehaving with you yesterday night. But that was for your own good only. Some secrets should remain secret only.” Geeta mam roared, “ If you don’t want to disclose the secret, then I can guarantee not only that you won’t last an hour in this school as a staff, but you won’t be getting any job any where again. If you want to save your job, then tell  us what is going on.” The peon replied, “ Ok madam. I will tell. Couple of years ago, Mr  Sanjay Krishnan was the principal of this school. Although he was very efficient and strict, he was also a very shrewd person. He was a pervert. During the same time, a young biology teacher named Jayanti Sen, joined this school. The principal lusted for her. And finally, one day when Miss Jayanti was doing some work after the school hours, the principal tried to rake advantage of the situation and rape her. But luckily she wasn’t alone. Her brother Ramesh was there to receive her. When he saw that his sister is taking time, he went to the biology lab himself and found that the principal was trying to rape his sister. The principal was stopped and beaten up by Ramesh and he killed the principal in the process. I was the only witness of the incident, but I helped them in covering up the evidence. They even paid me well. The principal was found dead because of collapsing under an electric fan. From then on, many teachers and students have felt his presence. The female students are not allowed to go to the biology lab alone.” We left the school the same day.”
We were listening this story until Ayesha stopped. I asked, “ Why you didn’t shared this before?” She replied, “ You guys may not have believed me then. I only told because the topic came while discussion.”