Sush...(completed)

11

Suranjan Das, half owner of the Vedic Village, one of the partners of our paid dealership, the otherwise jolly, big bloated, mid aged man had a dark side too. It was though obvious to me since the very begining. Obviously all the double sided jokes, and evident conversations layered with dark humour revealed that side to me partly. But the doubt intensified, the day when I visited his house in search of Shailza. The suffocation and the weirdness I felt in his house was a very new feeling to me. That house was therefore was in the no-list of mine, untill I had to visit him again. But that time, I had a grip over my mind. I knew the feeling very well by then. So it was like a normal tuesday for me - like, after some pleasant encounter with a ghost and then getting scratched by her, and after knowing that a spirit was following me and wanting my help. But the way I am telling you, might sound funny and unbelievable. But you never really know the feeling untill you are the one experiencing these. But one silver lining out of this grey cloud was, that the nightmare I used to have before, were gone. Maybe my mind was diverted due to  all those things. It is said, in psychology, the subconscious mind stores every thing we hear or see, even the things we percieve while we don't pay attention. 

A very small example may help you to get what I am saying. Suppose you pass a house everyday, and everyday a song is played there. The same song. You don't deliberately listen to the song, but it reaches your ears. After a few days, you will notice the you are lipping to the song, you know the lyrics, even if you didn't want to hear the song. That's how your subconscious mind works. My therapist, Sofia used to say, that the incidents we cling on to more tend to dig deeper into our minds, resulting in hallucinations and fear. Once we let go of it, it is stored in the subconscious mind but it would disturb the conscious brain. And within days, it would feel like a dream. Right then, my only focus lay somewhere else. I already let go my past. Maybe that was the reason the nightmares stopped. 

"So, Why do we need him?" I asked as we stood in front of the villa..

"So don't you know?" Shailza said..

"Don't I know what?" 

"Suranjan Das is a paranormal expert..I mean he has all the technicalities like the UV sensor, pressure checker etc, and is an expert in performing Seance..planchet." 

"Oh man! I knew it, something is wrong with you all! This city is weird!" I lamented.. 

"As everybody say, with royal cities come royal mysteries.. His wife died a few years back. Rumours say that he used to sleep with his wife's corpse for weeks, untill the neighbours because of the filthy smell, barged into his house and took it for burning..People think he is mad. But he has this weird obsession with dead bodies and spirits and everything.." Shailza explained.

"WHAT! He IS mad..And you are encouraging this? Like sleeping with the corpse of dead wife! " 

We both took a long breath, prepped oursleves up just before we pressed the door bell.. The man opened the door. He smiled warmly at me, but as soon as he looked at Shailza, his face grew dark and synical. I was in the trance of thinking him mad, so I never gave that expression a second thought. We were asked to come in. 

It was the same night, we visited the site. The sun was yet to rise. Normally people do not expect anyone to stay awake at that time of the night. But we were pretty sure about Mr Das, he was a maniac. 

As me and Shailza were seated on the sofa of the living room, I looked at the accessories of the room for the second time - the horse shoe on the door, the quija board, the satan painting, every weird thing made sense now. And the rancid smell of dead fish was still prevalent, but was not as irritating as the first time. Mr Das brought me a glass of cold drink from the kitchen - only one glass.

"Mr Das, Shailza must be thirsty too.." I said, never daring to glance at her. I thought she might feel insulted..But rather she had a smiling face.

"Mr Mehra, the girl you are talking about never eats or drinks in front of anyone. Have you ever seen her gulping anything in front of you?" He smirked. I smiled uneasily..

"This is prepostorous. Why would you do so? Are you shy?" I asked Shailza, who was still smiling. "You can take my glass." 

"No thanks Amaan. Mr Das is right, I never consume anything in front of people..It is my rule. But this concern of yours is really sweet. Now let's talk business." 

As we both explained everything to Mr Das, his face grew deadpan serious. His every nod revealed that he was able to join dots. After everything, he said only one thing ; "Makes sense. I was able to feel something the first day itself. But I thought it was because of...never mind. Whatever, we have to do things very quickly. The next night we have to go there.I will take my electromagnetic field detector, temperature gun, night vision cameras and motion detectors. We all have to do this in the dead hour of the night. Mr Mehra, you have a partial ability of sensing paranormal activities. Your talent merged with these devices can tell us what exactly we have to do.."

"Right, but can you please elaborate on the devices that you are gonna take?" I asked, half confused, half confidently.

"EMF detector, is used to detect a sudden change in the electromagnetic field around us. Temperature guns can locate a cold spots, as you yourself has felt cold when they are around us. The temperature drops when paranormal elemnts merge with the human world. The night vision cameras will provide a clear view of the place. And motion detectors, will detect any supernatural movement. Don't worry these are authentic, and work.." 

"I am pretty sure, that they are trying to take us somewhere. Whatever little communication I have had with them, it is clear that they are in a lot of pain. I think they connected with you, because at first you too were in pain Amaan. They find people like themselves to share their pain and sorrows. " Shailza said..

While I weighed her words, Mr Das seemed to successfully avoid her..The whole time he didn't have a single word with Shailza. And I was somehow caught in the crossfire. And I was unable to understand the reason of the mutual hatred they had for each other. 

But the only thing mattered now, was the end of all these things. The next night was a big night for me. For better or worse, we were joined by another wierdo in the group of ghost finder. And it the fate of Mehra Hotels and Chains were on us...