THE HAUNTED HOUSE

Antara was extremely happy that day. Her pet mynah

Chichi had given birth to a baby mynah a week back. She
had lovingly named her Chuchu. As she saw Chuchu flying
for the first time, she clapped and jumped in joy.
However, as night fell, her gaze suddenly fell on the eerie house
with red and pink lights on the other side of the river. The house
was very weird and the stories of a magician staying in that
house would circulate now and then in the village. Everybody
was afraid of the haunted house and nobody ever ventured in
its vicinity. Whenever, Antara saw this house, she was afraid.
Although, Antara could clearly see the haunted house from her
dear cottage, she had never seen any sign of life near it. The only
activity visible was the switching on of the red and pink lights at six
pm sharp. It was believed that the magician could take any form.
Once a month, he would visit any house in Antara’s village or the
villages surrounding it and take a child away. The routine had been
going on since ages. No one had ever heard what happened to
those children.
It was also rumoured that the magician made a typical symbol
of a needle and footsteps on the house from which he was
going to take the child. Although Antara was a very brave girl,
but the thought of the magician taking away some child was too
spine-chilling for her.
One day, as she was playing outside her house, she was
shocked to see the symbols of needle and footsteps on her
own house. Would the magician visit her house? She ran
inside the house and hid herself. Her mother and brother
had gone to her granny's house. She hoped that they come
home soon.
When they returned home, they were also afraid to see the
symbols. As Antara peeped out of the house, she saw an
old man approaching their house. She knew it was the
magician.
Horrified, she ran and hid behind her mother. Just then, there
was a knock at the house. All three of them shivered. They were
alarmed and did not open the door. But the magician had taken
the form of a black cat. A scary and dreadful black cat. He
jumped inside the house from the window. Pointing towards
Antara he said, "I shall be taking this girl."
He commanded her to sit on the wheel chair and he sat on her
lap in the form of a cat. This way, Antara was bound to the
chair. She could not escape.
Soon the wheel-chair started moving by itself. While they
were moving ahead, Antara saw a bus passing on the road.
For a moment, she was hopeful of someone coming and
saving her. But with the magician perched on her as a cat, she
knew that it was futile to expect.
Unknown to the magician as well as Antara, a boy by the name of
Saif had seen them. He was a big boy of sixteen and was not afraid
of anything. He had followed them silently. As they crossed the
river, the magician came back to his original form. Suddenly, Saif
confronted him and asked, "Uncle, you seem to be going on some
adventurous expedition. Can I join you?"
The magician was unprepared for this. He cackled, "No one can
come to my house except on this magical wheel chair. There is no
path which can lead to my house. Run away or I will kill this girl.“
Saif was brave and wanted to challenge him. But, he knew that it
would be useless to do anything at that point of time, since the
magician could harm the little girl. He went away silently.
The magician took Antara inside his creepy house. It was dark
and dingy inside. Initially, she was scared. But she suddenly
realized that she had to have courage if she wanted to escape.
Soon, the magician started snoring and Antara began exploring
his house. She could find a few dresses of children. She
wondered where those children were. Suddenly she saw a few
books in one of the dark almirahs. Those books were books of
black magic.
She started reading those books. She was amazed to see a lot of
numbers and symbols written in the books. There was not a
single alphabet.
Meanwhile, Saif rushed home to inform his father about the
incident. His father was also the village pradhan. He
immediately summoned a meeting of all the village elders. Till
then, everybody had heard tales of pretty children vanishing
from the village; but nobody had actually seen these children
being taken away.
With Saif having witnessed the incident, there was anger among
the village elders. It was rumoured that if they were successful
in building a path till the magician's house, his magic would
vanish. Stories also floated that whenever the villagers actually
tried to build the road, the magician would switch on those red
and pink lights and the road would vanish.
Someone remarked, "We should all learn to accept that the
magician will be here and he will keep taking children. We are
too small to fight him. Why waste time?"
But Saif was annoyed on hearing this. He said, "If you all do not
agree to build this road, I am going ahead with it. I cannot bear
to see my friends being taken away like this."
He started collecting the pebbles and stones for constructing
the road. Seeing his willpower, determination and strength,
others followed suit and slowly almost the whole village joined
him.
Meanwhile, Antara, being an intelligent girl, had broken the
code of the numbers in the book. She started translating them.
Suddenly, she came across a strange chant in one of the books.
She was overjoyed as she read the footnote below it, "If this
chant is uttered while some one is having his food, the person
will surely die." After having read this, she kept the books back
in the proper place and slept peacefully. She had her plans
ready.
In the morning, the magician got up happily. Antara acted as if
she was sleeping. The magician smiled. He took out some
biscuits and some juice and began gulping it. Antara suddenly
uttered the chant. The magician was shocked. He fell down
almost instantaneously.
When he fell down, there was a thunderous noise. Saif and the
other villagers who were busy constructing the road were
shocked to hear the roar. With their grit and hard work, they
had almost finished with the construction of the road. They
rushed to the magician's house and were amazed to see that he
had breathed his last.
Antara informed them about the incidents which had occurred
since she had been caught. The villages were happy to know
about her cleverness and presence of mind. They read his books
as per the code deciphered by Antara. They realized that unless a
path was made till the enchanted house, the magician could
come back to life!
Another chant was to be uttered to dispose off his body. They
quickly uttered the chant and the magician's body burnt to
ashes.
As soon as the magician's body got converted into ashes, they
could hear a lot of children's voices from a particular room. They
went and opened the room and were amazed to see all the
missing children.
The magician used to take one child every month and make him work like a
slave. After that he would convert him into stone. It was said that if he
accumulated one thousand such stones in one thousand months, he would
be the ruler of the universe. He had already collected nine hundred and
ninety nine children and Antara was the one thousandth one. Luckily, she
was saved along with all the other children.
They decided to move out of the haunted house immediately. While they
were coming out, their was a thunderous noise again and the haunted house
also vanished.
Antara’s mother had given up all hopes of seeing her again. She
cuddled her and hugged her as if to make sure that she had really
come back.
With so many children having been rescued, there was gaiety and
merriment everywhere. All the villagers praised Antara and Saif
because of whom it had been possible to get rid of the magician.