The Haunted Echo
Beginning of the story
That voice echoing in the house. This is about the time when Rahul was studying in class tenth. He was sixteen years old then. His family consisted of his parents and a younger brother and sister. His father worked in a government job in the railways, so he had to live in a government quarter. Now his father was transferred to Delhi and he had taken a flat in Delhi.
Rahul was very happy because he felt that now he would get his own separate room. He shifted all his belongings to the flat and started living there. Everything went well for a few days. But after a few days he started feeling strange restlessness in the flat. Rahul had a habit of sleeping late.
He used to watch horror films at night and was fond of reading and listening to horror stories. He used to listen to the horror story of Nice Nightmares on YouTube. He used to stay alone in the room. The rest of the family slept in another room.
Horror Movie
One night he was watching a horror movie. Suddenly he heard someone’s voice from outside the room. He thought that maybe someone got up to drink water. He started watching the movie quietly.
About three minutes later, he heard the same sound again. The sound was like the sound of a woman’s footsteps walking. Like a rustling sound. It was exactly like that. Rahul got scared hearing the sound. He switched off the TV and went outside to see.
When he came out of the room, there was no one there. After watching for a while, he went back. He was scared to watch TV. After a while, the same sound started coming from his kitchen. The kitchen was next to his room, so the sound was loud.
This time, Rahul got scared. He thought of telling his parents about it. This time, he thought of switching off the TV and going to sleep without watching it.
3:00 am (three o’clock)
He fell asleep quietly. The next morning he was busy with his day’s work. Now he was not thinking about what happened that night. It was evening. He was getting restless. He had dinner and went to sleep in his room. He was tired from the day’s work. Today he had also switched off the TV early and started sleeping.
It was around three in the morning. That sound started coming. Rahul woke up from sleep. Now he started looking outside but the sound was coming from the kitchen. He went to the kitchen to look. Then this sound was coming from right in front of him. This time the sound was louder. But no one was visible there. Rahul got scared.
He ran from his kitchen towards the room and stopped in the room. The sound was coming from near his room. It seemed as if someone was coming towards him and he was getting more scared. The sound was getting louder.
He screamed loudly.
Hearing Rahul’s scream, his parents came running. When they came into the room, they saw that Rahul was lying unconscious on the floor. His father picked Rahul up from the floor and laid him on the bed. After a while, when Rahul regained consciousness, his mother asked him, Rahul, what happened?
Why did you shout so loudly and how did you faint?
Then Rahul told the whole truth. His father said that you must have had some illusion. There is no ghost here. Now you go to sleep. We will talk in the morning. Rahul slept quietly.
When he woke up the next morning, he told his mother and father about the night. Hearing this, his father thought of performing a puja at home. After performing the puja at home, everything went well for a few days. Rahul’s attention was still on this thing.
Who was that and whose voice was it? No one was visible there.
Burnt Alive
Rahul went to the house of the person from whom he had bought the flat. On asking Rahul came to know that before them someone else also lived on rent in that flat. There were two people there, a man and his wife, who used to quarrel often.
One day that man burnt his wife alive. That man was sentenced to jail and he went to jail. After that the flat remained vacant for many months. And the people around used to say that the ghost of this woman is here and she screams at night. And women’s voices also come from this flat.
Then after a few months, when the situation calmed down a bit, the landlord sent Rahul’s father to the flat. They got late while talking like this. Rahul and his father left for the flat and reached their flat in the evening. But everything seemed fine. Then at night again the same restlessness started.
After having dinner he went to the room. His younger siblings were playing in the other room. After a while, both of them slept. Now it was night. The moonlight was coming on the bed from the window. Rahul was also sleeping soundly.
Then at three in the morning the same sound started coming again. Then Rahul lost his sleep. He came out of the room in fear and said. Who is here? Who is troubling me. Then a loud sound came. You burnt me. Now I will not leave you.
It Was Dark Inside
Rahul’s heart started beating fast. He looked around in fear, but there was no one there. He couldn’t even utter a word. The floor beneath his feet felt like cold ice, and there was silence all around, except for the hissing sound of the wind coming from the window.
Suddenly, the kitchen door opened on its own with a creaking sound. It was dark inside… but in that darkness two eyes, glowing red, were staring at him. Rahul was about to scream when a shadow slowly started moving towards him from behind those eyes.
The shadow’s face was half-burnt—cheekbones exposed, half of the face black and torn, and hair tangled like ashes. It said in a low but terrifying voice—
“Do you think I will leave after Puja? My blood fell here… my screams are trapped here… and now you too!”
Rahul started moving back, trembling. Just then, his parents’ room opened and his father came out with a torch. As soon as the torchlight fell on the shadow, it disappeared in an instant… but the smell of burning flesh filled the air.
The next morning
In the morning, Rahul told his mother and father about the incident. His father was still dismissing it as an “illusion”, but seeing Rahul’s fear, he called a nearby Pandit. The Pandit looked around the whole flat and then said in a serious tone—
“This place is not pure. Someone has died here in great pain. The soul has still not got salvation.”
The Pandit suggested performing a havan in the evening. When the chanting of mantras started in the evening, bubbles started rising in the glass of water kept near the kitchen door, as if the water was boiling, even though the gas was off.
The Pandit stopped while reciting the mantras and said—
“This soul is not ready to leave from here… its revenge is incomplete.”
Mystery of the past
Rahul’s father looked for the news of that woman’s death in old newspapers. The news had written that the husband had burnt his wife after a quarrel by pouring kerosene on her… but witnesses said that the wife was screaming while burning –
“I will come back… I will kill everyone!”
The scariest thing was that the name of the woman in the newspaper was similar to Rahul’s mother’s name.
After the havan, there was peace for a few days, but then the same restlessness returned.
One night Rahul was sleeping, when he saw in his dream that the same woman was standing near his bed, and whispering in his ear –
“Someone else has taken my place in your house… now she has to leave.”
When Rahul woke up from sleep, he found that his mother’s room was closed and a scream was coming from inside. He ran and tried to break the door, but it seemed as if someone had locked the door from inside. Suddenly the door opened and his mother was found lying unconscious on the floor, with a fresh burn mark on her forehead… as if someone had touched her with burning fingers.
Scary ending – The Haunted Echo
Out of fear, the family vacated the flat the very next day. But Rahul could not find peace… Even after leaving Delhi, he started seeing the same burning face in his dreams every night.
One day he spoke to a man from his old neighbourhood on the phone. The man said in a cold voice—
“Hey, even after you left, every night we hear the sound of someone walking in that flat… and a burning face is seen in the window. But the strangest thing… when you guys left, that night we saw a boy with your exact face standing in the balcony of your flat, who was staring at us.”
The phone fell from Rahul’s hand.
He saw his face in the mirror… and for a moment he felt that half of his face was burnt.
