Pulkit Gupta's Blog, page 2

The Deaf Teacher

The old lady had been a teacher at the school for as long as anyone could remember. The sounds of joy and laughter that filled a classroom would turn into a stifling silence within seconds of her entering. Whenever she saw kids talking in huddles, she would think that they were hatching a new scheme to trouble her; whenever she heard kids laughing, she would think that they were laughing at her.

Not to say that she wasn’t good at her job. She was a good teacher. Only, too paranoid. And lately, she’d started going a bit deaf too.

She was in a particularly foul mood that morning. First, she overslept because she couldn’t hear her alarm. Then, her own daughter had told her that she ought to get her ears checked. And finally, she’d almost been run over by a car while crossing the road, because she couldn’t hear it’s honking.

She realized something was amiss as soon as she walked into her class of tenth graders. The room seemed unnaturally quiet.

“Good morning, kids,” she said loudly, with her back to the class as she erased the blackboard. There was no response. She assumed they were trying to mess with her, so she let it slide. She finished clearing the board, turned around and sat on her chair facing her students.

“We will continue our reading of George Orwell’s Animal Farm today. Can all of you please turn to page 47 of your books and commence silent reading?” Again, she received no response. Normally, whenever she asked the class to read silently, tiny murmurs of sound would erupt from the children’s lips as the sincere ones started reading and the rowdy ones started talking to each other while pretending to read. But today, nothing. There was pin-drop silence in the room. For a fleeting moment, she was elated at the thought of finally having disciplined the most notorious bunch of children ever to have passed through the school’s system. Then she saw that there lips were moving like they always did, and yet she couldn’t hear a sound. That’s when she started freaking out.

She got up violently and shouted, “You – first bench. Stand up and read loudly for the whole class”. The kids were shocked at her sudden outburst, and yet the boy she’d pointed to stood up and started reading. His lips were moving, she could even make out some of the words. Only, she couldn’t hear any of them. She couldn’t hear a sound. She walked up to the boy and shouted at him to read louder. She saw his chest heaving up and down and his lips forming words, his eyes fixed on the book in his hands. Everyone else was staring at her, surprised. That’s when she completely lost it.

“Noooooooooooooooooooo,” she screamed as she ran towards the door. I can still hear myself, she thought. What does that even mean? Am I going mad? She decided that perhaps she was. “Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo. I’m NOT going MAD!” she screamed as she exited the classroom and started running.

They knew that they would face detention and their parents were likely to be summoned, but the opportunity was just too good too pass up. And so, as the teacher went out of earshot, the most notorious kids ever to have passed through the school’s system finally burst out laughing.

The Cook

The cook knocked on the door. When no one opened it for more than a minute, he tried turning the doorknob. To his surprise, it was unlocked.

No lights were on inside and it was pitch dark. It looked like the power was out.

“Hello! Anybody home,” he shouted. When he got no answer, he started walking towards the kitchen. He was used to this. The guys who used to live there were lazy bums, mostly holed up in their rooms doing geeky stuff. And if they didn’t find food when hunger made them drag themselves to the kitchen, guess who would get an earful? The cook, of course! But it also worked out better for him. As there was no one to supervise, he could quickly put together something edible and get the hell out of there. And the geeks paid well.

This was the first time the power was out though.

The cook made his way to the kitchen and started looking for a candle to light. Just then, he heard the sound of muffled footsteps behind him. Startled, he turned around and saw someone standing at the door, holding a old fashioned kerosene lantern in his hand. The man’s face was not visible, but he assumed he must be one of the geeks.

“What should I cook today, sir?” the cook asked, cursing under his breath for all the extra effort he would have to put in if this guy asked for something elaborate.

“Make whatever is in the refrigerator,” the man with the lantern replied. His voice was eerily flat and utterly without expression, but the cook paid it no mind and opened the refrigerator. He groped around in the dark till he found a plastic bag. He opened the bag and pulled out what was inside it. Then, he froze.

“But.. but this is a foot. A human foot,” he said. He had turned white and the words were barely coming out of his mouth.

“I know,” the man replied, “I was in the mood for a leg-piece tonight.” He raised the lantern to illuminate his face. He had no eyeballs and his mouth was smeared with something that looked a lot like blood. The cook screamed, dropped the foot and started running, knocking over the eyeless man in the process. A number of candles had miraculously lit up the main hallway of the house and what he saw made his blood curdle. A trail of fresh blood smeared the floor, as if someone with a heave bleed had staggered across the hallway.

The main door was in the direction of the blood trail, but he had no choice but to follow it if he wanted to get out of there. He ran. The door was just around the corner. As soon as he made the turn he froze, and screamed again. One of the geeks was standing beside the door with his face covered in blood and the hilt of a dagger jutting out of his forehead. He was laughing like a maniac. Without thinking or waiting to take stock, the cook threw his weight against the nearest window and landed heavily in the lawn outside.

He staggered to his feet and looked back at the window. A skeleton with glowing orbs for eyes was waving at him. He screamed again, turned around and ran away as fast as his legs would carry him. Needless to say, he never came back.

The sounds of hysterical laughter from inside the house could be heard even after he was long gone.

The Snake and The Ghost

James and Michael had decided to finally take the de-stress trip they had been planning for months. They had managed to get a hold of a cottage in the middle of the woods through a friend at work. It was the perfect weekend getaway. Just the right mix of excitement and relaxation. They would be away from the hustle and bustle of the big city, away from the mundane rituals of day to day existence. And most importantly, away from work. They were really keyed up about it, and quite sure they’d made a great decision even before the trip started.

They left work early on Friday evening, kissed their lovely wives goodbye, and started on their four hour drive. It was dusk by the time they entered the forest road that would take them to their cottage.

When they reached the cottage, they took a small tour of the place and came to the conclusion that it was exactly what they were looking for. The friend had arranged for it to be provisioned for the weekend, booze and all. They cottage had no electricity, only oil lanterns. And they were out of cell phone coverage so there would be no annoying, late night calls from work. They lit one of the lanterns in the room they would share, kicked off their shoes, and popped open the beer bottles. It was a moonless night and the flickering lantern light was throwing all kind of weird shadows. They talked away late into the night, just like they did when they were roommates in college. They reminisced, shared their hopes and aspirations with each other, and bitched about their bosses. Many hours and countless beer bottles later Michael decided that he wanted to go to sleep. James wasn’t feeling sleepy yet so he decided to read for a while.

***

Michael had no idea how he’d got there. He was in the middle of the forest. It was a moonless night, cool and windy. He’d been walking around aimlessly for hours, thinking about something. The only problem was he couldn’t remember what. And now he was lost. His flashlight had almost given out. He decided to conserve whatever was left of it and take a breather. He sat down with his back against the trunk of a tree and closed his eyes.

***

“Ghosts attach themselves to their place of death, existing oblivious to human eyes, till they find the answers to the questions they couldn’t solve in life. For some the questions are so numerous or complicated that they continue existing for all eternity. Really old buildings may be teeming with such ghosts.

Some people claim to be able to channel these ghost’s spirits and communicate with them. Some also claim that they have been possessed by a ghost at one point or another. However, there is no definitive evidence to substantiate these claims”

James scoffed and thought maybe he hadn’t picked such a good book after all. But the eerie lights being thrown by the lantern and the sound of the wind whistling did spook him and made his hair stand on end. He decided he would be best off going to sleep himself and got up to blow out the lantern.

***

Michael had just about fallen asleep when he felt something crawling over his skin. He tried to swat it away but it persisted. He fumbled for his flashlight and turned it on. Then he heard the hiss and saw two pearl black eyes glowing and a tongue flickering barely two feet from his face. Then he screamed.

***

Just as James was getting up from his bed, Michael abruptly screamed and stared swinging his arms around his head like a madman. Or a man possessed. James screamed louder than Michael, dropped his book and ran for the door. He knocked over the lantern in his hurry. Michael saw James run and figured he’s spotted the snake. He jumped up and started running after his friend.

They ran for more than a mile.