Short story ( I am here ) - By Saranya

 I am here

A single-story bungalow quite far away from the city side, nice and spacious land inside, a private area which have a beautiful swimming pool to cool off, big sliding windows which enhance the view of the house. Sam a young and handsome tall guy bought this bungalow five years after he graduate from Kings University. He is a dentist who loved his profession, and he love his mom ‘Sara’ more than anyone else. This beautiful house was his mom’s selection, so he bought the bungalow for her Sixty years old birthday. Sara knew, all her hard work as a widow mom had paid off by raising a wonderful son who love her more than anyone. What could she ask more, but to be proud.  Few years later, one fine evening, Sam sprays his Sauvage Dior perfume on his red cotton shirt tucked in with black mid-rise jean and a shining Gucci belt, with full of excitement he is getting ready for his work colleague Josh’s birthday. Along with amazing charm on his face and manly style in his walk, he gets into his car and start the engine and took off for the party. While he is driving on the way to the party, the weather is all cloudy and purple lightning strikes in the pitch black sky, he saw a dead crow on the road that he passed by, he immediately stops his car, his heart felt heavy because in Sam’s culture they believe seeing this kind of incidents will bring bad luck. Sam’s heart pounded a second, but he doesn’t want anything to ruin his good party mood, so he continues driving.

In less than an hour, Sam arrives at Josh’s house, but he struggles to find a parking lot since there are many people attending Josh’s party. After a while of searching, he found a parking far away from Josh’s house and the place seemed so quiet and no car parked at that area, since Sam is a bit late he doesn’t want to search for any other parking slots, so he quickly parked at that place and walk to Josh’s house with his nicely wrapped gift. As soon as he entered the party Josh came and gave Sam a big hug and said that he is so glad to see Sam and they’re going to have a lot of fun tonight. Just when they both were having a fun conversation, Josh notices a red pearl bracelet was sticking on Sam’s Derby Shoe and ask Sam about it. Sam cluelessly take the bracelet off his shoe and says that he doesn’t know anything about it, maybe it’s his mom’s, and he will go home and ask her about it, he gently keep that bracelet in his pocket and continue to enjoy the party. Sam was amused by the DJ and dancing with a slice of Hawaiian pizza on his hand, having several glasses of wine. ‘Ding dong’ the clock strike at twelve, Sam instantly rubs his forehead realizes that he has to get home because mom will be waiting for him, she will not sleep before he heads home!

 Sam made his way through the crowd and before he leaves, he say one last round of goodbye to all his colleagues and give Josh a big hug with full of happiness in his face, then Sam leaves the party. He walked to his car that was park far away from Josh’s home. In that dark night a deep overwhelmed scent of flowers reaches his nostrils. He reaches his car with full of ambiguity of where does the smell coming from. Then he took out his phone and turn on the torchlight to search his car, and he look up the sign board written Marylebone cemetery. A place where even the night itself refuse to touch it, the unnatural cold and wet air and deep howl of wolf out of nowhere made Sam trembled and he quickly gets into his car and wanted to drive off that cemetery, but his car engine is just not starting, fear squeezing his breath from the lung, he tried and tried, then for fourth time finally the engine started, he quickly take off without looking anywhere.  He is on the route to home, driving with a sense of peace that he left that grave area. Out of nowhere, there is a rotting, cold flesh, sour stench hit him hard, made Sam couldn’t think what is that smell, unknowingly he looks at his rear-view mirror and saw a little girl with tilted head, tear skin and blood all over her white dress, staring at Sam with a disturbing smile on her face. Sam’s eye opened wide and fear is stopping him from blinking, he is screaming loud but no voice coming out from his throat, his face gone stiff, his whole body started to sweat like he ran 10 km. Just when he looks in front at the road and look back at the rear view mirror – the creepy little girl is no longer there. He doesn’t dare to stop his car, all he ever wanted for now is to drive home as fast as he could without looking back.

By the time he reached home its already midnight 2a.m. He quickly takes his shoes off and run into his house. Even at this hour, his mom ‘Sara’ was sitting on the couch and watching movie, waiting for Sam to get home. “Oh Sam, finally you are home, why are you too late today, taught you will be home at 12a.m.” she said. Sam is still trembling with the incident that he saw in his car backseat, he couldn’t even speak a word when she is talking. Sara notice’s something is wrong because Sam never ignores her, and he stand still when she is talking to him. So, she asks Sam to come and sit with her on the couch. So, he came and sat with her, but his hand is still shaking and the sweat from his forehead is slowly dripping down. “Look at me, what’s wrong? my boy, you have to tell amma, I will always be here with you despite what happened so don’t worry just spit it out.” Sara said. Sam looks at his mom with full of fear in his eye and his voice stuttered “I saw, I saw, I saw a ghost, in our car backseat when I’m driving home from the party, it was so horrible I can’t even describe how it looks, it just looks like straight away came out from slaughterhouse!” Sara looks at Sam with disbelieve in her eye, she told Sam that “maybe you are just too drunk my boy, so maybe you got some hallucination, go take a shower and sleep we will talk about this in the morning.” Sam is really mad that even his mom is not believing what he said, he quickly stands up from the couch with an anger in his footstep he went to his bedroom. Despite Sara disbelieve, with a heavy heart she went to her room to sleep. Sam gets into his room and going for a shower, he take of his clothes and just when he take off his pants he feels something in his pocket and when he take it out, it was the red pearl bracelet, despite his confusion of where is that from he just put the bracelet on the dressing table and went for a warm shower. Warm water stream showered on his head, steamed up the mirror, the image that he saw in car was flashing in his eyes he couldn’t stop thinking about the incident in his car back seat, he quickly scrubs the soap and wash himself and get out of the shower. He silently went to bed with a heavy heart.

 ‘Bang Bang Bang’ loud door knocking sound as if the door would split in half, assertively woke Sam up from his deep sleep. He didn’t get off his bed, instead he was staring at his door, he then lay back to go back to his sweet dreams, few minutes later ‘Bang Bang Bang’ loud door knocking sound again, Sam woke up and slowly walk towards his bedroom door, sweat went all over his face, he’s hand hesitantly reach the door handle and he open the door in fast pace and he take a look whereby there is nothing outside of his room, he finally exhaled as if he was holding his breath for hours and close his bedroom door. The moment he turns back to walk back to his bed, his eyes opened wide, and his lips shivered when he sees wet footsteps as if someone walked in his room. He followed the footsteps and suddenly the footsteps started to appear, the wet footsteps keep running here and there. Run, is the only sound in his head but his leg refuses to, so he screamed his lungs out but there is no voice coming out from his throat , fear grabs him tighter than any rope could, he collapse on the floor and the last thing his blurry vision caught, was a little girl with long black hair and blood stained long dress staring at him with a tilted head.

 Sun rises, half sunlight entered the room by from the partially opened window, Sam’s mom woke up from her bed, her bare feet touched the cold floor, she slowly walks out of her room and walk up through the staircase, her knee struggles, but she keeps going. Step by step, she arrived in front of Sam’s room. She knocks on his modern wooden door; she knocks and knock again there is no response. Then, she proceeds to open the door by herself, “Sam! What happened to you! Sam, wake up!” She quickly knelt beside him, shaking him, tapping his cheek, slowly Sam opens his eye, he saw her face, he quickly wrapped his arm around his mom, he hugged her tightly, with a trembling voice he said “ma, I saw it again, I am scared.” Hearing her son’s trembling voice made her heart heavy, she holds him closer to her chest, brushes his hair gently “Amma is here, you’re safe now.” Then Sara asks Sam to go and shower and get ready, she wants to bring him to a place. He slowly stands up from the ground and when to his bathroom and opens the shower. Just when Sara about to leave his room she heard a loud scream from the bathroom. “Argggg!” Sam ran out of the bathroom with his towel on, but his eyes are filled with tears. Sara asks him that did he saw the thing again. He replied no, but he turns around and show his back to his mom. Her eyes opened wide when she saw razor sharp five claw marks scratched on the back of Sam’s body. Sara asked Sam to put on his shirt and come down to the doorway, she will start the engine of her car. After a while, Sam gets ready and gets in the car, Sam quietly sat in the front seat of his mom’s blue Kia car. Sara holds his hand tightly and give him a hopeful glance, then she starts off the car, Sam keeps glancing out the car window trying to guess where his mom is bringing him. “Ma, where are we going?’’ Sam finally asked. “To temple, the temple where we used to go and worship the god there since our ancestors time,’’ she replied. He sighs in relieved knowing he is going to meet the priest.

 They arrived at the temple; they washed their leg and went inside the temple. Inside the temple was fully vibrant and positive aura felt around the temple. There was a priest sitting at the hall of the temple. Without wasting a second, they both went straight to him. The priest was meditating: the moment the priest opened his eyes he saw Sam and Sara sitting in front of the priest. The priest looked at Sam for a long moment. The priest asks gently, but very firmly “Is it keep bothering you?” Sam was shocked by the priest’s question and gave the priest an unbelievable look then proceeds to nod his head. The priest then asks Sam to tell him everything that happens from the start. Sam put his hands together and started to tell what had happened “ I first saw it at my car , it was sitting behind and staring me with a creepy look …then the next day when I was sleeping I heard a knocking sound and there was no one outside, just when I close my door and turn back to my room I saw wet footstep chops running here and there in my room, I get aroused and scared and I fainted, before my eye close I saw a little girl staring at me with a creepy smile.”  The priest asks as if Sam is sure whether, that’s all that happened. Then Sam’s mom interferes and her eyes full of tears saying that something deeply scratched Sam in the back, and she assumed must be that thing who did it. The priest then proceeds to ask Sam whether he stepped on something recently when he walk. The priest then asks, “or did you take something home that is not yours?’’ Sam remains silent for a second, he scratched his head and quickly reply to the priest “Yes.” He then proceeds to talk about the day he went to party, that day is when all these started. He told the priest that it was pitch dark, so Sam parked his car unknowingly at a cemetery, and he only knew that when he was about to get into his car. The priest then continued to say that “parking in graveyard itself may not bring you such a trouble, think properly did you take something home that doesn’t belong to you?” “Oh yes, the bracelet” Sam said loudly. Sara is confused and she ask Sam about it. He then tells her about the bracelet and the priest heard it as well. Priest face turns red he quickly stood up “show me the bracelet” he extends his hand towards Sam. Sam inserts his hand in his pocket and realize that it’s in his room, so he told the priest that the bracelet is not with him now. “This is dangerous, quick! we have to leave. Sam you must take the bracelet” and “bring me to the graveyard now” priest’s said with loud and serious voice. Big wind blows when they leave the temple. Despite that, they quickly get into Sara’s car heading to home to get the bracelet.

 On the way, Sara is exceeding the speed limit, soon they have reached their home the sky turned dim even though the sun is still up, Sam quickly ran into his house, and he took the bracelet quickly and when he is running back to the car he fell from the stair case and hurt his knee but still his hand is still holding the bracelet tightly, he slowly stood up and limp walk to the car. He opens the car door fiercely and sit in the front seat. He passed the bracelet to the priest’s hand. Priest got piloerection and stumbled back when he holds the bracelet, “Swamy ji what happened to you.” Sam and Sara echoed. As the priest hold the bracelet, he closed his eye then an imaginary picture starts playing in front of the priest. In his blurry imaginary vision, he saw a mother is feeding a little girl rice meal, at the pouch of their old wooden house then the little girl saw a kitten on the road so the little girl quickly ran to get the kitten, just when she get the kitten on her hand she gave it a hug and wanted to bring back to show her mother. “Mommy!!!!!!!” a loud scream. A huge truck hit her little girl in front of her eye. The plate of food slipped from her hand to the ground and she ran to save her baby girls, she knelt beside her little girl who was covered with blood all over her body, “Lily!!! My baby!’’ She cried her soul out; Lily’s head was tilted and her neck was broken and her eyes were still open. Ambulance arrived, the nurses check her pulse and confirmed that Lily had passed away. Suddenly her mother held her hand to her chest and laid down with wide opened red eye filled with tears. Then the nurses and everyone in the ambulance proceed to bring the two bodies to the hospital. Soon, the hospital management arrange morticians, then morticians arrive at the hospital they took Lily and her mom’s bodies and bring them to Marylebone cemetery for grieving process. Later after a while, six morticians arrive at the Marylebone cemetery they began to carry them both out of their hearse, just when they proceed to transfer their bodies into the coffin, Lily’s bracelet that was a special gift from her mom fell from her hand to the ground in front of the cemetery. Subsequently, when they were closing the top of the coffin, they saw both of their eyes were unclosed the morticians saw an unpeaceful soul in their eyes. The morticians didn’t notice the bracelet that fell on the ground, and they carry both coffins inside the cemetery and bury them.

 The vision ends and the priest opened his eyes wide, he’s eyes seemed red and hid face turns stiff “This bracelet never meant to be disturbed by anyone, this bracelet was bind with a restless spirit in it, this is very dangerous for us to touch, it will make some soul… to not sleep in peace, they will follow you when you break the seal” the priest said with strained tone. Then the priest holds the bracelet tightly and start to chant his mantra, when they were on the way there was a little girl standing in the middle of the road, the priest then said “Never stop the car no matter what! Until we reach the place!” Sara’s hand was shaking when she sees all the obstacles on the road but she grabs the car staring tightly and ready to face anything that stops them from reaching the place. After an hour of rough travel, they arrived at Marylebone cemetery. The priest quickly gets off from the car, he then opened the back bumper of the car and took out a big bucket of holy water, lots of yellow flower and green lemons which was used to worship the gods at his temple. Sam and his mom Sara standing near to the priest and watching him preparing the things he brought from the temple. The priest then places the bracelet back to where it exactly fell, he then asks Sam to sit without facing the bracelet’s angle and he starting to pour the holy water that had flower and lemon mixing in it on Sam and began to chant louder and firm prayer. For each pour of the holy water, Sam’s body tremble and shivered and the whole bucket of holy water is poured finished and the priest then ask Sam to stood up. The priest told Sam that “it’s over, you should never come back here at any cost, now you may leave, but remember, until you reach home you should never turn back or look back no matter what!” Sara insists to drove the priest back but he refused, he told Sara that it is impure to enter the temple after entering the graveyard “Don’t worry about me, I will walk home, but remember Sam, you must not look back until you reach home.”  Sara and Sam gets into their car and take off, while on the road home Sam heard a whispery low sound “laa,laaa,lala,laa”, he remembered the priest’s words and did not look back then the sound is gone for a while, then a finger is touching Sam’s ear unsettling, low and eerie sound whisper in his ear “ are we going home Sam?” Sam’s face turns red and Sara noticed it while driving, she told Sam with a smiley face, to relax and it’s all over nothing is going to haunt him anymore. Sam couldn’t speak a word of what is going on with him right now, he swallowed hard and wait for the road to end and reach home. 

The sun is set, darkness spread all over the sky but the moon spread a bright light and they reached home. Sam went straight to the couch and laid on it, his eyes was sorrowed he can barely move his leg, Sara sat beside him and sigh “I am so relieved now Sam.” “Ma, I think nothing could have solved if you didn’t take action, thank you, I love you ma” he said it with gratitude. He then hugs his mom and say goodnight and went back to his room to take a shower before he sleeps. Sara watches him going back to his room with a happy face, her eyes filled with happy tears. She gets off the couch, she turns off the hall lights and went to her bedroom. Then, it was 12 a.m in the midnight, Sam is resting on his bed and scrolling on social media before he gets to sleep, then he heard someone knocking on his door, he assumed that it’s his mom so he replied from his bed without opening the door with a loud and peaceful voice “Yes ma ?” Then a voice from outside his bedroom “Sam, its mom open the door.” He then put his phone away and went to open the door, he opened the door and it was all dark and his mom was not there he echoed ‘Maa?’ Since no one is there, he closed his door and turn back to his bed, his heart beats fast, he stumbled backwards when he saw the wet footstep of someone walked into his room again.

 

                                                                       The   end