Eerie Encounters : An Unknown's Curse

 About the Protagonist

 Shaasha, a software developer aged 25 is the protagonist of this story. Born in India and bought up in Singapore, Shaasha has been a constant topper and this had led to her peers getting jealous of her. Opposed to her liking, she was forced to come back to her birth-nation because of the demise of her maternal grandfather. Seeing the mental state of her grandmother after her husband’s death, Shaasha’s mother decided to settle back in India.

  Like any typical unmarried Indian, Shaasha lived with her parents while she searched for a job. She got lucky enough to land a good job within the first month of her search and her office was at a commutable distance from her home. Her life was going peacefully until this event occurred.

Backstory

 Although her initial days in India were worry-free, eventually she started noticing her family members becoming sick often. She did not head much attention as it started with a common fever but with time, things started getting a lot more serious. Her mother started complaining of severe stomach ache but, despite multiple appointments with the best doctors in the town and prescribed scans, the cause of her ailment was never found. It was not just her mother, but her father had a similar ailment as well. But, for him, it was his head instead of his stomach that had a consistently terrible ache. Imagine a 3BHK condo where 2 bedrooms are almost always filled with your sick parents, this was Shaasha's reality.

 Surprisingly when she left for another city with her parents to attend a close friend’s wedding, her parents’ ailment disappeared magically only for it to return when they returned home. But this time, she started having issues with her vision which caused blind spots in her peripheral. She was barely surprised when even the best ophthalmologists in the city couldn’t figure out the cause. Despite her ailments, she continued to work as that was the only thing that gave her relief from the sorrows.

 One day after finishing her work, she left back home. She left her office by 5 pm and the next moment she saw her watch it was 10 pm. Did she magically teleport herself from the office or was her body being controlled by something else?

Story

 When she returned back home, her parents asked her the reason for turning up so late ( FYI For most Indian households 10 pm is quite late). When Shaasha tried explaining she backed out again for a few minutes and when she came back to her senses, she saw her mom in a stunned state. When she asked, “What happened? “, she replied, “Why did you speak like a guy now?”. Shaasha thought her mother was pulling her leg and went into her room to sleep.

 But with time she started having these blackout episodes quite often. This dented her reputation in her office as she did not know what she did during these episodes. Similar to her mom, her colleagues and friends complained of her speaking like a man and acting strange sporadically. With time, the frequency of her episodes sky-rocketed which caused her job. This, in turn, led Shaasha into deep depression giving her suicidal thoughts. With her parents suffering every day from an unknown ailment and her losing her job, her family eventually became financially weak. She wanted to leave that house immediately as she felt that it was the cause of all the things happening in her life but, her mother did not even show a remote interest in it.

 It was the 40^th day after her grandfather’s demise and a priest visited her house to perform the 40th-day rituals (A ritual done by most Indians). The priest was visibly perplexed when he entered the house and it became even more evident when he looked at Shaasha. The rituals went as planned but the priest’s facial expression never changed. When he was about to leave, he asked Shaasha’s mom to bring her daughter to his place as he felt something was wrong with Shaasha. Her mother obliged and bought her to his place as he had asked. He greeted them and after performing a few rituals he went back to their house with them.

 They were surprised when he asked them about the ailments they were going through, as they did not say anything about it to him. He led them to a place near the house door and asked them to dig the ground to which they obliged. During the process, they found three clay dolls. The dolls had blood on them and they had pins pierced through them. One had a pin on its stomach region, the other on its head and finally the last one on its eye. This instantly made the understand the cause of their sufferings.

 The priest burnt those dolls and told them that they had to perform a few rituals for 48 days. He also told Shaasha that, she was possessed by the spirit which was cast upon their family and warned her saying, “You might die if we try exorcising you, but even if we don’t do it, the spirit will kill you”. She and her family decided to take the risk and proceed with the exorcism. Unlike in movies, no spirit came out of her body during the process but, she stopped having those episodes after the process. Day after day, the family’s sufferings reduced and they completely disappeared by the 48^th day.

Conclusion

 This story is a first-hand account of Shaasha who, along with her family moved back to Singapore and lives there happily. She is a married woman now and was recently blessed with twins. She says she is not sure even now about the identity of the person who used black magic on her family. But, I wish that karma shows up on that moron.