Eerie Encounters : "I shouldn't have opened that dreaded box"

About the Protagonist

 Salim a 21-year-old is the protagonist of this story. He owns an antique store and has a good hold on the market. He belongs to a well-to-do family of 7 which is made up of him, his parents, his two younger sisters, his brother and his brother’s wife. He is a pious Muslim with good knowledge of the paranormal.

Backstory

 While unpacking the store’s goods, Salim stumbled upon a puzzle box. The box emitted strangeness but it looked equally interesting. Overcome by his inquisitiveness, Salim tried his best to open the puzzle box but, despite his best efforts, he couldn’t crack the puzzle box. Frustrated, he even tried to break it open but it just wouldn’t budge.

 Since he was quite good at puzzles, his inability to open this puzzle box hurt his ego. As a result, the box became his obsession. One day, while he was messing around with the box, it started emitting a foul odour. Things started to grow darker after this event as Salim started hearing seductive whispers of a woman almost all the time. Along with the whispers, he could at times, feel the breath of someone on his neck which affected him mentally.

 The whispers never stopped and at night he could sense some invisible entity touching him sensually. As a result, Salim struggled to even get a good night's sleep which affected both his personal and professional life. These whispers persuaded him to open the box and he persistently tried to open it like a madman hoping that the whispers would stop if he opened it. Eventually, the whispers started giving him clues for solving the box and using those clues, Salim successfully opened the box. He was elated when he opened it, however, what he couldn’t comprehend was why the whispers helped him in opening the box.

 As soon as he opened the box, the seductive whispers he heard until then ceased as he had hoped. But, when he inspected the stuff inside the box, he was filled with remorse. As he stood there staring at the things the box had inside it, he saw the silhouette of a woman in his peripheral. When he turned to check it out, there stood no one. So, what did he find inside the box? It had a severed tongue wrapped in white cloth, a few strands of hair which appeared to be that of a female, a piece of paper that had something written in Urdu and the interior of the box had blood stains all over it. He immediately closed the box again and threw it inside a nearby pond. Although the whispers stopped after he opened, other terrible things commenced.

Story

 That night, after many days, Salim got to sleep peacefully but, he was woken up in the middle of the night by his father’s screams. When he rushed to his father’s room to investigate, he saw his father in a panicked state lying on the floor. He kept staring at Salim and passed out. He was rushed to a hospital where they declared him dead. While drowning in the sadness of his father’s demise, Salim had one reverberating question in his mind; “Why did he keep staring at me?” was the question.

 The death rituals of his father were performed without any hurdles but Salim constantly kept seeing the shadow of a woman in his peripheral. But, because of the mental state he was in, he did not head much attention to it. A few days later, when he was returning home on his motorcycle, he saw a woman standing on the road all alone. Since it was late in the night, he stopped near her and offered her a lift to which she agreed. After a few minutes on the saddle, when he looked into the mirror of the bike unintentionally, the woman who got on his bike was missing. Figuring out something was wrong, he did not stop and went to his home.

 When Salim reached home everyone except his brother was already asleep. His brother was visually upset and as he was trying to console him, he heard a knock on the house door. When Salim opened the door, he saw his brother standing outside his house. As he quickly turned back to see the chair in which his brother was sitting, he found no one. Salim couldn’t put together what was happening and explained what had just happened to his brother. To his surprise, his brother did not react much and with a malevolent smile told, “Thank you”. After saying this, his brother vanished right in front of his eyes. Before he could react, he heard the sound of his brother yet again. But this time, it was coming from his bedroom and it was actually him.

 The next morning, he was woken up by the wailing of his mother and sisters. When he left his room to check what was happening, he saw his brother’s lifeless body on his bed. An autopsy revealed that cardiac arrest was the cause of his death. Two frequent deaths were too much for Salim and his family to handle and this pushed Salim into depression. Later that week, one of Salim’s sisters told him, “Brother, something is following me in the house”. He empathised with her fears and told her, “I’ll have the house blessed tomorrow”. But, little did he know that she won’t be alive the next day. Yes, the remaining members of his family were found dead the next morning.

 Salim couldn’t handle the pain and tried to end his life but, despite multiple attempts, he couldn’t kill himself. The seductive whispers returned along with the sensual touches. But this time, it was more physical. He says that he was literally sexually assaulted by the invisible entity. Despite checking with multiple exorcists irrespective of religion, he couldn’t figure out what the entity is nor drive it away from him. He still lives through the agony helplessly.