Eerie Encounters : Phantom of a Witch

 About the Protagonist

 Jacob a 21-year-old is the protagonist of the story. He is a university student, pursuing a bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering. Born and bought up in Coimbatore, a city in the southern part of India, he had stayed a devout Christian since his childhood. Although religious, he was not a believer in the paranormal until this event occurred.

Backstory

 Jacob’s family was devastated by the news about the death of a close relative. The family had to leave for the neighbouring city to attend his funeral but, Jacob couldn’t accompany them because of his ongoing end-of-semester exams. After dropping Jacob off at the university in the morning, the family left for the funeral as planned.

 Jacob returned home after the completion of his exam and took his usual nap after finishing his lunch. However, as soon as he dozed, his nap was disturbed by the extensive sound of an ambulance’s siren. Pissed off, he plugged his ears and went back to sleep again. Later, that day he was greeted by a visibly perplexed maid who bought him his dinner. She tried to initiate a conversation about something serious but, he politely told her, “I am studying right now, we will talk later”.

Story

 Being the nerd he is, he finished his preparations as always and went to sleep. He was woken up in the middle of the night by an unusual hissing sound and he inspected the entire house to figure out what emitted that sound. The sound eventually stopped on its own and since he was sure that the sound was not getting emitted from within the house, he decided to get back to sleep.

 On his way back to his room, he saw the reflection of a silhouette of a middle-aged woman walking up the stairs to the terrace on a mirror located in the hall. Thinking it was a thief, he took his cricket bat and ran towards the terrace only to find no one up there. He was confused by the occurrence and came back inside the house and locked the house door.

 When he turned back after locking the door, he saw the same shadowy figure he had seen before walking into his bedroom. When he slowly tracked its footsteps into the room, he did not find anyone inside his room as well. He thought he was hallucinating due to his half-dozed state and went to sleep. The next day started as usual but, Jacob was lost in thoughts about the events that occurred the previous night and hence, failed to perform the exam in the way he wanted.

 Although frustrated, he decided to go for a newly released movie along with his friends and then play video games in one of his friend’s houses it was their last exam. He called his maid and informed her about his plans and asked her not to bring food for lunch as well as dinner. His maid obliged but, told him, “Try to come back home as soon as possible kid. If it gets late do not come home. Instead, stay at one of your friend’s house for the night”. Jacob was confused by what he had just heard but without thinking much about it, continued pursuing his plans for the day.

 Despite his maid’s warnings, he returned home late in the night and when he opened the house door, the clock struck 11. Since he had already finished his dinner, he went to his room to sleep as soon as he entered but in spite of trying his best to doze off, he was never able to get into a slumber and the clock eventually struck 12. Feeling helpless, he decided to watch the television until he felt sleepy and went into the hall.

 Just minutes after he turned on the television, the screen started to glitch sporadically and it became grainy. When he got out of the couch to check what was causing the issues, he heard someone bang hard on a window near the couch which panicked him. As he slowly turned to see who it was, he saw the same silhouette he had seen the previous night banging on the window aggressively. He gathered up all his courage, took a kitchen knife and opened the door and stepped out to confront the woman but, what he saw made him understand that he was in deep trouble.

 He saw no one in the place where the figure seemed to be standing but, the sound did not stop. Instead, it got louder and more aggressive than before. He slowly peeked back into the house from the doorway and found the figure still there in the exact same place. Scared to death, he shut the house door and ran back into his room but the banging did not seem to stop. He tried to call his parents but alas, he had left his phone back in the hall. He snuck under his blanket covering his face in horror, hoping for the banging to stop but for over an hour it never stooped even for a minute. Jacob couldn’t take it anymore and decided to enter the hall to take his phone but little did he know that he shouldn’t have done it.

 As he slowly entered the hall the banging stopped all of a sudden but before he could give a sigh of relief, his bedroom door shut close and the figure that appeared to be outside suddenly appeared right in front of him. He tried to shout at the top of his voice but, all that came out of his mouth was air. The shadow figure eerily stood there staring at him and started moving towards him extremely fast. Jacob shut his eyes in fear and the figure disappeared. He called his dad and with tears in his eyes told him, “Appa something seems to be inside the house, where are you?” to which he replied, “Go into your bedroom and don’t come out. We will reach home in 2 hours”. Before he could tell his dad that the bedroom door closed on its own and was not opening, the call ended and when he tried reaching back, his dad’s phone was not reachable.

 Jacob understood that the next two hours were going to be the most nerve-wracking moments of his life and turned on all the lights inside the house. Everything seemed to be calm and he hoped that whatever he had seen did not come again. He sat on the floor in one corner of the room and within moments, the lights started to flicker. Before he could react, a light bulb right above his head burst and all the other lights burst in sequence. Because of his good fortune, Jacob was not majorly hurt but he almost passed out. It was at this moment he heard the voice of a lady whisper in his ears, “Lights cannot save you”.

 In a half-conscious state, he tried praying out loud but he was not able to utter anything. The whispers of this entity continued as it repeatedly said, “Kill yourself and join me” and even closing his ears did not help. The poor lad eventually passed out and was woken up by his parents. They treated the cuts caused by the bulb pieces he had on his body and put him to sleep. A local priest was called to bless the house and they blasted the maid for not telling them about what had happened 2 days back. So, what did the maid try telling Jacob the other day?

 That day, a woman who was accused of practising witchcraft and doing satanic rituals hanged herself in a tree adjacent to Jacob’s house. People saw her walk towards the tree in a tranced state wielding a knife. They said that she threatened to kill them if they tried to stop her. They also said that she did not even flinch as her soul left her body and she did not appear to feel any pain. According to what Jacob says, what made her kill herself still stays a mystery. Luckily, this deadly phantom never returned to Jacob’s house.