Why did that kid committed suicide? How come such a small kid can think of committing suicide? Was it really a suicide? All these thoughts started popping up inside my head.
"Why so serious?" Alvin asked.
"What was the reason behind that suicide case?" I asked.
"I don't know much, all I know is that the kid committed suicide due to hunger." Jedith responded. "I even heard that the kid hung himself on a tree, but now the tree has been cut down because the sisters informed that the tree was haunted." she explained.
"But how….."
"Forget it! All these are bedtime stories for kids. Look at that palace like church." Alvin interrupted.
The car stops.
"Okay! I'll be dropping you all here. If you need me to drop you back again, just give me a call." The driver said.
We came out from the car, all messy. Five beautiful sisters came to welcome us.
"Hello! So, you all are from MacDale Senior Secondary School?" one of the sister asked.
"Yes...and we actually are members of the Socio-Welfare Club." said Richie.
"Hope, you didn't find any difficulty on the way." the sister asked.
"No, everything was fun!" Ms.Urva said. "We bought some gifts for the children and maybe we can help you prepare dinner for them." she added.
Prepare what? Dinner? No, no way! The first thing I'm gonna do is find a room with a comfortable bed and sleep. But that was impossible because Ms.Urva's with us.
"So how many sisters are here with you?" Ms.Urva started with her boring questions.
"Well, only five of us." the reply came.
"Only five? Can you manage the kids with such a small strength of caretakers?" Ms.Urva asked.
"Yes, definitely!" the sister laughed.
We helped ourselves with the big bags full of toys and clothes and entered that big villa, without knowing that this villa will bring misfortunes to us.
The sisters showed us our rooms, the rooms were dark and creepy, some of the rooms didn't have any lights, and the boys got the most dark and creepy room. But I was fine, as long as I get to sleep peacefully. So I did. But again, the children were laughing and playing in and around, disturbing my sleep.
"Lord, why Led's grandpa is sick?" I screamed.
"Led's grandpa? sick? Who said?" Alvin asked.
"She told me, after exams and that's the reason I'm here in her place." I said.
"Oh my god!" he laughed. "Dude, she fooled you, she's having fun with her boyfriend." he showed me Led's instagram story.
No way!!! How can she do this to me?
"Well, good for you!" Alvin said and pat my back.
I cursed myself and threw the pillow at Alvin but it landed outside the room. Again cursing myself I got up and walked out of the room to fetch my pillow.
The corridors were dark, the only light which was making the corridor's path visible was the moonlight, just like the horror movies. Just then I heard a sound of someone humming and saw a shadow laying in the moonlight. Someone wearing a gown like dress, handling a baby. Then after a while, the shadow disappeared, I felt too lazy to chase it, I let it go and that was my first mistake.
"Jim? What are you doing here? Where's Alvin? Ms.Urva's searching for you two. Don't you know we are preparing dinner for the kids? Come let's go." Richie said.
"Ugh! Yeah yeah!" I mumbled and went inside the room to call Alvin.
The path to the kitchen was far enough from our room, we walked for like 2 minutes and then saw Jedith stirring up something, Dona peeling potatoes and Ms.Urva helping the sisters with something.
"Where were you two?" Ms.Urva asked.
"No ma'am, actually I was trying to follow a shadow." I said.
"Shadow? Where?" one of the sister asked.
"Yeah, a shadow….."
"Stop this nonsense and help us with the dinner." Ms.Urva interrupted and scolded me.
I helped Dona with the potatoes, Alvin and Richie started washing the utensils. And that was my second mistake by not interrogating much about that shadow, because all the five sisters were helping us with the dinner. Who was that sixth one? I started feeling strange about this orphanage.
Dinner Time!!!
The kids were banging plates, shouting, playing with the toys and fighting over those old clothes, which were thrown once. I felt bad about it.
The sisters and the girls served the food and we, the boys were running here and there with the water jugs. The kids were so restless and cunning, just to disturb us, they drink the whole glass of water and again ask for it.
I cursed them for that but again took back my curse because my heart melted.
"So, how was the dinner?" one of the sister asked.
"It was gooooooddddd!" the kids replied with full energy. It made me miss the kids of our school.
"Ugh, ma'am you can have your dinner with us." a sister requested.
"Yeah, it's fine." Ms.Urva replied and smiled.
So, we had our dinner together and talked about boring stuffs like donations, children and etc. I tried to finish my dinner as soon as possible, so that I could get out of this boring talks, but no, I had to wait for all of them to finish. (HOSTEL MANNERS!)
"You were talking about a shadow, isn't it?" a sister asked me.* Just what I wanted*
"Yeah, I saw it near our room. I heard like someone was humming a song." I said.
"Ugh, is it? Well, be careful. Do you know the history about this orphanage?" she asked.
"Yeah, I heard a news about a kid committing suicide." Jedith said.
"Yes! You heard it right, we have a feeling that the kid's spirit is haunting this villa." the sister replied.
"No way! You shouldn't be believing in these kinds of stuff." Alvin said.
"Yes, but somewhere somehow I feel that way." the reply came.
The conversation went on for like ten minutes and then we headed towards our respective rooms.
"Spirits? Ghosts? I'd love to see one." Alvin said.
"Yeah! Yeah! Why don't you check the mirror?" Richie commented.
"Don't forget, we are leaving tomorrow at six, early in the morning!" Ms.Urva shouted.
Six? Seriously?
"Yes, ma'am." Richie responded.
"You ready big guy, to wake up at six?" Alvin asked me.
"Guess, I will not sleep today. I will be waking up till six and sleep on the way." I replied.
"Good idea!" Richie commented. "If you feel scare to go alone to the washroom, you can wake us up." he added.
"Sure, no problem daddy!" I smiled.
Alvin was about to blow off the candle.
"No, let it be. I will be waking up." I protested.
"Why, are you afraid of the dark?" he grinned.
"Fuck you! No, it's just that if the room gets dark, I'll feel sleepy." I gave my point.
"Okay! Whatever, wake me up at six then!" Alvin said and covered his face with the dusty old blanket.
I passed my time, listening songs, watching videos and imagining my future. I somehow managed to cross 2 hours without yawning. I tried to memorize the shadow incident for a while and all those creepy stories that the sisters narrated to us. Are they trying to scare us away? Or all these stories are real?
The clock strikes 01:00, and I yawned. Just then, I heard a baby crying. Well, that's what all the babies do. They won't let you sleep, even I was like that once.
I walked out from the room and saw no one was around to hush the baby down. I felt lazy to check the baby, just then I heard a door slamming and a lady came out from that very room with the crying baby, she was trying to hush the baby down. As soon as she saw me, she went inside.
I headed towards that room and saw a sign board saying "No Entry", I felt like I shouldn't break rules and went back to my room and laid down on my bed, played a beautiful song and closed my eyes to sleep. And that was my third mistake.