It was a cool dark night. Robinson was walking along the road tired after a whole day’s work in a factory. He works in a automobile factory at Africa. He was walking feeling quite fatigued. On this day, he had a dispute in his factory. His boss, Mr. John Simpson, will not allow him to leave one hour early from office. He has vomited food 2 times. He is working in the morning shift. His shift starts from 7 a.m. It ends at 4 a.m. but due to work pressure in spite of his sickness, he was asked to stay till 5, which is his scheduled time. He loves to make dare devil acts. He is never afraid of ghosts.
Robinson has to walk 15 minutes to reach his office. The road that leads from his factory to his house is through a jungle. The jungle does not have ferocious animals but it has deer, hyena, etc. The sun was about to set. The sky was red with the setting sun looking like an orange ball in the sky. He did not get a good salary. So he had to live as a bachelor. As he was walking through the road in the jungle, a black cat passed by. Not very far from his sight, he saw a very old house. The house was very old. The wall has lost its plasters. There is a graveyard at the back of the house as can be seen from the cross signs around the field. There is a smoke around the house. Nearby there is a tribal village. The Santals live there. In the evening, they are singing and dancing around a fire. The house is a two-storied building. The ground floor has 2 rooms and the top floor has two rooms.
In the ground floor, he heard someone crying. He went in search of the individual who is crying. He saw a small child is crying. He asked the child who was wearing a blue T-shirt and a black half pant. He asked him, “Hey! What are you doing here??” The child replied, “My parents left me here and went away!” Then he started crying. Robinson consoled him. He asked, “Where do you live?” He replied, “I live in the Hottentot village not far from here!” Suddenly he saw the child’s face turn red and stony. The child then started to shout in a harsh voice, “I am going to kill you!! Get out of this house!!” Robinson though not afraid of ghosts, was somehow frightened. He came out of the room.
He went to the next room. It was an old room, which is poorly lit. A candle is lit on the table. Beside the table there is a bed. In the bed, a man has been sleeping. He is huge, muscular in his late 20s. His face is covered with beard and he has a big moustache. His eyes are red as he stared into the eyes of Robinson. The man asked, “Hey who are you?” Robinson replied, “I live nearby….just passing along the road….. and entered this house!!” The man said, “Do not enter this house!! Do you know a murder occurred 10 years ago in this house? This house belonged to a wealthy person. He died in a car accident while he went to a trip at Darjeeling. His wife also died. His son also died. But his son and the landlord loved this house so much that their spirits wander till today!!! It is frightening to see baby crying. Many people have seen headless bodies wandering around the area. Many people have also seen people disappearing. Sometimes their dead bodies can be found in the jungle. When people walk through the nearby jungle, they often hear the sound of a song. It is being sung by the lady who died in the accident in Darjeeling. The man’s elder brother used to live in this house. His brother had a son, wife, and a grandmother. His son died of cancer. His grandmother died due to old age. But the most unusual incident was that of his wife. She died in an unusual way. One day he saw his wife’s throat was split and blood was flowing from it. The entire area around the body has become red with blood. She was also stabbed from the back…..” After listening to these stories, Robinson asked, “What are you doing in this haunted house?” He replied, “I am his elder brother! I am staying here to restore my brother’s property. Though I know repairing this house will need a lot of money, I am just living in this house as I have a mental tie with this house. In this house, I used to live with my brother and his family. Now no one is here…..only me …..” Robinson asked, “ What do you do?” He replied, “ I am working with the tribal development. I am a civil service officer. I do a government service. Would you like to stay one night in the house?” Robinson thought for a moment and replied, “ Okay! But the house is dangerous to live!! I think there are ghosts in it!!” The man replied, “ In the top floor, there is a room with a double bed….We will both sleep in that room. Don’t worry if anything happens, I am with you!!” He asked the man, “What is your name?” The man replied, “My name is Joseph!”
Joseph gave Robinson something to eat. After dinner, they both went to the first floor. The room was quite old. It was not painted for a long time. As they entered the room, a few bats came out from the room. Robinson was frightened to see this. Joseph gave him a pillow. The bed was a nice one. He fell asleep. In the midnight, he saw that Joseph is not there beside him. He heard some noise from the ground floor. He got out of bed and went near the window. He saw Joseph was beating a man. He then stabbed the person at the chest!! The man screamed and Joseph stabbed him again and again. He then sucked blood from the neck of that person. He was also horrified to see Joseph cutting the dead body into pieces and eating them. In his life, he first saw cannibalism. He had seen cannibals of Papua New Guinea only in National Geographic Channel. This frightened him quite a bit. His throat became dry. He went to the terrace and with the help of drain pipe, just came out from the house. He ran fast to reach his house.
After reaching his house, he breathed heavily. It was a horrible day he had ever experienced. He loved to write something every day in his diary. So he wrote down this horrible incident in his diary. Suddenly he heard a knock at the door. He opened up. He saw Joseph standing with blood coming out from his face. He saw Joseph smiling. He was afraid to see two horns at the two sides of his head. He had read about devils but for the first time, he is seeing one of them!! Joseph said, “ Only you can save me from this state!! Please chant whatever has been written in the paper.” He did what Joseph told him. Then he was surprised to see Joseph became a normal person. Joseph said, “A magician gave me this remedy. He once said that a good friend can only help you from this curse!! Actually when I was on a trip to Darjeeling, I laughed a saint who was removing ghosts from a person!! That saint cursed me!! For this reason, I became a devil and wandered in that haunted house…..Thanks for saving my life!” Robinson asked, “What will you do next?” Joseph replied, “I work as a telesurgeon in a hospital at Somalia.” Robinson asked, “What is a telesurgery?” Joseph replied, “A telesurgery is doing an operation with precision with the help of instruments that is through robots without the hands of a surgeon. The surgeon operates it with the help of a sophisticated computer. I learnt this surgery recently a few months ago when I went to New York for my special training. Anyway, nice to meet you. Bye.” Robinson asked, “Where are you going now?” He replied, “ I am going to my home at Zimbabwe where I live with my son and wife.”