Superstar: Horn OK Please (3 page)

The woman in white had everybody spooked. Hound kept quiet as Motormouth rolled toward the graveyard, barely 100 meters away from the road.  Had the tree not been there, we would have reached the resort within five minutes.

The rain continued unabated as we neared the cemetery. The gates seemed hundreds of years old. They stood tall and seemed to hide an old untold tale beyond those carved balustrades. No sane person would have sought shelter in there, unless of course, one happened to be dead.

It had a ghostly arched magnificent steeple, about 20 feet tall and the heavy wrought iron gate, which was locked. Motormouth stopped and everybody stepped out. It seemed a better idea to take shelter lest some tree broke and fell on Motormouth while driving.

Waddling through the dense patch of plantations, we made our way through an extremely narrow path splattered with overgrown shrubs. The huge, arching trees all around seemed to bend towards us, as though trying to stop us from heading towards the old cemetery.

I stared at the entrance and stood transfixed. The majestic old stone gate seemed to be telling me not to listen to this witchy woman. But thanks to Hound, we were like puppies forced to obey the loony woman’s whim and wish.

“Come with me, there are a few broken grills on the side. If we jump in, we can get to the undertaker’s room near the entrance. There’s a pile of wood and dry twigs kept over there. We can light a fire to keep ourselves warm till we are rescued. The dead ones don’t harm you if you are nice to them”, said the woman chirpily and laughed loudly.

Her laughter was magical and sounded like a thousand bells ringing somewhere far away. She seemed to know the place like the back of her hand. I wondered if she was for human at all.

This must have been home to her – the witch. Goose was spooked and so were we, just that we didn’t show it but Goose could never hide his emotions. This stop did not make any sense to him. In fact, nothing seemed to make sense today.

The very fact that it had started raining and yet we left sunny Goa early morning should have made us realize that today was not in our control. The dark clouds had followed us from Goa right down to this ghastly place.

The rain had only intensified and beaten down mercilessly on us all day long. And now we get to date a loony, air-headed witch whom we saved from drowning just to cozy up in an old, haunted cemetery after a terribly bumpy ride. Unfortunately, picking out this particular estate to chill had been a unanimous decision and I just couldn’t get anyone to blame. So I blamed the beautiful one.

As we tried to find our way through the thorny bushes, she grabbed Derek’s hand and led the way to the corner of the gate. I could sense that Hound didn’t like it one bit when she took Derek’s hand. Sure enough, there were mangled remains of bent rods and barbed wire.

“Be careful, you’ll get hurt”, she said, “We’ll find some dry twigs and firewood inside. The farmers keep them there.” From the corner of my eye, I could see Hound getting very angry with the world all of a sudden. Well, so much for a rescue operation. I wondered if Hound had lost his heart to her.

What was he thinking before he brought her with us? Something was very wrong about her, something not quite right. Not that I’m intuitive or something, but I could smell evil.

We entered a tiny room where we could barely squeeze in. It had a lone window that was locked shut from inside and a broken door that she opened with ease and led us inside. But a dry patch in the midst of nowhere was a welcome sight.

Hound switched on his flashlight to reveal a pile of firewood and twigs, neatly piled and kept at the center of the small cellar-like room. Derek knelt down and used his cigarette lighter and got the fire going. As the firewood started to burn, the room felt nice and warm as we leaned against the wall and I eased up. I could finally see her in full in the fire light.

She had jet-black hair and almond shaped eyes. Her high cheekbones perfectly complimented the cleft on her chin. Her earrings were simple pearls that looked even more beautiful on her. Her upturned nose seemed to lend character to her lean face and her full lips gave a false feeling of her smiling even when she was not.

Her narrow neck was perfectly adorned by a simple gold necklace with a pearl locket that seemed comfortable and happy, resting in the hollow. She wore no bra and her wet, white shirt highlighted her nipples. The shirt hugged her smooth, flat stomach and partially revealed a golden ring piercing.

Her skin was so soft, smooth and white that the flames seemed to love lurching towards her. Derek was checking her out as he moved closer to her, taking full advantage of the cramped surroundings.

“What’s the matter? Feeling cold?” she said, as she saw me staring at her. Suddenly, I felt a sense of warmth that was alien to me. The flames bent towards me, as if on command, just to dry me up. I wondered if this gorgeous woman had bent the flames towards me to match the heat.

Nah! I said to myself, these kind of things happen to foolish people in cheesy horror movies. She was neither a ghost, nor a witch and I’ll be damned if I were superstitious. I didn’t respond to her. Goose leaned against one corner of the wall, trying to light a cigarette using a wet matchbox.

“Use the flame, Dork”, said Derek, as he put his arm around the woman as though trying to protect her from the abundance of stupidity that enveloped the room with us inside. Hound’s eyes blazed brighter than fire. Maybe jealousy is as red as envy is green. After all, he was the one who had ‘rescued her’. He had been the Knight in shining armor, not Derek.

“Tell the truth, woman, the complete truth. If you lie or tell partial truth, we’ll leave you here. Spit it out now. What the hell is going on here? What’s your name?” snapped Hound as he looked at her menacingly. She shifted closer to Derek and held his arm tight. Derek smiled as Hound burned.

“Jenny! My name is Jenny D’Silva. I…stay at the mansion. I’m from around the place. Actually, my family owns the place and pretty much everything around here”, said Jenny, stuttering and stammering, scared that Hound might just bite her.

“OK, so I’m Goose, That’s Derek, the person you’re clinging on to. That’s Chief over there and the dude who rescued you is Hound. You got it? Now we have questions, loads of them”, said Goose, looking at Jenny straight in the eye, as he got the introductions out of the way while playing with a stick in his hands.

“So what were you doing on the bridge in this crazy weather? Why were you standing on the railing? Were you trying to kill yourself?” asked Derek, turning his head to look at her, as he stroked the embers.

She clung on to his arm tighter than before. She seemed worried that he’d leave her if she didn’t speak up.

Jenny stared at the fire and spoke softly, “I don’t know what I was doing there. I have no idea. I don’t know why I do these kinds of things at times. I woke up only when Hound shook me out of my slumber…” As she spoke, the flames leapt higher, as though suddenly coming to life with her breath.

The snap and crackle of the twigs filled the air as the wind howled through the cemetery.

“How come you know so much about this cemetery? Aren’t you scared of this place? This place is for so totally dead people. Did we just make a grave mistake by coming here?” I asked, pointing to the many graves at the cemetery that lay beyond the wall.

The storm was subsiding now but the wind continued to howl. The flames leapt higher as the shadows creepily swayed with the flame. She stared at the fire for some time, as though making the flames dance to her tune. She was going into some zombie state as we heard the howling of a wolf from somewhere far away.

The embers seemed to glow brighter whenever she looked at it. Maybe, it was just my foolish imagination. I glanced at Goose from the corner of my eye. He seemed to be more interested in staring at the wall behind Derek and Jenny. I secretly hoped he would have seen what I saw. The shadows seemed to dance an eerie dance on the wall.

“Speak up, woman! We’re waiting for your answer”, said Hound firmly.

“I know this place inside out. There are 200 graves out there. The graves belong to people from about 350 years ago. I know many families from around the place who have someone buried in here. These dead people talk to me, they tell me stories. They’ve told me horrible stories. I know it sounds crazy, but believe me, they do”, said Jenny, as she looked around to see shocked faces.

Goose burst out laughing and I couldn’t help but smile.

“A whacko!” exclaimed Goose, “I bet she knows that wolf too”.

All of a sudden, the wind died and the howling subsided. It was as though somebody had flicked off a switch up there and the place became awfully quiet.

The rain had subsided too, all that followed was an eerie silence. I would have expected a racket of frogs and insects to follow, but there was no such sound.

“That’s right, Goose. Are there wolves around here, Jenny?” I asked, looking into her jet black eyes. They were as black as the night outside.

“Are you crazy? There are no wild animals in this area. It’s a peaceful village, a small hick town right from the very beginning. My great grandfather changed this place into a prosperous village once he came back from Cambodia and that’s when we took over everything around the place.....why do you ask? Did you happen to see one?” Jenny replied, visibly tensed, biting her lower lip, “There are stories, evil, old tales, ignore them. Fools, ignorant fools….”

I knew she was lying. Or she didn’t tell us the complete truth then.

The sound of a truck stopping at the entrance of the graveyard broke the silence and the sound of banging doors filled the air.

“Jenny! Jenny! Are you there?” shouted a husky voice from outside. We could hear the shuffling of feet running towards the cemetery and the sound of men shouting.

“Yes, Uncle, I’m right in here”, shouted Jenny, quickly getting to her feet. Then looking at Goose, she walked towards the door and waited for him to make way for her to get outside of the room. She then stood under the steeple and waved out loud, “Come, my uncle’s here. He must have been looking for me. They would be clearing the road now. It’s safe to get to the mansion.”

Hound stared at Derek, a face full of question marks. As Goose walked out of the tiny room, he halted suddenly to stare at the dark night, as though something had caught his attention. Goose was staring at something that lay among the 200 graves out there.

One of the graves was very prominent. It stood out in the dark and he flashed his torch to get a better look. There was a statue of a life size angel. Her face seemed to rest on her palm as her elbow rested on the cross. The other hand firmly held a wreath as her drooping wings almost touched the ground.

It was almost like she was trying to say that she had tried her best yet she couldn’t save the person from death. I waited for Goose to be done with his sightseeing and then I had to drag him out of the cemetery.

Jenny held Derek’s hand as they walked ahead of us towards Motormouth. Her Uncle was waving out in relief. His happiness faded when he saw the four of us accompanying her. His helpers had almost cleared the road as he we walked towards him.

“So that’s what the fuss was all about. What’d you make of it, Hound?” Goose asked, dawdling as we watched Jenny hug her uncle.

“I have a feeling that this girl is soon going to need our help. I can smell trouble enveloping this place”, said Hound softly as he took out a packet of cigarettes from his pocket and lit one.

“I don’t know if you guys saw what I saw back in there”, said Goose, holding up the lighter for the Hound. “Maybe it is my imagination but when we were sitting by the fire, I was watching the moving shadows on the wall. While everybody’s shadows seemed to move with the flames, her shadow remained fixed in one place….it never moved”, said Goose.

“Hah! Imaginations of mind! Just shut up!” said Hound curtly, taking a deep drag from his cigarette as we watched Derek open the front door of Motormouth. Jenny got inside the truck with her uncle.

It was close to midnight now and we’d finally be there at the resort. Home and dry seemed like a good idea.

Maybe Hound was right. We’d never acted like this before, worrying about supernatural stuff. I’d never felt like this before, I had experienced fear of the unknown that night.

Maybe, it was the night, since we weren’t the superstitious kind to believe in all this mumbo jumbo about ghosts, spirits and stuff like that. The only spirits we believed in were of the drinking kind.

Hound stubbed out his cigarette and got back inside Motormouth.

As I eased myself in the front seat and fastened my seat belt, I glanced at the cemetery in the dark. I swear I saw many people in tattered clothes floating at the entrance, waving us goodbye.

The wolf was there too, its eyes glowing in the dark like embers. It stood beside a woman who wore a torn gown.

“Hell, maybe, my mind was just playing dirty tricks on me”, I said to myself, as Derek rolled Motormouth back on the road.  The lights from the mansion were visible now. We’d be there in a few minutes.

Pure Evil lurked in the shadows and we were unaware. It was following us.

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CHAPTER TWO

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