Superstar: Horn OK Please (7 page)

I’d never felt so scared in my life before. Anything beyond human comprehension that delved into the dark and the other side always freaked me out.

As I remembered the flickering apparition in the bathroom mirror, a ghost in black that resembled Jenny, my blood froze again.

It was ironic that the same flickering apparition created the illusion of setting Goose’s room on fire.

It was uncanny that it resembled Jenny. Maybe, Hound and Derek were right about her being in trouble. She was, for that’s how we had found her in the first place.

Her unmoving shadow, the group of undead people in tatters standing with the wolf at the entrance of the cemetery as we left, the graves in the cemetery itself, I was sure that the mansion was connected to the cemetery in some way.

The fact that Hound encountered Jenny’s apparition, the same one as we saw, I knew no one had exaggerated his experience. Only that lucky bastard Derek had gotten real, good action. Hound had been the most unfortunate one.

Maybe, he shouldn’t have opened the balcony door. Or maybe, he should have worn iron thongs instead.

I’d seen it in the movies that apparitions could walk through walls and solid objects. I’m sure this one could do much better, just that this one had more brains and genuinely wanted something from us. Something when we are alive.

Had she wanted, we would all have been dead in an instant. At least, one could safely conclude that she wanted us to live. Or maybe, she just didn’t want to kill us for some reason.

Surely, Jeremy and Nanny, were hiding something from us. If not for a reason, they probably didn’t want the hotel guests to know.

If he really cared that much for Jenny, how could he let Jenny wander two kilometers away from the mansion in a crazy, moonless, wild, stormy night? Was he after her money? Nah! That didn’t seem possible, it surely wasn’t one of those ‘the-butler-did-it’ kind of a scary story we had here.

The evil portrait of Jenny’s great grandpa seemed to be there everywhere. Surely, nobody would have put up that ugly dude’s mug shot all over the mansion in pure reverence. If that were the case, were they scared of him? How come there were no portraits of Jenny’s parents or grand-parents? Why only this evil dude?

Hound had removed that ugly picture from his room and kept it in his bathroom and had gotten into a sticky situation right after that. Goose had covered the ugly painting with a towel. I had covered the painting with my t-shirt. Only Derek hadn’t cared about the painting. While Derek got laid, we got mothered. I concluded that the ugly portrait was a part of all this for sure.

The thumping sound in the seventh room was something we all experienced together just now. Jeremy had lied and that witch-Nanny had nodded in agreement. There was something going on in the seventh room. We would get to the bottom of it. All we needed to do was thump Jeremy around, jiggle his balls a bit and he would rattle out the truth. Maybe, we’ll ask that toothpick Nanny to strip and do a pole dance for Jeremy.

No, that would be too harsh on someone who had given us a week’s free stay. The jiggle approach was more civilized and wouldn’t have us being hauled up by the Human Rights Commission. Shock therapy with the garish Nanny in pink pajamas was ruled out. After all, he was Jenny baby’s cootie-coo uncle. Derek and Hound would thump us if we made her cry. Well, at least Hound would for sure.

So the possibility was narrowed down to the beast of a wolf, the place where Jenny wanted to jump from, Jenny herself, the cemetery, the ugly portrait, the noisy seventh room they called Winston and of course, our two VIPs who would check in tomorrow. Maybe, the awesome library would lend us some clues to the history of this 350-year old dump of a resort. Bloody conmen!

Since the questions arise here, the answers would be here too. That’s one thing I had learnt from my past experiences. This mansion needed some exploring tomorrow. There is a past buried in here for sure. There is no question of leaving this dump without solving this mystery.

Not for love, not for reason, not for money but nobody has the right to pee blood inside my bathtub – especially when I’m inside it. I have a personal score to settle with the apparition.

“Dudes! Are you sleeping?” I asked, as my mind was racing with ideas on how to approach this whole ghostly situation.

“Nope”. ”Nope”. ”Nope”.

OK, so we’re all in the same sinking ship, equally hooked up.

“Good, now go to sleep. Now I know we’re going to nail this fantastic mystery down together”, I said as I rolled over and went to sleep.

I could sense that tomorrow was going to be one exciting day.

***
 

CHAPTER FOUR

***

***

Roses are red and violets are blue,

Hope comes out of darkness; it shines like the morning dew;

The human mind is curious; you can’t comprehend;

If there is an enemy, there is also a friend;

She’d prayed for love, she got what she wanted,

She’d found new friends; they wouldn’t want to see her dead;

She found a reason to live; she found a reason to smile,

Nothing lasts forever; she knew this all the while;

Her joy knew no bounds; her fear knew no end,

But love made it worth it all, she’d finally found a friend;

Hope floats, love hurts; she knew, she gave it all away,

But she was happy; she would live to love and die another day;

She felt happy; her life was complete,

He’d walked into her life, he’d made her heart beat;

The sun shone through, she was a woman now,

A girl no more, she was complete, she was in love and how!

The key to her pain unlocked a dark past,

It didn’t matter for she’d set things right, fought till the last;

But if smiles and Imagination makes you say ‘Cheese’

Drive on, that’s the spirit of Horn OK Please…

***

Waking up alive:

The constant honking of a noisy car created a ruckus in the morning. I pulled up the pillow lying beside me and buried my face in between hoping to get some solace. The previous night had been one of its kind. It had left all of us in such a state where we couldn’t even bat an eyelid. The noise grew louder and louder until it became unbearable.

I groggily got up ramming into almost everything around me. The room was dark except for a thin ray of sunlight that made way through the broken corner of one of the windowpanes. It made a bright spot on the otherwise dark floor. The spot flickered now and then as the sunlight played hide and seek with the foliage. The dust particles left behind a streak as they continued the Brownian motion on the wheels of sunrays.

I pulled the shades and went to the balcony. The door creaked open suddenly letting in a lot of light into the room. It took some time for the pupils to get adjusted to the increased intensity. I finally managed to open my eyes and what I saw took my breath away.

As far as the eyes could see, there were coffee plantations beyond the 9-hole golf course. The leaves glistened with the morning freshness as the sunlight caressed the dewdrops making it look like a field of pearls.

Beyond the plantations, were the tall eucalyptus trees nuzzled up against a thick layer of mist. A long winding road seemed to lead to the estate and I could see a car noisily honking, trying to get a herd of sheep out of a narrow road that led to the mansion.

“Who are those noisy idiots?” said Goose, as he stood behind me, scratching his belly sleepily. The noise seemed to have woken him up as well.

“I’d suppose they are the new guests who are supposed to come in today”, I said, hoping that Hound would be right about them. Maybe, they would know something about the going-ons in the ‘Mansions of the Gods’.

“Ah! There you are, my sleeping beauties”, said Derek, “Here, dunk this coffee and let’s get cracking. Hound and I had been out for a jog around the resort. I must say the place is beautiful! From faraway this resort looks divine, carefully placed amongst the green gold.”

“What? You guys are awake already? Damn! Let me quickly have a bath and get cracking”, said Goose, as he gulped down his coffee. I wondered if I should have a bath.

“I’m not having a bath! I don’t care! Even if I do, it would be with the bathroom door open. No water from the bathroom, for sure, I’d stick to mineral water!” I said, too scared after last night’s bloodbath. Every inch of my body cringed at the thought of plunging into the bathtub that once overflowed with gallons of blood.

“As you wish, Cleopatra, get ready quick. Let’s grab some breakfast and start with Room number 7. I want to see what’s in there. I spoke to Jeremy and he’s getting our rooms fixed today. He was on his way to the local market. He said it was a freak show last night”, said Hound, sipping his coffee.

The coffee brought in some warmth after a horrible train of experiences. It helped a great deal in easing up our minds and providing solace to our restless souls that had been set on fire by the eccentricity of the previous night. I looked outside the balcony.

The sun had already stepped out of the warmth of the night. The chirp of birds coupled with the gentle rustle of leaves made me believe in reality. I let the thoughts of the macabre dance dwindle to a drop that finally tricked down the grey matter.

After a near-bath experience with five bottles of mineral water, we quickly assembled near the breakfast table.  Goose freaked out at the sight of the menu. A small card stuck on the food said,
‘Filet de boeuf en croute’
. Derek Googled up the name, it was a dish made of beef and mushroom stuffed in pastry.

It was as ugly and as tasteless as the pink Nanny herself. I’d rather term it as “Nanny’s revenge”. We rammed in the tasteless breakfast quickly in our mouths and surreptitiously made way to the lobby.

The new guests were not to be seen nor the walking stick of a nanny. Since no one was around, we decided it was the perfect time to see what’s inside the mysterious room number 7. Tip-toeing across the lobby, Goose held the doorknob and whispered, “This is it. If it’s locked, we break it, OK?”

“Go for it!” I said, confident it would be locked. To our surprise, Goose swung open the door with ease and what we saw inside made our heartbeats stop.

Room number 7, Suite room Winston:

Jenny was lying on a four-poster bed, her eyes were closed and she was fast asleep. The room was barren, spare the bed at the center.

On one side stood a good-looking Indian woman in her late twenties. She appeared to be a doctor or at least she masqueraded as one. She checked Jenny’s pulse.

She had a stethoscope around her neck that looked like a garden snake. She reminded me of an old Brook Shields poster where she stands naked with a snake wrapped around her neck. Only difference was that this doctor had her clothes on.

She was dressed in a black gown and a white poncho. She wore white gloves in her palms. With long fingers and hair tied back in a neat bun, she carried an air of sophistication around herself. I figured that she must be the occupant of the other suite room.

The other one was beautiful and attractive Tibetan woman, looked the same age as Jenny. She stood near Jenny’s head, holding on to a prayer wheel and chanting strange prayers.

Matchstick Nanny stood near the door, prayer bead in hand, a pink coffee mug in the other. She had fearful expression on her face, the kind of expression one gets to see in B-grade horror movies.

The balcony door was open and the room was bright and airy. Except for the bed and the ugly, miniature painting of her great grandpa, the vast room had no furniture. It had a wooden floor that blushed with the multitude of dust particles that had comfortably nestled into its crevices.

A peach colored curtain danced with the gentle breeze as it tried to have a fleeting glance at the inmates of the room. Silence seeped in from every corner. 

The doctor looked in our direction as the door creaked open. After the initial shock, she walked briskly across to the door, led us out and closed the door behind her. Her big hazel eyes had an air of authority in them which commanded respect.

“You’re not supposed to be here, please, the patient needs some privacy. You’re disturbing her” explained the Doctor, sounding as clinically calm as possible.

“Is….is she sick?” asked Hound, his voice choked and his face betrayed his concern for Jenny. If Derek was concerned, he chose not to show it.

“She’s fine. Are you Jenny’s friends? The four angels that saved her life? Well, you’re not supposed to be here. You’re not supposed to be a part of this at all!” said the doctor, removing the slithering snake of a stethoscope from her neck and ears.

Hearing the word ‘angel’ being used for the beasts like us was totally off the mark. But I must say, it had a nice effect on us, at least I felt proud to have saved a life. I was quite sure Hound, Goose and Derek would have had inflated chests as well.

“Wow! A snake that can get inside from one ear and come out of the other just to hang limp on her big breasts would surely be one heckuva snake! But it seemed to have died in the doctor’s hands. That made the doctor a real one and not a charlatan, you know, Chief?” whispered Goose into my ear. I turned around and saluted the big, overgrown bird.

“Cut the cackle, woman, tell us exactly what’s going on here. Are you going to tell us the truth or should I march right in and ask Jenny?” thundered Derek, running out of patience as he walked towards the door.

“No! Wait! Don’t disturb her, you’ll make matters worse. OK, let’s go to the Crystal Room. I’ll tell you all that I know”, said the Doctor, completely taken aback by Derek’s impudence. We walked across the lobby and went straight to the reading room.

She settled down on a chair, while we made ourselves comfortable on the couch. Then the doctor spoke, “My name is Catherine D’Silva, I’m a psychiatrist. You can call me Cathy. Jenny is my niece and Jeremy is my husband. That makes Nanny…er…my Nanny. This is a strictly confidential, family matter and I would not have liked to discuss this case with outsiders. But you leave me with no option. No, Jenny is not sick, at least not yet.  There are certain strange events that are happening right now that are beyond medical comprehension.”

She looked around and saw the obvious concern in the room, “We care for her. That’s why I have sought help from Lobsang, a teacher and a spiritual healer from Ladakh. She’s Jenny’s childhood friend. In fact, she is her only friend. She’s come in just here to help Jenny who needs not just medical, but spiritual help as well. Jenny’s about to turn 23 and this is the most difficult time for her…”

Our tiny brains had turned into basket cases within seconds. With this mysterious explanation put in place, our minds were chomping at the bit to listen to the rest of the story as Cathy continued, “OK, Jeremy filled me in with everything that happened last night. Brace yourself to accept the truth. The ghost you saw last night….is actually a ghost. It’s Jenny’s ghost….she’s her Doppelganger…”

“Wow…please elaborate, doctor?” I said, not sure what she meant, as I took out my little black book to note it down, trying to look intelligent and attentive at the same time. Actually, I was wondering if it were some kind of a new drink that tasted like Jägermeister. I’d never tasted a Doppelganger before. This word had certainly put the cat among the pigeons. I could see from the corner of my eyes that others were disturbed as well.

Danger Zone:

“It’s been a family history. When Jenny turns 23 next week; her exact double or her evil ghost double will be able to physically manifest itself in the human form. It will try to kill Jenny and take her place. It’s being formed in her mind. It’s her ‘Fetch’ or her ‘wraith’. It’s a German term and the case that we have here in this family is rare. We’ve kept this a family secret to avoid being looked upon as freaks. Jenny’s Doppelganger or ‘double-walker’ will soon become indistinguishable from her own self and even we would be helpless in telling them apart. That’s why I requested Lobsang to join me. Only she has the powers to tell the Doppelganger apart from Jenny. It’s different from ‘bilocation’ where a person can willingly transport oneself, physically to another location. With a Doppelganger, it’s just a pure manifestation of one’s exact evil double who wants to take your place” Cathy heaved a sigh of distress.

Her eyes looked tired and had a distant look. The mention of the Doppelganger made her suddenly dance to another tune.

“The flickering apparition with black eyes, was that really Jenny?” asked Hound, unable to digest the truth. I didn’t like the truth myself. It was hard to accept that a phantom copy of a real person would be formed out of her mind and turn into an evil human who’d try to kill her and take her place. Jenny was her own worst enemy.

“No, it was Jenny’s Doppelganger. In a way, she is Jenny. She’s not yet fully formed. She shall come into being on Jenny’s 23rd birthday. Just like her mother or her grandmother…. In fact, Doppelgangers are said to appear just before a person’s death. The very fact that she’s started to take shape spells death for Jenny; you’ve seen her! You’ve tasted her evil powers!” said Cathy with sadness strews across her face.

“I won’t let her die, not if I can help her. Tell me, doctor, can her Doppelganger interact with us the way Jenny does?” said Hound. The determination showed on his face. Goose listened on intently as well, he was obviously trying to relate to what had happened with him the last night. I’d say the same about myself.

“Yes, this creature - Jenny’s Doppelganger, can interact with us and we’d think that we’re talking to Jenny.  It is Jenny; no doubt – this is her ghost! It is an exact replica of Jenny. It would mean that Jenny can be at two places at the same time. This evil twin of hers, the Doppelganger, will look and behave exactly like Jenny from her 23rd birthday on”, said Catherine, sad that there’s going to be yet another person who’ll soon be making her journey to her coffin in this cursed family.

“Is there no way we can save Jenny?” asked Derek, leaning towards her, trying to sound as practical as possible. But in reality, even he felt a tinge of sadness.

Cathy looked out the window and spoke as tears welled in her eyes, “I don’t know. That’s why I called Lobsang. Jenny’s life is in danger. She just has a week or two to live before she meets the same fate as her mother or grandmother….or earlier. It’s a curse, I don’t know why…the little angel, she’s done no wrong”, and she sobbed uncontrollably.

Hound walked closer to Cathy trying to comfort her and she hugged him like a baby. I ran out of words as a lump formed in my throat. It had been years altogether since the four of us were on the road. Mountains or sea, ancient ruins or metro cities, we had seen it all.

I could say that the experience of travel had made our hearts strong. But somewhere deep within, I knew that I was wrong. Because today I felt choked as a sudden chill ran through my spine.

Hopelessness:

Just then, Lobsang walked into the room. She looked at Cathy and they exchanged knowing glances. Cathy stopped crying and then she introduced us to Lobsang. We quickly exchanged pleasantries and got straight to the point. A beautiful woman in her early 20s, Lobsang sat down beside Cathy and ignored us, “She’s sleeping now. She won’t remember anything when she wakes up. It’s better she doesn’t learn the truth. Let her die in peace.”