before I start my story, let me provide a brief introduction of my house and locality. So my house, which is now 25 years old, is located at a small hill town near Shiliguri. the area is quite peaceful with a beautiful view of long hill ranges. a serene beauty indeed. the folks here are nice and friendly too. everything seems really great with a perfect neighborhood at first glance. however if you try to poke your nose in places where it doesn't belong, you would be surprised. so let me start my 1st story... it's about the karbala, the burial ground of Muslims, which is located very close to my house, probably not even 10 minutes walking distance. as a child, I used to go play in that burial ground. some other children from locality also used to join me in the game. my dad would accompany me there every afternoon at about 4 pm and we would return home before the sun sets (a rule set by my grandma), at about 5.30 pm.

one day dad was down with a bad fever so I had to go there to play without him.. it was even more fun to play without a guardian around. so I played and played and didn't notice when the sun had already set.. finally one of my playmates remembered it was time to return home. it was when I realized I need to return home all by myself today and my friends live the other way so they can't accompany me either. it was only then when I started getting cold shudders that I have to cross the burial ground all alone in the evening since there was no other way to my house. I thought about asking my friends to be with me until I cross that muddy road on burial ground completely, but when I turned around to ask them, I noticed they were already gone.

The slightly cold evening air, which was blowing even two minutes ago, has come to a pause. there were no birds returning home or even chirping from the nearby trees. no sound of crickets or frogs from the lake beside the burial ground. it seemed there was an absolute unbearable stillness. I started feeling like I my breathing was becoming heavier even when I m only standing still. I knew I have to run and cross the road before the remaining sunlight completely disappears. I made up my mind and started running. if I walk, the road should take 5 minutes to cross and if I run, it won't be more than 3. However that time I ran and ran but the road refused to end. while running I could see the end of the road, the end of the burial ground, not even 20 metres away. but I couldn't reach it no matter how hard I run. while running I could see the darkness covering the sky little by little as the dawn ended. Even if it was hardly 6.15 pm or something, it seemed like midnight, with thick fog covering the faraway trees first, then the lake, the fields, the green graves, and finally the road. I could no longer see 2 feet ahead of me. the temperature seemed to have dropped quite a lot too . I realized I m gaping and my feet felt like lead. I could run no more. I stopped and closed my eyes and kept hoping that my family would come searching for me and will find me here soon even if I m unable to reach the end of the road.. I waited and waited.. but no sound, no movement anywhere.. only the fog seemed to be getting thicker and enveloping me.. it was when I suddenly felt a jerk in my left knee and unable to keep my balance, I fell on the grass patch beside the road. it was when I felt something cold and metallic in my left hand. grabbing that metallic object, I brought it near my eyes to realize that it's a old copper coin. i don't know why but I felt like I finally found my string which would rescue me from this hell. I hold it in my hand strongly and stood up on the ground only to realize that the fog covering the surroundings have mysteriously disappeared. I gathered some courage, took a long breath and started running again. only this time I crossed the road in barely 2 minutes. I didn't stop even after I crossed the Karbala, didn't look back and ran straight to my house. Returning home, I told my parents what happened, but they obviously didn't believe me. can't exactly blame them. who would believe I ran for more than a hour to cross a 3 minutes road!? and who would believe I found a 250 years old copper coin from the grass patch of a burial ground! weird isn't it? this is only the beginning of the series of mysterious events I faced there... so stay tuned since the mysteries will only get thicker