Time to be Creative: Five-Word Fiction #03 | That Strange Helper

I am definitely ready, as always, to take part in this contest. I love giving an extra boost to my imagination power to knit my story according to the prompt words provided by @damithudaya in STEEM FOR BETTERLIFE Community. If you're interested in participating, you can join the contest-

HERE

My Selected words are - River, Party, Old, Village, Skeleton

Source edited in paint
Me, Dabu, and my brothers Ashu and Parde used to go to our grandmother's house during summer vacations every year. Our village, Sona, is a beautiful place in the rural area on the bank of the River Sona, with a big garden and a temple, and this garden is close to the cremation center. Grandma told us we should not go there as the souls of dead people come to wander there during the night.

I remember that it was almost 40 years ago when we went to our grandmother's village with our mother. I was probably 12; my brothers were 10 and 8, respectively, and we three did everything in the house, the garden just in front of our house, and in the church close to the river bank for the entire day that irked our grandma.

Incidentally, our grandma's house was the only house in that area, a little away from the rest of the houses in the village. Most people never visited our house after the evenings unless they had some urgent work. For that reason, the atmosphere around our house became a little scary as soon as the sun set.

My grandma always told us to avoid going out at night, as even she went out to the village only when there was an urgent need to do so. Grandma wanted to change her house and get a new house in the main village, but she could not do it due to a lack of money.

When we visited our grandma's house in the village during the summer vacation, we always made a lot of noise, but that would end as soon as the sun set. We enjoyed the days, but all the fun would convert into fear at night.

We always heard scary sounds coming from that garden next to the house throughout the night, and we thought the villagers that had died in the past and were cremated there were gathered in the garden and having a meeting.

We knew the sounds were coming from the garden and also knew that at least five to six people died every year in that village and were cremated on the bank of the river Sona near that garden.

I can remember that night we had a party in our house, so our grandmother made corn fritters with green chutney, and we ate as many as we could, in fact, until our stomachs were totally filled. I guess, being kids, we ate a little too much, a little more than our capacity.

The result was that, at about one that night, my younger brother felt a strong urge to go to the toilet, and there were no toilets inside the houses in those days, so everybody used to go to the fields for this purpose. That was a sign of trouble, as we didn't know what to do now.

My brother and I woke up our third brother, and all three of us decided that we should go outside the house and come back quickly after responding to nature's call.

All three of us took one stick each in our hands and went close to that garden. Our brother went a little away from us, and we started guarding. But during all this time, we were scared, so we were trying to listen to every sound carefully. We were shaking even if a cricket's sound came or hearing the smallest sound. Our hearts were beating loudly.

Then we heard what sounded like a few people laughing, followed by the scary sound of howling wolves. I and my brothers quickly got up and started running.

Then we saw an elderly person stopping us and saying, "Don't be afraid; I am here; now this ghost will not harm you in my presence."

Source

Then he offered to give us a lift, saying, "Come on, I will drop you off at your home, but I will not go through the main road because there is a witch who will not let you reach home." All three of us sat in his old vehicle, and then my eyes went toward that man's feet. Oh my god, his feet were turned backward.

I gestured to my two brothers. When they also saw the reverse feet of that man, we all started shouting and asking him to stop the car and let us get down.

He smiled and stopped the car, and we got out and started running towards the house. But that man stood in front of all of us and started laughing loudly, saying that now he would not leave us. Then he gestured towards the river and said he would drown us in it.

We remember our grandma saying that whenever a ghost comes close to you, reciting mantras makes the ghosts run away. But sometimes ghosts do not go away if the mantras are recited incorrectly.

As soon as we started reciting holy mantras, the ghost started disappearing after listening to those mantras. Meanwhile, we came to our house.

And when we reached home, we turned around and saw that ghost was still standing in the garden looking at us. There was a banyan tree close to our house, and suddenly we heard a whisper, "Today you got saved by those mantras, but soon we will take you with us.

When we looked towards the sound coming from the banyan tree, we saw a white-colored human figure hanging, or was that a skeleton upside down on the tree?

We quickly came inside. The next day, I told everything to my grandmother. Grandma was a little worried, so she took us to her prayer room and started praying in a loud voice. After that, we never went out of the house at night as long as we stayed in the village.

I am inviting-
@hasini
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