The Chime Of The Bell- Chapter 8

(Dishani’s narration)

“Dishani!”, Rileena screamed from behind.

Surprisingly all the noises had ceased. There was nothing I could hear or see in the darkness till Rileena lighted her torch. It took me some time to understand my surroundings. I stood up trying to perceive what my eyes could discern in the little light from her torch. We were inside a small chamber.

I picked up my torch and looked around. The room was really creepy. The walls were all molded and dark, probably made of stones like some old castle. Spider webs were everywhere. There was a hospital bed right in front of me and surprisingly the mattress on it looked really dirty but intact. There was a small table beside it. A pile of dust had settled on it and in another corner there was a small wooden chair. Unlike all the other rooms in the asylum, nothing was broken there just piles of dust had settled on everything. It looked like no one had entered this room in a century. There was no sign of any living being. I was really confused and scared and even more confused. A moment ago there was this woman’s voice coming from this very room and now there is not a soul. What is going on? Did I hear it right? But we both heard it. How could we both hear wrong?

“Is anybody here? Hello?”, cried Rileena, her voice shaking. Except the echo no other voice came in reply. The howling and crying had totally ceased as if nothing like that had ever happened.

I kept scrolling the light through the room till my eyes fell on some kind of a thick rope lying on the begrimed floor. I knelt on the ground to have a closer look. Covered in a layer of dust it was a black chord that extended up to the headboard of the bed. Usually, in any other situation it would have reminded me of BDMS stuff but all I could think of was Sam’s story last night. The story ran in my mind again and this time it sounded a lot scarier. It was like the incidents had happened right in this room, right on this bed. I felt a little shaky.

The next thing I looked at was the little side table just beside me. Something shined underneath the dust as I flashed the light on it. I dug my hand in the pile of dust without giving a second thought. What I felt made my blood run cold. It was a wooden handle and then something metal, sharp…just like a hatchet. I instantly drew back. My heart was thumping loud against my chest. It could jump off anytime. What is happening? Am I dreaming? It sure is a dream. These things are too fucking hypothetical to be true. All I need to do is to stop dreaming. I closed my eyes hoping that when I open them again I would be on my bed; everything would be normal. Little did I know this was the nightmare I would never really wake out of.

When I opened my eyes again I was still in the same dark room. Rileena stood there with her back to me, her flashlight illuminating an alcove. Beyond the spider webs there were things handing on the wall. I couldn’t make out what those were. Maybe I didn’t want to understand, I was too scared to understand. Unwillingly my feet were dragging me closer to it when suddenly Rileena turned to look at me.

“I don’t like this place. Let’s get out of here”, she said quickly and this time I couldn’t agree more. But I was too scared to move so she dragged me by the hand and started walking towards the door. My gaze was still fixed at the alcove. Even though I knew very well that whatever was beyond the spider webs was not at all pleasant, .my eyes kept piercing through the darkness. I was scared as well as curious. It’s funny when I think about it now.

As we were about to leave the huge metal door abruptly slam shut in front of us. The noise of the banging metal made me recoil. As Rileena was holding me I dragged her too as I retreated to the alcove. The sound kept resonating. Before we could totally understand what had happened our clothes and hairs were all dirty and sticky with spider webs. But in that situation I didn’t even give a fuck. If spider webs could save me from ghosts I would hide under a layer of it.

What happened next was even more terrifying. All of a sudden huge chunk of wood fell from the ceiling followed by the cementing from above, blocking the entrance. The roof totally gave way but thankfully we had retired to the alcove and were unharmed. The bed and the table were crushed under the debris. It took me time to realize that this thing was really happening to us. We were in trouble.

The shock took time to recover and when she was on the stage of accepting what had happened to us was in real, Rileena broke out at me. “It’s all because of you, do you understand that? Who the hell asked you to enter this room? I told you not to. Now how are we going to get out of here?”

I was still on the stage of denial. I still wanted to belief this was a dream and I could wake out of it. Somehow Rileena’s familiar angry voice helped me gather some courage. It had reality in it. I kept quite thinking of all the things that just happened. After some time I had convened myself I was being stupid. So what there are a hatchet and a chord? This is just a coincidence. It has nothing to do with Sam’s story. Sam had just made up some story. It must be the wind that slammed the door shut and the vibration of the door made the room collapse. See, it is so simple when we think logically. My heart beat was getting normal now. But then it struck me where did the wind come from? I looked around. There was no window in the room; at least not one from which the wind could shut a metal door. Looking up I could spot a small window. The room being in basement, the window was far above reach. There was a block of wood or something like that covering the window. A few beams of light entered the room through the little holes in the plank. Then I saw something that totally scared the shit out of me.

The plank of wood suddenly shifted from its position and a silhouette of a person in a weird mask appeared. It was peeping in through the little hole. The mask covered it's entire face except his eyes. Even in the darkness I could feel his eyes looking directly at us. My heart thumped against my chest. My throat was too dry to scream. Rileena was still going on with her lecture facing away from the window. I wanted to call her but somehow couldn’t. I grabbed her arm tight.

“What is it?”

As if I could talk in that situation. The person peeping from outside slid the plank back in place with his eyes still on us. And as he slid the block the light in the room disappeared too, leaving us in complete darkness. He was gone before Rileena could see it.

“What is it?”

Maybe she could smell fear. Her tone was now different from the angry tone in which she spoke earlier. She now sounded anxious.

“What is it?”, she asked again.

She was probably looking in the direction I was looking. Or maybe she was looking at me waiting for me to say something. I was waiting for my heart to calm down before I could speak again.

Hey! Here is a short cut to the next chapter:https://wrytin.com/jayeetapaul/the-chime-of-the-bell-chapter-9-ju2w4vr9