That One Scary Incident

story by Sameer Raote

Ram O’Cha is a watchman by profession. He is a huge, slightly handsome and muscular guy. Sadly he is not the brightest bulb. As a matter of fact he has trouble following the simplest instructions. Which is why he is bad at even guarding a place.

“Just sit in a chair and watch.” Easiest task one can get paid for and yet he fails doing that too.

In the last five months since he moved to the city to earn money he is thrown out of five security jobs. Most of the times Ram is at fault hence it is justified that he is removed from the job. But this one time, Ram was not the one in control.

It’s two hours past midnight when Ram arrives at the site. A place where an old abandoned mansion stands. He was called for a job offer. It’s a scary dark place with little to no lights. Yet he comes. The entrance gate screeches in a sharp shrill sound when he opens it. It’s as if an evil spirit is telling him to go away. Ram ignores that and steps inside.

He is a huge muscular guy with strength of three average size male combined. He knows no fear. With every step he takes inside large gusts of wind starts to blow making the dried leaves on the ground fly. It’s strange how the leaves are responding to his every step.

Ram continues to walk. Whenever he walks past a dim light bulb, it flickers. The rate of flickering varies based on his proximity from it. Still Ram is not scared. As a matter of fact the blowing wind, the lights and ghastly sounds gives him a feeling of being a hero, a ghost catcher as Ram imagines himself to be walking in slow-mo.

“Cut! cut! cut! Get the f- out of my scene!” shouts the director, “How many times have I told you to keep someone at the bloody gate!”

The director is not cursing. The entrance get is intentionally bloodied with fake blood. He is just talking about that. As a matter of fact the entire mansion is decorated to give it a haunted look including the dried leaves and flickering lamps.

Ram gets startled getting shout at. He stays frozen in the middle of a shot until a guy runs towards him to pull him away.

RAM: I’m sorry. I did not know.

GUY: It’s okay. But don’t make that mistake again. Are you the watchman?

RAM: Yes.

GUY: Cool.

Saying this he drags him to the costume station. Ram has many questions about the job but no opportunity is given for him to ask. The guy is busy talking to someone on walkie-talkie while he signals a costume girl to attend to Ram.

She quickly comes and takes his measurement. Then taking out an outfit from the container she hands it to him to change. Ram is confused what to do until he is taken to the changing room. “Five minutes.” says the guy.

Inside Ram starts to change, “So much for being cast as a hero.”

Just like many foolish dreamers, Ram too wants to become an actor. Not for the money or fame. He is not that ambitious. Ram’s motivation to become an actor is purely to impress a girl in his locality. Although he is doing other things to impress her, seeing him in movie should do the trick.

Although Ram expected that the director might pick him after seeing his muscular body and handsome looks, sadly all he got from the director was a loud shouting. Eventually watchman Ram was stayed a watchman. The costume change was just to ensure that if he was accidentally caught on camera then his outfit would look period specific.

“Yes… yes sir… sir… yes… I’m coming…” says the guy on walkie. Then turning to Ram he says, “There is small shack just behind this mansion. Every night some drunk villagers come and start shouting. All you have to do is to keep them quiet. Here, take this…” saying this the guy hands him a wooden staff.

GUY: Now go!

RAM: I have some questions…

GUY: Later… Yes’ir I’m coming.

Ram is then left behind with all his unanswered doubts and one task at hand. He quietly goes to that spot and stands.

“Maybe if I do my job right, they might make me an actor.” saying this Ram gets excited.

The place where Ram is standing is a forest patch. Tall trees surround him. There’s a shack behind him just as he was told. As of now there are no drunk villagers there. So he stays.

From where he is standing he is able to see a large crew of people working to shoot a scene inside the mansion. He stands there still. Suddenly he hears voices of drunk guys approaching him. The sound is coming from behind. Ram hears that but he does not turn. He stands still like a rock.

“Maybe if I stand still like a tree and then when they come close I will turn and scare them. That should work.”

Ram does exactly that. He anchors himself in place and stays unmoved. Meanwhile he hears drunken murmurs far away. They seem to not approaching him. Ram is waiting for them to come close.

Suddenly he hears a hissing sound like some flowing stream of water. The place is dimly lit by the full moon light so he looks around to search for the source. He finds none. As planned he does not move except for moving his eyeballs. As he looks down water seems to be getting collected around his feet.

“Where did this water come from?” Ram thinks.

“I’ttts…coming… frum mee…” whispers a drunk guy from behind, “Psssss….”

Ram is disgusted. Still he does not move. He is waiting for the right moment to strike. Meanwhile more water is getting collected around his feet. Also the odor is very bad.

Ram starts counting down, “Nine… eight… seven… four… five… three…” He counts mentally while getting ready to strike. Meanwhile water continues to grow. “Six… four… eight…three… two… one… Dhhaaa!”

Ram shouts lifting the wooden staff over his head and then turns to hit. Strangely there is no one behind him. He looks all around but nobody is there. The place is completely dark with no other moving body except him in sight. Meanwhile, he feels through his bare feet that the water level is still rising. This does not makes sense until a word pops up in Ram’s head, “Ghost!”

That very instant Ram gets scared… very very scared. Not caring about anything he starts to run, away from the mansion and towards his home. He stops only when he reaches a familiar locality. Ram’s heart is beating fast as he is scared to go back.

This was a very bad experience. Ram never felt fear before but now he does. This experience will haunt Ram every time he will go in the toilet during the night time. It will also haunt those Ram will tell the story of ‘rising pee’.

Actually there was nothing to be scared off. The small shack was a public toilet. Unknowingly Ram stood on a plastic outlet pipe which got cracked under his weight. The water getting collected was what leaked from that pipeline.

So there was not ghost, no peeing spirit and no cursed urine. Unfortunately Ram will never know this since he will never return to that mansion ever again.

END

written by Sameer Raote

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