My Esurient Avarice

By Priyanshu Misra

  A ghastly silence suddenly took hold of the very air inside ' Hotel Lovely' as Adam declared his plans regarding his visit to India. The few old men who were sitting around him and who were talking to him quite jovially a minute ago were now looking at him with complete aghast.

 " Do you really have a death wish to even think of undertaking such an endeavor? " An old man with a crutch said to Adam, his face a shade paler under his olive complexion.

 " Maybe. Who knows? I only know that I want to actually discover the real mystery of that place and form my own conclusions regarding it, " Adam declared while smiling a little impishly but the stern visage of that elder fellow quickly made that smirk of his disappear.

 " If you are an intelligent person and has even the slightest of what is called a survival instinct, then you will steer clear of that place, " another old man who was just sitting next to the fellow with the crutch said in an ominous tone. He had a slight lisp and that made his utterance funnier compared to being a scary one and Adam almost had to refrain himself from bursting out laughing.

 " Well, I have not made such a long journey to just go back without anything to show for, ' Adam said in a resolute voice.

 The old men looked sharply at him on hearing his statement and without throwing another word in his direction, they retreated towards the other corner of the place. One of them repeatedly turned around his head as they were walking away, a disgusted expression evident in his black eyes.

 " Wow! What an uptight, paranoid bunch, " Adam remarked as he averted his eyes from gazing at them.

 " That's because you told them something completely unreasonable and repulsive, " a voice suddenly replied to his remark and Adam's head immediately went in its direction.

 The owner of that voice turned out to be a young man in his mid 20s, who was standing with a pen and paper in his hands. Apparently, he was here to take Adam's order and was looking at him expectantly.

 " Unreasonable and repulsive? What, just because I mentioned that I want to visit the Lambi Dehar Mines it upset them so much? I mean I know it's described as a haunted place and yes you can get scared on hearing about it. But, what's there to be upset about? " Adam voiced his frustrations in a disbelieving manner.

 " Uh, actually the locals here not just get scared on hearing about that place but also consider it a bad omen, one that could befall some misfortune. So, anybody uttering its name out loud is bound to get shunned and also will receive those disgusted looks that they were serving your way, " the young lad explained in perfect English with only a hint of the heaviness of an Indian accent.

 " Is it such a scary place to elicit such a reaction in people? " Adam queried as a jolt of excitement flowed through his spine.

 " According to the locals here, at least. They are quite rigid regarding their beliefs, " the young man said with a shrug.

 " Judging by the gesticulation of your shoulders, I take it that you are not one to share those beliefs with them. Am I right? " Adam asked with a twinkle in his eye.

 " Yeah, well I am not exactly a local. This small hotel belongs to my uncle and I am just helping him out for a few days as he is sick and he has no one to call his own except me, " the young lad conveyed eloquently. 

 " Anyways, I am here to take your order. Have you decided on it yet? " He asked next to which Adam just order a cup of tea.

 " Can you tell me anything else about that place? Have you ever visited it yourself? " Adam asked quickly as the lad was about to leave his vicinity.

 " I may not share the beliefs and the superstitions of the locals but I would still advise you to stay clear of that area. Once, under a haze of curiosity, I had visited that place and had got a taste of the evil power that resides there, " the youngster said in a baleful tone but instead of getting spooked, Adam was getting more excited. He had come so far looking for that sort of an adventure and it seemed like this place was not going to let him down.

 " If I was you then I would never even think of heading over there. But, looking at that maniacal expression of yours, I can say my advice wouldn't do much to deter you, " the young boy said. 

 " Well, I am a paranormal investigator, lad. And, in my line of work, if someone describes you as a maniac then it could be considered as an honor, " Adam said, smiling an impish smile. The boy reciprocated the smile but didn't say anything and retreated after passing on a quick, almost comical salute in Adam's direction. That was to acknowledge the man's strange blend of courage and idiocy.

 Fifteen minutes later, after putting that afternoon tea inside his belly, Adam went further ahead on his quest. The time was exactly five and evening was gently knocking on the horizon of the little town of Uttarakhand, nestled perfectly in the bosom of the Indian Himalayas.

 Adam gently started cruising the car along the serpentine roads of the mountains, his determined eyes fixed on the way ahead. Suddenly, tearing that bleak silence prevailing inside the car, his phone rang and grumpily Adam plucked it out of his pocket.

 " Have you had your lunch? What time is it over there? " Adam asked, mustering as solicitous a voice as he could muster.

 " Are you crazy, Adam? Not once, did you tell me about this trip to India. And now, even when you inform me of it, you do it only through a text message. No phone call, nothing, " Marie, his sister, shouted hysterically on the other end of the phone.

 " Yeah, everything happened so suddenly. Believe me, I wished to inform you but just didn't get the time to do it, " Adam said in an apologetic voice.

 " Don't fool me, baby bro. Forgetfulness is not a vileness that you have to endure. You remember everything. But, I know why this sudden trip of yours happened. You are still grieving and this is just an attempt to divert your mind, " Marie said, her voice crisp but at the same time, sympathetic.

 " Grieving? What grieving? I am perfectly fine, " Adam said, trying to sound indifferent.

 " Really? You are gonna pull this on me? You want me to say that you are completely over Daisy's death? " Marie put her words in an incredulous manner.

 The mention of his late wife's name made Adam's stomach grumble and a pensive energy washed over his body. His grip on the steering wheel suddenly increased in intensity and a hardness crept into his jovial features. This was a memory he was trying to forget at any cost and he had effectively sealed it away in the depths of his mind, something which his sister's nagging nature has made it burst out of its coffin.

 " I don't wanna talk about her. In case, you have forgotten then I will like to juggle your memory that she was the one who destroyed the value of our matrimony  by cheating on me with that Rhys fellow from her office, " Adam replied back in a voice oscillating between heinous anger and heartbreaking melancholy.

 " Yeah, I know what she did and what she did was extremely vile. But, she was your wife, the love of your life and now she is dead. No matter how much you and I hate her, still she was a part of your life once and bottling your emotions isn't gonna make it easier to deal with your pain, " Marie gave her expert counsel and made Adam almost roll his eyes in exasperation.

 " Anyways, what are you doing now? And when do you plan on coming back? " Marie changed the topic when for a duration of about a minute, Adam didn't utter a single word. She understood her nosiness and her counseling was flaring her brother's temper and decided to change the subject.

 " I will be here for another few days. At Least, a week maybe. And, as for the answer to your first question, I am currently on my way to the Lambi Dehar Mines and am about to reach the place in about fifteen minutes, " Adam said, especially the last bit, with boundless energy. But, his fervor fell immediately flat as the next moment, his sister voiced her ignorance about the place.

 " Are you kidding? Have you never heard about this place? " Adam asked, sounding flabbergasted.

 " No. Should I have, though? " Marie asked back, her voice sounding curious and intrigued.

 " Well, it's considered to be one of the premium locations in India if anyone wants to catch a glimpse of a ghost. So, I am headed there right now to verify the truth in those claims, " Adam said, sounding excited like a giddy schoolboy.

 " Ad, I don't think that's a good idea. These sorts of places have a very bad energy around them and for someone like you who have recently suffered a great personal loss, well... walking into a place like that could be very detrimental. So, if I were you then I would immediately turn back, " Marie uttered in a voice reflecting the concern she had for her brother's safety.

 Just as she was saying her piece, Adam's eyes caught a glimpse of the ruins of those mines at a distance. Only a short uphill drive of about half a kilometer remained between him and his destination and the thrill he felt was beyond anything to be put into words.

 " Well, then how fortunate it is that I am not you. Also, I have traveled a great distance to turn back now. So, I am going to cut your call now, sister, " he said and that ended the discussion on a rather abrupt note.

 As soon as Adam cut the call, he pressed the accelerator with all his might and the engine groaned in protest. The path to the ruins now was not as serpentine as the other roads were and about two minutes later, his car was standing just near the entrance point to that place, a horrible sight of gloom and despair standing in front of Adam in its full glory.

 The feeling that the young boy was speaking about in that hotel immediately hit Adam as soon as he stepped out of the car. It can't be classified as terror but some strange numbness which felt like it was punching on him to suck away any little shard of happiness that he had stored deep inside his heart.

 " Oh! You ain't gonna get much out of me. My well of gaiety has long been dried out, " Adam said as his mind lingered to the moment when he found out about his wife's infidelity.

 Brushing those stupid thoughts aside, Adam started to walk forward and as soon as he entered the immediate premises of the ruins, he was visited by an unexpected shock. Two vultures sat on a nearby tree and was staring at him constantly. Evening was already making its presence felt and in the faint light of the dusky twilight, the pair of birds and their weird behaviour was making Adam unable to take his eyes off them. What was even more jolting to his senses was the thing that the birds did when he tried to take a step forward.

 As soon as his right leg tried to take a stride forward, both the vultures shook their heads in disapproval. For a moment, Adam looked at them even with more interest than before. 

 " I am just imagining things. That can't be real. Vultures making gestures like a pair of old nannies. Come on, cut me some slack, " he said to himself, half comically and half worried while rubbing his eyes vigorously. When he again looked towards that tree, he didn't see anything this time. Not a trace of those two vultures were anywhere to be found.

 " See, just your mind playing tricks on you, " Adam muttered while resuming his way forward towards the administrative block which was the only building in the premises that still stood straight instead of resembling all the ruins around but still covered in numerous layers of algaes and moss to give it a decrepit appearance.

 As Adam started to advance on his path, the wind that was blowing gently a moment ago, started to blow with a considerable force, making an eerie howling sound in its wake. A precipitous force felt to be grabbing his legs from moving freely as if wanting to stop him right in his tracks. Many a man would have turned back on the onset of this sudden creepiness but Adam was not someone to entertain such ideas. In fact, these strange events made him even more determined to venture into the mines as opposed to before.

 After a minute, when he reached the entrance to the mine, he saw a pair of crows perched on the ground and were watching him intently like the vultures earlier. As he tried to get past them, they blocked his way. Even when he tried to jump over them, they flew towards his chest and gave a stinging bump on it with their pointy beaks.

 " Stupid birds! What the hell is wrong with you bastards. First those ugly vultures and now you pair of rascals, " Adam shouted in frustration and kicked the pair of crows with all his bodily might. Strangely, those crows never tried to fly once and received Adam's vicious kicks almost gladly and as a result were dead in an instant. Then, tossing the bodies aside he took out his torch and his EMF meter from his jacket pocket, the only two pieces of equipment he had on himself at this particular moment, and made his way into the infamous haunted mines.

 It would be an understatement to describe the atmosphere inside the mines as horrifying. More than that, it was severely stuffy. " Maybe, the people who have entered this place went mad with the claustrophobia than with having encountered an actual ghost, " Adam muttered to himself, a whimsical smile glued to his lips.

 In the glow of his flashlight, he quietly but vigilantly made his way inside the mines and after sometime came upon a sort of strange clearing with a deep pit lying just at a distance of a few meters. Four unmarked graves laid in front of him and that made him shiver a little. The needle in the EMF meter still didn't budge so he knew that there was no ghostly presence nearby and his fear was just childishly irrational.

 " Must have been the graves of those unfortunate people who got trapped and died here, " Adam mumbled to break the awful silence prevailing all around. " But, reportedly many people died here. At Least, fifty thousand or something. Then, why could only four graves be found here? " he puzzledly asked himself.

Suddenly, to his immediate left, just at the mouth of the pit, a certain shadow formed and it didn't go unnoticed by his sharp senses. His eyes immediately jerked up in that direction and caught the glance of a translucent phantom looking at him with an evil glint in its milky white eyes. The EMF meter in his hands started to buzz wildly but Adam's ears had already lost its ability to listen. Petrified, his whole body went into an almost catatonic state and all the bravery he had been exhibiting up to this moment fizzled out in an instant. 

 Just as he was tussling with his numb brain to think of an idea to get out of this precarious situation, the phantom moved towards Adam in a break-neck speed and grabbed the collars of his padded jacket and tossed him in the opposite direction like a piece of ragdoll. At once, he flew towards the pit and went into it, the surface of which couldn't be seen with naked eyes. Adam instantly realized his end was near and to cope with the numbing fear gripping his heart, he closed his eyes. " It's going to happen anyway. So, why bother looking at your own death, eh? " he cracked a dry joke to himself in his last moments.

 Strangely though, the collision that he was expecting never came. The wind that was beating at his face a moment ago abruptly stopped and the sharp sensation in his gut that was informing that he was about to get smashed when he hit the bottom too came to a stop. Slowly, Adam opened his eyes and found himself in an environment that was completely opposite to what he was anticipating.

 The floor on which he was currently lying on was made of the finest quality of teak wood, one that exactly coincided with the one that used to be in his childhood home in Surrey. With a hasty movement, Adam got himself up from the floor. As his eyes took a look around him, he found himself surrounded with numerous volumes of books, most of them were books on different laws. 

" Great! So, I am in Mr big attorney's office then, " Adam muttered to himself in a bristled voice as his head filled with all the altercations he had with his father, a man whose personality was diametrically opposite to his.

 A second later after he had muttered that statement, the door to his right opened and in walked his mother and sister, both of them looking dour and crestfallen.

 " I can't even consider that Adam could go to such an extent for acquiring wealth. How could he be so heartless to cut you off from your share of inheritance? " Fiona, Adam's mother said in a bristling voice.

 " Well, he has always been guileful when it comes to matters of money. So, there's nothing surprising here. He may have seen a loophole in the will and he decided to use it to his advantage, " Marie said in indifference although her face didn't match her voice and reflected the hurt and betrayal she was trying to hide in her heart's depths.

 " How can you be so detached about this? After all, it's you whom he has wronged? " Fiona barked passionately.

 A rueful smile appeared on Marie's face when she heard the impatience and anger in her mother's voice. " What good would come out of it even if I become angry about it? I can't match Adam's devious brain. Besides, he's my younger brother, " she replied back to her mother, the sadness that she was trying to hide still resonated in her voice. Or at least, that's how it sounded to Adam's ears. A shiver ran down his spine while his brain pulled out its files on this memory. He remembered how he was in dire need of money at that time and his father's sudden death had given him a ray of hope. With the help of his lawyer friend, Elias; he had merged his sister's share with his own. 

 " And, yet I still forgave you. You, the black sheep of our family. You, who only cares about his own self-interest, " a voice said from behind and immediately he looked at its direction to only find his sister standing there, a look of pure rage embedded on her face.

 Adam instantly looked at the opposite direction where the shadows of his mother and sister were and found there not a trace of them. 

 " What are you looking at, huh? Those were just effigies of the scenarios you have created with your horrendous judgements and your momentous avarice. I am what remains. It's me who you answer to, " the creature who had the semblance of his sister growled angrily. 

 " Why are you torturing me with this memories? " Adam turned back and demanded an answer from the creature, his voice sounding irate with a hint of shamefulness in the mix.

 " To show you what kind of a brat you are. To make you aware of the extent to which your narcissism runs, " the demonic Marie said with a pleasure in her voice.

 " Please, release me from your hold. I... I beg of you. Torture me no more, " Adam implored in an almost weeping voice.

 " Oh! Scared already. Just by looking at your actions you are disgusted. Imagine the pain the recipients of your actions must have gone through. Especially, your sister, who still cares for you so deeply despite your callous actions against her, " the creature said with a glee when it saw Adam wincing and putting his hands to his ears.

 " I would not let you haunt me anymore. You are not real. I... I would escape your vile clutches. Just wait and see, " Adam shouted and instantly dashed towards the door on his immediate left. He figured out that if this ghostly entity was making him relieve his memories then he was locked inside his own brain and that escaping through the only door available in the vicinity must be his ticket out. He opened the door and went through it alright but waking up from his appalling slumber wasn't what happened to him.

 Instead, Adam found himself in the dining room of his spacious London flat, his wife sitting around the table, looking paler than usual. He saw his own self sitting beside her, a malicious look of contentment reflecting in his features. This was a memory he didn't need time to recall and he immediately started shaking with fervor on looking at the grim proceedings in front of him.

 " No...no, I don't want to look at these things. Let me get out of here, " Adam bellowed while turning around and trying to open the door through which he entered into this chamber and which had been tightly fastened by now.

 " Why, my love? Why do you have a problem witnessing a thing which has been committed by your own self? Don't tell me you are now suddenly ashamed of your own actions? " Once again a voice; this time it was his dead wife's voice, came to his ears and it escalated his already burgeoning disgust. As he glanced in the direction of the voice, he saw a taunting smile glued to the countenance of the creature that had taken his wife's form.

 " Please, let me go. Why are you tormenting me with these memories? " Adam cried out helplessly, his voice a mix of vexation and agony.

 The creature put a finger to its lips and motioned him to look at the proceedings in front of him, the taunting smile still brightly emanating on its features.

 Christie, his wife, started to violently puke the next moment and specks of blood gushed out from her mouth along with the waste materials. Her body shivered as she went through this painful ordeal. Her breathing got raggedy too and she instantly transformed into the embodiment of weakness.

 " What's happening? Oh! God... where is this awful pain coming from? " Christie muttered weakly, putting a hand on her chest and clasping it tightly.

 A vengeful smirk appeared on the face of Adam's shadow self and he muttered in a venomous tongue, " Why? You thought I would never discover? You, going behind my back and having an affair with someone else. You take me for an utter fool, don't you? ". 

 Christie's eyes immediately jerked up and she looked at her husband with a guilty expression. The fury reflecting on his countenance immediately confirmed her how much hurt he was and to which extent he could go to, as a matter of fact, he already has gone to.

 " What...did... you...do...to...me? " Christie asked weakly, muttering each word with a brief pause as her extreme panting was making it hard for her to talk.

 " A heavy dose of potassium chloride, my darling. One of the few poisons that don't show up in the post-mortem. So, I would walk away unscathed and you would be dead thus quenching my ravenous desire for revenge, " Adam's shadow said with a prideful smirk. Then, having served their purposes, both of those shadows vanished into thin air.

 " You still think ghosts are the most vengeful creatures? Aren't you fit enough to be put in that category? " the spirit with the face of Christie stated mockingly and Adam fell on his knees, mortified and dejected.

 " I repented, you cruel bastard, " Adam said in a hollow voice as his eyes flooded with a tsunami of tears. " In a heat of passion I did that crime but not a day goes by since I had not grieved over what I had done, ".

 " As if your repentance is going to resolve your sin. I just gave you a taste of what you had done and got away with. But, the court of the universe knows what you have done and will judge you accordingly, " the creature said sharply.

 " What now, then? You will kill me now, won't you? " Adam muttered slowly after a second had elapsed.

 " No, I don't need to, " the spirit said impishly before moving towards Adam and putting its translucent hand on his wrist. A sharp burning sensation occurred and smoke started to spurt out from his wrist. Adam bellowed in agony and jerked his hand away from the ghost's iron grip. As Adam glanced at his wrist he found a little burnt circle now engraved on it. 

 " What did you do to me? " Adam sprouted his words angrily while his eyes still remained fixated on the fresh wound. 

 " Oh, just a souvenir of your visit. You see, once someone enters this place in the night and if, by some ill-luck, they happen to meet me and worse than that, get a touch from me then they forever become attached to this place. Your soul is mine now and you will come to me sooner or later, " the ghost said in a gloating tongue. " You can go now. Let's see how far you can get away, " it quickly added, laughing a menacing laughter which made Adam's already feeble heart a bit more weaker.

 Just as those words escaped the mouth of that phantom, Adam immediately woke up from his nightmarish slumber and found himself lying near the graves he had been inspecting before that awful spirit showed up. A surge of happiness ran through him as the thought of all that transpired being a dream drilled into his brain.

 " Oh! For crying out loud. I thought it was a done deal. I almost…, " Adam started chiming merrily but suddenly his eyes went towards his wrist and he saw that damned burnt circle still embedded on it and that sucked away all his cheeriness. Somehow, the wound looked even more menacing now than before in the pitch black darkness which made it radiate with a vile glow.

 At once, Adam got up from the ground and dashed towards the entrance of the mine. If that wound is there then there is definitely an evil entity lurking inside that place and all that was shown to him was not just a mere vision and the thought of it made him increase the speed of his strides.

 It took him three minutes to get out of the mine and run towards the administrative block. As he reached near the derelict building, Adam stopped and glanced back to make sure that nobody was following him. Thankfully, there was no one behind him and so it made him relax a little and he took a deep breath to compensate for all the physical exertion his body had to do in just a fraction of a moment.

 He jerked his left hand and glanced at his wrist watch and to his shock and wonder, he found the time to be five forty. That means, only five minutes have passed since he had entered the mines.

 " That's impossible. I swear I was inside that thing longer than that, " Adam muttered in horror to himself. For him, it was actually hours that he had spent inside the mine. He quickly understood that it was this damned, evil place that was messing with his mind. Quickly he resumed his run towards his car as he wanted to put as much distance he could between this place and himself.

 As he started his car, a rumbling sound came from behind but Adam didn't have neither the courage nor the desire to glance back at whatever it was that was making that sound. Hastily, he put the vehicle in motion and with a jerk, the car went tumbling down the serpentine road.

 A myriad of emotions reflected on Adam's countenance - from the extreme ecstasy of getting out from the clutches of the ghost's to the extreme agony which still reverberated at the thought of those scenarios he was made to witness. He was always aware that he was a selfish prick but the lingering effects which his actions left on the people he had wronged was not something that he had given a thought to.

 Almost impetuously, his left hand slided down his pocket and took out the phone lying there and in no time, he was calling his sister's number. After two sonorous rings, his sister answered the call, her voice tranquil and genuine.

 " Ad, why are you sobbing? Is everything alright? " Marie guessed her brother's state of mind as soon as he uttered her name in a slightly dejected timbre in his voice.

 " I am so sorry. I never thought, you know. I never thought how my impulsiveness could hurt you, " Adam kept repeating his apology in a loop.

 " What are you even saying? I can't make a head or tail of your words, " Marie said confusingly.

 " The will. I am so sorry that I cheated you out of dad's will, " Adam said passionately and that made Marie go quiet on the other side.

 " Why are you speaking about these things all of a sudden? These are stuff from the past that I have no desire to recall, " Marie said in a somber manner but the anguish that she had kept hidden for so many years could be easily spotted in her cadence.

 " No, it was a horrible sin I committed. I know that now. But, I would give anything to..." Adam started speaking his piece in as honest a way he could muster but before he could complete his apology for long committed mistakes, a presence on the passenger seat made him falter and as he looked through the corner of his eye, it took a gigantic effort to not just lose control of the vehicle.

 There, dressed in a green top and faded jeans, sat his dead wife Christie, flashing a piercing smile in his direction. The phone glued to his ears at once fell on the floorboard of the car and a sharp cry of agony automatically arose from his throat.

 " Adam, what was that noise? What's going on exactly? " Marie shouted concernedly from the other end of the phone.

 " What's wrong, love? Aren't you not happy to see me? " Christie's spirit asked in a soft voice although the shimmering malice underneath can't be ignored.

 " It's not possible. You...you can't be here. Dead just don't rise from the grave, " Adam said madly. It seemed that his statement was furnished for his own wildly oscillating senses which were proving unable to grasp what was an illusion and what was the actual thing.

 " Adam, what's going on? Who are you talking to? " Marie's voice sounded frenetic while she asked that question.

 " Did I really deserve to die, Adam? Yes, our marriage was on the rocks but you taking my life to satisfy your wounded pride. Was it the right thing to do? Did my infidelity deserve such a punishment? '' Christie asked mournfully and Adam's hand grasped the steering wheel even more tightly than before as he tried to get a grip on his wayward self.

 " You are not real. This is just a hallucinatory trip, " Adam mumbled and pressed the accelerator with a little more force than before.

 " Come on, honey. I am imploring you to provide me with an answer. Did my death really satisfy your soul? " Christie's spirit asked a little more boldly than before.

 " I am not going to answer any of your questions. You are just a phantom. Nothing more, nothing less, " Adam said while shaking his head fervently while keeping his eyes glued to the dark road ahead. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead though and no matter how much he denied it, this gnarly scenario was burdening his psyche with a heavy toll.

 " Adam, please talk to me. What's going on? " Marie shouted now from the other side of the receiver, the panic in her voice extremely apparent.

 " Adam, you can't go on silently like this. Come on, spit it out. Say it out loud that you were brimming with ecstasy when you saw me coughing oodles of blood, " Christie's ghost said in a demanding tone.

 " No, " Adam replied while shaking his head feverishly. He was weeping by now and the tears welling up his eyes were making it difficult for him to see ahead.

 " For once in your life, take responsibility for your heinous deed, you coward. Admit it, that you were beyond pleased with getting away with my murder, " Christie's ghost screamed horribly and it felt like the whole car echoed with her shriek. That proved to be the tipping point for Adam and he decided that he could take it no more.

 " Yes, it made me very happy. You wanted to hear the truth, right? Well, here's your truth. It made me fill with profound ecstasy when I saw the puddles of blood coming out from your vile mouth. Are you happy now, you bitch? Are you happy with this confession that you so desperately itched to hear? " Adam shouted like a deranged man, his body shaking with anger and frustration as he uttered those words.

 " Adam, who are you with? And, what the hell are you speaking about? " Marie's voice came from the phone but Adam's ears didn't even hear the question as all his senses were focused on the ghost sitting beside him.

 Christie's spirit smiled balefully on hearing his words and in a puff of smoke she disappeared the next moment. Adam almost froze as he witnessed her vanish into thin air. Marie's voice kept coming through the phone but Adam wasn't in a frame of mind to pay attention to anything. His eyes just desperately looked around the car trying to find a trace of his dead wife.

 As he averted his eyes towards the road suddenly, out of nowhere, Christie's phantom appeared in front of the moving car. Out of instinct, Adam took a sharp turn towards the left and the vehicle immediately plunged into the steep slope descending into nothingness. The last thing Adam remembered was hearing the frenzied cries of his sister before everything turned black.

 When he opened his eyes though he was unsure how he was still alive or how long it had been since the accident. As he looked around he found a figure standing before him. It was the figure of a woman, the demonic phantom woman from the mines to be exact.

 " I told you. Sooner or later, you will come to me. Now, let's take you to your new home to which you will forever remain confined to  " the ghostly woman said with glee. Quickly it put a hand on Adam's chest and both the spirits started to levitate and made their way towards the mines, an awful laughter emerging from the spirit's throat as it heard Adam's futile cries for help.

By Priyanshu Misra