fiction – Little Banyan Tree Kids

It was a cloudy Saturday. I was walking down the path to the dormitory. As I walked, I could feel a pinch of discontent. All I could hear was silence in the noisy atmosphere. Everyone seemed happy to meet their old friends, yet not noticing that I existed. I felt invisible. I sat in my room all alone. no one around to ask me the question, “what’s your name?” I just sat there in the ultimate silence, thinking if I had made a big mistake.

I had enrolled myself at a boarding school in the middle of nowhere, far away from home. I joined thinking I would gain the values of studying in a boarding school, but it was not more than fifteen minutes that I started feeling homesick.

It was not until nine o’ clock in the night that I was assigned, my new roommate. He was a plump guy, who didn’t seem to be from this part of the world. He had a fair complexion with a really dark beard and eyebrows, which terrified me. I kept a positive mind and thought to myself that all was going to be well.

He spoke less, confined to his own space in the room staring at me as if he was possessed. I felt uncomfortable, I wanted to go home, but I knew it was too late for that. It was then that I thought about my mother and I started to cry. I did not know what to do. The silence was driving me crazy.

Through the silence, I heard something, as if someone was crying. It was then that I realized that I wasn’t the only one who felt the way I did. Suddenly, my scary looking roommate didn’t look scary at all. I could see that inside, he felt as miserable as I did, and to be honest I was quite relieved that at least someone in the ignoring world knew how I felt.

It cheered me up enough to go up and talk to him. I could see the same relief in him too after that. That night was the first time I had experienced homesickness and I was lucky, that I experienced it with a friend, who was not more terrified than I was. It was an experience of a lifetime for me.

On the 4th of July, dawn seemed to break later than usual. I had taken the secluded path outside the village.There I was, standing right outside a spooky yet rather inviting mansion. It seemed like I was being hypnotized as it beckoned me to enter.Beads of sweat came down my forehead and collected on my brows. In hesitation I pushed the heavy gates, giving way to a long path of gravel.The iron bars, as cold as ice, froze me completely in fear. I could feel the uneven old cobbled path beneath me, old dead leaves everywhere. The grass as dull as the sky above it, its dull grey color sent a wave of fear down my spine.

The mansion was surrounded by lots of dark evil looming coconut trees that had dried up leaving only the trunk and brown thorn like leaves which added to its evermore scary appearance. The temperature seemed to rise as I came closer to the mansion. As I came closer I noticed the dull red paint that barely managed to stay clinging to the walls. Bleeding heart vine grew all the ways up around the drainage pipes and cracks in walls to get all the sunlight they can get in this godforsaken place. Unattended tiled roof, beginning to open up as if they were about to give way to the dark and grey sky above.

Swayed into the darkness around me, little did I know that I was moving towards the huge and thick doors of the mansion, the doorknob had intricate designs of dragons and other horrifying creatures which made it look rather appealing for the devil as if it was made to keep his best interests. As the doors opened, it gave out a creaking sound that made my heart race. I walked through the door and saw a stairway that wound up on both sides, with wooden steps that seemed they would break and give way to anyone who walked over it.

The living room towards the right had furniture covered with white cloth as if no one had been home for a long time. Dark burnt charcoal was still present at the fire place. The shelf above the fire place had pictures of a whole family, a young woman, a child who were probably the owners of the place now completely abandoned as if it were possessed.

The kitchen had utensils all over the place, dust everywhere made me sneeze uncontrollably as if the house compelled me to sneeze until I die out of breath. The rusty taps had no water. I started hearing voices, not completely sure if I was just imagining or if they were real. I felt as if I was going mad. My body couldn’t hold on much longer. A moment more and I would have gone completely insane. I walked out of there shivering asking myself why I even bothered to go there in the first place. The memories of the mansion are now forever imprinted on to my brain. Was I now going to be haunted for life?

Aditya