Genre: Gothic Horror Fiction
Written by: Md. Aftab Hossen
While looking for a house, Rebecca and Mizan had gone quite far from the city. Even so, once they got out onto the main road from this area, transportation to the office would be easy to find. Judging by the condition of the neighborhood, the rent seemed likely to be quite low.
The Asr azan had ended quite some time ago. Seeing a mosque nearby, Mizan asked Rebecca to wait outside and went in to pray. Rebecca was a rather restless girl by nature. Usually quiet and not much of a talker, she simply could not stand or sit in one place for very long. So, leaving the mosque behind, she started walking down a lane ahead.
It was a dead-end lane. When she reached the end, she saw what looked like a pond, or perhaps a ditch, and there the lane ended. As she turned and looked around, then started walking again, she noticed a two-storied house to her left, enclosed by a wall. Near the main gate, partly hidden behind the leaves of a cedar tree, she spotted a TO-LET sign, and a tiny smile appeared at the corner of her lips.
Meanwhile, after finishing his prayer, Mizan came out and started looking around for Rebecca. Then he spotted her standing in front of a gate at the end of the lane, trying to look inside the house.
He quickened his steps, came up beside her, and asked, “What are you peeking at?”
Rebecca smiled and said, “Look, sir, a TO-LET sign. There’s a little garden in front of the house. And look, there’s a pond beside it too.” She pointed toward the ditch.
Mizan laughed. “That’s a mosquito factory, and this is a haunted house. Come on.” He took her hand and tried to pull her out of the lane.
Rebecca looked at him with mild irritation. “Oh, wait. Let me see first! Look, there’s someone walking inside, and the window of the flat on the right side of the second floor is open. Come on, let’s take a look.”
She practically dragged him by the hand through the small gate beside the main gate, and the two of them went inside. A narrow brick-paved path lay ahead, barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side. It was obvious from its condition that very few people used this path. The little garden must once have been beautiful, judging by the flower plants that now stood dead and drooping. The house was long and narrow. A pair of scissors gates stood roughly in the middle, with a staircase beyond them. A middle-aged man was dozing in front of the gate. He must have been the guard. Rebecca stood beside him and gave a small cough.
At once, he jumped up and stood straight.
Trembling, he said, “Yes, madam?”
Rebecca turned to face him. “Uncle, I saw the TO-LET sign, that’s why.”
The guard looked at her and gave a broad smile. “Alhamdulillah. I can give you one hundred percent guarantee that you’ll really like the place. You can talk to madam inside the lawn. Sir is out for a little while. I’ll call him. Come, let’s go in first.”
As he led them forward, he said, “My name is Hasen. I’m the guard and caretaker of this house. I have a lot of responsibilities, a lot of work.”
Rebecca and Mizan nodded together. “Yes, we can see that.”
Understanding their hint, he showed his teeth in a grin and said, “Not all the time. I’m getting old, you know. I get tired.”
Hasen knocked twice on a faded door at the foot of the stairs. Two or three minutes later, a middle-aged woman opened it. She had a dusky complexion and salt-and-pepper hair.
With irritation written across her face, she said, “You still haven’t learned how to use a doorbell! What happened?”
Hasen said, “Madam, they’ve come to see the house. They want to rent it.”
The woman’s smile grew wider. She welcomed them with great warmth and respect and brought them into the sitting room. Everything felt strangely dead, quiet, old. The woman asked them to sit and went inside. Hasen did not enter. They sat there silently. Pin-drop silence.
Mizan whispered, “Doesn’t it feel a little uncomfortable?”
Rebecca gently placed her hand on his and said, “Don’t be scared. Nobody’s going to interview you.”
Hearing the dry rustle of footsteps, they stood up. An elderly woman was approaching them. The dusky woman who had opened the door was beside her. From the shape of her face and the color of her skin, it was clear that the elderly woman had once been beautiful in her youth. She gestured for them to sit. Then she sat down herself.
Turning her neck, she said to the dusky woman, “Aleya, make some tea and bring it.”
Rebecca quickly interrupted, “No, auntie, please don’t. We just want to see the house. It’s getting late, and we have a long way to go.”
The woman smiled faintly. “All right, then. Let it be so. Let me see how far he is.”
She raised the mobile phone in her hand, dialed a number, and held it to her ear. As soon as someone answered, she said in a pleading voice, “Where are you? How long will it take you to come?”
She stopped. From her expression, it seemed the person on the other end was scolding her.
***To be continue..