A HORROR STORY

I woke up one morning and couldn’t feel him.

“Oww Where is it?” was first thing I asked myself.

Everything was in the same place but only my Boomba was missing. I ran towards the kitchen hastily to ask my mom. She was the only one who entered my room every morning to clean the entire stuff. She wasn’t there. I randomly searched the entire house but there was no sign of her. The whole house was unkempt; ‘Ramuda’ was even no more, perhaps he was on an everlasting holiday. He had suddenly disappeared one morning and we never found him again. My father was too out on a sudden business meeting. He never ignored his meetings.

Something couldn’t be more irritating. My Boomba was missing, the house needed a cleanup, mum wasn’t there and the worst Boishree aunty had come. She greeted me; this lady had the wickedest of smile-resembling a witch. The locality people didn’t talk to her much due to her frequent abrupt behaviour, some even said she had killed her own husband! Strange, though she looked like a murderer, but I couldn’t ignore for she was my neighbour. We had recently shifted to this house. We had left our old house in Kolkata due to some land dispute and had come to live in Darjeeling. The mountains were silent, but the winds made a shrill every now and then. The chilling air did freeze our bones but this place was wonderful. I had only one friend here, my Boomba. We roamed endlessly in the woods and sat near the silent end of the park which earlier was an old graveyard. Our house seemed like the ‘old Haweli types-which they show in Bengali art films’. The corridors were dark and endless. Yet my friend Boomba was the best. We ran around the corridors all day. I had found Boomba lying on an old dusty suitcase when I had shifted here. His clothes were tattered but my mother stitched it back, he had curly hairs and he even wore socks. The best part was his everlasting smile.

Boishree aunty entered the house and enquired about mamma. I said her she might have left for the bazaar.

“Where is Boomba, I don’t see him in your arms?” she asked me and made a frowning look.

“I can’t find him; I think mamma has kept him somewhere”

“Beware of that Boomba, stay away from that toy. When mum comes tell her there is a small puja at my house, she should come.”

“Ok”

Boishree aunty always seemed to be in a problem with my Boomba, she had previously warned me about it. She even disliked the house. Whenever I brought Boomba close to her, she behaved as if she wanted to run away. That’s strange. How can Boomba be so? He is my best friend. Boishree aunty had been living here since fifteen years. After her husband’s death he sons too deserted her. Yet, she had a lot of money left by her husband which she used to spend lavishly.

Anyways this wasn’t my concern. I had to find Boomba and even mamma. Meanwhile when I went to fetch a glass of water when I heard running tap water from upstairs; our bathroom was on the second floor. I went there, the door was wide open and water was flowing continuously.

“Mamma, are you there?” I shouted

There was no response, the water was still flowing.  After a minute I slowly entered the bathroom. As soon as I went near the bathtub my legs began to shiver and for a moment I stood still. The entire water in the bathtub had turned red. Mamma’s head was floating on the top. It was separated from her body. Before I could run away, at the corner of the sink, I saw Boomba. He was smiling at me.

“Little soul must have been frightened on seeing this”, I said Boomba and closed his eyes.

I noticed a large knife lying closer to Boomba. I ignored it, took Boomba in my arms and ran to call the neighbours. Boomba was still smiling. His smile looked fresh than ever!