CREMATION

Written By: Sandeep Bisht

Chapter 1: Rediscovering Family

I was responsible for the death of my wife and my son. If I wouldn’t have driven fast on that foggy night then probably they would have been alive. Sometimes in order to comfort myself from those poignant memories I feel that I was not the only one responsible for that accident but three more persons. Firstly, my son who excited me to drive fast, secondly my wife who didn’t stopped me and thirdly the driver who parked his truck in the middle of the highway.

The iron rods loaded on that truck pierced the throat of my wife and my son. They both were gasping for breath but I couldn’t do anything about it. Red color haunts me ever since I saw blood spilling from their body like a fountain in the garden. I still wonder that whether I was lucky to survive or doomed to live the rest of my life alone in dismay. 

Left with an aimless life I thought of adopting children from an orphanage so as to shape up their future with education and by fulfilling their needs. I adopted eight children and brought them to my home located in outskirts of Delhi. I bore all their expenses to make their lives better.

I have earned money my entire life, sometimes through illegal means as well. Previously I used to run after money in order to fulfill every need of my family, but after that accident I was left with nothing but money itself. All my desires of earning money came to an end. 

With the rest of my life I wanted to do something worthy so I took this step of adopting eight children, because I was capable enough to make their life worth it.

I admitted all of them in same school in order to make their routine same. At home I created a special room for them with bunk beds. It was tough to organize everything for them in the beginning but I got used to it after few weeks. 

Spending time with them made me feel happy. I might have lost my son but now I was with eight of them. Sometimes it felt like my child was speaking through some of the children I adopted. But maybe it was just some attributes that they had in common with my son, I thought.

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Chapter 2: Call of the Unknown Land

Two months passed and I rejoiced the time shared with my children, even they enjoyed my company. I was occupied in doing things for them and that made me think less about my deceased family. Sometimes people questioned me for adopting only boys and not even a single girl. But I knew, had I adopted girls, they would have thought that I have something else on my mind. I didn’t want anyone to point their finger at me with suspicious thoughts so I adopted boys. I insured all of them in case of any tragic circumstances. 

Summer vacations started and after a couple of weeks the kids got bored of home, so I thought of a day picnic in forest. I packed lunch, bed sheets and some other necessary items and drove them to a nearby area where road ends. I always wanted to walk the forest located on Aravalli Range. We carried all the stuff and started walking in dense forest. The kids were enjoying this unique experience and so was I. 

We constantly walked for more than four kilometers in nowhere and rested after equal intervals. I wanted them to experience the wilderness of nature and witness the sunset with beautiful landscape as its silhouette. After walking another kilometer, I saw small grassland from distance. It was a perfect place for having lunch I thought and headed towards it, the kids followed me. 

I had no idea what I was getting into. That mysterious place lured me to walk towards it but I couldn’t recognize. As soon as I reached there, the kids started playing and running whereas I stood still. 

I started to comprehend the meaning behind the things that were in front of me, and soon the story was clear. I saw broken pots, ashes, medicines, injections, wooden logs and dresses of girl child. When I combined the meaning of all these materials I was shocked.

Summing up those materials it was obvious that parents who had girl child brought them here and fed them medicines. When medicines didn’t work they tried to kill them by injecting poison in their nerves. After those girls died, they took off their clothes to cremate them. The broken pots indicated that those girls were first murdered and then a cremation ceremony was performed for them. There were eight broken pots and after looking at the dresses of girls, it was clear that they were not more than six years old.

How could anyone kill their own child so deliberately? I wondered. When I adopted kids I came to know about those parents who left their children in orphanage or in dustbins and now there were parents who killed their daughters.

That small grassland was cursed and all my kids were playing. I saw them laughing, eating, picking up things, rolling on ground and two of them got hurt. I stood silent for five minutes because I got into a state of trance while comprehending the meaning behind those objects lying on the ground. 

I called everyone in order to leave that eerie place as soon as possible. Only six of them gathered and two were missing. I searched for them and saw them standing on an edge. I called their names but they didn’t turn back. When I walked towards them I saw that they were standing on the edge of a well.

There was a rope hanging inside the well. For a moment I felt that they were hypnotized by something and the moment I shook them, they came back to normal. Their hands were bleeding with minor cuts, so I bandaged them and left that place.

I was terrified with this disturbing incident and got worried for my children. It started raining while we were walking back to home. Rain made our journey tougher. These complexities were stopping us but somehow we managed to reach the road. I drove kids back to home and asked them to sleep.

While they were sleeping inside their room in the evening, I came outside my house to walk. That disturbing view was constantly running on mind for the rest of the night.

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Chapter 3: Disappearance

After preparing breakfast that morning I called kids but none of them came down. I went upstairs to make sure that they are fine. While climbing the stairs I saw that the door is slightly opened. I peeked in through the door and saw four kids standing in front of their separate bunk beds lost in some thoughts.

I saw enraged flames from distance at night and felt its heat on my skin even after standing far away from it. Those flames indicated me to come closer. I couldn’t control myself and walked towards it. As I reached there, I saw human bodies burning alive. They screamed and shouted in pain, their voice was piercing my ears. A large blazing flame captured me and started engulfing me. I shook my body to get out of the fire and woke up from this haunting dream. It was a nightmare and beginning of something terrible that was going to happen, I wondered.

The silence inside the room left me with uneasiness. I opened the door and walked in and they wished me good morning. This sudden change in their activity left me puzzled. I asked them where the other four kids are and they pointed towards the bunk beds, not knowing that they weren’t there. 

I asked them “when did you saw them last”?

“When we slept last night” replied Ankur and rest nodded in agreement.

I looked for them in garage, store room, terrace, everywhere but couldn’t find them. Entire afternoon I searched for them in neighborhood and returned back home empty handed in the evening. I got worried. Could the disappearance of kids be related with our visit to that isolated cremation ground, I doubted.

Informing this to the cops was a right thing to do, I wondered. But then I thought of waiting till next morning. While preparing dinner for the kids, I prayed for the kids to come back. My instincts told me that mysterious disappearance of four kids might have some connection with the cremation ground.

The other four kids were also acting weird and their behavior was strange. At night I went up to their room and served them dinner.

“The other kids, they are playing hide n seek, don’t worry they will come home tomorrow morning when they will feel hungry”, I said in order to comfort them.

I was bewildered to see them serving too much food on their plates. Sitting at the dining table I saw them taking their plates to the corners of the room. Each one of them sat on the floor at four different corners of the room, facing nothing but wall.

They started eating hungrily in very unusual manner, as if someone else is making them eat all that food in order to quench their hunger. While watching them eat like this, it was hard for me to swallow food. Every grain of rice pinned down my throat with this sight in front of me. I was now certain that something evil has captured the souls of these kids. 

I read somewhere many years back that evil spirits tend to control children much more easily if compared with an adult, and these kids were their target this time. All of a sudden I started fearing their presence.

“Good night kids, I will see you in the morning” said I and left downstairs.

I couldn’t think of any solution, or how to deal with this type of situation. While lying down on my bed I waited for time to pass by. I was waiting for dawn.

Couple of hours passed but I was unable to sleep. I constantly looked out of the window. The winds were blowing the branches of trees on a full moon night. As the wind stopped blowing and everything was still, I heard someone walking down. As I peeked out of my room I saw four kids walking unconsciously without whispering.

At first I thought of stopping them, but then I thought the evil spirits who are making them walk might have captured the other four kids in the same way. I quietly followed them because it was the only way to find other four kids.

Barefooted they walked on the empty road and entered the forest, whereas I followed them. While walking on the moonlit path behind them I was sure of one thing, they were going to isolated cremation ground. 

Walking down the dense jungle they stepped on thorns, twisted their ankles on stones, still they kept walking. The urge to unfold this mystery made me less human. I didn’t stop them to go any further, I rather pursued them.

At 2am we reached the haunted cremation ground. In this vast empty land the only sound I could hear was of chirping crickets. I observed four kids from distance walking towards the well. I gathered pace and ran towards them. 

“Stop, Stop. Ankur, Anand, Milan, Sidharth. Stop”, I shouted out loud.

They stopped, standing on the edge of the well and turned back.

“Come… Come. Lets go home” I said in a shivering tone.

All four of them stood still in their place with their eyes fixed on me. I wasn’t looking at them but the devil that they had inside.

“You can’t stop all this” said Ankur and jumped inside the well, followed by other three kids.

“No…” I screamed and ran towards them. 

I collapsed on the ground as I saw them plunging inside the well and disappear from my sight.

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Chapter 4: Cremation

I was traumatized with this whole incident but not even a single tear shed from my eyes because of the state of shock I was in. I gained strength and walked up to the edge of the well. It was deep and nothing was visible. I checked an old rope hanging inside the well and slowly rappelled down.

I stepped inside the bottom of the well where muddy water was gathered and an unusual foul smell made it more unbearable to stand there. Nothing was visible inside the well so I picked up a body and climbed up through rope. I checked whether Milan is alive or not, but he was dead. 

I went back inside and brought another dead body with me, he was Anand. By the time I brought the dead body of Ankur I was totally exhausted. I rappelled down and found out that more bodies are lying there. With my hands I felt five bodies lying inside the well.

One by one I brought every dead body. Four kids who were missing, died in exact same manner a day before. Eight dead bodies were lying down in front on me as dawn struck the day. None of them survived.

I cried and shouted “what was their mistake”, but the evil spirits didn’t respond to me.

The evil spirits of the girls who were summoned to death on this ground envied boys because they themselves didn’t come in this world as a boy. If the dead girls were brought in this world as a boy then probably they would have been alive and adapted by their parents.

There are certain things in life which has no answers, no explanations but only realization which doesn’t comes with hearing or seeing, but by experiencing.

Nobody would believe in the reason behind the death of these kids, I wondered. So it was inefficient to take them back, and if I inform police about this incident then they would hold me in custody and declare me responsible for their death, I thought.

I insured all the kids but now this insurance was the only thing with which police might have suspected me for killing all eight children.

I started collecting woods in forest in order to prepare for cremation of the deceased. The dream I had the other night was about to come true as dusk approached.

I was in front of eight dead bodies lying over the wooden logs. While giving fire to bodies, I knew that after this cremation has been performed I will have to spend the rest of my life in desolation. I couldn’t go back even if I want to because people will start questioning, and the truth will be unacceptable for them.

I saw bodies burning and cursed people responsible for the death of those girls who were cremated in this ground. I decided to spend the rest of my life in this place, sometimes I went out in search of food.

I knew the truth behind this ground so I guarded it. Whenever I saw people unknowingly approaching this cursed place, I threw stones at them so that they would run away. I stopped everyone from entering this ground because I didn’t wanted them to suffer the same way, as I did.

In return they called me mental, psycho and often abused but it didn’t make any difference to me. I knew what I was doing.

Even after spending months and years there, I never got a chance to communicate with the evil spirits yet I felt their presence.

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