A red- haired, freckled girl was staring out of a beautifully carved window, which overlooked the great Danube River. Elizabeth had received the news of her mother’s death in India for cancer by that time. Her mother was an Indian. Her body could not be found. The body delivered to them was barely recognizable. It had been a severe blow to both her and her father. By that time Elizabeth’s father decided to remarry. But Elizabeth’s views were opposed to her father. She couldn’t of course bear to see another woman working in her mother’s kitchen. During this time she made up her mind to run away from home to India. She stole enough money to buy some food and a ticket. By the time she reached India, it had not prospered like Europe.
She was entirely helpless as she didn’t know anything about it. She reached a village in the outskirts of Nagpur and asked some of the villagers to give him shelter. But everyone refused as they were suspicious of foreigners. She was so unhappy that she cried and wondered why did she ever leave home sitting alone in a barn of a farm. Nobody even heard Elizabeth crying, until a man came. He was thin, long, dressed in black and spoke with a heavy accent. He introduced himself to be the mayor of the village. As Elizabeth had learnt Bengali from her mother, she communicated with the mayor in the familiar language. The mayor took pity on her and took her to his house. The mayor and his wife had only a son. And the mayor’s wife cherished dream was to have a daughter. So the family of the mayor adopted Elizabeth. It was a lovely house. There was a banyan tree by the side of the house. Elizabeth was fond of the pool in the premises. Somehow its strangely calm waters reminded her of her mother. She was allowed to go everywhere in the house. But she did not or couldn’t go to the storeroom due to her fear.
One day her cat whom she had named Balthazar went to the storeroom and
could not come out as the door somehow locked behind her. Elizabeth, who had great love for her cat, soon mustered up courage. She went to the door
and unlocked the bolt. The seconds seemed to pass with nightmarish slowness. But as she stepped inside, she discovered a whole new world. The room was filled with antiques and paintings. She found her cat and they went to explore the room. There were vases and paintings, statues etc. all unique, worth a huge amount of sum. After sometime she left the room and went to her own room. The next morning the whole family found out a very quiet Elizabeth during breakfast. From onwards she often frequented the storeroom. One day during such a visit she noticed a portrait of a beautiful young woman. Somehow the portrait resembled her own mother and soon she was aware of the presence of another invisible being in the room!
Soon Elizabeth lost control over herself. She went to the chair took a notebook and started writing with a pen:-
Dear Elizabeth,
I am trapped in here. This village was destroyed several years ago by a terrible fire. I found this village in ruins when I came here for the fast time. Somehow in front of my own eyes, this village reconstructed itself like ghosts and trapped me in here. Those horrible ghost-like creatures killed me in a gruesome and awful manner. Run away from here!
Your mother,
Angelica.
Soon, Elizabeth read the horrible letter in terror. As she hurried down the steps of the house, she tried to unlock the exit door. But it was locked. Elizabeth shuddered with fear. Elizabeth battered at the door with a hammer but to no avail. Suddenly, everything began to fade away. In a minute or two, she heard screams and wails and she could make out a faint sketch of a crowd around and she was aware that she was on fire! Soon some people saved her from the very brink of death. An elderly man said that this village was haunted and people who went there never returned. She was the only one to be saved
Twenty years later, Elizabeth served under the government. One day she was reading newspaper and a small article caught her attention. It read as:
‘In the outskirts of Nagpur, an unknown village causes mysterious death.’
All Elizabeth could utter was “Yet, another victim”!
