The Ghost – Part 3(Section 2)

“Yes,” said Mr. Brown. “That traitor and his guards followed me with their kerosene lamps. They followed me right into my house – and he told me. He told me why he had done it all.”

“I’m guessing he did it because he was greedy for money,” said Shyamala. “He probably was not satisfied with what he had and wanted more. He would have become jealous of your success, murdered your theatre manager and announced it as a heart attack. Of course, he was the one who even introduced you to the manager and so he probably forced him to write a contract that would not allow you to work anywhere else. He would have recognized your talent in magic and brought you here, made you rich and successful, made you poor, killed your wife, and then burnt you and your daughter to death after taking all your money. Am I right?” she asked.

El Van Brown started at her, dumbfounded. “W – Well,” he stuttered. “H-How did you know all that?”. He was speechless. “It was quite obvious,” said Shyamala. “I’ve watched enough horror movies. This was such a predictable ending,” she sighed. She even looked quite disappointed. “So, what do you want us to do now? And please explain all that has been happening here.”

“Yes, please do. Who screamed for an entire minute when I first came out of this house? How come both Shyamala and Vidya not see each other when they were in the building at the same time? And most importantly, how and why did we travel through time, and why are we still stuck at 6 pm? And one last question, why are you wearing modern – day clothing when you died in the nineteenth century?” I asked him, excited. I absolutely had to know what was happening. I waited for Brown to answer all my questions.

He still hadn’t quite recovered from the shock that Shyamala had guessed the rest of his story.

“Uh-starting from your first question – who screamed when you came out of the house. Like I told you before, I did not choose the three of you for any specific reasons. You just happened to come here when no one has done so for a very long time. Before you came, I was getting desperate to find that traitor and take revenge on him. Wait – let me explain this in a better way.

Every ghost has their own strange powers. My powers helped me to relive actual scenes from the past (from when I was alive) as well as have some of my traits from my body – that is before my death. I would be able to see and hear these incidents. However, we ghosts and our powers are limited to the place of our death and so I am unable to escape from this house. I was reliving the memory of my daughter’s death. I could see her burning and screaming in pain. And that’s what you heard too.” Tears were rolling down his cheeks. We felt a bit uncomfortable. “I’m sorry,” I said. “But wait – when I heard the scream, I was – oh, I had not crossed the gate, that’s why I could still hear it.”

Mr. Brown wiped his tears. “I shall now answer your second question. Day by day, my desire for revenge grew stronger. But since I could not go out of my own home, I had to wait for someone else to come in. And then, you came here out of the blue!” He pointed at me. “I was too shocked the first time when you entered because – well, nobody has ever come into the house after my death! I was so shocked that I forgot to bolt the door, or do something that would keep you here. And you just simply left. It was then that I realized my mistake, and hoping that you would come back again, I relived the memory of my daughter’s death. Instead of becoming curious and coming back in, you were terrified and ran away. I was desperate now. I needed you to come back. So I waited for a few minutes and then I was surprised again!”

“Let me guess,” said Vidya. “We came, didn’t we? Shyamala and I? Now please explain why we couldn’t see each other!”

“Yes,” said Brown. “You must remember that I am a magician.”

“You were a magician,” I corrected him.

“No. I still am. How else do you think that those three chairs appeared for you to sit on?”

He was slightly annoyed by my interruption.

“Oh! I got it!” said Vidya excitedly. “He performed one of his magic tricks on us so that we wouldn’t be able to see each other!” “Please, allow me to talk,” said Mr. Brown, looking extremely annoyed now. “What you’re saying true. I performed my tricks on the two of you. It seems that the people of today, are unlike their ancestors. If I had performed this very trick in front of them, on them to be exact, they would have felt intrigued and would have tried their very best to extract the truth from me. I expected the same of you. But again,” he sighed, “You became terrified and left for your own safety. I don’t blame you though. If I could leave this place and walk out into the world, I would have learnt so much more.”

“You’re still not telling us what we are supposed to do,” said Shyamala. “I want to leave as soon as possible, and get this done. Our parents will be wondering – oh! You didn’t tell us why time has stopped!”

Mr. Brown looked surprised, even worried now. “What? Time has stopped?” “Yes,” I said. “D-Didn’t you reverse and stop it? Is there someone else, you sailor friend, perhaps?” “Are you sure?” said Mr. Brown. “Are your that your watches haven’t stopped?” He looked extremely serious now.

“Yes!” I exclaimed. ” A hundred percent sure. Why, we even saw the crowd come back!”
“So, if it’s not you who did it, who was it then?” Shyamala said.
“I don’t know, said Mr. Brown. “Nobody has the power to stop time, reverse it, or forward it!” He looked clueless, just like the rest of us. “Could it be an act of God?” his daughter asked. “I don’t know,” he said. He paced around the room, trying to think of a possible solution.

“Where did the sailor live? We’ve got to find him and do something. All that we have been doing is talking for a very long time,” Shyamala said.

Mr. Brown gave us the directions to the sailor’s house on a piece of paper and told us what to do once we reached there. He also told us that he would be waiting for us to return and then bade farewell. He walked with us till the gate, holding his daughter’s hand and smiled at us, as we walked down the road, and took a right at a fork.
* * *

About what seemed like half an hour later, we reached a street that looked rather familiar. “Hey..” Shyamala began. “I know,” Vidya whispered. “This doesn’t make sense!” I said. We continued following our directions and eventually reached an all too familiar building. “Why are we here?” I asked. “Have we followed the directions correctly? Why have we been made to come back home?” “So the sailor – whatever his name was, he lives here? At our home?” Vidya voiced our thoughts.

“I guess the only option we have is to go inside and follow Brown’s instructions. At the very least, we should be able to get things back to normal,” I said. We agreed and went inside. We climbed up the steps of the verandah and opened the door.

“I don’t believe this,” Shyamala muttered. “Me neither,” I said. “No, I meant that I don’t believe this so called El Van Brown,” said Shyamala. “We met a random person, no – a random ghost, which is claiming to be someone who lived almost two hundred years ago. We don’t even know if what he says is true. I have a strong hunch that this so called sailor did not even exist.” “What do you think we should do?” I asked. “We need proof that he is who he says he is, but we can’t simply just ask him,” Vidya said. We decided to check our house anyway and found nothing of importance about any ghost which should have been existing there. After talking about it for sometime, we followed the directions in reverse and reached the black and white building.

We boldly opened the gate and stepped inside. “He’s probably in the house, waiting for us,” said Shyamala. “Ready?” “Of course!” we replied.

I pushed open the door. “Mr. Brown? We – we found the sailor. He apologized. Mr. Brown?”

He was no where to be seen, his daughter had also disappeared. All we found was a card on a table. Vidya picked it up, and read it. “It says here that he’s gone to heaven, because his mind was at peace when he knew that we were going to avenge his death!”

“What?!? He escaped! All his excuses and answers sounded so unbelievable that I’m sure that he was not El Van Brown. He’s someone else, and he’s gone. What do we do now?” Shyamala said.

“Then it must also mean that he simply let out that scream, performed some of his ghost magic on us, simply for the sake of mystery and confusion?” I asked. “Ugh, this was such a let-down,” said Shyamala. “I expected something big and grand, I -I even thought that he was the one who stopped time. Only if there was someone else, with whom we can speak to, and -“

She was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell, which rang thrice. “Wait – there was a doorbell? I never noticed it,” I whispered. “Neither did I,” said Shyamala. I cautiously opened the door. The man outside looked like a watchman, and he was wearing the uniform that most watchmen do. “Is this your bracelet ma’am?” he asked. “No way,” I whispered. I stared at him, wide – eyed.

“What-what’s happening?” asked Shyamala. “Yes. Thank you,” I replied to the watchman, ignoring her. “Why did you have to ring the doorbell thrice for this?”

“Thrice! I never did ring the bell thrice ma’am! I only knocked once!”

“Then… who rang the doorbell?” I felt like I knew the answer.

“I don’t know ma’am. Could’ve been a ghost! They do exist ma’am. See, I did not steal your bracelet, but it ended up in my cupboard! Anyway, have a nice day ma’am!” and he walked away.

I closed the door behind him. “It’s déjà vu,” I said. “This has happened before, but only in a dream. If the events continue in the same order, I believe we shall be murdered – for the sake of fun.” Vidya and Shyamala were shocked. “What happened next in your dream?” they asked. “Well, the doorbell rang five times, I opened the door, and then I died. I don’t remember why though,” I replied. “Oh – and of course! I met the members of the Royal Ghost Club. It’s a long story.”

There was silence. All of us were extremely scared at the prospect of death, and I had butterflies in my stomach. We had all the time in the world, it was still six in the evening. And then, it happened – the doorbell rang five times.
“Uh-oh,” I whispered.
“Open the door,” said Shyamala. “Let’s finish it off quickly.”
I slowly walked towards the door, terrified. My hands were trembling with fear. I touched the doorknob, which felt rather cold all of a sudden. My heart was beating, fast, probably because of the anxiety.

I turned the doorknob, and outside stood the watchman, but only the side half of him. I screamed. I died.

I woke up, and found myself lying on a bed, in a dark, black room. I called out to Vidya and Shyamala, but they didn’t seem to be there. Feeling scared, I felt the walls and floated down a staircase. I found light coming from a room at the bottom of the staircase, and went in. Thirty five people who looked like they were covered in a white cloth, looked at me, the moment I came in. One of them floated towards me and said, “Welcome to the Royal Ghost Club. There are only twenty-one more of us. They are there in the next room and will come to us one by one.”

I remembered each of those lines that he spoke and it was exactly as it came in my dream. But now I needed to focus on finding Shyamala and Vidya.
“I was frightened to death,” I said. “Where are my sisters?”

“Sisters? Do you mean them?” saying so, he pointed towards two girls who were sitting on a bench near a window.

“Yes!” I said. The three of us were quite relieved to see each other. “That was a terrifying sight,” said Vidya. “You screamed and died, and then we saw him and we died too.”
“He was quite scary,” said Shyamala.

The ghost came back to us. Everyone in the room, except us, looked very excited and happy. They pointed at us, and whispered within themselves. I cleared my throat. “Er- what is going on here? We need an explanation for everything that happened.”
“Of course,” said the ghost. “Please have a seat.” We sat down on the bench and waited for him to began. “I shall explain everything to you. From the beginning.

This summer, we had several new recruits, some new, some from other camps. Unfortunately, one of them turned out to be someone who had been a murderer. He had apparently killed his family and was an escaped convict. He died because the police shot him during a chase… and then he came up here. A few months back, he started becoming calmer after staying here for some time, so we allowed him to be part of some of the contests. He played the game ‘Human Hunting’, where each ghost is assigned to a human. Whoever kills their human just by scaring them is the winner. They must not harm the human in any other way. However, he went a little overboard with his scares and stories, so we decided to get him back here.

But, he wasn’t ready and was adamant that he would stay back on earth. So we needed someone else, to help us get him back. Otherwise, he would have created so much havoc and trouble.” He sighed.

“So, you used us to bring him back up here? Is that why he had disappeared when we came back from our home?”

“Yes, we successfully brought him, when he was relaxed, and now he is in his room. You could meet him, if you like.”

“No. Before that, we need to know a few more things. Who reversed time and stopped it? Why were we made to go to our house in search of this so-called sailor? What is the name of the imposter and why were we chosen for this job?” I asked.

The ghost sighed.

“We reversed time and stopped it. In fact, that crowd you came through, in the very beginning, was created by us. We created it to drive you into the black and white building, because we knew that that’s where our contestant had positioned himself.”

“The crowd doesn’t exist? Oh! So that’s why nobody even looked at me when I shouted out to Vidya and Shyamala. That’s one thing solved. Now what about the part where we were made to go to our house?” I asked, feeling the excitement bubbling up in me.

“Well, since your house was a considerable distance away from the black and white building, we thought that that would give us enough time to take our prisoner and bring him back up here. We slightly altered the directions he wrote for you, on your paper, so that you would go to a different place, which is your home, and we could grab him before you come back. And we did it – successfully!”

“Oh wow!” Vidya said, and Shyamala was speechless by the turn of events.

“And finally – you wanted to know his name and why we chose you three to help us.”

All of us agreed on that. I was really itching to know his name.

“His name, is -“

“Sir!” shouted a ghost from the doorway. “El Van Brown is gone! He’s escaped!”
Everyone in the room, human and ghost, was shocked beyond belief. “I was walking along the corridor of his room, and saw that the guards were lying on the floor, unconscious. Brown’s door was ajar, his chains were broken, and his guards told me that he escaped!”

There was silence. It was so quiet that I could hear the clock ticking in the corner.

And then everybody spoke at once.

“We need to find him!”
“What shall we do now?”
“He’s a dangerous ghost!”
“We’re done for!”
“It’s hopeless!”
“All our efforts are wasted!”

“SILENCE!” yelled the Ghost who had been explaining everything to us.

Everyone became quiet again. “There’s no hope,” he said. “He’s gone now, and there’s nothing we can do about it. For all we know, he could have even left the solar system and gone somewhere else. I’m pretty sure he was not comfortable here. Let him be free. Maybe he has turned over a new leaf!”

Several ghosts looked dejected, while some looked very relieved at the prospect of not going in search of a murderous ghost.

The leader ghost turned to us. “I’m sorry, you weren’t given the chance to meet him.”

“It’s alright,” we said.

“Coming back to what I was saying – his name was El Van Brown. Yes, he was the magician, and not an imposter. His love for children drew him towards you. He chose you as his target to kill.” He pointed at me. I had no words to say. “You mean, his love for murdering children?” I asked. “Yes,” replied the ghost. “So we had to trust you to keep him engaged, while we made a plan to catch him and bring him back. He made up his own story about a sailor who had betrayed him , and of course, none of it was true. He was the one who had murdered his family, and you may ask why.”

“Why?” we asked.

“Because he’s a maniac,” said the ghost. “As you know, we had a lot of trouble keeping him under control even here, it’s a wonder that you three escaped alive.”

“I hope all your doubts have been cleared,” said the ghost.

“Almost,” said Shyamala. “I just need to know a few more things before we can leave.”
“Of course,” he replied. “It’s my pleasure.”
“Was that girl with him his daughter, or someone else?”
“She was a non-existent ghost. A part of his magic.”

“What about the card on the table?”
“That card, was left behind by El Van Brown, as a petty excuse to cover up the fact that he had been caught. He quickly conjured it up the moment we entered the house. We saw it only when we came back up here,” replied the ghost.

“Lastly, who was the watchman that we died after we saw? And was my dream also engineered by you, last night? So that I would know that I had to die?” I asked.
The ghost was smiling now. “You are clever,” he said. “That watchman, was my very own personal assistant,” he pointed to a ghost near the door. “He helps to do these small tasks, you know. That dream, which you had, was constructed by us, to guide you to your path. In fact, we were quite worried that you wouldn’t be scared at him if you saw him the second time. But you were, and we were able to bring you here, to explain everything. Thank you very much for everything you’ve done.”

“You’re welcome,” we said. “Can you send us back, or are we supposed to live here?” I asked him. “Well, you can go back if you would like to,” he replied.

“Then we shall go,” Vidya said. “I’m quite tired from all these adventures, and we were also supposed to visit our grandparents.”

“You!” said the ghost, pointing at a chubby man near a piano in the room. “Take them down, and send them back.”

“Yes sire,” he said. We went down with him and he took us to an elevator. We hopped in, and pressed a button which said – ‘LOL (Land Of the Living)’ and it immediately took us to the road near our grandparents’ house. We waved to the chubby man, and walked down the road.

We walked up the porch steps, and rang the doorbell. We heard the click of the doorknob. Grandpa opened the door. “You’re here early!” he said. “Early?” I said. And then I just remembered that time had been stopped and reversed and all that.

“We had loads of adventures,” Vidya said.
“Weird ones they were,” said Shyamala.
“Oh, definitely,” I said, grinning.

Read the ghost part 3 (section 1)

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