Shadow (Saaya) - Short Horror Story

I am Akshata. Today I will be sharing my story with you. Since childhood, I had a great interest in listening to stories. I was in awe of my grandmother as she used to tell me a story every day. But I had never thought that one day I will write a story, a story that will blow your mind. The family I was born in was very poor. The only thing I had seen around me since a young age was poverty. In spite of it, my mummy and papa had bought me up with great affection as I was their only child. My mother was very strict. I and papa had to do anything that she wished for. We had no other option. One of my mother’s friends was strict like her. She was the queen in her house. Whatever she said, everyone had to follow it. Not just that, even I and papa were scared of her. They were quite rich and had a big bungalow. They had cars, servants, and every other pleasure but still, Savitri maa felt something missing in that house. They were only worried about the marriage of their son, Yash. I had never imagined that Savitra maa and my mummy would fix our marriage. And anyway we all existed only to follow their orders. Yash was completely against it, but when he saw me for the first time, he was completely in love with me. His eyes clearly showed that he wanted to marry me. But I don’t know why he used to refuse getting married. Saying that he wanted to pursue his career he used to avoid the topic but he was helpless in front of his mother. We both were married. The first few days of my marriage were the best days of my life. We used to go to many places, long drives, parties, and trips. I had never thought that my life will become so beautiful. Yash would make me laugh by telling many jokes and I wouldn’t stop giggling. But after some days, Yash’s behavior changed. He used to be busy every day. For two to three days, he used to lock himself inside the room saying that he had a lot of work. All the time he used to simply work. He started ignoring me and behaving weird each day. I had never seen him behave this way. I don’t know what had happened to him, but his behavior was odd. He suddenly started sleepwalking at night. He used to sleep on the bed every day and in the morning was found sleeping in the garden, bathroom or even the toilet. When I asked my mother-in-law about this, she shouted at me. She said, ‘Yash is perfectly fine. Maybe after getting married to you he is behaving weird. Just take care of him.’ I felt odd after listening to this but I ignored her. I never had the guts to ask or tell her something. Some days passed. Yash’s situation was getting worse day by day. He had also started getting fits of madness. While talking to me he would suddenly start staring at the wall and forget what he was speaking. There was a strange fear in his eyes. His appearance was turning strange, his face was becoming pale, as if his body did not have even a drop of blood, there were big dark circles under his eyes due to which he looked scary. Even I was terrified of him. One night when we were sleeping, I started hearing strange sounds When I opened my eyes and looked at the clock, it was three in the night. As I looked on the bed to wake up Yash, he was missing. Then I heard someone crying. I was terribly scared. When I listened carefully, the sound was coming from nowhere else, but from underneath the bed. My heartbeats grew faster and I was unable to understand what was happening. Gathering some courage I peeped underneath the bed and my mind was completely blown. I saw Yash staring at one point and crying. I couldn’t understand what was going on. I was just worried about Yash. Somehow I called out to him, ‘Yash, what happened Yash? Did I do something wrong? He screamed back at me. ‘You witch! Just sleep and let me be.’ I was frightened. Whenever that face of his comes into my mind, my soul is shaken to its core. I lay down on the bed without saying a word and tried to sleep. I was unable to bear his madness. I don’t know why but whenever he had the crazy bouts he used to call me a witch and say strange things like asking me to leave. This went on day and night. He used to speak with himself and create strange sounds. I had slowly become used to all this. I had convinced myself that I will have to live like this. I realized that my in-laws had not revealed everything about Yash to us. I had started living only with one hope that all this would end someday. One night when we were sleeping, I suddenly work up. It was around three in the night. When I looked around, once again Yash wasn’t beside me. When I peeped underneath the bed, he wasn’t even there. I felt worried and suddenly the electricity went off. It was frightening and I was concerned about Yash. Finally when I lit the candle in the drawer and went searching for Yash in the next room, I heard strange sounds. Although my face was still covered by sweat due to fear, I still managed to go to the other room to search for him. What I saw was even more frightening! I will kill you. I will really kill you. I will kill you. I will kill you. I saw Yash standing in the front of a mirror with a big knife in his hand and threatening to kill himself. Seeing this weird scene it grew dim in front of my eyes and I passed out. When I was conscious again after some time, I saw Yash sitting beside me with the knife and saying strange things like, ‘I can’t do this…. I can’t do this. I cannot kill you. I cannot kill you. And he suddenly looked at me and started staring. Seeing this strange behavior the behaviour I got goosebumps and my heartbeats grew rapidly. And then, Yash looked at me and started laughing. I was frightened. Due to fear my hands and feet had become cold. He said to me, You witch! Don’t I love you? How can I kill you? And then he started laughing loudly. I could sense a deep pain in his laughter. Seeing all this I didn’t know how to help him. After some time, he threw away the knife and started behaving normally as if nothing had happened. He said to me, ‘Hey, you haven’t slept?’ ‘I was just about to sleep…’ ‘Just go to sleep, you witch, and let me sleep.’ Hearing this I felt very low. Due to fear, I was even unable to sleep. The shadow of that dark night is still in my mind. That night was the longest and scariest night of my life. But isn’t it said, no matter how scary the night, the sun will always rise. When I was battling all these troubles, one more problem emerged. My mother-in-law started doubting that I am a witch, and responsible for the condition of her son. She started harassing me a lot and would physically abuse me But scared of her, I was never able to tell anyone about the hell I was stuck in. My husband’s madness was going on increasing and my mother-in-law was continuing to abuse me. He used to scream every day like a mad man, ‘O witch, just go away. Go away from my home.’ Hearing this, my mother-in-law’s suspicion increased. And not just her but even I started thinking that I was a witch. Even I used to stand in front of the mirror for hours like a crazy person to see whether I had turned into a witch. As time passed, even I started having bouts of madness. Seeing my madness, my mother-in-law started feeling scared. Behaving like a witch, I started scaring her. Due to this fear I was relieved of her abuse. Acting like a witch, I was relieved of other troubles but it resulted in something unexpected. I started sensing the presence of a witch inside the house. Whenever Yash used to have fits of craziness, I used to feel strange as if some dead being was present and the chill in the air Although I never believed all these things, I slowly started believing in it. My husband used to shout loudly every day that it is due to this witch that my life has been destroyed and start crying. My heart would be in pain listening to his screams and cries. I started believing that only after marrying me, Yash was put into this condition. Or maybe someone has done black magic on him. I never believed in all of this but the situation was pointing towards it. One day calamity struck and the unexpected happened. My husband struck my mother-in-law with the knife and he was admitted to the mental hospital. And I came back to my mummy’s place. My small house started feeling like a heaven when after several days I started sleeping peacefully and my mental state started improving gradually. As per the reports of doctors and psychiatrists, it was understood that due to depression I was behaving oddly. I was completely normal. But I was unable to find the answer to what had happened with Yash? This question troubles me even today. I decided that I would find out what had happened with Yash. Calling up all his friends and relatives I told them everything but no one knew what had happened to him. One of his friends gave me the address of his old home. I went to that address and found a small house, where Yash’s family used to stay. The structure was completely in ruins, and full of cobwebs. I found strange chanting beads and things used for tantra-mantra. In a wooden box, I found a book with the title Karnapishachini Mantra Sadhana and was terrified of seeing it. My grandma had told me the story of karnapishachini, and when I had heard that story I didn’t believe any of it to be true. As I browsed through some pages of the book, I saw that someone had torn a few pages. Slowly I realized that he wasn’t mad. He wasn’t crazy but used to speak with the witch every day. He used to beg for mercy, and lock himself up even in toilet and bathroom, only to be free from her, used to sleep underneath the bed so that she doesn’t trouble him, and would try to kill himself. Listening to the karnapishachini, he even attacked his own mother. Under her influence, he had even attempted to kill me. Yash’s weird behavior, the overnight riches, our marriage, and his conversations with the karnapishachini… slowly I understood all the events and why Yash had turned out like this. And he was unable to narrate his mistake to anyone. Even today he is in the mental asylum. Everyone thinks he is crazy, and he has even tried suicide several times. I have only spoken about this to my grandma. She thinks that now no one can save him. The world thought of him as a crazy person but only I knew that the karnapishachini will never leave him. But even today I wonder whether he was really crazy or the karnapishachini had made him so.