Ghosts that hunt

               "Please please please, let us try na! I want that teddy" I pleaded like a toddler. G raised his eyebrow at me but I persisted and he relented. I always had my way with him, specially when I gave that puppy look and he would melt away.
                We went to the counter having balloons which we had to be burst with dart. Whatever was written below the balloons, we could win! I wanted that cute looking teddy. I could have bought it from the gift shop nearby, but I wanted to win it. The two guys at the counter were funny looking. The taller one had a long nose and pointed ears. The second one looked like a rat. Long nose told us that we had to pay 50 bucks for the darts and we had 5 chances. I asked him if anyone ever won anything and he told the kid before us had burst 4 balloons.
               "Abhi dekho, he will burst more" I boasted. I saw G giving me a look. :P
             
              His first shot was so forceful that the dart burst 2 balloons. The trajectory of the second, burst 3. I was sure we would win something, the rate at which he was bursting the balloons! At the end of it, he had burst 9 balloons with 5 chances. The chits below 8 were blank :O The last one had "key chain".
              It was a brown, heart shaped key chain with something engraved on it. He handed me the keychain. I shouted at long ears, "Bhaiyya cheating karte ho! Itne balloon me sab blank rakha tha". G pulled me aside and told, " I will get you  a teddy. Let's go home now!" I  had to give in.

             We had forgotten about the keychain which I had hurriedly tucked in my handbag. Next morning I found it on the carpet. I almost tripped over it. My first reaction was to shout at G for messing with my handbag. He came out of the bathroom with a confused look. He had not touched my bag. I picked it up and placed it in one of the drawers.

            That night, we had gone to bed early. I, being a light sleeper, had woken up on hearing some noise in the hall.G was sleeping and he became furious if I woke him up from deep sleep. The sound was increasing and I could not put myself to sleep. I woke him up and reluctantly he went into the hall. The TV was on. We both denied switching it on!
            The next few days became creepier with weird incidences. Sometimes our fridge would beep and we would rush to see it wide open. Our neighborhood dog, Jinji, would refuse to enter our house and would bark at us as if we were some strangers. The lemons that we stored in the fridge would turn red within a day. We tried to find our reasons but none seemed to satisfy any logic! I spent less time at home and sometimes we would drop in at our friends' or relatives' house for weekends to avoid being at home till we found some solution.

           A few of our friends suggested us to meet some Pandit or tantrik to solve our problems. One of our friends had a relative who was in vaastu shaastra and occult science. We got his email-id and contact number. I  tried his number but it was not reachable. I reached for my laptop to send him an email. Out of habit, I opened the Google page. I typed a message and sent the email. I came back to the google page and searched some random pictures. Out of nowhere, a brown screen with an inscription came on the screen. I let out a scream. This was exactly the same inscription on key chain! I clicked on the link that took me to the page.

         The page was written by a popular blogger Ashreya. She had written about a tree on which the inscriptions were written. She had done extensive study in Dravidian languages and had studied Dravidian cultures. Her topic of current research was on spiritual worships and the maternal line of worship that the Dravidians followed. She had posted a picture from one of the houses she had visited as a part of her study. She claimed that the house has an ancient history of worshiping the spirits of the Mountain. The article further spoke of how the spirits in that house were no longer worshiped by the continued female line but had instead passed on to some other family which had invoked the fury of the spirits. The inscriptions on the tree meant "Let the female line continue".

      The systems and the lines sounded strangely similar to me. I went home in a state of confusion. I was thinking hard about the information when Mom called.
      "Are you okay?"
      I had always said that Mom had some crazy instincts when it was about me!
      "I m. Why do you ask?"
      "I saw you in a dream."
       Mom and me, both of us had weird dreams from time to time. Dreams that only we could understand. I would confide in her my most meaningless dreams and she would find some meaning in it.
     "You remember you once saw a woman with a huge red circle on her forehead, with long hair and in a red sari?" Mom asked me.
      "Yes, the one who was calling me to her, who had lots of garlands."
      "She is the Goddess of Truth. The spirit of our house."
      "What? What spirit of the house?" I asked her stunned.
      "She is the guardian spirit of our house. You will continue the line through me. Years back the land was taken from your grandfather by deceit. The spirits haven't been offered prayers for years."
      "Why are you telling this now?"
      "Because the patriarch of the family who had stolen our land has died mysteriously. They say the spirits are seeking revenge. You have to go and offer your prayers. Promise to continue the line."
      "Who told you this?" I asked, still incredulous.
       " The villagers have been telling it for years, but now the spirits are showing their powers.  You have to promise to continue the line."

       When G came  home, I recounted all that Mom told. Being grown up in the village, he understood these things more easily. He agreed to take me there.

      Meanwhile, the happenings in our house were still disturbing. The occult scientist we had contacted put us in contact with a man who was specialized as a medium to talk to such spirits. G was undecided about going ahead with the plan. He wanted to shift our house, rented as it was! On my insistence the man came to our house.
       "Your house has a spirit" he said at once.
       We both exchanged looks.
       "I will need to talk to this spirit."

       He chanted a few mantras and we could smell a slight fragrance in the room. It was of sandalwood. Soon the man started to shake and talked in a voice that was not his. We both were petrified at the sudden change.
       "Go, go to that land. Calm the spirits or they will kill my family." He cried.
       "Who are you?" I asked.
       "Chinappa.. The man who stole your lands. The spirits have been making my life hell but now they are after the life of my family members."
       "Why did  you come to me?"
       " The spirits want their true worshipers. You are the last in the line. You are also the most sensitive to spirits. They will heed to  you."
        " I will continue the line. Now go away. Go away from my house and my family." I screamed.

         The man gave another shudder and composed himself. For a long time there was silence in the house. He asked for the keychain. I handed it to him. I had kept it in the drawer of our small temple. The man had built a small fire and burnt the key chain. It smelt of sandalwood.

        The spirits were calmed and finally we were free of the troubles of Chinappa.

P.S: The topic was too interesting to restrain :P This won't be a contest entry though!