June 23, 2007

Class nine had thrown a farewell party for class ten at school. I was waiting to go and meet our seniors for the last time. Oh, let me introduce myself, I am Alishba, and I am a student of class nine. Next year I will have to say goodbye to my dear school.

I arrived at school, looking awesome in my purplish-red dress, at nearly 6:20 in the evening. I met my friends there. They were looking very different from normal school days. After stage shows and dances were performed by class nine, we had a great dinner. As the food was very spicy I asked my friends to come with me to the staffroom area where the water coolers were located. That area is slightly far from the place where the farewell party was being held. Moreover, it is famous because it is haunted by a ghost who kills girls who are attractive. The girl who goes there does not come back. People think she is dead.

Since no one had finished their dinner yet, they weren’t ready to leave. Well, after receiving the same answer from all my friends I got angry and decided to go alone. As I walked, a whiff of cold air blew. It was so dark there that I could only see a few yards ahead of me. I heard footsteps. Someone was following me. I turned round and found a body masked by darkness. It was Aisha, I recognised her by her voice as she started to talk. “My goodness, Aisha what are you doing here?” I asked.

She replied, “Actually you were going alone so I thought that I should accompany you.”

After drinking water from the coolers, I turned to go back, but found that she wasn’t following me. She stood there like a rock. She slowly came forward, held my hand and said, “Come let me show you the area behind the staffroom, it’s so dark there.” I got scared, and wondered what she could be up to. And then she pulled me, scratched me on my arm with her long nails. This was surprising because she hated long nails. I began to run as fast as I could. I was crying with pain and fear, the kajal I had applied to my eyes began to run.

When I got back to the party, I saw Aisha standing with a bunch of girls laughing and pointing at me. I took her to a corner and said, “It’s not funny.”

“Everyone including me told you about the ghost, didn’t we?” she said.

“But this wasn’t the right way,” I said.

“What are you talking about?” she said.

I asked her, “Didn’t you follow me to the water cooler? Didn’t you scratch my arm? Didn’t you pull me to the back of the staffroom?” The answer I received from her was shocking.

“No. I was standing with my friends taking pictures, waiting for you to come, you can ask them.” There was no hint of a lie in her eyes.

From then on, I never went near that staffroom area again because it reminds me of that Farewell party.