“Help! Help!” These voices often echoed in the dark, quiet street which was known as ‘The Haunted Street’. Here, the third house on the left was ours. The screams would terrify the people living on this street, but no one believed that they were real. People would say that an innocent woman was killed on this street by the cruel owner of the house. He had killed her for not paying the rent and now her ghost roams around the street. All these horrible bad thoughts went round in my head whenever I heard these voices.

One night, as I was late coming home from a close friend’s party, I wished that I had accepted the offer of a sleepover instead of wandering down this haunted street. I was really scared. The voices of the woman again echoed in the air. I felt a shiver run down my spine.

At first, I decided to quickly run towards my house and save myself from these horrible screams, but then I thought about my mother who used to say, “Never run away and leave someone in a bad situation. Always help them.”

I decided to help this person in distress. I traced the voices and trailed them. And, finally I figured out where the voices were coming from. They were coming from a large football field which was almost 10 metres away from my house. At one end of the football field, I saw a girl almost my age tied to the goalpost. She seemed to have fainted.

I tiptoed and entered the football field. Suddenly a man wearing a black mask and a scarf entered the football field and spotted me. He looked petrified for a minute. But he quickly took action and started to chase me around the football field.

We both were running like cat and mouse. Whenever, I remember that scene I cannot stop my giggles.

He got hold of me and tied me to the other end of the goalpost. As soon as he tied me to the goalpost, sirens of the police car were heard. The police car stopped outside the football field.

The policemen surrounded the football field and soon this man was caught by them and arrested. We found out that the old woman whose house was next to the football field woke up and heard the screams of the girl and she called the police. The old woman had done something great by helping us.

The girl thanked the woman and me, and I thanked the old woman as well. But to this day no one knows who that girl was, what was she doing there and no one had ever seen her after that night.

Nowadays, I visit the old woman every week. Sometimes I do wake up and feel that I am hearing some strange noise coming from outside. No, I don’t go out to check, but I am glad that I did stop that day for the cries for help did turn out to be real.

Published in Dawn, Young World, November 30th, 2019