Ghost Town

"Everything around here is so dark," I muttered as I stepped off the Mega Bus. It's strange when someone you haven't spoken to in ages calls you out of the blue and asks to visit, but it was even weirder when I agreed to see him.

As a self-professed loner, I found solace in my own company. So, when a text from Rajesh, a long-lost friend from my college days, interrupted my solitary musings, it was a welcome surprise. His message, 'Can you come to Middlesbrough, mate? Something here might interest you,' piqued my curiosity, and I agreed to the unexpected visit.

When I got no response from Rajesh after texting him, a sense of unease began to grow within me. Despite that feeling, I made up my mind to go see him. It seemed unusual for him to suddenly call me and ask me to come over, and when I tried to call him back, his phone was switched off. This heightened my fear that something might be wrong. Convincing my mother to allow me to return to a place filled with unpleasant memories was a challenging task. People might come up and say racism is in someone's head and it's not real. Well, those people are idiots. I had to go through what every immigrant had to go through while entering a foreign country. Rajesh's story wasn't any different after being called an Indian scammer every single day in University doesn't do anything significant for our mental health. Still, unlike me, he could brush them off. " Not every British person is a racist; what they show in the Uni is how they are raised at home" were the words he used to console me every time I felt uneasy.

After an hour of tears and emotional blackmail from my mother, Trying her best to make me stay here, she realised it was not possible to convince me she gave up the idea.

" The stories about the abandoned town in Middlesbrough are not good; please take care of yourself, son. You are all I got!"

I embraced my mother tightly, trying to seize every last moment of familiarity before embarking on an uncertain journey. My father's passing had left a profound impact on our lives, and my mother had devoted herself entirely to raising me in the wake of his loss. Her unwavering commitment to my father was evident in every action and word, and her resilience had become a source of inspiration for those around her. An indescribable concern gnawed at me as I prepared to leave, knowing I was the anchor she held onto after my father's departure. I worried about her ability to cope with the immense loss and the weight of the promise I made to take care of her. It was a promise made without hesitation, fueled by love and an unspoken understanding that we needed to stand together in the face of grief. As I left, the uncertainty of the journey ahead weighed heavily on my mind. I couldn't predict the duration of my absence or the reasons behind this unexpected call. Despite the vague nature of the opportunity, a compelling force urged me to heed its call, drawing me away from the comfort of familiarity and towards the unknown.

Undeterred, I embarked on a lengthy 4-hour bus journey from Preston, my anticipation tinged with a hint of apprehension. As I entered the town, I was struck by the disarray that seemed to grip every corner. It was as if a heavy cloud of despair hung over the entire place, casting a pall of gloom. The sky, unusually dark for 5:30 pm, only added to the eerie atmosphere. Adding to the surreal scene, the streets were strewn with scattered piles of refuse, giving the impression of a town forgotten and forsaken. My heart raced, and a chill ran down my spine as I took in the scene before me.

As the bus slowly retreated from the small town, the conductor leaned in close and whispered, 'Good luck, kid. May God have mercy on you.' I couldn't help but notice the other passengers' looks of pity and concern as I stepped off the bus. Every pair of eyes seemed fixed on me, not with anger or desperation, but with a deep sense of pity. As I walked forward, I struggled to remember the location of his house. The town had changed beyond recognition since my last visit. The once lively flowers and trees had wilted into a sinister darkness, and the sky hung heavy and foreboding overhead, laden with ominous clouds. A foul stench lingered in the air, reminiscent of decaying flesh. The once charming buildings now stood in a state of disrepair, their windows boarded up and their doors hanging from their hinges, casting an eerie shadow over the desolate streets.

"Are you lost, kid? The words of the older man reverberated through the desolate alley, snapping me out of my daydream. As I turned, a hunched figure in his seventies locked eyes with me, his gaze intense and penetrating. His bloodshot eyes hinted at a lifetime of exhaustion as if he hadn't slept in years. Tangles of unkempt gray hair spilled from under a worn hat, partially obscuring his weathered face and wild beard. His tattered clothing seemed frozen in time, reminiscent of a bygone era. Despite the biting cold, he appeared impervious to the harsh surroundings.

"No, Thank you. I am trying to find my friend's house; he used to stay in Acton Street, " I replied as I tried to walk away from him. His presence was giving me creeps; I could feel a negative aura surrounding him, and I felt like if I stayed there any longer, it would engulf me and make me a prisoner. 

" Go back, son, when you still can. Humans don't leave their houses once the sun sets."

"Then what? Are you a ghost?" I asked with a tremble in my voice, desperately trying to conceal my fear. After enduring years of bullying, I've come to learn from Rajesh that showing fear only invites more torment.

"A ghost? I am not a ghost. I am far from that. Ghosts don't have forms, but I do. I am not a human either because humans are born, they grow old, and then they die. I just grow old."

 I stood there, puzzled, and asked, "What do you mean?" As I turned around, he abruptly vanished before my eyes, leaving me bewildered. A wave of fear crashed over me, sending shivers down my spine. I couldn't comprehend what had just transpired. Hastily, I grabbed my phone and tried to call Rajesh, but to my dismay, there was no reception. My heart raced, and an unsettling feeling crept over me. Something about this place felt wrong. It was as if none of it was real.

The scene unfolding before my eyes left me bewildered. His assertion that he was neither a ghost nor a human confounded me, leaving me utterly perplexed. None of it seemed to make any sense. As I gazed once more at my surroundings, I noticed an eerie stillness in the atmosphere. There was no movement in the air, no rustling of the trees, and no signs of life anywhere nearby. In that moment, I couldn't help but wish I had heeded my mother's advice and stayed home with her.

"Relax, mate. "It is all your mind that you are playing tricks. It's all good; you know the place, the town, and you've been here many times before. It might look slightly different, but this is where you completed your graduation."

I tried my utmost to reassure myself, yet a persistent sense of unease lingered deep within me. How could that individual vanish without leaving a single trace? I questioned whether I had overlooked something, meticulously scouring my surroundings for any clue. The location was etched vividly in my memory—a mere 10-minute walk from where I stood. After retrieving my phone to check the time, I noticed that the display obstinately showed 5:30 pm, seemingly frozen in time. It felt as though time itself had halted. I couldn't shake the disquieting notion that I might be unwittingly ensnared in an elaborate YouTube prank show or perhaps trapped within someone's enigmatic painting. With each passing moment, my doubts and apprehension only intensified.

"Krishna, you made it."

As Rajesh appeared before me, seemingly out of nowhere, I was filled with an overwhelming sense of shock and disbelief. Nevertheless, I gathered all my strength and embraced him tightly. In stark contrast to his former self, Rajesh now appeared as a mere shadow of his former self. His once flamboyant haircut had been replaced by grey hair. Wrinkles now adorned his face, adding years to his appearance, which is really weird since he was only 25 years old at the time he left Uni, and that was 5 years ago. 

" God, what the hell happened to this place mate?"

"Long story, mate. Do you remember the Jenkins? That weird kid who always wears a black dress, black lipstick, black nail polish."

"Yeah."

"Some lunatics here thought she was a witch, and they attacked her and hanged her."

"What? Seriously?" Growing up in India, I heard stories like this but never expected to listen to them in England. I kept silent, hoping to hear more from him. 

" After her death, her mother took her own life, but before doing that, she cursed each and everyone in the town, and ever since then, people just started perishing"

"I wanted to tell him that this was all part of his imagination and nothing of the sort was happening, but my experience in this town up to now tells me a different story. The only thing in this town that makes sense is that nothing makes sense anymore."

" I am sure you also noticed something bad about this place. There are no birds, no animals, nothing. It's as if the whole ecosystem has collapsed."

" What happened to them?"

"The townspeople watched helplessly as their loved pets and birds succumbed to an unexplained illness, with each day bringing more death. Desperate for a solution, they turned to the local priest for aid. Despite his best efforts and the performance of every known exorcism, the town continued to spiral into decay." The sense of easiness I experienced when I saw him again started to overcome with fear again. I was getting more confused every second; I wanted to ask him why he asked me to come to this town and see him instead of him visiting me.

" We are trapped here, Krishna. We cannot travel anywhere else", he said as if he could read my mind." I felt hurt watching him with tears; if I shared this with someone after I returned home, they would put me in a mental health hospital, but I know he wasn't lying. His drenched physical condition was an indication of what he was going through.

As I pressed my head against his chest, I couldn't help but notice the icy chill of his arms and the absence of a heartbeat. A sense of paralysis swept through my entire being, rendering me almost immobile. It felt like invisible chains were restraining every movement I attempted to make. After gathering every last bit of courage, I finally confronted the situation and asked...

You are dead, aren't you?

He did not answer me for some time. I felt like my whole body was paralysed, and I started to feel like the entire world had come to a standstill.

" After endless prayers, we found a way to break the curse; the only way to save my soul was by trading ours with the one we love. This is what we Lost souls call purgatory, a place where you belong from now. I am sorry I had to do this to you, but I had no choice. I don't expect you to forgive me, but I want you to understand."

 I was utterly stunned by what I was hearing. It felt as though the world had lost all coherence. As I delved deeper and deeper into my thoughts, I realised that what he had said was indeed the truth. Suddenly, I felt myself plummeting into a chasm of searing flames. I tried to unleash a scream from the depths of my being, but my voice seemed to be stifled. Looking down, I beheld an ocean ablaze with hellish fire, encircled by forlorn souls eagerly awaiting to consume mine. I continued to descend, further and further, into the unfathomable depths of the fiery abyss.

The fiery abyss stretched endlessly before me, a swirling vortex of hellish flames that threatened to consume every shred of my being. The intense heat clawed at my skin, searing my senses, but no matter how much I screamed, no sound escaped my lips. My heart pounded in my chest, but I could no longer feel it beating. Was this it? Was I truly trapped here, doomed to descend into this inferno for eternity?

Just as I thought I could bear no more, a figure appeared before me. It was Rajesh—his body, once frail and lifeless, now glowing with an ethereal light that cut through the suffocating darkness. His eyes, once filled with sorrow, now burned with a fierce intensity.

"Krishna," he said, his voice echoing like a whisper from the depths of the void. "You were never supposed to come here. This place... it’s not meant for you."

I tried to speak, but no words came. My throat felt like it was closing in on me, a vice tightening with each breath I took.

"You were always meant to stay behind," Rajesh continued, his gaze unwavering. "I made the choice for you, but I didn’t know... I didn’t know how bad it would be. The curse... it’s more than just death. It's a never-ending purgatory, a place where souls are tethered by their unfinished business. And now you're caught in it too."

I wanted to ask him why he hadn’t warned me, why he hadn’t told me the truth sooner, but the words were trapped within me. My body felt as though it was being pulled in every direction, unable to escape the nightmare that had become my reality.

"Do you remember," Rajesh asked, "the old man you met on the street?"

I nodded, though I wasn’t sure I could trust my own mind anymore. The memory of the haggard figure haunted me, his cryptic warning still fresh in my mind.

"He's not just some deranged old man," Rajesh said. "He’s part of this place, a remnant of the curse. Like us, he is stuck—an echo of his former self, unable to leave until the curse is broken. But the thing is, Krishna... the curse can never truly be broken."

I felt a cold rush of despair wash over me. "Then what’s the point?" I managed to whisper, my voice trembling. "Why even try? Why did you bring me here?"

Rajesh's face twisted with anguish. "I thought I could save you, Krishna. But now I see that I was wrong. I thought the curse could be reversed, that I could somehow spare you from this fate. But I was just trying to escape it myself."

A heavy silence hung in the air, the flames swirling around us like a living, breathing entity. I looked around, the inferno now seeming more like a prison than a place of destruction. The souls of the damned floated in the distance, their faces contorted in eternal agony, their forms flickering like ghosts in the wind.

"Why are you showing me this?" I gasped, my vision blurring with tears. "Why now? Why didn’t you tell me all of this before?"

Rajesh’s expression softened. "Because I didn't want to lose you, Krishna. But the truth is, I already did. We both lost everything the moment we stepped into this town."

I shook my head, refusing to accept it. "No. There has to be a way out. There has to be something we can do!"

Rajesh’s face hardened, the sorrow giving way to a resigned acceptance. "We are already dead, Krishna. We have no power here. This is the price we pay for the curse—the price for the lives we left behind, the lives we couldn’t protect."

As he spoke, the landscape around us began to shift. The fiery abyss faded into a dark, misty forest, its trees twisted and gnarled like the fingers of long-dead corpses reaching up to the sky. The ground beneath us was soft and yielding, as if the earth itself had given up all hope.

"Where are we now?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

"We’re nowhere," Rajesh replied. "This is the in-between—the place where all lost souls wander. We’re trapped here, Krishna, with no way to find peace. But maybe you can find it, somehow. Maybe you can escape... but you have to make a choice."

I looked at him, my heart heavy with confusion. "What choice?"

Rajesh’s eyes darkened. "You can stay with me, in this purgatory, where time has no meaning and the pain never ends. Or... you can try to break free. But that comes at a price. One that might cost you everything you hold dear."

The forest around us seemed to close in, the mist thickening, suffocating us in its embrace. My mind reeled, the weight of his words sinking in like a stone in my stomach. Escape seemed impossible, a mere illusion, and yet... something inside me still urged me to fight, to find a way back to the world I once knew.

"I don’t want this," I whispered, the words barely escaping my lips.

Rajesh gave me one last, sorrowful look before stepping back, his form beginning to fade. "The choice is yours, Krishna. Choose wisely."

And with that, he was gone.

I was left standing alone in the mist, my thoughts a whirlwind of doubt and fear. Could I escape this place? Could I truly break the curse that had bound us all? The darkness pressed in on me, the flames of the abyss still flickering at the edges of my mind, waiting for me to fall back into their grasp.

But I couldn’t. Not yet. Not while there was still a chance.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward, determined to find the truth, no matter the cost. Whatever it took, I would not become another lost soul in this wretched purgatory.