An engaging short tale by Raghav. Raghav studies in Grade 8

It was quite late at night when Ramu snapped out of a dream. A loud noise was coming from the kitchen, just like the sound of a metal glass falling on the floor.

Ramu moved quietly towards the kitchen to find out what was happening there. He didn’t find anything on the floor and everything was in order in the kitchen. He was confused but then thought that he might be dreaming and went back to sleep.

For the next two nights, he heard the same sound again and at the same time. He got very scared and decided to report this to the police. While he was on his way to the police station, he heard a loud sound, in the background. It sounded like an animal is howling somewhere far. He quickly entered the police station and after reporting it, he came home and slept.

The next day, the policeman visited his home at night. He did not find any clue. The policeman continued to visit for the next one week but heard no sound whatsoever.
Day by day the howling of the animal and the sound of falling of the glass became louder and followed Ramu everywhere. Ramu was petrified and panicky. He hardly slept at night.

One evening, when Ramu was returning from the forest after collecting woods, he saw a huge Peepal tree on his way. The leaves of the Peepal tree were moving wildly, the branches were swaying from one side to the other as if there was a storm. At first, he ignored it and kept walking. But when he noticed there was no wind, and everything was silent and calm. There was no other sound from birds or crickets or bats, nothing except the Peepal tree.

Since was already dark, Ramu could not see anything which could be the reason for this amount of movement from the Peepal tree until he saw a dark shadow with two bright red lights shining under the Peepal tree.

He was so terrified and shaken that he fainted. When he opened his eyes, he found himself in his own room. He breathed a sigh of relief and thought that it was all but another scary dream. Ramu went happily out of his house to tell his neighbors about his strange and eerie dream.

On this way, he turned back to see his house and wave. His smile faded when he saw the same black shadow with two red lights on the roof of his house.

And when Ramu blinked, the shadow disappeared.