The Countryside House

"Come on Rama, see what a nice day it is. The sun is so bright and the air is so fresh. It's is the best of the weather of the whole week." said Shakher.

It had just been a month since Rama and shaker got married and came to live, in this beautiful, magnificent countryside house. For some reason Rama had found it the best and precisely perfect among many others Shakher had suggested.

"No" was the only answer Shekher got back. Even in this broad daylight there was darkness around Shakher, a fear of uncertainty. Within the first week since they both moved here, Rama's behavior started changing. Her cheerful and happy and and enlightening smile faded it and face of nothingness started taking shape. In the first few days, Shakher thought it might have been because of the work load, both at home and at work. So, he started helping her with breakfast and dinners, so as to thinking maybe it will ease her pressure and she would be able to see his wife's smiling face again.

But things did not change, it rather detoriated. He couldn't put finger on the reason for such off and weird mood. He tried ample number of ways to boost her, but situation worsened rather than improving. Then one fine day, all of a sudden, she quit work. He got a call from her boss asking for her suddenly quitting the job and abnormal silence. He was out of words, and hung up thinking of writing and apology later.

Without a second's delay, he went to search for Rama. He called out her name, multiple times but no one answered. He searched all the possible places where Rama could be, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, loan, backyard, hall but she was nowhere.

"NOOO!" Shaker heard her scream. Her voice was full of pathos, pain, misery, guilt and above all fear. He dashed towards the source of sound, and found himself standing at the basement door. Even in the wildest of his dreams he had not imagined that Rama could possibly have gone in there.

They had always found it scary and had fights for who was supposed to go in there. He remembered one of those conversations, when situation went off hands.

"You have to go and clean the basement, I won't go." Rama ordered.

"No, I am afraid of spiders and there would be plenty of them in there." he replied.

And for no reason she got super angry and her eyes glowed with anger and face as tomatoes, and she dashed off just saying, "I will never!"

So, now her being there, made no sense. He pulled the handle and slunk the door white open only to meet complete darkness. He was about to leave when he saw a little, almost negligible ray of light and for some reason followed it, The light became brighter and brighter until he reached the very end, and saw a humanoid figure sitting there with the back at him. It took him fully second to figure out it was Rama full stop She held a candle in the candle stand and was staring at the wall, which had shadows of dancing flames.

He was cluelesd of what was happening and that very second, Rama fainted in front of Shakher's eyes and the candle extinguished. He dashef at her site, cradled her up in his arms and ran out to the hall. He laid her on the sofa, turn the lights and the fan on, and ran to come back with the glass of water. He's sprinkled it on her face, trying to bring her back to our senses, but all were in vein. She did not wake up full stop he immediately called the doctor, who came to check her, including she hadn't eaten well for a while so out of weakness, she fainted, so there was nothing to worry about.

He carried her to the bedroom, so she could take some rest.

Meanwhile, her wife was in a very different situation, totally unfantemable.

Rama dreamed her whole experience in the basement. She had somehow felt attracted to the basement, as if someone was calling her. She had never felt in that way ever since her parents died in a car accident when she was 15. She went inside, though in the extreme darkness she could not see anything, so she decided to return when she found a candle in its stand, so she quickly lit the candle and went inside and reached the wall in the end. A big, plane, spotless wall with hooks everywhere as if they were photo frames hung all around. She felt dizzy and all of a sudden she experienced the existence of someone in the room, and to her surprise, the shadows of the flames changed shapes and figures.

She saw her parents, happy, laughing and carrying her in their arms. The scene shifted and she saw other happy memories of her with them, and suddenly the light went out and she was senseless of what was happening and had no track to time, she went back inside the house and found hours had past. The next day, again she felt the same feeling and went inside and the same things continued until today, when among those memories she saw the shadows forming shape of the car accident in which her parents died, and she screamed and then fainted, and at that moment, she woke up with sudden shock and found herself back in the room and Shakher was fast asleep beside her.

She went back to sleep, though it was a disturbed one. Days went by but she kept on going there continuously. With every next day, she kept on losing the interest in the world, she felt nostalgic for the past and uncertain about future.

Shekher on the other hand, got worried even more as the days passed. Seeing his wife like that shook him to the very core. He consultant doctors, psychologist, therapists and left no stone unturned. But no one could help Rama.

He decided to check the basement but found nothing there, accept a book, some selective edition, it behold all the history of the house. It had been the house of the Wen Family for generations, until the last progeny any was brutally killed by their rivals in the basement.

The basement. Things started clicking together. The hooks which he had ignored before was the place where the photo frames must have been hung, until they were moved, and now Rama is going in there, there could be anything as the Wen's Family had a very good reputation for being hidious and suspicious. Then he heard Rama scream and this time he knew where to go. As soon as he opened the gates, what he saw was enough to shake someone to their core. Somehow the curtains had caught fire and Rama amidst the enveloping flames had a knife in her hand and blood all over the floor and her gown.

Rama was shaken, that day when she went inside the basement, somehow the fire cought curtains and the flames multiplied themselves, the figures, the shadows amplified themselves, and the image created by them was too much to behold by a little soft heart. There, kept on the table was a knife and without a second thought Rama picked it up and hurt herself. At that moment, blood drapped all over the floor, ruining her dress but she didn't care, she felt nothing, no emotions empowered her. The last thing she saw was Shakher standing at the door.

Shekher ran to her aid, and he took only fraction of seconds decide and leave the house that very moment and to never return. He rent to the nearby hospital to cure her wife and never looked back at the house and never ever enquired what had happened that day in the basement. What was going on, what she saw, what made her scream, and what made her go there every day inspite of all the trauma she was going through. This incident always remainef mystery for Shakher.