THE VISITS

“Not again, not again, not again!” Her screams woke her up. “Go away, I don't want to talk to you!” 

She sat up in bed, covered in cold sweat. It was 5.30am. She reached for a glass of water, to soothe her aching throat. Patrick, her house help came running in. Her loud screams had woken him up too!

“Did you have the nightmare again, Julie madam? Calm down, everything is fine. Would you like a cup of coffee?” he said in a calm voice, trying to soothe her. It had become a daily routine for him, to see Ms. Julie waking up from a nightmare every morning. This had been happening ever since she returned from Kattiya, her hometown last month. 

After her uncle and aunt, who were her guardians, passed away in a car accident two years back, she had been living in this house all alone. Her two old, faithful servants, Patrick and Donna stayed with her.

She had been extremely attached to her aunt and uncle, her uncle had a family business of garments, which she had been taking care of with him since the last nine years. But after the sudden demise of her uncle, the management of the business fell upon her shoulders.

Now after two years of toiling to keep the business afloat, she desperately needed a break. 

One evening she discussed this with Donna, her cook, who was like a family member to her. 

She told Donna how busy and tiresome her life had become after her uncle’s death. Donna suggested she should take a week off and go for a holiday.

This advice clicked with her, as she really needed a break!

She thought about visiting her ancestral bungalow in her hometown of Kattiya, nearby. It was also her dad’s favorite place, and he used to visit there quite often. She thought about contacting Mr. Martin, who was the caretaker there before leaving. 

She called on the landline of the bungalow, which was an old number, but nobody answered. She thought he must be out busy somewhere so she decided to visit there unannounced, the next day after work.

She informed Patrick to be ready with the luggage and accompany her to Kattiya as soon as she was home from work.

Patrick drove Julie to her hometown in the evening, in her car. As they neared the town, night fell and it became quite dark. As they drove through the streets, there was no one to be seen. They were puzzled to see this, but soon reached the bungalow.

The lamp outside the bungalow was flickering, a wet wind was blowing and it looked like it was going to rain that night.

They got out of the car and went to the verandah. 

Julie started calling, “Mr.Martin! Mr. Martin! Are you there?”

They heard some footsteps coming towards them, a bit frightened Julie stood close to Patrick. The main door opened and an old man appeared holding a dim lantern in his hand.

“Hello. Sorry to keep you waiting. Please follow me to your rooms.” Julie wondered how Mr. Martin knew they were coming, as she had failed to inform him on the phone. Then she brushed away the thought, as it was already late and followed Mr. Martin to their room. 

As Patrick and Julie entered, they were startled by creepy, scurrying sounds echoing through the house.

“These are just the night critters. Such sounds are quite usual here”, Mr, Martin assured them.

Patrick took a room downstairs, while Julie occupied a room on the first floor. Thanking Mr. Martin, she took her bag inside. 

In the dark night, with no night lamps in the room, the sound of insects was terrifying. Somehow Julie managed to close her eyes and went to sleep.

In the middle of the night, she woke up with a start! In her sleep; she had slipped her hand under her pillow and it came away sticky and wet. 

She cried out in horror, “Patrick…..Martin…..”  Martin walked in with a lamp and lifted the pillow and pulled out a dead mouse from underneath it and as she glanced at her fingers, she screamed again! They were covered in blood! 

Martin made the bed again for her, and convinced her that everything was fine, and requested her to go back to a peaceful sleep once again.

Sleep? There was no further sleep for Julie that night. She tossed and turned, fearing every possible noise in the room. The banging windowpanes, the moving curtains, and the creepy sounds didn’t allow her to sleep for even a moment.

As dawn crept in she got up to find Patrick. In the dim light of early dawn she could see the whole place was filled with cobwebs. She had noticed nothing in the night due to the darkness, but now she was horrified to see that the place was so neglected and dirty. She gasped as she hit out at the spiders coming her way.

Julie stepped outside to find it was raining heavily. When she called out for Patrick, she saw him emerging out of their parked car in a disheveled state.  “There is something not quite right with this place. I think we should return back home today itself”, Julie stated. Patrick agreed, “I too didn’t sleep last night. Cockroaches seemed to be creeping out of every corner of my room. That’s why I had to take refuge in the car in the middle of the night.”

They both decided to leave as soon as possible, and Julie rushed back to her room to get her bag.

As she walked back to her room, she heard some voices coming from the room next to hers.

The voices sounded strangely familiar and touched a deep memory inside her. With her heart in her mouth she tiptoed to the open door of the room and glanced inside. The sight before her turned the blood in her veins to ice. Her uncle and aunt, her dead guardians, were sitting and talking with Mr.Martin. They were covered in blood, with bloodied clothes and hair. She opened her mouth to scream when Patrick clamped a hand on her mouth. She was relieved to find him and hugged him. He said, “Never disturb the dead. Just get your bag and get in the car to leave.”

Patrick got hold of her bag and they both fled outside to the car. 

As Patrick raced the car towards the main road, suddenly they saw a man standing in the middle of the road with his back towards them. The breaks screeched as Patrick stopped the car. Slowly the man turned his head and smiled at them. It was Mr. Martin! 

Patrick swerved around him and raced the car out of the town. Julie sat silent and shivering all the way back home and Patrick could see that she was still in shock.

On reaching home, Donna greeted her but she went straight to her room without any acknowledgement. 

That whole night Patrick and Donna heard her screaming. They tried to reassure her several times throughout the night, but nothing helped. The next morning they found her all disheveled, sitting frightened in a corner of the bedroom.

And this became  a routine, with screams coming from her room every night. 

One day she finally confessed that the ghosts of  her Uncle and Aunt kept visiting her and talking to her. However the most alarming thing was the presence of the malevolent Mr. Martin with them. He frightened her the most!

After enduring this for several weeks, Patrick and Donna decided to inquire about the accident which took the lives of Julie's Aunt and Uncle. They thought either Julie was correct, and the ghosts were frightening her or she was simply hallucinating!

When they enquired about the details of the accident, they found that Mr. Martin was their driver and was killed along with them at the time of the accident.

On learning this Patrick was stunned “Was the man we met, Mr. Martin, also dead? Did we meet a dead man on that day? No wonder he was in that room with Julie’s dead Uncle and Aunt in one instant and in another moment he appeared in front of the car on the main road several miles from the house!”

This knowledge was the breaking point for Patrick’s already frayed nerves and turned out to be too much to handle for him.

 Since that night there was not one, but two screams echoing through the house, one of Julie's and the other one of Patrick! The visits started with him too.

Poor Donna! She now had to live with the dead and also the living dead!