mrut

“Are you coming tonight?” asked blast in a quivering voice. “good, everyone is meeting up at my house, even you’re welcome”.

earlier this month, all the four friends, gathered and drunk decided to do a late-night adventure. the topic was the wonderment of ghosts. the way they are dead as well as alive. like humans-like ghosts, nowadays. people do get poetic after being drunk. this wasn’t the only time they were doomed to visit a graveyard, it was six years ago. when they first decided but their fears took them deep and they left the graveyard the minute they entered. every one of the four was scared as hell. not seen a ghost, not a scary human, just a bunch of red-ants on a webbed grave. this time, only God knows if they remain for some minutes. they should be grown, six years have passed since the last incident. just some seconds and the first friend will be entering blast’s house. ‘he has a weird name’. no one near his area or even in the district has a name like him, it is a fact believe me. who names their son, ‘blast’? only when you have a blast watching his face for the first time. well, I searched the name blast on Facebook. there exist just four real people with this name. whatever about his name isn’t important. we should move on in life.

blast opens the door for Leo to enter.

“Hey weirdo.” which is what his friends call him. “am I early or late enough to not remember this house?” Leo sparkles.

“you’re early and I redecorated the house.”

“dude, I came to your house, just a day ago. and you redecorated?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty good at it, I’ll let you know later about it.”

from behind, Hugh and olive enter. Hugh is the one who peed his pants that day. olive was his girlfriend till then, after that, she was just a common group friend. the fact that Hugh peed his pants wasn’t a huge deal, the matter was that he saw a cycle in the shadows and thought of it to be a ghost sleeping with wheels. he has a unique perception of ghosts.

“hey people. ready to leave?” olive asked with snapping her fingers and standing in a weird pose.

“what are you doing?” Leo asks.

“Maybe, I’m sleepy. don’t worry people, I’m still coming with you.” she raised her hands in the sky for a high five forgetting that she is the tallest in the group.

“I think, we should leave,” Hugh said with a sigh.

all of them leave the house and walk almost a hundred steps. they reach the graveyard. they talked about the plan they have to unveil a ghost and then catch it in a glass bottle.

they made the same plan six years ago, but we all know that it was a fiasco. even, their plan was a crappy plan. they googled a chant. they believe that if they speak it, the ghost will be caught in the bottle and perform like a jinn. it will do whatever they tell him to. they don’t know that it is a ghost, not a host. it won’t offer you three wishes where you can ask for ‘three more wishes’. anyway, they’ve opened the gate of the graveyard and I believe they’ve changed in these past years.

“everyone, select a grave and a ghost.” blast says with confidence.

Hugh walks through the names and selects a lady named ‘Jennifer’.

“what about her?” Hugh asked, winking.

“she’s neither Anniston nor Lawrence, you nerd” Leo attacked.

“what about him? his name is hidden with bloodstains, I guess something highly romantic or gangster-y happened here.” blast spoke up.

“then how do you know that he is a man?” olive asked.

“just guessed it. if you like him, we will tell him to marry you. how’s that?” blast asked ironically.

“it will be great. a witch married to a ghost. what do you think?” Leo added.

“I think it is great.” Hugh pinned.

“Yeah, amazing, but I don’t think anyone from you would like to come to the wedding. we’d like to serve dead cockroaches, and you are scared of them. right?” olive countered.

“she’s better than us in this.”

“Yeah, she is.”

“Everyone, come sit with me. we will start the chanting.” Leo was really confident this time.

not about catching a ghost, about his death. he knew he is going to die. I’m speaking ironically, please don’t take me seriously. henceforth, they all settled on the ground, in a circle that they thought. it didn’t make any shape, they were sitting. not even a square. they thought, they would catch the ghost of four sides and not let it fly. poor kids, not yet familiar that a ghost can fly. I’m not a ghost, I’ve just seen many ghost movies. they kept the bottle in the middle of the no-shape, they were sitting. Hugh kept the bottle cap in his hand, just to be certain. they kept three lemons across and longitudinal to the bottle on either side. the same typical things to do. like standing in front of a mirror at three in the morning and repeating ‘bloody Mary’ thrice will make her appear in front of you. I did try that, the only thing was a flying slipper, that too was my Mary’s. I think you should hear his chants.

“Yeah, I was born a misfit, grew up ten miles from the town of Ipswich Wanted to make it big, I wished it to existence I never was a sick kid, always dismissed quick Stick to singing, stop rapping’ like it’s Christmas.” Leo is speaking as if it was a chant.

yeah, I know it is a song if none of you know about it. it is pretty famous. they still believe that a ghost will come hearing this, maybe it can, if it is an Ed Sheeran or Eminem fan. I like the end of this song. what? you wanna know what is happening to them? I have no value? I won’t talk to you guys now.

the grave they targeted starts quacking. all four human faces in the grave had a smile on them. grave starts consisting of deeper cracks. it burst opens with flames at the side of the grave.

is this a joke? they really awakened a ghost or something? I’m still mad at you guys.

“it's happening. the chant is working.” blast jumps with happiness.

the ghost comes out of the bottle and fits directly inside the bottle. Hugh closes the bottle with a cap and throws the lemon aside. it is a red spirit inside a box.

“now, if we will together say the holy word, then the ghost will listen to everything we say him to do.” Leo starts. “everyone ready? three two one.”

“I have a belly button and I am proud of it.”

where is the logic going in this story? and what type of chant is this? have I reached a parallel universe by any chance or am I a ghost now? no, wait, you cannot see me. I’m not a ghost believe me.

the ghost comes out of the bottle and sits on the grave. he is a man with a white face and blue eyes. he is long and is wearing weary clothes. ripped jeans and a super Mario t-shirt.

“what do you want of me?” the ghost started.

the four humans start cheering with happiness. they might be the first ones to capture a ghost and make it a jinn.

it is even weird to say.

“What is your name?” olive starts.

“my name is Shawn harry.”

“will you do anything we tell you to do”?

“yes, but only one wish. I will do it.”

“he’s cheaper than Aladdin. just one wish?”

“yes.”

“can we ask you questions?” Hugh asks.

“you already are, I am not bound to talk but I will.” the ghost has a sort of robotic voice.

“so, tell us why are you here? I mean why did you die.”

“I didn’t die. I was killed. I was killed by policemen.”

“so, you’re a criminal?” blast asked.

“I killed a person but I was caught sometime later. I couldn’t even see the face of the person I killed. his face was covered in a jute bag.”

“Why did you kill him?” olive asks.

“because my boss ordered me to kill him. I am an assassin, I am a hunter. I kill and feast.”

“later the dialogues. tell us the story or just about that guy.” Leo asks.

“the boy loved my boss’ daughter. my boss ordered me to kill him in the middle of the road, so no one put an eye on his daughter ever again. but I was scared that a car might hit me in the middle of the road. I took that boy in here. in this graveyard and killed him. I bathed with his blood. I gave his body to my boss and took the money. then, I left and was caught.”

“really?” Hugh still had his doubts about Shawn being a murderer.

“you don’t believe me? go and ask his family if he is dead or not. before six years I killed him here. his name is blast Mathew. he lives three lanes from here. I killed him with my own hands.”

shit!