Silhouette

He returned from his trip after a week. Every time he returned from a trip he couldn’t stop talking about it. What he did, where he went, whom he meet. He told everything to his classmates. This time was different. He didn’t even mention a single word after coming back. A lot of them were eager to listen to his stories but today they kept on waiting. He went straight from school to home. At evening they went to his home and called him out for a walk.

At first he denied to go anywhere. After a lot of persuasion he agreed to come. His face was numb, expressionless, scared at the same time like he has seen death and escaped it. The others looked at each other in dismay as they walked the pavements.

“What happened to you Rami?”, Jack asked.

He was lost in thoughts. He didn’t hear them. He kept on walking face down. One of them shook him. He came back to consciousness.

“Huh? What?”, Rami asked.

“Jack asked you something.”, Mason said.

Rami looked at Jack expecting to be asked again.

“Where did you went for vacation and why are you acting like this?”, Elijah asked.

“I went to uhh… my brother’s home.”, he said in a low tone. They barely heard him.

“And why are you so quiet like you have seen ghost.”, Jack asked.

“Maybe I have.”, Rami murmured.

The others looked at each other. They took him to a nearby park and sat with him on the chair.

“Now take a breath. Calm down and tell us what happened there.”, Mason asked.

He relaxed after a few breathes and took them through the journey of his last week.

“We reached there at night, me and him. It was a huge mansion he had there.”, Rami said.

Everyone was focused at him listening carefully to every word that came out of his mouth. He looked at them and wondered why are they being so attentive? He got back to his story.

“It was late and we already had dinner on the way so we went straight to bed. I woke up at 3:00 to pee. I was half awake. I did release the pressure. Then I was on my way to go back to bed .I felt something on my shoulder. I turned around but no one was there I felt slight air pass through my face. I ran towards the bed, covered myself completely by the blanket and woke up directly in the morning.”, Rami said.

“I have a question.”, Elijah said.

“What?”, Jack said loudly.

“I was just asking if he wet his bed in the night.”, Elijah asked while slightly leaning away from Jack.

“Oh come on. Will you just shut up.”, Mason and Jack said in unison.

“Rami don’t listen to him. Continue please.”, Mason said.

“No. He is right to ask. I was really scared. I might do that if I ever felt like that again.”, Rami said while nodding. He almost believed what he said.

“I wake up in the morning and told my brother about the incident. He told me it was nothing and must have been air coming from a window left open. We spent our day visiting the nearby lakes, tourist attraction etc. When we came back in the evening we found that the front door of the home was unlocked. We have locked it before leaving. We went inside to check if there was a break in but everything was the way we left except that every window of the mansion was open. Strange. Right.”, Rami said.

“Totally”, Elijah said. He then placed both his hands on his mouth. The others gave him a stare then turned their attention to Rami.

“We closed the windows. At night we were having dinner at the dining hall. We were talking about the unusual incident that happened at evening when all of a sudden the lights went out. We lit the candles, placed them all around the mansion. He asked a friend who told him that there has been technical issues at the power house due the heavy rainfall that was happening outside.”

“We went outside to take a look at the weather condition. The clouds were fiercely angry. One after another thunders fall at mother earth. A storm was on its way. We went inside and closed every window and door properly even double checked it.”

“We went to sleep. It became chilling inside. The howling of animals outside made it extremely difficult to sleep. I was shaking due to the dropping temperature. I stood up to throw more woods at the fire place. The winds were screaming outside like someone has ripped off their skin and left it alone to suffer in the darkness of night.”

“Wait a minute now, we don’t need to know any more. Right guys?”, Elijah said. He stood up.

“Yes we do.”, Jack said.

“If you are so spooked then you can leave.”, Mason told him.

“No. Rami get back to your fairy tale telling. No one here is going to wet their respective beds tonight after listening to your little trip details.”, Elijah mocked. He sat down back to the bench.

Everyone’s focus was back at Rami.

“Where was I? Right. The fire place.I was adjusting it when I heard my name being said loudly. When I ran towards the voice and was about to leave my room a strong wind opened the windows and blow out the candles and the fire. It became completely dark. I turned around and chased the voice.”

“My brother was there sitting on the floor, freaked out. I tried to hold and get him up to the bed. He was heavier than before and dead cold. I asked him what happened. He didn’t moved an inch. And then…”, Rami stopped.

“Then what?”, the others asked in unison.

At this point everyone’s interest was at peak. They were at the edge of their seats. These kids have known each other for a very long time. Never have they been so much collectively interested in anything ever.

“And then he raised his finger straight in front of him. There were these four silhouettes which looked like two parents and two children. They were there for a few seconds and then they disappeared. Just gone. We spent the night sitting there holding whatever heavy object we can get our hands on.”

“The next day he went to his friends house at the nearby town and I came here. I was trying to forget this experience when you knuckleheads made me go all through it again.”, Rami said.

“Huh.”, Elijah exclaimed. The others look at him expecting him to express his thoughts.

“Well it wasn’t that scary now, was it? You should have asked them to stay the night, where they would have gone in the storm?”

“You little shit.”, Jack said.

“Come here.”, Mason extended his hands to catch him.

“Get him.”, Rami said.

He ran and they ran behind him.