A Sudden Knock On The Window

There was a sudden unexpected knock on the window. He saw it and couldn’t believe what it was …

It all started from the day when...

It was a day like any other day. Carl was returning from his office. Since he was late, there were no buses available, so he had to walk all the way home. As his house was located on the city’s outskirts, he had to walk through the middle of a little woody lane. Suddenly he heard some estranged noises from behind the bushes. With all his courage, and with help of his phone’s torch he moved forward. Just as he moved into the bushes, he saw something was shining in the ground. He saw it and picked it up. With his torch, he started reading the words written on that paper …” Free Trip to the Whistle’s Castle in Kimy Island for one full week.” He took that paper and reached home. His wife was waiting for dinner. He freshens up and with gleaming eyes, he whispers in his wife’s ear … “Honey, you know what I got today” and after that, he showed the coupon to his wife. His wife couldn’t believe her eyes. He started to yell with joy, “ I couldn’t believe after five years we are going on a trip, I couldn’t believe it.”His wife reacted and said,“ Dear I am also excited but would you mind keeping your sound low, the kids are sleeping.” Carl was a typewriter in his office, and he was not earning well, he and his family could barely manage two meals a day. It was not like that always. Instead, Carl’s father was a rich businessman but after his father died he wasted his money on buying lottery tickets and as a result, he lost all his money and went into anxiety. Then came Sofia into his life. She gave her courage and motivation to do something in life. Soon he worked hard but in no vain and then one day he found a job as a typewriter. And the very next day he married his love Sofia and soon after one year they had a set of twins Sarah and George. That was six years ago but now let’s move on to the present …. They had a peaceful sleep that night and the next day all of them got ready for the trip.

After spending five hours on the train and twelve hours in the crew they finally reach their destination. They could see the board written, “Welcome to Kimy Island, a land of mystery and a place to explore”. They saw the place was not so crowded, only a few rickshaws were on the road and almost there weren’t any people in the street. From a little distance they could see a small man coming towards them, he was a dwarf. The small man came towards them and said, “Hi, I’m Kirin your guide, I will guide you to your hotel.” Carl, along with his wife and two children followed that little man. The little man took them to a deserted location, somewhat away from the town, it was an old palace. Although it was old, it looks somewhat very grand and seems like it was home to some royal family. Sarah and George got very excited and started to run along the footway to the attic. Once they entered, they were greeted by flowers. They received their room keys. Their room was on the topmost floor in the left corner of the building. There were various shops for groceries, clothes and other things inside the building itself. Since the building was so large, they had to cover a large distance and even cross a bridge connected to the left side of the building. When they were near the corridor, they saw most of the doors were locked and it seemed like not many people lived there. Carl was somewhat in thought and suddenly asked the hotel service about it. To which, the hotel staff was unable to respond to him and even though they told something it was not a satisfying response for Carl. But then his wife Sofia asked him to leave that matter so he stopped his further inquiry to leave for his room. The kids were already playing inside the room. All of them got freshened up and just then the hotel staff came to offer them their dinner. That night all of them were tired, so they ate and then fell asleep.

Everything was going fine until midnight. Sarah woke up and told them that she had to go to the restroom. Sofia asked Carl to take Sarah with him. The restroom was outside the room at some distance from the room. Suddenly, Carl remembered what the hotel attendee told him, that not to go out of the room after midnight and if there was some kind of emergency then he should take the cross kept under the bed. Usually, Carl thinks that such things are utter nonsense but thinking about her daughter’s safety he moved his hand under the bed and then found a box. He opened the box and found a cross inside it. When he was about to close the box, he saw a paper covered with dust. He put the paper and the cross with him and then took Sarah to the toilet. On his way, he saw that all the lights of the hotel were dimmed which made him a bit confused as it was such a big hotel and instead of brightening up the hotel they made it darker. Carl was waiting outside as his daughter was inside the restroom until then he heard an unexpected knock on the nearby window. Since the window was in a locked room, he was unable to see the other side of the glass. He thought it must be the branch of a tree hitting the pane of the window, but again there was a, “Knock, knock… “ Till then Sofia came out and so he quickly took his daughter to their room and then he laid down on the bed. Trying to sleep but it was all in vain because all these thoughts in his brain were not allowing him to sleep. Suddenly he remembers the paper in his pocket. He saw the paper and could hardly understand what was written there. With some hard work, he was able to read the words written there. It was written something like this “MY____Y OF THE TR ____RE I__ ROOM NO. 19 of BA_____S PAL___E” Some letters were missing as the quality of the paper was rotten and there was some kind of strange images drawn there. He didn’t understand everything, but he at least understood that something was inside the room no. 19 and then he remembered that it was the room from where he heard some strange noises. With some courage with the paper in his pocket and cross in one hand and torch in the other, he thought of visiting the room. With tiptoeing he reached out of his room and went down to the attic to find the keys of that room. He realized nobody was there in the reception, so he quickly searched and found the key in the drawer. He took the keys and went to room number 19. He carefully opened the lock and then he wasn’t able to see anything so he brightened up his torch. Carl was able to see many spider nets and old paintings of royal people. Then he opened up the paper and realized that it was the map of the room, so he started examining the room from all sides. After some time, he again heard the same noise in the window, this time he opened the window and saw there was a passage through it. He saw a white figure like appearance and couldn’t believe his eyes. Instead of getting scared he put the cross forward and after that what he heard seemed unbelievable, “Could you please put the cross away from me, I am not going to harm anyone, I grew, and I did not see the rays of the sun. I did not breathe the air, but darkness was before me every day, and no one came to find me," the ghost says.

"The ghost seems to complain of some accident that has happened to herself or his tomb, but I cannot make out what is the subject of this dissatisfaction," The white lady was the queen of the palace, on the day of her marriage she was brutally killed by her husband, only because he was thriving to have her treasure and most importantly the very rare red stone that could make a person Lord of this Universe.“ As soon as Carl heard that he put the cross away and followed the white figure to a room where he was asked certain riddles and after each successful riddle he was able to see a huge box lying beneath the walls. He carefully moved forward and then he opened the box. All he could see was gold, diamond, cash and whatnot. He was very surprised but instead of running away with the treasure he asked the white figure,“ Why are you here and explained how he was told not to get out of his room after midnight and also explained about the cross that the hostel staff told him to use.``After hearing all these, the ghost replied,“ All I could say is that 200 hundred years ago she was living happily in her palace, but then all that started with her wedding day. My marriage was arranged with the prince of Garland, the next day of her marriage the prince killed me brutally and all was because of the red stone which was present with my family for generations.”Carl, could see the red stone in the top of the box and decided to destroy it. As soon as he was going to do that, the white lady spoke up, “Remember as soon as you destroy the red stone, you will have one hour to move away from the tower with your family and the treasure, and as soon as you move out remember to burn these tower into ashes and put the cross in the gate of this palace. Remember always you should use this treasure for the well being of people and if you fail to do so you will be cursed and your soul will be trapped here forever. Then again, you have to find someone like I found you to remove your curse and this chain will continue …”. Soon as Carl heard that he promised to not misuse the treasure but he was perplexed by the thought and asked the lady about what will happen to the staff members of the hotel. To this, she replied,“ The people you saw here are not actually what you saw, all you are seeing are people who already died due to the curse I already mentioned to you. Those are the souls of some acquisitive people who live along with the prince I married. The manager you met here is none other than the prince himself, because of this he was stopping you from entering my room and asked you to take the cross with you who will harm me, he was planning to kill your family which he already did to many people previously, by showing them the free coupon during midnight. Generally, people with acquisitive nature often tend to fall into this trap, but you are someone with a heart of gold. 

After several months of helping needy people with the treasure, Carl once decided to keep some money for his own out of the acquisition, forgetting all that the queen said. Then all knows what happened ….

After some years, Julien was returning to his home when he saw a coupon where it was written, ”Free Trip to the Whistle’s Castle in Kimy Island for one full week.”And then it continued…

Still, now some people guess what was written on the blank spaces of the paper. And to their utter surprise, it turned out to be the MYSTERY OF THE TREASURE IN ROOM NO. 19 OF BALACIOUS PALACE.