Rishabala : Five Shot : Haunted House

Part One

"Third house in a year." Padmini grumbles as she irately started setting up the flat.  

Hearing her mother, Madhu chuckles softly as she continued to connect the TV. 

"Stop laughing. Do you find it funny?" Padmini asks her furiously. "I am the one who has to set up the whole place and clean it up." 

"This is a nice house, Mama." Madhu tells her smiling as she winked at her father. 

"What is the use? We will be moving out of here very soon." Padmini furiously tells her as she stared at Malik furiously. 

Malik cheekily grins at her as he continued to put the curtains. "You know, why I do this." 

"Don't get me started!" Padmini says furiously as she pulled the chair to position. 

"Seriously Papa, have you even seen one ghost?" Madhu asks him confused. 

"No." Malik replies. 

"Maybe there is no such thing as ghosts." Madhu tells him. 

"There is, Madhu." Malik tells her seriously as he got down from the ladder and walked towards Padmini to help her put up the couch. 

"Then how come you haven't seen even one?" 

"It is not that simple, Madhu. They need to call out to us." 

"Are you saying all these 76 haunted houses we have stayed after our marriage didn't have a single ghost calling out to you?" Padmini mocks him. 

"It is easy not to believe." Malik tells her upset. 

"Wrong. It is easy to believe in these kinds of superstitions."  

"It is my virasat. It is our duty to help those who have no one." Malik tells her passionately. "My mother, my grandmother, they all could feel and interact with ghost." 

Padmini turns to look at Malik and gently tells him, "You are 50 years old, Malik. Maybe it is time that you accept that you don't have your mother's or your ancestors' talent of communicating with the dead." 

Malik looks away upset while Madhu gently smiles at him. 

"Are you done connecting the TV, Madhu?" Malik asks her. 

"I am almost done." Madhu replies as she connected the wires. 

"Hurry up, Madhu. I want to see the news." 

Madhu who was concentrating on figuring out which wire to put where , rolls her eyes. As she untangled the wires she feels a tingling feeling on her neck as if someone was standing so close to her and watching her untangle the wires. Realizing Malik was watching over her shoulders Madhu stops in irritation and says, "Papa, I am trying." 

"Do it fast." Malik orders her from behind her. 

"I am." Madhu says and tries to concentrate when she feels her father move closer to her. "Papa!" Madhu shouts in irritation as she turned around to scold her father for not letting her do her work when she stops in shock seeing her father across the room talking to her mother. 

"What?" Malik asks as he turned to look at her curiously. 

Madhu looks at him in shock, she had really thought he was next to her. GOD! Very soon she will be crazy like her father. "Nothing. It will be ready soon." Madhu tells him and turns around to fix the wire. Few seconds later, she feels someone over her shoulder. Madhu slowly turns to look back gulping as fear gripped her and found herself alone in that area. Madhu's heart beats starts rising as she tried to understand why she was feeling as if someone was standing right next to her. She kept staring at the empty space as she tried to fight that weird feeling that someone was staring right back at her. As sweat broke out on her face and her breathing started becoming erratic she gently takes her shaking hand forward to see if really some presence was there. As her hand moved freely in the air Madhu felt a chill creeping up her fingertips to her palm. Madhu screams in fear as the chill climbed up her arm to her shoulder. Madhu stumbles back as the strange sensation left her.