The Dancing Ghost

The Story

I never really believed in ghosts or spirits. I mean I had heard a lot of stories but never had I ever encountered one to know for sure of their existence.

I was new in the boarding school and as tradition goes the older students would tell us of the tales concerning a dancer that died years ago and now haunted the dormitory I stayed in with couple of juniors and classmates.

The story starts with this beautiful female Indian classical dancer who was passionate about dancing. Her name is never mentioned cause no one really knows what her name was. All we knew was she LOVED dancing.

She would dance all day with this heavy anklets of mutiple bells called gungru or ghungroo around her ankles.

It so happened that she was preparing for some function but on the day of the show she had a nasty fall down a flight of stairs and sadly died on spot.

After that fateful day, it is said that the dancer would come every night and dance down the dormitory.

Now, if you were sick or a loner in heart it was a guarantee that you would hear her soft footstep padding down the dorm along with the clear rhythm of her anklets bells making an errie music that sounds like movements of a dance being performed.

Well, when I heard this story I was just an eight year old and to say I wasn't a wee bit scared would be a lie. I was terrified but I didnt show. I just scoffed and left conviencing myself that it was just a story to get us scared and worked up. We were after all new; it could be just a prank the seniors were trying to pull.

Weeks after I had heard this story -well, life went on normally with the hectic routine up until I woke up one night and experienced the horror.

How it exactly happened???

Here it goes:

The lights in our dorm would get switched off precisely at ten, leaving only one bulb on that cast very dim light.

(It was pretty useless until finals came around and we would squint under that dim light to do last minute studies)

I never wake up at night; it was not usual for me to wake up but that damned night I did.

I woke up from some dream feeling hot and sweaty, rolling over I found that my teddy bear and Bible had fallen on the floor.

Without thinking I got up picked my stuffs and tried going back to sleep.

For some reason I was not doing a great job so I started counting sheeps and while doing that my so called stupid mind had to think about the dancing ghost.

Now, my bed was the farthest form the main door. It was lined against the wall connected to my warden's room. We had bunk beds and I slept in the lower one while my newly made friend took the upper one.

So, there I laid sweaty and scolding myself for thinking about the ghost till I heard a faint shing of copper bells entering my dorm. For a moment I did not register the sound. So, I sat up and looked around. It was silent and everybody was sound asleep. My mind is playing tricks I told myself and tried going back to sleep.

I closed my eyes when I heard the anklets again getting louder and nearer. All thoughts left my mind I pulled my blankets, covered my head and laid still.

The sound of her feet and the shing of the bells got closer and closer till it reached the foot of my bed and stopped.

(I tell you- I stopped breathing altogether)

Then after a minute it started going back. I sighed in relief. Phew! But I guess I did that too early.

The footsteps just started walking up and down the dorm, ocassionally stopping in the middle like she is dancing for her performers.

Every thud of her feet together with the anklets had me saying the Lord's prayer in records time.

I swear I could hear her foot nails scrape against the tiles and everytime it got closer toward my bed I prayed harder.

I was frightened beyond comphrension and was high on the adrenaline pumping in my blood. I had a thought of just getting up and checking what it looked like but I was too scared to try.

With my senses hightened and my body stiff from not moving I prayed and sang in my mind so many gospel songs you would think I had a hymn book in hand.

Minutes seemed like hours and I wished for morning to come soon. My breathing was heavy and the sound of her dance just went on.

I thought of every possible senario in my head regarding what that spirit would do to me.I even thought of possesions and that made me even more terrified. I thought I would not be able to make it through the night(I was 8 and that was scary) till someone woke up and left the dorm to use the washroom.

Thankfully, the sound left. The footsteps retreated.I thanked the Lord and breathed a sigh of relief eventually falling asleep.

MORNING

The next morning, I asked my friends if they heard anything and they said no and walked away. I even asked the girl who woke up (who now is my best friend) if she heard anything and she just replied,'No.'

I know what I heard but everyone told me it was my imagination. Even my warden said the same( but she seemed unsure when she told me) I knew better than to argue so I just agreed.

In my heart I knew what I had heard was real. I knew I was not dreaming cause believe me I pinched myself that night numerous times to count.

After that night I had a hard time sleeping. It took me months to get back to not fearing the night.

As for the dancer, I never heard it after that night.... ok... maybe once or twice but that is another story.

I stayed in that hostel for five years and Im not the only one who heard the dancer.

Many had mostly children who got sick or lonely.

(I dont know why I heard it- OK. I was a loner)

But it changed me.

Rumours came around that the school had brought a priest over summer to bless the dorms. I could not tell for sure if that was true but the sounds stopped.

Every now and then some children hear the faint clink of the copper bells but no one pays much attention.

To the children who got sick atleast one in that boarding has different tales of the dancer.

No one understands why they hear it? Or why only specific people hear it.

Sometimes even though five students were awake only one or two at most could hear the dancer dancing.

Im not sure what it tries to tells us or why it does what it does.

It's strange, unexplainable and just difficult to comprehend.

Whatever it is. It's a night I still get chills thinking about.

THE END

(Based on the events of the night of July 2005.)

I hope you all enjoy it.