The clock struck twelve. Raj and his friends Vignesh and Ravi were finally going to explore the North West corridor of their school at night. They were students of Bhagavati International Boarding school. The campus spread over a sprawling hundred and twenty acres, complete with all the amenities that you could ever ask for. It had a “liberal schooling system”, allowing students to carry devices with them and pursue any hobby of their choice. However, its liberal policies were null and void when it came to the North West wing. That wing had stayed locked for almost a decade now and several rumours had surfaced as to why only that particular area was out of bounds. Ghost stories topped the rumours catalogue, ranging from a girl who had committed suicide in the classroom, the librarian who died when a bookshelf toppled on her, to a history teacher whose head was chopped off when the ceiling fan fell down on him.
Nevertheless the school administration never provided a proper explanation as to why the North West wing was out of bounds. Tonight, Raj and his friends were hell bent on putting the rumours to rest. The trio headed to the bathroom, where they had painstakingly sawed off three bars over the week. In black hoodies and masks, they were almost invisible. “Remember. Stay in the shadows. Whatever happens, don’t make noise, and we’ll make it to the North West wing.” Raj repeated for the umpteenth time that day. “Yes, yes we get it. Go all shadow ninja, bust the North West wing, reveal truths, and enlighten folk. Got it.” Ravi said. Vignesh rolled his eyes. He hated bickering. He never bickered.
The three squeezed through the narrow opening, and landed noiselessly on the soft soil outside. A chill ran down Raj’s spine. The “secret seven” excitement had died down. No. They were the trembling trio now. But each having an ego to guard, went along with the plan. The kilometre long sneak to the North West wing seemed unending. The three heaved a sigh of relief on seeing the locked gate of the wing. They had come prepared for this, having run several lookouts around the wing. They had noticed that a service entrance had been left unlocked. With a bit of heaving and grunting, Ravi pulled it open. The corridor in front of them was pitch dark. The air smelled of dust and old wood. The silence was deafening. Vignesh stepped in first, his footstep echoing into the empty corridor. The other two swallowed dryly and stepped in too. This was not the “exciting adventure” they were expecting. This was far from exciting. It was petrifying.
But they had come this far. Going back now would be severely injurious to their pride. So they wandered into the corridor. Most of the classrooms were locked. They shone their phone torches into the occasionally unlatched windows, revealing empty rooms, mostly infested with insect nests. No sign of screaming banshees or moaning corpses. “See? I told you. It’s a huge hype over nothing” Raj exclaimed, grinning at Ravi. “I wonder why our school was so mysterious about this” Ravi replied. “Shush you two! Do you hear it?” Vignesh whispered as he tiptoe jogged towards the two. “Haha bro’s trying to sca-“Raj stopped mid-sentence. He heard it too. The smile was wiped off Ravi’s face too, and was replaced with terror. It sounded like a heartbeat. Raj could feel the sound resonating off the palm of his arm. His knees felt like jelly. He slowly stumbled away from the sound. His friends stood there, frozen to the floor. He didn’t try to move them. “Save yourself” his brain screamed. And Raj chose to comply. He managed to reach the service entrance. The only problem was, it wasn’t there. It had disappeared and a solid wall had taken its place.
Raj tried to scream. He couldn’t. He turned and half jogged back to the spot where he had left his friends. They were not there. A trail of blood glistened on the floor. Mortified, Raj followed it. It disappeared into a latched classroom. Unlatching it, he entered. At first, he couldn’t see anything. Slowly raising his phone’s torchlight, he followed the rest of the blood trial. It stopped in a spot. Raj looked around for more, but didn’t find any. Suddenly, he felt something cold drop on his cheek. He looked up, only to see a desiccated face, hanging from the ceiling, staring back at him. The girl who had committed suicide in class. This time, he screamed.
Ravi had managed to gather his senses half a minute after his brain registered that Raj had stumbled away. The heartbeat was getting closer. He tried to bring Vignesh to his senses, but to no end. The heartbeat felt dangerously close. Letting out a dull whelp, Ravi stumbled away from the place. He had no Idea where he was headed. He ended up in the library. That was when he heard Raj scream. And that was when he lost it. Panting and sweating like a pig, he realized that he had wandered deep into the library. He could hear someone writing, or rather scribbling. Ravi had ridiculed the heroes in the several horror films he had watched for going directly towards someone who was obviously possessed. However, he did the same thing he had ridiculed. He headed towards the noise. In the end of the room, at the corner, a woman sat, scribbling aimlessly into her notebook. “Hello? Hello?!? Help me. Please! I’ll leave the wing. Hell I’ll leave the school! Please let me out of here!” he bellowed as he approached the figure in large steps. The woman turned around. Her forehead had caved in by some sort of blunt force. By a bookshelf falling on her perhaps? Ravi turned around. The toppling shelf speeding towards him was the last thing he saw.
The crash startled Vignesh. He looked around. The heartbeat like sound had stopped. His friends were gone. As the echoes of the crash died down, a deafening silence took over. His phone had fallen out of his hand when he had gone limp. He picked it up and shone the light around. His legs moved on their own accord and Vignesh did not have the strength to stop them. He found himself in a classroom, a seemingly empty one. The door closed by itself behind him. Once again, he could hear a heartbeat. This time, right behind him. He turned around to see a headless body lumbering towards him, blood exiting in spurts. The world spun. His vision dimmed. His phone fell out of his hands. Vignesh fainted.
For Inspector Veera, it was the fourth time that he was visiting Bhagavati International Boarding school. This time it was two missing boys and one in coma. He was greeted by their wailing parents. Sub Inspector Gnyanavel came up to him. “We have CCTV camera footages sir. The boys had sneaked to the North West wing. They had entered via the service entrance. Only this boy, Vignesh, came out, but collapsed soon after.” “Hmm. Where is the chairman?” Veera asked. Gnyanavel pointed to the office room and the inspector headed there. “The other two boys are as good as dead Veera” the chairman said. His face wore deep worry. “I thought you said you had purified the wing? Cleansed it of it’s dark past?” Veera questioned, his tone was dire. “We did! We made sure every last spirit was driven out! We-“The inspector stopped him mid-sentence.
“This is the last cover up that I’ll do for you Mister. After this, make sure that block is free from anything supernatural” Veera exited the office. The story in the media was that Raj and Ravi had escaped and Vignesh had fallen while climbing the wall and had fallen into coma. As he passed the North West wing, he could almost feel it staring at him. It had already taken his daughter and wife. Veera sighed and walked away, only hoping for it all to end.
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