THE NIGHT OF MARCH 31st

Whenever siblings come around there's always fun, teasing, joy, and a bond of trust that is unbreakable. But what happens if something unholy happens around with one of them. Will that bond survive?

“The narrator, I think, must succeed in frightening himself before he can think of frightening his reader…”

― E.F. Benson

It was a tiring day all along, finishing up the college assignments made my day short and my sleep a winner. Being a night owl, 11 P.M was pretty early for me to let my eyes take the day off but if I knew what was about to go down, believe me, I wouldn't have slept that night, even if the devil came knocking on my doors himself.

The day was full of surprises, let alone the “important” assignments, my siblings with whom I would share my room slept early too. Well, I was more afraid than to be shocked because the siblings I knew would sleep all day and spend all night on movies, web series and I thought, “Is it me, or they all caught up a fever”? Laura, the eldest would spend most of her night time on web series, Mike, the second eldest, on his games and Thorne, the youngest on her art. Laura, giving the bossy attitude would always sleep right to me, Mike on the left leaving me to sleep in the middle, which I hate the most. And Thorne would usually sleep with her parents in the next room. From the past few days, the electricity was quite out of order due to the heavy storms and rains which were frustrating and frightening as if you are the character from the game Alan Wake and you have to survive the day with a torch.

I partially wake up between 1 am - 3 am every day, I guess that became a habit, to go and check up on my lazy rabbit. As usual, I woke up to check upon him, and in between the hallway, my eyes stumbled upon the first clock showing 3:08 am which was probably broke or it’s battery flooded away because I remember Mike telling his dad about the same the day before yesterday. And then there he was with his eyes partially closed, experiencing the best of his life resting on the veranda. I dropped him off some carrots, of course, and was on my way to the washroom to freshen up and clean up my hands but then I see that the locks of the middle gate were open. I thought someone might have forgotten to lock them up as there were two layers of gates, the front, which was the main and the middle which connected the hall and the main gate. So, I locked the middle gate and went straight to the washroom. Suddenly, I could hear some voices whispering like snakes just past the washroom door and when I called out, it vanished. I thought the sleep was playing games with me and I did not pay attention.  After a minute or so, I heard a click like that of a lock when opened. I rushed, thinking someone was trying to break in and found that the locks were ineffably open. I looked around but there was no one, leaving me demented. Well, it was both mystifying and ghostly at the same time. Mystifying, because I was pretty sure I locked them before going to the washroom and ghostly because I truly believed in the existence of the supernatural spirits.

Returning to my room, from the hallway, I saw a man standing behind the gate where the veranda leads. He was six feet tall with a black cap over his head. His face was quite vague but all I could see that he had a blank face, like if you are staring at a deeply void space of emptiness but with a wretched smile. I did not move I couldn't. My voice wanted to cry out but the fear caught the best of me. At that very moment of tranquility, my mind stopped thinking; all I could hear was the throbbing sound of my heart. I lost track of the time as if the world was going to end and time did not matter, not at all. After regaining my consciousness, the only thing I could utter was, "God be with me". I asked the man what he wanted and suddenly the unholy smile got lost somewhere behind the face that lacked adornment. And then he suddenly vanished into thin air, as if there was nothing, no one. Being scared deeply, I did not care about checking up the veranda. All I found fair enough was to retreat my steps back to my room and that’s what I did. Not paying attention to the second wall clock I came into my room, seeing my siblings sleep peacefully, I returned to bed. After half an hour or so, I heard that same voices whispering and the sound of the lock being opened, this time both together. I got up, terrified, to peek through my room door to watch on the locks and saw that they did not just reopen but there was a shadow of the same man conjured behind the curtains. I was taken aback and terrified but this time with some courage, I warned the man that I had dialed 911 and the Sheriff’s Station is not so far too.  Laura and Mike woke up immediately by my fake warnings. And suddenly with a peal of thunder, the backup electricity went out. Mike wanting to prove himself that it must be the breezes and the plants that were playing the role of the black man and the whispering, went and checked the veranda, and later on locked the gate, accepting the fact that he forgot to lock it at first hand only. But I knew and I believed what my eyes saw and what my ears heard.

Usually, I don’t sleep keeping my phone beside me but adhering to the circumstances, I found it right enough to just take it with. As I laid down and after a few minutes passed by my phone started vibrating, I woke up hesitantly and saw that alarm exactly went off at 3:08 am. My eyes couldn't believe what they were seeing and my heart was battering hard with the horrifying and uncanny incidents. I stepped out of my bed, with the flashlight of my phone in my hand, to see the time on my room’s clock and you wouldn’t believe me but it was 3:08 am, and still. I rushed out to the hall, and saw the time on the second clock, to which I didn’t pay attention the last time, also showed 3:08 am and still.

Then and there I knew that something unhealthy is haunting me and it has just begun. I kept praying to God, standing in the middle of the hallway, for giving me the strength and courage to defend myself and the people whom I love from this unholy spirit. I kept praying and I kept sweating till the lights went on and my keepers enthusiastically blurted their heart out and wished me, "HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S DAY".

Of course, it was April 1^st.