The Puppet

The Puppet

Chapter : 1

30 kilometres away from Coimbatore in a forest area called Baralikkadu of the Karamadai Forest Region, Vivek and his friends settle into his family’s guest house. They had just completed a 2 hr drive to get there. It appeared completely isolated with only mountains at the backdrop and dense forest covering the area around it.

The youth namely Harish, Subash, vignesh and Vivek himself had just finished their engineering and while awaiting their respective offer letters they chose to spend their vacation in Vivek’s family guest house. All four belonged to the same mechanical branch and were really close friends since first year.

Vivek was tall, handsome and well-built like a model. His dad was into real estate and belonged to an elite class of business men in Coimbatore. Vivek had received his MBA offer from ISB Hyderabad. Vignesh was the nerd in the gang hailing from Chennai. He was the batch topper and had his job offer from Nissan motors. Subash was the innocent guy from Madurai who feared about everything in life including his love life. Harish belonged to a middle class family from tuticorin with lots of responsibilities on his shoulders. He had a desired to do MS from a top university from US. He had cleared the GMAT exams with a good score but couldn’t take it as he had to start earning to support his struggling family.

Opposite the guest house was a small piece of land where they play cricket to spend their evenings.

On the third evening while they are playing their last match for the day , the last over is in progress with Vivek bowling and Subash at the striker’s end needing to score 14 runs of the remaining deliveries. Vivek delivers the first ball and Subash lofts it over the leg side for a six. The ball crossed the fence and went into the woods.

Harish was on that side of the field, so he rushed to find the ball.

Vivek insisted that they continue the match using the other ball.

2^nd ball of the over it was the same result, six over the fence, this time on the off side.

Now everyone were forced to start searching for the balls. Vivek and Subash took one side while Vignesh & Harish went searching on the other side. Subash stuck to the area near the fence while Vivek went into the woods.

As he went few metres deep, something caught his attention. On the ground there was something half buried. He walked towards it and dug it out from the ground. As he looked closer, he could recognise that it was a HAND PUPPET, a blue coloured smiling joker. He was surprised to come across one in this area and could not stop wondering how it ended up buried there. He could hear Subash calling for him as it was getting darker, so he rolled it up and put it in his pocket and headed back to the ground. By the time they both reached the ground Harish and Vignesh , having finished their search ,were already waiting for them  .  Now the friends started walking back to the guest house. After reaching the guest house Vivek carefully kept his newly found object into his bedroom showcase. The puppet being made of cloth had to be laid flat without any stuffing.

Chapter: 2

On the midnight following that evening, Subash was talking over the phone on the road opposite. Vivek and Vignesh were asleep. Harish had gone out for a drive.

At 00:00

A barn Owl sat over the gates and started to screech loudly..

The Bell in the nearby church started to ring…

The Merry –Go- Round in the play area outside started moving fast….

The Puppet which was lying flat in the showcase suddenly rose up…

Vivek, all this while asleep, suddenly wakes up in a state of panic. Something seems to have hit him hard and has him disturbed. He gets up from the bed and holds his head sensing something banging inside. After a few seconds he starts running out of the room, out of the guest house, reaches Subash, drags him and pulls him behind away from the road. Subash lost his balance, slipped and fell on the floor. He was in a clueless state until he realised that a car sped past, a car that could have hit him had Vivek not pull him back.

Vivek immediately rushed to the car and started blasting the driver. The car stopped near the right corner. It was Harish who stepped out of the car. He looked completely lost. Vivek asked Harish, “What has got into you? Are you mad? You could have gotten Subash killed!! “ . Harish replied , “ Macha, I don’t have a clue of  what just happened , I am sorry ,  I was totally blacked out , I am really really sorry da “ . Harish did appear like he did not do it on purpose and what happened looked like an accident. All 3 moved back into the guest house, with Vivek in a very confused state.

Chapter: 3

The next evening at 11.30 pm...

Subash, Harish and vignesh were sitting beside the campfire in the lawn outside the guest house and were boozing together. Vivek was in the kitchen cooking some food. All three were already high and were making fun of each other.

All three got finally, as they wished to be, drunk. Subash was the first one to go down. Harish and Vignesh were holding on to each other. Harish stood up and was struggling to walk while Vignesh stopped him.

Vignesh: Where do you think you are going ? just sit back and relax man.. we are wasted ( very drunk ) like crazy .. you don’t wanna fall down and injure yourself

Harish: No I am good.. I’ll go and help vivek with the cooking. You stay here.. we’ll bring the food.

Harish walked away while vignesh grabbed another beer and started to drink.

Again at 00:00 hrs

The owl started to screech…

The church bell rang …

The merry- go- around started to move…

The puppet rose up…

Vivek could sense something banging inside his head just like before.

 He started to run outside the guest house towards the lawn.

Harish was standing behind vignesh. He bent down to take the beer bottle on his side and raised it high aiming Vignesh’s head. .. as he was about strike  Vivek just pushed Vignesh away saving him in the process. Vignesh was clueless about what just happened while subash woke up hearing the noise.

Vivek: “what the hell were you trying to do?”

Harish remained silent. He did not react and stayed lying on the floor. 

 Vivek splashed water on Harish’s face. He looked genuinely shocked and did not remember anything at all..

Vivek couldn’t believe what he had just saw. Harish was trying to kill vignesh using a beer bottle. Was he doing that on purpose?  but he did not look like one. After all why should he kill his best friend? What’s happening here?  Vivek had so many questions running in his head. He along with vignesh helped the other two to their rooms. Vivek was thinking about the incident for the whole night.

Chapter : 4

All four of the friends remained in the guest house the entire next day. They didn’t talk much with each other and remained in their rooms.

Around midnight, vivek was sitting in the terrace smoking, while others were downstairs sleeping.

12:00 PM

The owl started to screech…

The church bell rang …

The merry- go- around started to move…

And … The puppet rose up…

Vivek could sense something banging inside his head..

The sequence of events followed.

Vivek could sense something bad was was gonna happen... He panicked and ran downstairs. He went directly to the bedroom on the second floor where he and subash were staying. Subash was sleeping there. He then walked down the stairs to the other bedroom in the ground floor where vignesh and Harish were staying. He opened the door and switched on the lights. Vivek was stunned for a moment.

Harish was tightening the telephone cable around Vignesh’s neck and choking him to death. Vignesh was struggling to breathe and was dying there. Vivek rushed towards them and slapped Harish on his face pushed him away and tried to bring vignesh out of the room.

Vivek shouted for subash and asked him to bring water. Subash came down running with a bottle of water. Vignesh was almost unconscious now. They poured water on his face and made him drink some.

Subash: what happened macha?

Vivek: I don’t know what’s happening here. Harish is trying to kill you people.

Vivek was now furious, walked into the room and saw Harish sitting in the corner facing the wall. He was sobbing.

Vivek: what’s happening here Harish? What are you doing?

Harish broke out into tears. “Trust me vivek I am totally blank here. I was out of control for a moment. I didn’t know what was happening until you pushed me away. Something has gotten into me.”

Vivek could understand him but couldn’t believe him totally. Things were getting worse and he had to do something to stop this.

Chapter : 5

So the following day Vivek took Harish to a psychiatrist in Coimbatore. After listening to Vivek and getting an idea of the situation, the doctor suggested to hypnotise Harish and find out what had happened to him.

On doing so they were shocked that Harish couldn’t remember anything at all. He went totally blank. Vivek was totally confused. He didn’t know what to do. They both returned back to the guest house.

Vacation time was over. The friends decided to leave the guest house the very next day and booked tickets to return back to their hometowns.

On that night Vivek was lying in his bedroom and thinking about the happenings and how he was there to save his friends at the right moment. Vivek had a feeling that Harish looked normal all the time except the odd moments during midnight. Something was at play in the house.. could be blackmagic.. an evil spirit.. What could it be ?????...He suddenly noticed the puppet in the show case. He went near it and took it in his hands. All these bad things have happened since he brought this puppet into the house. He thought this might have been the reason for all the bad things that have been happening to them. Already in a frustrated mood, he took the puppet outside, went to the play area opposite and took it to the same place where he found it. To add further, In a fit of rage, he burn the puppet to ashes. For the moment he felt relieved and went to bed.

Few hours later it was midnight......

All four were sleeping together in the hall.

12:00 PM

The owl started to screech…

The church bell rang …

The merry- go- around started to move…

There was no puppet.. only the ash was left ..

Vivek was sleeping peacefully.. There was no disturbance..

The sequence was broken. Everything seemed normal.

In next few mins.. harish held a knife close to vivek’s neck and was ready to slit his throat while subash and vignesh were lying on the floor dead in bloodshed. .

What actually happened on Day 1 was when vivek found a blue puppet outside the fence, Harish also found another similar puppet in red. He had taken it just like vivek out of curiosity and had kept in his bedroom.

And the actual sequence during the past nights was

1. The owl starts to screech…

2.The church bell rings …

3.The merry- go- round starts to move…

4.The red puppet rose up ..

5.Harish was being possessed by it.. and the evil directed him to kill others

6. that’s when  The Blue puppet rose up…

7. and then vivek was being possessed by the blue puppet and it directed him to stop the evil…

This midnight was going to be different.. Now Vivek had burnt the blue puppet which was the one preventing the killings. This time he was in a state of deep sleep... This time he was not going to get possessed by the blue puppet..This time there would be no help..

As inevitable as it was.. the possessed Harish cut open Vivek’s throat and ended up killing himself… the floor was covered in red..The hall was filled with the silence of death..

                                                                The END