Welcome To Paatal Lok Haunted House
Rain drums on the car roof.
Nitya sits with her hands on the steering wheel.
The slate sky she saw as she left the house should have warned her of the rain.
But then, she has to do what she needs to do, no matter the weather.
She drops her hands to her lap and leans her head back to keep the bile in her throat from coming out. Her nausea is a result of not eating and sleeping, and her carsickness has made it worse.
Advay, her husband, used to drive the car while she was perfectly happy with her scooty. But since his death, Nitya has developed a soft spot for the car and has driven it three times.
Nitya takes deep, slow breaths until she’s sure she won’t retch. If it weren’t raining, she’d have rolled down the window.
As she feels mildly better, Nitya opens her eyes.
Prudent and farsighted, that’s what you are! Advay’s voice from the past echoes in her head.
“But I’m a mess right now,” Nitya murmurs to herself.
As she considers whether to open the car door and dash into the rain or wait it out, she notices the heavy raindrops starting to lighten.
Nitya opens the car door, shuts it, and jogs along the trail toward the structure ahead.
If it were night, the top of the structure would glow in electric blue neon light, leaving the lower section obscured in shadows.
She passes a tree with fake cell phones dangling from its branches.
Nitya stops under the building's entrance and gazes upward.
Welcome to Paatal Lok Haunted House. Ready to face your fear? The signboard reads.
Her heart thumps.
Her eyes shift to the wall on her left.
A cautionary note in small print is attached, stating that individuals with heart disease, high or low blood pressure, or other risky medical conditions, as well as pregnant women, may not be suitable for this.
Nitya opens her purse and pulls out a set of keys. She reaches for the keyhole, then pauses.
She has never been alone in the building or seen it in its current non-operational state.
The key fits into the keyhole, and the massive door opens, revealing a narrow corridor.
Nitya peers into the darkness that lies beyond.
She breathes audibly, her senses hyper aware.
She’s been inside many times when the place was abuzz with screams, yelps, giggles, nervous chuckles, and actors ready to scare visitors.
When operational, the narrow passage would be bathed in white, cool-toned lighting and enveloped in upward blasts of fog, evoking an otherworldly atmosphere for visitors.
Nitya walks, silence accompanying her every step.
At the end of the passageway, she stops.
Two dark figures stand in the far corner of the room, one on each side. The one on the right appears to be holding something.
Despite knowing that the props are lifeless, Nitya struggles to calm her racing heart as it thunders in her chest.
She wants to turn on the lights, but she also doesn't want to see them clearly.
Still, she goes to the switchboard and turns on some lights.
Nitya gasps.
The prop across seems to be looking at her, but it isn’t. Its sidelong glance is directed at the entryway, but Nitya suspects it is a ruse. The sly grin on its ominous face implies that it knows she is there.
The fact that they look so real despite being inanimate is what sends a chill down everyone's spine.
She looks to her side at the tall prop with black-gloved hands holding a sharp-looking axe.
The axe, however, is not real or blunt because Nitya was strongly opposed to Advay’s plan to use a real axe to make everything look genuine.
Yet. She dislikes the idea of being close to any sharp-looking object, real or not.
To divert her attention from the props, Nitya looks up.
A mistake.
Clusters of black, hairy bodies with spindly, curved legs crowd the ceiling, their countless eyes assessing her.
She flinches and nearly ducks before realising what she is looking at.
Nitya recalls a family visiting with a little boy who screamed so loudly when he saw the fake spiders that his parents were forced to leave immediately.
Maintaining a safe distance from the axe-wielding prop, Nitya walks further inside.
...
Nitya breathes deeply and looks through the small mesh window.
The small room is empty, with only a single bed as furniture. A leg-iron with a heavy iron ball attached sits near the bed’s leg. A ventilation window above lets in dim light.
She remembers being led into this room for the first time by Advay. A person bound to the bed with a heavy iron chain lunged at her, making her shriek and grab onto Advay’s arms, sinking her nails into him as her shriek echoed throughout the room. Then, another sound joined in—Advay’s chuckles. The chained person, an actor, sat back on the bed, staring at them mutely without breaking character.
The memory causes Nitya to retreat until her back collides with the wall.
Outside, the rain intensifies.
Perhaps it isn’t the best time for her to have come.
Should she leave and come back when she feels mentally and emotionally ready?
But…
She is already there, right?
Can’t she just get past her primal fear and inspect the building to decide whether to sell or keep the haunted attraction?
Two performers have already left the job. Nitya’s lack of fondness for the place is well known to everyone. Their decision to leave may have been sparked by the fear that she would shut down the attraction.
Nitya isn’t sure about it.
How will she manage it with her own job?
But can she let Advay's passion project die?
Nitya looks at the mesh window once more.
When she first peered through and spotted the actor inside, she was conscious of Advay gauging her reaction to see if his passion project was frightening enough for the visitors.
The performer tilted his head back to look at her. His eyes were unsettling, but there was also a hint of sadness. The acting was impressive. His sorrowful eyes and the way his unrestrained leg extended ahead of the restrained one evokes another memory.
Nitya extends her injured leg forward, pain pulsing in her ankle. Advay paces the room, excitedly sharing updates on the haunted house. Nitya ignores the ache of having her physical pain ignored by him and attempts to join in his excitement. But the ache lingers. It was just moments ago she told him about slipping down the stairs while dusting the handrail. After briefly expressing his concern and asking if she was in too much pain, he went on to discuss the haunted house.
Nitya turns her head sharply, erasing the memory and questioning why it crossed her mind now.
She proceeds to another room.
...
Nitya does not recall seeing this. How did she miss it?
Dry mold and lichen cover the cracks in the filthy walls. Spiderwebs and grimy green streaks mar the base. And the door is badly splintered around the knob.
Thanks to the designers’ expertise, visitors feel as though they’re entering a long-abandoned place.
Nitya opens the door.
And gasp at the people standing inside.
The figures, however, remain still and unresponsive.
The four figures, or props, two on each side, are facing away from her and are gazing at a taller prop in a long white dress with long black hair cascading down the back.
The taller prop’s hands are raised toward what appears to be an altar.
A deafening boom of thunder erupts from the sky.
Nitya recoils. She almost thinks that the props will react to the sound too.
They don’t. They continue to ignore her. So she studies them.
A woman and a man stand on either side. Their stooped frames, shaggy hair, and apelike fingers remind her of a documentary she saw about the nearly thirty hominin species—our ancient relatives—who once walked the Earth.
Were these four the last members of their species?
And, what is the tall woman doing at the altar? She doesn’t look like them; rather, she appears human.
Nitya looks back at the hominins, settling on a female. Even though only half of the female hominin’s face is visible, Nitya can discern wonder and terror, along with a faint glimmer of hope.
Is this how she appeared at her court wedding?
Nitya first met Advay after he moved into their apartment building. She saw him a few times but never spoke to him. When she returned from work one evening, he was in the parking lot getting out of his car. As she entered the elevator, he motioned for her to wait and came running. He said thank you, then hello, and went on to introduce himself, telling her his apartment number and asking about hers.
That marked the start of their whirlwind romance, which would culminate in marriage.
Her parents, like his, had died, and she had no one to talk to about her decision.
Advay reassured her, discussing their future plans at length and painting an ideal life for a couple.
Even now, she distinctly remembers feeling foggy-headed and queasy at her court wedding.
Nitya backs up, closes the door and moves towards the next.
...
An ominous inquiry is inscribed above the door to the room.
Are you sure you want to enter?
No!
Why is she going through each room at all? What is she trying to prove?
Nitya knows what’s in this one and is afraid she'll faint, as a man and a woman have on separate occasions.
Nitya suddenly notices that only the main lights are turned on, with no motion sensors, atmospheric lights, strobe lights, or thematic projectors activated.
A soft sigh of relief escapes her dry lips.
She goes for the door, which is covered in fake prickly grass.
The door opens into a maze-like room.
A voice within her begs her to shut the door.
Ignoring her inner voice, Nitya enters the bleak room and is instantly transported back to her first exploration of it.
Nitya takes a hesitant step toward the maze, then quickly looks behind her. Advay gives her a reassuring nod.
Nitya is painfully aware that she will soon face something frightening. She wants to bolt from the room and the building altogether, yet she remains, knowing Advay is watching.
She reminds herself that it’s all fake and feels a rush of courage. Nitya strides forward.
Something thuds behind her.
A shriek flees from her lips.
She spins around to see a dark figure lying on the ground at an oddly twisted angle, seemingly dead. A groan rattles her throat. She takes a step backward, and another figure crumbles to the floor. Her hands flail toward the maze in terror as dark figures fall one by one. She turns and runs deeper into the maze, lost and confused, until she comes across a towering shadow that bursts into light. The glow reveals a ghoul-like face with one red and one purple eye peering down at her. Just as Nitya fears her heart will stop, she staggers back, and two hands grab her from behind. Advay guides her out of the maze, holding her hand.
It takes her nearly three weeks to gather enough courage to explore the rest of the building.
...
Nitya moves quickly through the labyrinth, without a single prop falling behind her.
Her feet stop.
The dark form looms just a few feet away. She is relieved that she will not see the terrifying details of its face.
This is it. Now turn and leave.
She stays still, feeling more and more as though the towering darkness is… watching her.
Studying her.
Quietly asking her.
Are you pleased with the choices you made and how life turned out?
Nitya backs away and exits the maze room with a swirling head.
She slams the door behind her and leans against it.
The pattering sound of rain is no longer present.
Feeling her entire body quiver, Nitya decides to go.
She takes her phone out of her purse to check the time.
Instead of the time, the wallpaper—a photo of Advay and herself—catches her attention. She stares at the image until the screen goes black again.
Nitya changes her mind again.
Donning a mask of fearlessness she doesn’t feel, she proceeds toward unopened rooms.
Nitya stands before a white door with streaks of red snaking down, resembling dripping blood.
She reaches for the door but, remembering something, nearly jumps back.
It is a room that elicited the most screams, where the cast members dressed as demons would grab the visitors and pretend to drag them to an adjoining door. She hasn’t been in this room before but is aware of the type of act that took place in it.
Nitya feels silly. There aren’t any actors inside, so why hesitate?
Just as she thinks about opening the door...
A maniacal laugh pierces the silence, then is abruptly silenced, as if a hand has covered the laugher’s mouth.
A chill of fear freezes her.
It can’t be real!
Nitya holds her breath.
The building mimics her quietness.
Did she simply imagine it? She is sleep-deprived, so it’s possible, right?
But, what if?
Nitya desperately wants to look behind her, but her body remains locked in place by sheer fright.
Where did that sound come from? The upper floor?
It could be because there is a room there that Nitya refuses to open, even if her life depends on it.
That laugh!
It takes her back to the last room she visited when she first explored the building—a nightmarish room with hellish-looking clowns giggling, shrieking, and making other unearthly sounds, their eyes frozen in madness.
Nitya’s mind goes blank as the cackling clowns approach her.
The fear that grips her is unlike any she has previously experienced. Her entire body cries as she stumbles backwards, falling to the floor and releasing an agonising muffled scream. Her arms shoot up before her in a defensive gesture.
Then a laugh, filled with hysteria, echoes from behind her.
The clowns end their act, and Nitya is jolted back to reality, remembering where she is and looking behind to find her husband bent over, laughing.
Laughing at her.
Advay hums throughout the ride home, a smug grin on his face.
That was Advay’s laugh, wasn’t it?
Tears spring to her eyes as she struggles with the profound regret of visiting the building.
Something brushes past her, and Nitya yelps, spinning around.
She frantically looks around, but sees nothing.
Nitya fights the urge to run as she makes her way out of the building.
She halts suddenly when she reaches the first room, noticing something.
She looks at the axe-wielding prop and swallows dryly.
The axe is missing.
Nitya bolts out, leaving the door open, and sprints down the path to her car.
***
