I didn’t think much of it

Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night, thinking something was outside the window? Thinking something was coming to get you or simply watching you? Those times at about 4 am when your eyes open out of nowhere and you do not really know what is happening around you. Did you actually wake up or was it just a dream? Do you even remember what woke you up or was it just something that opened your eyes?

This happened to me frequently a few years ago when I lived in one of the bungalows of south Delhi. Nothing special just the regular upper-middle-class Indian teenager. I liked football and would often just leave everything to play on the field. I was bored by old Bollywood movies and would always look for something new in the cinema. The house I lived in was a little farther away from the main road than other houses. Secluded. I don’t know if it was because my family bought the property late or just looked for a cheaper price.

The vegetable vendor outside my house would tell me about these stories in the morning while I waited for my bus. He would tell me that it was not urban legend but the truth the Tomb Lodhi was haunted. I didn’t really believe him or pay attention to what he was saying until my mom showed me that we could see the tomb from the window of my room. I felt a shiver go up to my spine, My hair stood up as she pointed at it. I concentrated my eyes on the tomb and zoned out for about a minute until my mom snapped me out of it. “keep looking at that tv and your eyes will get even worse” She said, but I barely heard it.

When I went out to play football that evening I asked the vegetable vendor, “Bhaiya, have you ever been to the tomb? I can see it from my house.” He was shocked, his eyes grew about a million times “You…. You can see it?!” I was confused by the question as he spoke about it so much in the morning. “Yes,” I replied. He told me to never look outside at night, especially at the tomb. I went back to thinking that the man was crazy and continued to the football field.

When I got back home that evening, the vegetable vendor was not in front of the house, he usually stayed till late at night but today he was already gone. I didn’t really understand why, but I choose to ignore it because I was still the thought this man is crazy. When I got home I realised that my parents are already asleep. They had eaten dinner and left what was made for me on the table. They said they were tired, which was odd to me since they usually ate later. Once again another anomaly that I didn’t think much off. I ate my share of dinner and went up to my bedroom.

I switched the tv on the watch the UFC fight before I went to bed but there was no signal every channel was showing just static. I decided to just go to sleep. Before I got into bed. I felt this weird urge. I felt the urge to look outside. To open the blinds while I sleep. I usually could not sleep until it was complete darkness. It felt like my limbs were pulling me towards the window. As If I was a puppet being controlled by strings. As if the window had a force of gravity pulling me towards it. So, I did it. I went up to the window and opened the blinds. Took a look at the tomb and then went to sleep. It did not even take me a second to fall asleep, bam like that. I was out. At about 3:57 am I woke up. My eyes opened without any intention of me to open them. I looked outside it was pitch black. I could not even see the tomb. Nothing just black. So, I went back to sleep.

The nights continued like this. I would wake up somewhere in the middle at about 3 am and look out the window and nothing was there. Until the 7th night. Exactly one week after the first night. I saw outside the window there was the vegetable vendor standing right there below the window. He was looking right up at me. I was confused. I looked up and the tomb was lit up. So, I went downstairs. I went to the vendor, and I asked him. “Why are you here?” he didn’t say a word and kept staring at me.

I began walking toward the tomb, but it felt like the tomb was coming toward me. It was the fastest I have moved In my life. I stopped but the tomb kept moving toward me. Until I was there, right in the centre under the dome. There were screeches coming from all directions and my ears begged me to close, but I couldn’t. I didn’t think much of this tomb until now. Until it was screaming at my face. it screamed so loud everything turned into a blur. I woke up back in my bed, but there was nothing around me just black. I did not think much of it and went back to sleep.