Tales from the Neverbeens

I have become apprehensive of falling asleep, for this single, most horrific nightmare, more so because it recurs every night! It might seem petty now when you hear it, but at the dead of the night, when you are all alone and darkness has engulfed not just your room, but the entire world as far as you can see, and you are alone - every person who cares about you, or every person you know is fast asleep - at that time, even the ticking of the clock is enough to upset your nerves. My nerves are already quite weak and jumpy, as they are. Now, this dream, that has stolen the appeal of sleep from me, is set in the dark damp bottom of what seemed to be a cave or well. I am not bound or tied up, but I'm unable to move. I hear indistinct whispers, as if some people are quarelling in a language not known to me. Just as a feeling suffocation starts to swell up because of the blinding darkness, the whispers grow closer. Very soon, a few men, with fire lamps in their hands, dark, scantily dres...

It's been a long time since we had this purple stain on the kitchen floor. "It's print on the tile," some say, though it is not present on any other similar tile, while others say it's some kind of a dye. Whatever it is, what is concerning us more is that the stain seems to be growing. Ever so slowly. My wife and I, we've tried everything we could to get rid of it, or at least learn about it, but to no avail. We even consulted painters and masons, but they couldn't give a reasonable explanation. As of now, we've decided to leave it alone. Ignoring it seems to have slowed it down. By now it's gotten to about the size of a coaster, and the colour has changed from purple to deep brown. But as I said, we're ignoring it. Just the last evening a friend of mine came for dinner, and the topic of the stain somehow came up. He seemed to have an absurdly different opinion about it. Very reasonably, and deductively, he stated that since it is g...

  I had just woken up from a disturbed sleep. I dreamt of a ghost sitting on my shoulder, just like in the movie 'Shutter', if I remember the name correctly. It is not that I am haunted by fear of ghosts or anything. I am utmost skeptical when it comes to the supernatural. But waking up from sleep with the visions of a ghost sticking to your shoulder in the silent middle of the night is an entirely different affair. Out of habit, I headed for the bathroom. As I sat on the toilet seat I started losing memory of the ghastly dream. Most dreams are forgotten within ten minutes of waking up, they say. But my mind had taken up a different job altogether. It had started associating the visions with my present surrounding. Now let me explain the size of my attached bathroom. It's barely larger than a normal sized wardrobe. The claustrophobia added to the uneasiness. I wondered if 'anything' was sticking to my shoulder in that small space. I could imagine feeling...

I wonder when she got afflicted by it, the girl who lives in the apartment just below mine. It's not like any illness or disease, atleast not one that is known. I was an unfortunate soul to learn about it altogether. Just because I lived upstairs! About a week back, when I opened my wardrobe, a spider walked out. "I wonder how it got there," I told her when I met her on the stairs. She returned a feeble smile. The next day I saw a couple of spiders on the window sill, moving out. Throughout that day however at least twenty spiders creeped out after that. I was wondering what was going on (insects and animals often sensed the imminence of natural disasters, I had heard), when I learnt that the girl had moved in recently into the apartment below mine. I noticed it when I had gone to introduce myself to her. She attracted spiders! A hundred spiders seemed to be creeping around her apartment, walking upto her feet every now and then. I was too horrified to even ask her wha...

This village has something weird about it. All the people in it stay indoors in the evening, no matter what. It made me very curious. I had reached in the dusk just to find that even my host was hesitant to open his door to me. I asked him, but he just deferred the topic saying that the time was too dangerous to talk about it. By the time I had my sumptuous meal, I was dead tired. It was a long journey I had made. But as soon as I was getting ready to sleep, I was reminded of the behaviour of the village in the evening, and curiosity got the better of me. I walked out into the living room to meet my friend. I found him seated beside the fireplace, stoking the fire. "Welcome, my friend, I was just beginning to think when you're going to ask me again," he said, clearly knowing why I had come. "It is the story of just a few months back. The highway as you know connects two large cities. A lot of vehicles ply over it throughout the day. One day, some men fishing in th...

Neil and I had met after a long time. Almost eight years. But he looked all the same, except for the stubble that he had grown. We happened to meet on a warm Sunday morning on the path along the forest during my morning-walk. And like old times (whenever we did something together, it was never something normal) we decide to walk into the forest instead of along it. About half an hour later we were deep inside the forest and had no idea where we were. And nor did we care. We were busy talking and catching up with each other's life. But a sudden rustle nearby brought us back to the present. It was unlikely that it was somebody. Nobody came into these woods. It was 'something'! We waited motionlessly to listen. There it was again. Definitely footsteps, but of what? Silently we moved in the direction of the sound, gathering all our courage. We walked into a clearing. The next time we heard the sound, it was closer. I picked up a pebble and threw it in the direction of the s...