I was expecting you” she said with a mellow smile.
The night was rainy, cold and extremely exasperating after a long drive. Getting stranded in the middle of Inverness in Scotland was the last thing my friends and I were looking forward to.
After a thorough search for the hostel we had booked online, and almost landing in a different house altogether we finally saw a small wooden board leading us to a somberly dark lane and an excuse for street light far away. Trusting our gut instincts we took the turn despite of repeated protests by our satellite navigator whom we had started to depend upon and fondly given the sobriquet “Aunty”.
It had started to snow lightly despite of it being summer in Scotland and temperature was steadily dropping along with our patience. At the end of the lane we came across a double storied edifice and hoping that this was our given destination, we got out of our vehicle.
It must have been a second before we got out of our vehicles, welcoming the feather light snow flakes melting gingerly on our faces, when she opened the front door of the house. “Welcome” she said,” I was expecting you”. With the cold zephyr almost chilling us to the bones, I shuddered.
“How did she know?” I thought. We had just arrived, probably really late and we hadn’t even knocked the door. I turned to my friend skeptically and wasn’t surprised to see a stunned expression on his face as well. The hostel wasn’t like any ordinary hostel at all. It was an old British house occupied by other travelers,even though it looked deserted at the moment.
Stepping out of the car, I had a chance to look around, whilst my other friends went inside to confirm our reservations. It was a beautiful edifice covered in lianas, facing what looked like a lake or a passing stream. In the daylight, the place would be straight out of my fantasies, I mulled. However I had a whole night to get through and I turned to go inside.
I stepped inside landing in front of a small passage which opened to an area which had stairs leading upwards. The whole area was lit in soft light and had loads of canvas paintings hung on almost all the walls, something which my artist instinct didn’t fail to comprehend.
Anita, the person in charge of the house, introduced herself and after a quick fire safety instructions, decided to show us around the house. After disposing our luggage in our room which was really huge and placed on the ground floor of the building, we quietly followed Anita, who took us upstairs to show us an extra bathroom which we could use.
While ascending the stairs, my friend N and I who share passion for art, just couldn’t miss this painting which stopped us dead on our tracks. It was a canvas painting with three men in hoods holding a sickle standing in front of three graves marked in some weird symbols. Given the situation, and stranded in a house straight out of some horror flick, I went numb looking at the artwork in front of me.
“You looked frightened” she exclaimed, as she saw me gawking at the painting. I just smiled meekly trying not to let my emotions get better of me. I wasn’t surprised to see my friends having similar expressions on their faces. I muttered a silent prayer and followed her as she began showing us the rest of the house.
After the brief tour of the mansion, we decided to retire to our rooms. It was a huge room with bunk beds and we were sharing it with a Chinese guy. While the other guy looked calm and happy, we couldn’t help but discuss the whole enigma surrounding this place.
Amidst the whole dialogue, my friend N decided to visit the washroom which was situated on the first floor and neither she nor I had the guts to go out of the room alone.
Grabbing onto her arms literally, I made a quite exit out of the room and started to ascend the stairs, meekly ignoring the painting of three hooded men staring back at us from their hoods with a sickle in their hands. The washroom was situated on the further end of the passage and could be accessed by surpassing a couple of doors. “Don’t go anywhere” I requested N, who was looking as if she was ready to take to her heels at blow of a whistle and saying so I opened the first door leading to the washroom.
‘Aarrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhh” I screamed and ran out desperately looking for N, who had already started her descend down the stairs at the start of my scream.” What happened?” questioned my colleague who had seen our mad dash down the stairs.
“Black Cat” I gasped pointing upwards.” There is a black cat with yellow eyes” I exclaimed. I caught hold of N and we went back yet again upstairs in our bid to find the black cat that inexplicably had vanished. “Where’s the cat??” she questioned.
“I swear to god, there was a black cat there” I said. Surprisingly the cat had vanished, that too from a place where there was only one exit and other opening to the bathroom which was locked. It couldn’t have vanished literally!
“Enough” I said,” lets go the washroom on the ground floor” and saying so we started towards the smaller bathroom next to our room. This time I asked N to go in first and this time it was her time to scream. “Black cat again” she said. This time we spotted the black cat, eyeing at us with her yellow eyes from the window.” Let’s ignore and get our jobs done” I told N, trying to be brave.
So while I was waiting for her, my scouring eyes,fell on these wooden toys and masks lying around. It was hard to ignore the fact that these wooden toys were definately eerie and all I wanted was to get out of the place at that moment lest something popped up in front of me from somewhere. After being throughly scanned by the cat from the window sill and being surrounded by weirdest toys ever,I managed to get out.
After being back in the safety of our rooms, V and I decided to go and pay the balance lodging charges to the caretaker of the house. Despite of the repeated protests not wanting to get out, I finally obliged and went into the adjoining room where the caretaker Anita used to stay.
On entering her room, I couldn’t help but notice lots of paintings all around.
“Are these made by you?” I enquired. “Yes” she replied. I asked her eagerly “Have you painted the one with 3 hooded guys?” What does it signify?”
”It doesn’t signify anything” she said. Getting an unsatisfactory response, I turned around and saw something which sent my heartbeat racing. There were dolls hung by the neck of all sizes on the walls. I glanced at V and he too had an astonished look on his face. “Let’s leave fast” I said and as soon as we could ,we ran out. As we passed the main door which was slightly open, we both freaked out when we saw three hooded men standing next to our car, near the porch. This was enough to make our senses numb and we yet again dashed back.
After getting into the room and practically explaining the whole fiasco to my other friends and saying a quick goodnight, I hopped onto my bed, making sure all the windows were tightly shut. And despite of scary tales narration by N, which was making it even worse to get any sleep,exhaution took over and I dozed off with the images of three hooded men with sickle in their hands coming after me.
I don’t know how much I slept. But I was awakened by the dawn coming in through the window. I hastily awoke and decided to step outside into the verandah. The morning was definitely less scary as the night and was more beguiling with the snow starting to fall lightly again. As I stepped out,I realized the house and the environs around it was as beautiful as I imagined it would be and I just couldn’t help being amused at the thought of how scary the night seemed. The three hooded men I encountered were actually travelers who were staying along for the night. Anita, as I met her while walking back into the house seemed to be a cheerful lady though I found her really mysterious in her own way and even offered us tea and eggs for breakfast. She had a lot of stories to tell though she gently hinted that she doesn’t like sharing them with people. Respecting her thought, N and I requested her to show her other paintings which she eventually did.
As we packed to move ahead into the next phase of the journey, I could help reflect the fact that sometimes things don’t seem the way they are. It’s eventually all in our minds.
As I sat in the car and as it started moving away from the house, I noticed a black cat on the porch, staring back, amidst the snow, as if hinting me to come back someday again.’I will” I smiled back “I sure will”.
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