Tuesday, January 22, 2013

The 62nd thing - Paranormal Activity

There's this stupid serial on ETV Kannada called "Aathma Kathegalu" which is basically about ghosts and devils and the like. It airs at 10 PM every weekday I guess. I'd have no problem if they kept their silly ghosts and devils and the like restricted to their slot. But no. They HAVE to show them in advertisements, which suddenly creep up on you when you're watching something else. And the scary thing is, there are actors acting out perfectly normal people - a guy driving a Hyundai i10 and minding his own business, an auto driver innocently making a living, all in the middle of the night of course. Which makes it realistic. I first of all do not like watching horror movies cuz my imagination goes haywire when I'm alone at night. So this is what happened one night:

I finished watching Grey's Anatomy at 11PM and my dinner as well. I switched on the light in the kitchen, dumped my plate in the sink, switched it off and walked back to the hall. I then switched off the light in the hall and I was in complete darkness. My parents were sleeping upstairs, and my grandparents in the room next to the hall, where their door was shut. Instead of heading upstairs as quickly as I could, I bravely opened my grandparents' door so that they'd have better ventilation. As soon as I did, the ticking of the clock in the hall behind me suddenly seemed louder to me, and I thought of footsteps behind me coming ever closer. And that's when I fled upstairs.

My mom was awake, and she saw me and said, "Oh, you haven't got water, have you?" I said, "I didn't know I was supposed to, isn't there any water here?", desperately hoping that she wouldn't make me go down and get it. She said there wasn't any and kept quiet. Thankfully, my mom isn't the sort who'd kick up a fuss. She didn't say anything for a while. Then, "Chinnu, could you pleease do me a favour?" Heart sinking, I said, "Do you want me to go get water?" "Yes please.." She must have been feeling really thirsty.

Armed with my mobile phone, I crept downstairs, switching on the flashlight on the phone to maximum brightness. It still felt like I was going to enter an unfamiliar dark pit. The thing about fear is that its unreasonable. I mean, no matter how many times I told myself not to get scared, my senses were heightened and my brain was translating every normal sound and sight to something paranormal. I quickly went to the light switch which is thankfully near the bottom of the stairs. I turned my back to the other end of the hall, dark and looming, and hit the light switch. The light didn't turn on.

My brain literally froze. I began to panic a little. And then there was this horrifying, unreal sound coming from the depths of the abyss that was the other end of the hall, "CrrrrRRRKKKKKKK" I did not know what that sound was. I was waiting for something to happen, and finally the light turned on. The light is right at the other end of the hall, so it wiped out the darkness. And then.

Then, the light flickered. And went out. A small part of my brain actually laughed and said, "God! Is this some movie or what!" The rest of my brain said, "Shut up! Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod-". The light flickered on, again with that strange noise, which somehow sounded less loud in the light. And then it hit me. That noise was that weird noise of electricity. Like that noise you get when there's a loose connection. And that's why the light flickered.

The rest of it wasn't bad at all. I think that's cuz I was so badly shocked by the noise and the flickering that I was just off for a while. I switched on all lights that I possibly could, and fetched a bottle of water. It was slightly hard to switch off all the lights again, but after I did, I positively RAN for the stairs and up and went into my room.