Haunted Tree - Epilogue

Disclaimer: This horror story is purely fictional. Any resemblance to name, place, organization or community is purely a coincidence. The story is neither meant for harming any living being, nor does it encourage readers to believe in paranormal activities. The images used in the post are only for representation purpose. They are downloaded from internet and the author doesn't bear the rights of the same.

Warning: Reader discretion is advised!

Story till now: Read at Haunted Tree - Dark Territory

Covered in the layers of bedsheets, I laid there awakened amidst the terrific aura of fear. The sound of crickets had suddenly denoised that night. Everything was calm and pacified. It was just 2 days past full moon day and there was enough light falling on the leaves of tamarind tree near our house as it was quite visible from my bed itself.

Profusely sweating and shivering simultaneously in the cold weather, I rose up to my feet and glanced at the peaceful surrounding, although terrified about the events in my teacher's house. I was more terrified on thinking how I reached my room from the entrance of the door where I felt unconscious for quite some time and doubted whether my teacher had reached my home.

The high possibility of my mother's existence in the house during such odd midnight hours gave me a sigh of relief. I was the only son of my widowed mother. My father died of chronic heart failure in our own house a few years ago the reason of which I was never told. I looked around for the sight of my mother so as to verify my assumption of my mother bringing me upstairs as she always did when I came home drunk from parties sometimes.

I came out of my room and entered living room where I found nothing in particular except that the door to the basement was unlocked and slightly open with my mother's footwear near the door. Now that I was confirmed about her presence I, at once, directed my legs towards the basement with a doubled curiosity that she never allowed me to go down there while she herself was there tonight. With heavy steps on the old wooden staircase, I reached the basement flashing my torch and called out to my mother without receiving any reply. I tossed my head around in search of my mother and instead stepped onto one of the rigid bags and fell down.

I flashed the torch on the things fallen out of the bag and was quite surprised to find my father's unseen photographs included in those things. The other things included wooden artifacts and toys which seemed to be the excellent works of my father and photographs of few trees in which one of them was that of the tree which had almost deceived me. I was taken aback. There was a long note lying beside me.

"Dear son, your father was a successful legal woodcutter and a timber supplier in the country since a decade. He used to cut down old trees for producing timber required for the city dwellers the unused part of which he kept with him to design wonderful toys out of his hobby. He kept a photograph of the tree before cutting them down and the toys, both in the basement.

It was just a few months ago that he got a contract to cut down an old tree on the outskirts of the town which was reported to show some obnoxious behavior in terms of growth and shedding of leaves irrespective of season.

One fine day, your father headed towards that tree and was startled at first upon glancing at the very tender, pale and bright green coloured leaves of the tree contradicting the description received by him during the contract. There was no way he could confirm about it and moreover, there was never a mistake in the official statements and hence he proceeded to chop it down.

As soon as he was about to lay his machine on the tree there arose a fire in its stem which was small enough to be extinguished by a bucket of water. But the fire refused to vanish even after using 4-5 buckets, that was when he decided to cut the tree as the fire was neither growing large nor burning the tree even slightly. He did accordingly, leaving aside the burning stem for it was so firmly rooted that the machine was unable to even move the leftover stem an inch aside.

The tree was however proved unfit as timber which left all the wood with him and he thought of renovating our house with the obtained wood. He did it within few months and also designed an evil-looking creature and kept it in the basement. I got aware of his experience with this tree when he told me about it few days later and I was frightened. I was further angry on him for making a wicked toy out of this one too, though I rarely visited his basement.

The next day he was found dead in the basement with no external injury seated in his wooden chair with ambiguity on his face. The police investigation, however, reported it as an unfortunate incident due to a heart failure. I raised you, my son, with great care stepping aside this unforgetful memory of your father. In order to hide the past and secure your future from negative thoughts, I even locked the basement forever and never told you what existed there.

I had written until this line many years ago so that I may show it you after you complete your teenage. Today I got a phone of your teacher who advised me to share it with you now as she was confirmed, you're more mature as a person, now. I hope you understand me.

Love, Mom."

I was startled upon noticing on the floor, the same creature carved in the wood as that I saw during my several experiences with that haunted tree, the truth of which had dawned upon me very late. I trembled with fear upon realization of this harsh truth which was now a terrible past of the tragic experiences which I perceived. With a torch in hand, I looked out for mother in the bright light of the fire. There she laid, down on the ground in the dark corner of the basement meeting a horrible death due to this tree. I was emotional yet terrified at the same moment. The teacher was not a real living identity, I realized.

The only thing left with me to do was to destroy the past including that bag of toys and all those photographs so that I would face no more horrible experience henceforth. I lit a match and set the bagful of wooden toys on fire and threw all the photographs on it. Trembling with fear, while I rushed upstairs, I watched the entire basement getting caught in a fire all of a sudden.

I at once reached the main door, forced it open and stepped out into the lawn to get away from the dreadful instance which had befallen me until few steps upon which there appeared several evil-looking figures from the toys marching towards me from all sides. I turned back and ran hastily inside the house in order to reach the telephone and inform the cops for immediate help. But before I could even move ahead, the entire house was in flames. Upon observing carefully I noticed that the walls and ceiling of our house were transforming into raw wooden textures and it appeared as if the tree was trying to grasp the entire house within its stem, simultaneously burning like anything.

Before I could think about anything else, the house took the shape of the ill-fated wicked tree which was concerned with my strange experiences, the curse of which had befallen upon me from my father and was entirely in captivity of the curse then. A huge roar of laughter which resembled that of my teacher was heard. The tree suddenly shed all its leaves filling my entire house which caught more fire and turned the house into ashes within a couple of seconds.

I knew nothing since then until one day I gained consciousness and it was all dark around me. I could sense nothing. All of a sudden I could hear voices of two people conversing with each other, the audibility of which increased gradually. They were my neighbours!

"Did you hear about the case of woodcutter's family?"

"Yes. Fate had it done. The mother-son pair can't simply go missing as mentioned by cops in their report."

"True, but equally true is the fact that cops upon careful examination stated so. The house was entirely empty and there were no traces of anything which could provide any evidence of happenings of last night, they said!"

"So tragic it is! God bless the souls!"

I yelled for help, but it couldn't affect things. Soon I was able to see, but I couldn't move. I was somewhere on the outskirts of the town on a roadside and my neighbours were standing right near me without being able to hear my shouts!

They walked away and I could see some leaves shedding all over me. Since then I am captivated in that same fiery tree until it finds it's next target!

The First Shower

Disclaimer: This post is inspired from true incidents. Any resemblance to person, place, thing or community is purely a coincidence. The images used in the post are only for representation purpose in order to assist the reader's imagination. They are downloaded from the internet and the author does not bear the rights of the same.


Spending one of the holidays at home instead of a day-out was seldom interesting due to unwilling neighbours ringing the doorbell at any instant irrespective of the time. After a heavy weekday work, I thought of staying indoors and make myself more comfortable than how I do in my office during weekdays. It was fun to get along with our Tommy seated in my lap listening to my conversations which actually made no sense to him yet as any faithful companion would do he would remain composed in the state he was in, glancing at me a couple of times making an impression that he's following me closely upon which I would laugh at this at times.

That day Tommy was busy in searching his natural prey in his optimistic surroundings which were all trees and bushes and grasses and an old well across the frontyard which provided us pure groundwater for more than a season. Our house is situated in a rural area which included moderately dense trees all around and farmlands spread over no less than several yards in the west such that the threat of any accompanying wildlife creature would be noticed by Tommy first, alarming us all about the threat. We were a couple of families residing in the eastern patch along the boundary of farmlands while the others occupied the plateau on the east. On all the sides of our house except for the west there were trees which can hide anyone's presence within tens of meters away.

I sat on the border of verandah which was a ten feet wide passage outside our living room and which was the only construction in the entire house made up of concrete in order to avoid any surprise attack of predators whose possibility of roaming around after midnight would not have been zero. This time there was no Tommy beside me or any novel in my hand as the usual ritual of mine was to enjoy the presence of either of the one to break the silence effectively.

It was daytime - a quarter to three - without the slightest trace of any bright rays of sunlight falling upon the leaves and getting reflected which reveal the true natural colours of our environment. The ultimate silence from other houses was enough to prove that all other families have been enjoying a sweet post-lunch nap. The birds had also stopped their twittering.

I gazed the part of the sky which was visible to me right above the house and the major one to the west, above the farmlands The grayish shades of all clouds was not really that surprising for me as the summertime had ended and it was no perfect the time for any downpour. A flash of bright white light appeared across the horizon for less than a millisecond which was no wonder the thunder light informing about the approaching rainfall in prior. I stood up and leaned from the frontyard and there it were - the first drops of rain - falling on my cheeks giving an immense pleasure. Within no time, not just my face but even my clothes began to moisten and that quick realization made me rush indoors into the verandah.

While running inside, I looked back to notice the rainfall turning severe and wondered if Masala Chai would add to my comfort which was already blessed with this sudden rainfall. Without considering my thoughtful opinion which would have been in affirmation anyhow, I marched into the kitchen, made myself a hot Masala Chai and returned back onto the steps of the verandah with a large cup to relish the moment altogether.

The dry frontyard was now completely soaked with water and it emanated petrichor, that distinct mesmerizing smell of ground dampening due to first rainfall. The small trees in the compound, of jasmine, Holy basil, chikoo, banana, papaya, etc. had by now completely drenched in rainwater and was evident from their leaves which shined more than earlier in just a few minutes duration. The larger ones occupying the entire neighbourhood like tamarind, mango, teak, jackfruit, etc. were no less wet during the period.

Taking a glance all around the verandah, I gulped down the throat - drop by drop - the hot Chai which acted like a supplement to a healthy man. The birds had now supposedly woken up to the sound of the roaring of clouds for there was a speedy flight of few tailor birds, crows and sparrows across the trees in search of a more secure place of shelter. Tommy appeared from nowhere and took a seat beside me without growling even once. Following the distinct sound of 'meow', the soft trail of Peacock amidst the dense trees at a very long distance had disappeared before I could even enjoy its sight. Alas! Even Tommy looked at me in dismay.

With few more ferocious attacks of thunderstorms, the first rainfall was now on the verge of becoming a heavy rainfall for the entire frontyard was now flooded with the water level of about a couple of centimeters which readily flowed through the narrow passage at the corner down the slope. The distinct circular ripples which form due to raindrops had now been interfering with each other losing their individuality leaving behind water as a whole.

The crystal clear drops of rainwater falling off the clay roofs of my house appeared like thick strings of transparent molten glass dripping right in front of me from the empty verandah where I was seated occasionally touching my lips to the cup of tea which had emptied minutes ago. It was raining cats and dogs now and the surroundings appeared to be more faint than usual and the visibility range had reduced drastically. I could only make out that the neighbours were yet covering few things like wood and hay lying in their yards which were almost soaked with water due to this surprising outburst.

I realized it was almost four in the evening, as I turned my back leaving aside the empty cup to take a glance at the large round clock hanging on the side of the living room. There was no doubt for the rainfall to be the sole reason for keeping all neighbours away from my house and keeping theirs into interest for the day. From a long distance, somewhere the mixed sounds of peacocks, monkeys and several birds were clearly audible as it remarked the cry of happiest expressions of animals during first rainfall. The sound of weak trees falling abruptly somewhere far away due to their incapability of standing against the mighty winds accompanied with the rainfall was quite characteristic.

The clouds seem to have emptied their entire volume onto the earth as it could be noticed from the reduced intensity of rainfall. I stood up from my place and was about to verify the same when, much to my astonishment, the wonderful band of bright seven colours flashed into the bright sky. No sooner had I turned my head down than the sound of 'meow' targeted me. This time it was so close that I got to see not only the peacock but also its spreading of feathers and I stared at it without closing my eyelids even once till its disappearance in the nearby bushes.

The rain had almost stopped now. Tommy went inside and I stepped further ahead in the frontyard to feel the wetness of the ground in a real sense and I was almost dancing over the entire compound when all of a sudden there fell something on the ground with a loud thud sound right a few steps away from me. I turned to check the object which revealed itself as the coconut falling off the tree beside our compound after weakening enough due to this rainfall.

Having enjoyed the experience of first rainfall I hurried myself indoors to resume my work for the next day as I didn't want to turn this pleasant evening into a disastrous one.