The Humming

I used to be a regular on this site a few years back; reading through story after story but this is the first time I'm actually submitting a story.

Here's a little information on me which might or might not be relevant in this story. Although I am from Nepal, I was born and brought up outside the country and when I reached 22 years of age, I decided to return to Nepal for good. My hometown is in the East of Nepal, called Dharan and many of my stories actually revolve in my parents' house in Dharan.

This incident occurred in my third month living in Nepal. I still had yet to find a job in the capital city, Kathmandu, so I was living in my parents' house for the time being. As much fun and lively it is during the day, that house gets eerie when night falls. During the evenings, a solemn feeling overcomes me that I don't dare go anywhere in the house alone, even with the lights switched on. It's like as if I can feel someone watching and lurking behind me. There is also a cottage with three rooms (one is my parents' bedroom and 2 other rooms are a prayer room and a store room.) behind the main house.

One particular night, like always, I feared going to bed but Dharan is so warm and humid that it sucks up all your energy, making one tired. My father was out of the country so I climbed into bed with my mother. She's someone whom you don't want to sleep beside as she falls asleep immediately and when you wake her up, she screams and scares the shiat out of you. Moving on, I was lying down on the bed, almost about to doze off when I heard music - like it was from a far distance. I shook my mother and told her of what I had heard. She told me to ignore it as it could be TV from the neighbours so I shrugged it off. Once again, I heard the music but this time, it definitely wasn't a TV. It sounded more like a female humming (I can still hum the tune until today.) I ignored it, telling myself that maybe, it is the TV. I was almost falling asleep when I heard it the third time, right beside my left ear. A proper loud humming. Like as if someone actually hummed in my ear. I screamed, jumped out of the bed and quickly switched on the lights. My mother woke up screaming too. I was trembling so much that it was hard to calm me down. The whole night, both of us didn't sleep at all.

The next morning, my mother relayed the previous night's event to my grandmother and she immediately called up a shaman/witchdoctor as Nepalis firmly believe in the power of the shamans. (Do note that the shaman has never entered our house before and wouldn't know the history of my family or the house.) He sat in front of us, got out a plate and uncooked rice from his bag and started "playing" with the rice. What he said afterwards shocked everyone in the family.

When the house was being built, my parents hired a "security guard" to look after the bricks, cement and other building materials. His wife was paralyzed because she was pushed off a mountain cliff after an argument with her brothers over their family property. She was kept in one of the rooms in the cottage and every night, huge rats would bit pieces of her skin and eventually she died. My family is Hindu so we pray to a lot of Gods and to the ancestors and sacrifice animals and blood to them too. I do not condone the sacrificial rites nor do I believe in all of the praying. Anyways, the rites would also be done for the woman who died in our house but because my grandfather became ill and for many years, they had stopped the praying. These rites are a huge deal, with our relatives from all over the country coming to our place and can go on for days but my grandfather didn't have the strength anymore. The shaman also said the spirit of the woman still lingers around the house and she wanted to remind the family to continue with the praying rites and she wanted to get the message across by the humming, to me.

This might sound like a tame and not so scary story but this is only the beginning of my experiences in that house. I now live in Kathmandu and I dread it whenever I have to go to Dharan to visit my parents. When I'm there, I'll keep the lights on in the entire house and will only go to bed when it's the break of dawn. My brother, who we think has a third eye, has been scared out of his wits in that house. Friends and families who have stayed over always have something to say of what they heard or saw. I'll post more when I get a free hour.

Thank you for reading.