The New Bride

Greetings everyone.

So this is not my own story but of my father's and I'll write the story from his point of view. Here it goes.

It was the month of March, with a beautiful weather in the day and a mesmerizing night sky at the night. I was a teenager back then who was a huge movie buff. In my village there was no theater to watch any movies. So I had travel 12 kms to catch a show at the theater.

We used to go in groups to the theater, but one day none of my friends wanted to go for the movie for one reason or another. So I headed out alone for a night show. I finished the show, hitched a ride back on a truck who dropped me at the bus stop, it was around 11'O clock at night, but as it was a long time ago that too in a village, there was no living soul visible in my vicinity.

I started walking towards my village from the main road, after covering a little distance I saw a woman, dressed in a white & red saaree, she was covering her face with the saaree, just like the newly weds in our society. A new Bride.

At first I thought what a Newly wed bride was doing in this late hour that too all alone, she was standing under some bamboo trees, no houses nearby. I tried to approach her by asking what she was doing outside this late but instead I found myself following her as she started walking towards the lake behind those trees, it felt like as if I was mesmerized by her. No matter how fast I tried to walk, I'll never get closer to her, she was ahead of me. After a few moments I regained my consciousness and realized that I am in the middle of that tiny jungle.

All of the scary stories which my elder used to tell me came rushing to my mind and I felt numb and I stood there, frozen. I remembered how in our culture we refer to a evil spirit which comes in the attire of a newly wedded bride who have no legs. I directly looked into her legs and I realized they weren't visible. I wanted to run but the thought of her being behind me made me nauseous.

Just when I was going through all of this in my mind, she stopped and turned. THAT moment, that exact moment I told myself you need to run or else you're going to die here. And I ran. I ran like there was no tomorrow. I somehow reached home and screamed for my mother, all my brothers and mother came out and asked me what has happened, I explained them everything, my mother did some rituals with me before letting me enter the home. I suffered from high fever for 3 days straight.

After I was healthy again, I asked my mother if there was any new bride in our village or nearby, she said there wasn't.

I still went to watch movies, but in the day, and never alone at night.

So this was my father's experience, which to be honest I find really fascinating because the depiction of the entity actually makes me remember the stories which I grew up listening too.

Hope you enjoyed reading, comments are welcome ☺️