Suddenly, blood began to pour in front of them.
They all screamed.
…
Where the blood had fallen, someone suddenly collapsed.
"Hey, Tush—look, it's him," Monali cried out.
Anisha and Rana and Anu all sank down beside the injured Tush.
Seeing them, for a moment the entire room fell into silence.
Tithi threw herself on top of Tush, wrapping him in her arms, and kept repeating, "Are you all right? That's all I need. Let's just get out of here as fast as we can. God, be with us."
"By the way, why did you lock that door over there?" Monali asked.
"What? We didn't lock any doors," Rana replied.
Once again, the room went deadly silent.
Then someone shoved against the front door. Everyone froze. Again, someone knocked at the door. Suddenly, they heard the rear door creak open. As they all turned to look, the lights in the room went out.
Now there came the usual pounding at the doors. A shadowy figure appeared. It seized Tithi's hand and began to pull her. Tithi tried to scream, but at that very moment the dark shape clamped a hand over her mouth.
Everyone stood rooted to the spot.
"Hey, I'm Grandma," croaked a voice. "Don't scream—or they'll break down the door and come in."
A flicker of relief passed over their faces as the noise subsided. Grandma hissed, "Stay absolutely silent, or they'll sense us."
"Then why is the lock on the door stuck from the outside? Tell us the truth—no tricks," Abir demanded.
"I swear, none of us locked it," Rana said again.
"I did," Grandma admitted.
"You did? But why?" Abir pressed.
"If I'd left it open, the spirits would have come right in," she replied.
They let the matter drop.
Grandma told them all to sit down. They rested for a while in silence when Grandma suddenly stood up and said, "Before you can go home, there's something you must do. Listen to a story first."
"I've lived here a long time, but this place wasn't always like this. It used to be very beautiful—except for one thing: it had no proper hospital. Finally, the government decided to build a public hospital here. They chose a site: an old, abandoned cemetery. Many learned priests warned against it. They said, if you must build here, at least purify the ground first. But nobody listened. In a few months, the hospital building was complete. Nobody knew that on its opening day, the hospital itself would meet its end.
"That very first day, a short circuit flooded the entire building, and everyone inside perished.
"Ever since, every year around this time, this place is plagued by horrors. That's why the villagers leave for a month. This year, I couldn't go because—well, because I'm old."
Grandma fell silent. Everyone sat mute, speechless.
"So what must we do to survive?" Monali asked.
"Burn it down. Make sure everything goes up in flame," Grandma said with a terrible smile.