A Night in a Haunted House
‘Spend a night in a haunted house and become a millionaire’, the front page of the newspaper screamed. Vijay picked it up and began reading. It was the advertisement for a popular reality show on TV. The organizers of the show were challenging participants to spend a night alone in a haunted house, the reward was a million rupees.
‘That is a lot of money,’ Vijay thought and moved closer to read the complete details.
“Do you want to buy it or are you here to waste my time?” the vendor asked. He knew this man. Every morning he would stand in front of his shop and read the news from a distance.
“No free reading. Buy it and take it home. There you can read until your eyes fall off,” the vendor said sarcastically.
Vijay put the paper down and started walking. He walked a few steps and then stopped.
‘The money in the bank would last a couple of weeks at most. ’ he thought. He turned and went back to the vendor.
“Do you sell out all your newspapers, the same day?” Vijay asked.
“No, a few remain unsold. Why? Why, do you want to know?”
“ Can I get one of today’s newspapers tomorrow for free?”
The vendor looked at Vijay carefully. He saw a tall, lean, young man with prominent cheekbones and weak old stubble looking at him through large brown eyes.
“No, you will still have to pay. Half price, but you have to pay.”
“ Can I get a copy at half price today evening?” Vijay asked.
The vendor scratched his head.
“Ok come at ten in the night and take one. That is if there are any left. Two rupees only. “
“Two rupees for an old newspaper!”
“Do you want it or not?” the vendor was getting irritated.
“Ok, ok don’t shout. I will come later today then. ”
“Good and now disappear. People with think you are a beggar and keep away from my shop. This is the one time of the day, when I make some money. So get out-of-the-way, and let me run my business.”
Having nothing else to do, Vijay roamed the streets. He used to return to his ‘room’ only at night. His ‘room’ if it could be called that, was the space beneath the staircase in an old apartment building. There a plank placed over two wooden boxes, passed off as his bed. He had strung old disused CD’s on strings, which served as a curtain. His few clothes, he kept in a small suitcase, locked and chained to the stairs. He paid a thousand rupees a month for this ‘room’.
That night as he lay on his bed, he read the details in the newspaper. The show was asking for volunteers to spend a night at a haunted house, alone. The rules of the contest were simple. The volunteer had to spend the hours between sunset and sunrise the next morning alone in the house. ‘…the ideal age of the candidate is between 25 and 30. He or she will be in excellent health with no earlier history of illness. A medical examination of willing candidates ….’ the rules and regulations went on and one for most of the page. It was a line at the very bottom, in fine print, that caught his eye. ‘Those with no relations or family ties would be preferred.’ Vijay sat up in bed and bumped his head against the stairs. He cursed softly. He read the complete advertisement again. As he put the paper down, he was smiling.
The requirements described him down to the last detail. He checked the contact address given below. It was a place close to where he stayed.
“One million! Here I come! “He said to himself, smiled and went to sleep.
“I have come to nominate myself for the ‘I Challenge you’ show,” Vijay said at the small peep-hole at the studio gate. The guard who was reading a gossip magazine did not hear him, so he repeated what he had said.
“Write your full name and cell number here and go in,” the guard said without looking up from his magazine, pushed a dog-eared register forward.
“ I don’t have a cell,” said Vijay as he wrote his name and pushed it back to the guard.
The studio from outside looked like a barn, from inside it looked like one long passage with closed doors on both sides.
“Go down that corridor, there is a room at the end. There a doctor will check you,” a girl at the reception said.
Inside the hall there were a few other young men standing. Vijay cleared the medical tests one after the other. Soon he realized, he was the only candidate left. A small group of girls with notepads in their hands, had gathered in the room, All of them watching his every move with interest.
“You are an orphan?” one of the girls asked.
“Yes, I grew up in an orphanage outside Mumbai”, Vijay replied.
“That’s good!!” She said and wrote something down in her pad.
“Please wait here.” Another girl in that group said pointing at a chair. She whispered something to her friend and both giggled. Then the group left the room. Vijay sighed in relief. He was now alone. With nothing else to do, he looked all around him. Huge lights covered the ceiling. Cables ran everywhere. Hearing a commotion at the door he turned to look. Another group came rushing in. A man with shoulder length hair was in the center of this group. As he came near, Vijay noticed he had an earring in one ear.
“Oh my gawd, what do we have here?” the man had a high-pitched voice. His gestures were feminine and he began touching Vijay’s hair and face. With his eyes screwed shut he ran his soft hands over Vijay's face. Vijay fidgeted self-consciously as the notepad girls giggled.
“Oh gawd, he is a total wreck. Don’t worry dear, I will set you right,” falsetto said. He caught hold of Vijay by the hand and led him out. They went to a makeup room. Vijay's hair was shampooed, his beard and moustache shaved. He was given a new set of clothes. When the group finished with him, Vijay could hardly recognize himself in the mirror.
“Purfect!,” falsetto said and kissed Vijay on both the cheeks. The girls standing behind them giggling as Vijay blushed.
“Take him to the director.” Falsetto said. "He is perfect for the role now".
The director liked what he saw. Vijay minus his moustache, beard and with his lean figure was what he wanted for the show. The shooting of the episode was to start the next day. Since he was jobless and almost homeless, the studio provided him a house to stay for the day. He had a cook and a chauffeur driven car.
“The plot is very simple, Mr. Vijay. We will take you to the edge of a forest. The house is in this forest. We leave you at a spot about three kilometers from the place. You will have enough food to last you a day. A change of clothes, water, reading material, everything will be in your backpack. Once you get out of the car, you will walk to this house and stay there through the night. The next morning you can return after the sun rises. There are hidden cameras all around which will record if you try to leave the house or the jungle. Next day, once we have checked the video tapes and are sure you have spent the night there, we will transfer the prize money directly to your account. That is all,” said the director.
“This house….. Is it really haunted?” asked Vijay.
The director smiled. “You will get to know the details at the last-minute.”
The next day, Vijay woke up early and had a heavy breakfast. His mind was elsewhere. He was thinking of what he would do with the one hundred thousand when it hit his bank account. Around lunch time Falsetto came in along with his entourage of giggling girls. They brought some new clothes for Vijay, applied a coat of paint to his face and gelled in hair in place. After looking at him from different angles, Falsetto declared him ready to face the cameras.
There was a jeep with a camera driving in front and one in back. All the cameras focused on him and started rolling. They reached the destination after a two-hour drive over long winding roads covered in trees. Vijay felt sleepy but could not sleep as the camera crews wanted shots of him from all angles.
“Let's put an expression of anticipation on your face,” the director said. Vijay tried his best.
“I said anticipation not constipation!” the director shouted back.
; Vijay tried another expression.
“Never mind, just look straight ahead!”
As motorcade stopped, the camera, light, and sound crews jumped out and took positions. The host of the program a chirpy girl in a tight T-shirt adjusted her hair, took the microphone in hand, and started the shoot.
“They say this forest has seen horrors beyond imagination. Ten members of a family death a horrible death here. The house where this family stayed is a few kilometers down this road. This incident happened ten years back but even today, no one travels down this road at night. Is all this fact or fiction? We will find out all about it. And finding it for us in our contestant, Mr. Vijay Kumar Chouhan, who will be doing this all alone…” she went on describing how motion detection cameras placed at strategic spots would capture Vijay and he spent his night.
“Well, Vijay how do you feel?” the host asked.
Vijay was having a tough time controlling himself from sneaking a look down the cut of her t-shirt neck. He managed a smile and replied, “I am ok.”
“ Are you scared?”
“ No.”
“ How does it feel that now you know that a family of 10 people was brutally murdered in the house, where you are going to spend a night?”
Vijay shrugged and smiled.
“Do you want to reconsider your decision at this point? You can back out of the challenge even now, Mr. Vijay.”
“ I am ok.”
Not finding Vijay very responsive, the director asked one of his assistant to hand Vijay the backpack with the