The unexpected knock

The plans for the weekend were lit. I and my friends would be reunited after ages, and would spend the next two days living alone, in a friend’s old ancestral home in a different town. While I would only need to short train ride to reach to our destination, my friends were all flying out of different parts of the country for this reunion. I was ecstatic.

I reached our destination early, collected the keys from the allocated caretaker (a woman who I had been advised to be careful of. She was known to be cruel), and took over the two-storey, majestic, ‘medieval’ empty home. I went and prepped the house, (which was surprisingly clean, and well kept, almost as if someone would regularly live here), so that it was ready for my exhausted, jet-lagged friends. The day was cloudy, foggy and misty, and a storm could be seen brewing overhead. I had an inkling at the back of my mind that their flights may get delayed, but I pushed that thought away.

Unfortunately the inkling had indeed been right and I received the news that the flights were delayed indefinitely (until the weather was deemed to be clear). This put our plans in Jeopardy. I waited patiently, finding solace in my thriller mystery book, and whiled away the time. It didn’t strike to me that there would be a possibility that my friends flight would not land that night, and when I was informed by my apologetic friends that they wouldn’t be here till the early hours of tomorrow morning, I was taken aback. 

Not only had our day’s plan vaporized, but now I had to spend a night alone in a two-storey, un-burglar-proof, fragile house, in a weird, little, unknown-to-me town. Now, I know, you ‘expect’ a 17-year to be responsible and adjusting enough to be able to overcome such a trivial obstacle, but I was mortified. I had never been the adventurous kind, and was described to be ‘a person with a weak heart’. I didn’t want to do this, but i would have to. Welcome to the real world, Vritti. Wow.

I satisfied my now-gone appetite with an apple and a cup of yogurt. I kept away my ‘thriller’ novel (I wasn’t going to read about serial killers at night, when I was the perfect target for one.), and took out a light-hearted rom-com storybook, and snuggled into my blanket. It was 10 pm. My friends would, hopefully, be here by 4 am. I just needed to be brave, and stick it out, for 6 hours. Yes, I could do that.  I would do that.

I was super engrossed in my novel, and time seemed to fly by. It was a little past 3 am, when I finally put down my novel, and was about to doze off. But, then I heard a knock. Or at least a thud. It was kind of far-off, and I was sleepy, so I lay in my bed trying to convince my brain that I had made that sound up. It was quiet for a while, and everything should have been fine. I didn’t let paranoia get the better of me. Yay!

Well, I soon heard another unexpected thud, and then another. And then I could hear faint but rapid knocks, continuously for a minute. I definitely had not dreamt that up. I was scared out of mind.

I made my way to the front door, but there was no one there. However, I could still hear the knocks; and it seemed even further than before. This was strange, and I was scared out of my wits. I could do nothing but clutch my phone and make my way around the home trying to make out the source of the sound. Surprisingly, the sound seemed to be loudest in the room I was sleeping in. Yikes.

I, frantically, called my friends and shouting at them to hurry up, while simultaneously trying to send my panic over by osmosis or something. I needed help. I made my way around the whole room, and pinpointed the source of ruckus to be a supposedly empty cupboard.

This was my worst nightmare. I had always feared that I would be stuck in such a situation, and get freaked out of my mind, but, I guess, my instincts kicked in, and I took the most rational decisions I had taken in any ‘life-death’ situation before. I pushed a couch toward the cupboard, and jammed its door. And then, I vacated the room, locked it, and went downstairs. I called up the cops, but the lines were all busy! I was evacuating the house and just leaving the front porch, when I heard a car pull up.

Ah! They were my friends! Finally! I loudly beckoned them over, and forgetting all about their long journey and lethargic-ness, filled them in with the latest developments. And then we strategized a plan. The cupboard should not have been able to hold more than a person, a small person to top it, and we hoped that it was a small teenager pulling a prank, a prank he would be sorry for.  The four of us decided to tackle it. The friend, whose family owned the house, got around to the neighbours ‘houses and asked for help. Soon, a party of 15 people gathered, and by consensus we decided to explore the room, while a couple of us were to race to the police station for the necessary back-up. 

I couldn’t let this juvenile knocker get the better of me. I unlocked the cupboard, and pushed it open. It was empty! Oh boy! I must have indeed dreamt the noises. Now, I made a fool of myself in front of everyone.

But, the noises seemed to be even louder than before. I heard an un-expectantly loud rapt, followed by a cough, and sensed the back of the cupboard shake. Shake pretty shakily. We all shared a look of apprehension, and couldn’t figure out our next move. We just stood there, exchanging glances, for 15 seconds, when a friend pointed at a latch at the back of the cupboard.  There should be a cavity at the back of the cupboard. It must have a false back. I was excited now, the mystery-book nerd in me awakened, and I could feel the adrenaline rush through my veins. I could literally sense a person behind the piece of wood.

Right at this moment, the police burst into the scene, and we hushing-ly diverted their attention to the offending latch. We didn’t need to explain any further, they sprang into action and took control. We were side lined, and were told to form a ‘quiet safety ring’ in the far corner, and instructed to not interfere with ‘a possible confrontation’. We were told to ‘brace’ and be ready to ‘run’ if told to do so, and then they proceeded to gather around the cupboard. The latch seemed to be faulty, and the police decided to break the back. They asked the ‘person’ behind the false back to stand aback, and informed them that ‘their game was up’. On the count of three, they burst open the false back, and were caught off-guard.

We had expected a semi-dangerous youngster to be in the cavity, but we found an old miserable ninety-some year old woman there, struggling to breathe, wrapped in a thin blanket. The sight was sad. She couldn’t breathe, and instead of calling a police car, an ambulance was swiftly called over. Even the assuring police commissioner later confessed that the situation had been ‘strange’.

It was later found that she had wandered into the empty house, one day, to avoid the cold, and had anticipated to not be disturbed here, and made it her home. Even though she knew it was illegal, this seemed to be her only mode of survival. She had not expected us to show up and had, swiftly, gone into ‘hiding’ behind the cupboard, when I showed up. Unfortunately, the hidey-hole was poorly ventilated, and she felt claustrophobic and couldn’t breathe in the small cavity. She had been forced to reveal herself, and had prepared to come out of the cavity, but she couldn’t appear to push open the false back from behind. The latch had jammed on her. God! It was a sight of pity. Fortunately, her injury was not life-threatening, and she soon got better. 

Well, it a bit cliché or all stories to have a ‘happy ending’, but this story does have one. The police took pity on the old woman, and seeing our friend’s family reluctant to press charges, they dismissed the matter. They did conduct a background check on the woman, and found out that she had a clear record, and had been abandoned by her family. Our friend’s family had been looking for a person to take care of their house, and let her continue living there. And I got the perfect story for my blog!