A Religious Tree

“Oh God! what happened to her, is she okay? I think today she is mentally not present here”, said Sneha to her childhood friend Varuna, they have been together since a long time.

Sneha was not coming to school for the last 10-15 days. That day while going to school as she encountered something suspicious in the school and Varuna, was also acting a bit strange that day. Sneha thought except her doings, everything happening around her was something different from every day because she and Varuna had the power of telepathy by which they can know what the other one is thinking, but that day this didn’t work out, quite shocking huh! Sneha wasn’t able to read Varun’s mind for the first time, then she had some doubts, at that point she got suspicious about the student present in the whole school. She went back home earlier, but quite surprising, her mother was
acting normal. 

Then after some time, she didn’t have any thought about what happened
back in the school, that night before sleeping her mother told a tale about the school in which she studies; “long time ago the place where the school is located now there was an old tree which was auspicious for villagers but no one knew that, on the tree a family was living who looked a bit different from others, one night a villager saw the family singing and dancing, celebrating their festival, suddenly he saw them and got frightened, and burnt that old tree with that family. The next morning that villager disappeared and that family was also not seen again, but the tree was still there. 

With the time, people change their lifestyle, that tree also got chopped down and used for building the school in which she was studying, the day on which the man disappeared and the family was not seen, is today. It is also said that every year on this day the family comes and celebrates their festival for about three days and then goes, because of which unpredictable situations occur.” 

“Sneha don’t roam in the school alone, just walk with your group”, her mother said. Thinking about this she had a sleepless night. The school was not that far from her house; while going to the school she encountered an unknown person wearing a mask, but she didn’t notice him. In the classroom, suddenly she noticed a common mark on everyone’s neck but with different
patterns, a mysterious sign which was not recognisable. But she didn’t have that mark, she was in confusion! Her best friend wasn’t listening to her, not only her but the whole class After wandering about the whole school, she noticed that teachers also had those marks on their neck with the matching patterns on the students. 

She decided to stay in the school to search for this matter. She was a bit nervous, scared but excited also to solve this mystery. In the night, the school teachers with their common patterned students were going in different rooms, Sneha didn’t recognise those rooms as those rooms were only visible at night. She turned and a vase fall off, a teacher saw and walked towards her, unexpectedly that same person whom she saw on the way to the school helped her to hide at a safe place, she checked his neck he also didn’t have that sign so they both decided to look into this situation together.

That man lived nearby so Sneha also went with him. He took good care of her. Another day, when she woke up that man was not there but a glass of water was in the air because of which she goes scared and after sometime she understood that, the man is not visible in day time but they can hear each other so she thought of following the plan in the night. That night, initially they roamed the whole school to know the situation, after a while they remembered, the secret rooms are seen from a specific period of time, within that they I need to solve this mystery. This was the second night.

They both followed one of the teachers, and found the leader, who was not an unknown but a known person, Sneha’s childhood friend, Varuna! She got shocked after seeing this and stepped back from doing this, but that man encouraged her, if she wants to protect everyone then she needs to fight back. The soul of the ghost was actually that family which was controlling Varuna. At some point it came into its original form, the way Sneha thought it to be, it was way beyond her expectations. The man had some sort of weapons which was used against that creature, the people called that creature Dawn Jester (the eternal spirit of the family). Dawn Jester had a weak point on his body which could not be recognised by anyone. 

He tried to slab it but the night got finished up, woosh! both got
disappeared. The man became invisible and the creature came back to the human form who was Varuna. This night was the last to destroy this creature forever or else they will have to wait for another year which was a challenging task for that man. Sneha was waiting for that man to go to the school together with him. When he arrived, he had all the weapons with him which were magical, Sneha didn’t know about this! Varuna wasn’t able to control herself and turned into Dawn Jester. Sneha and that man attacked the creature from different directions, suddenly Sneha fell into one of the secret rooms.

There was a wall on which it was written about Dawn Jester in ancient
language, Surprisingly, she was able to read it! She got to the bottom of it and noticed the weakness. She had that weapon from which this creature could be put to an end. That man was searching for her everywhere, when he found her, she told him everything. They together took the weapon and destroyed Dawn Jester; it became a pure soul. The curse of that man also got finished up and Sneha was able to see him in the daylight.

That man also needs to leave this world but Sneha was unaware of it. At
the end of the day, she quietly entered that man’s house and saw his face, she was a bit shocked but that man didn’t want to reveal his face to anyone. She unexpectedly knew! that the man is not a normal human but a magical man, she also knew that he erased her memories from her mind about him. But she didn’t stop him from doing this. That man putting his hand on her head, removed all the memories about him from her mind. And he vanished in the air.

Sneha remembered about the creature but not him. From the next morning everything was back to normal, Sneha was thinking about what is she missing while remembering about those creepy nights? But actually, that man was no one, but belonged to that creature’s family which was needed to be destroyed so that he could reborn to be in a human form. Every year he tried to demolish that creature but always failed. This year with the help of Sneha his task got accomplished. He will never forget her.

By: Kairavi Gupta

Class X

Apeejay International School, Greater Noida