38. Ghost Prank

Aryaman and Maitri joined the crew after a few minutes to find Vihaan and Nidhi arguing loudly.

"Zubaan hai ya kenchi, kat kat kat chalti hai" Vihaan did the action of scissors making Nidhi angry. Aviraj and Aarchi sat there ignoring both of them. Divya and Manav came and sat beside them ignoring Nidhi and Vihaan.

"Aur baki, chumma chati karli?" Aviraj leaned to Divya's side and asked teasingly.

"Chii what is this language? Who says it chumma chati?" Divya looked at him with scrunched nose.

"Should I tell your chava who taught me this B category ki C class language?" Divya glared at him.

"You don't love your life?" She asked extra sweet smile. He rolled his eyes and looked at Vihaan and Aarchi to finish.

"Enoughh" Yukti said entering with Raj, hand in hand. Both of them looked at her and pointed at each other.

"He/She started it"

"Whoever started it now stop" Yukti said sternly and both of them sat.

"What do we do?" Raj asked as they sat down.

"Sleep" Divya and Aarchi looked at each other and shouted together. Manav and Vihaan slapped their foreheads 'amused' at their choices.

"I agree on that. Am so tired today." Nidhi yawned and placed her head on Aviraj's shoulder.

"Same pinch. Good night" Maitri said and leaned onto Aryaman's shoulder.

"If everyone is sleepy then we meet tomorrow morning" Vihaan said holding Aarchi closer.

"Cool. You three sleep in one room, girls will sleep in one room, me and Mayu in one and Raj and Yukti in the other" Aryaman said carrying Maitri in his arms who gasped in surprise and hid her face behind her hair out of shyness.

"Okiess" Manav said and kissed Divya a good night and stood up to sleep. Everyone dissipated to their allocated rooms and immediately fell asleep.

Maitri woke up at around 1a.m as per the plan that was made and slowly walked out of the room. She saw Aryaman move in sleep and immediately duck down hiding herself. She removed her shoes and held her shoes in her hands and tiptoed to the kitchen where the gang was already there.

"Wassup ladies?" Maitri hushed happily.

"You are late Miss" Divya said pointing her finger at her wrist.

"Its Mrs first of all and secondly, my Mr. sleeps hugging me so its hard to get out of his tight hold on me" Maitri placed her slippers on the floor and wore them. All the cutting of vegetables was done.

"Am so hungry" She entered and sat on the kitchen slab as the rest added the vegetables to a pot and brought it to a boil. Aarchi slid the door to the kitchen close and played party music. She pulled Maitri down and all the ladies danced as they cooked Maggi. Maitri quickly served the maggi in bowls and passed it to everyone.

"Wait don't eat" She stopped them and removed a Balaji Masala Masti packet from the storeroom. She crushed the crisps and sprinkled on everyone's bowls as they looked at her unsurely except Divya.

"It tastes amazing, trust me and eat" Divya took the responsibility and asked everyone to eat. They rolled Maggi on the fork and were to do cheers with it when they heard the sound of Ghunghroo. They stopped for a few seconds to confirm if they heard it right or not. When the sound didn't repeat, they assumed that it was just a thing they were hearing due to a long day.

"Eat and tell how it tastes" Maitri closed her eyes and moaned and the spicy and sour taste of the maggi mixed with the crunchiness of the crisps. All of a sudden they heard loud steps of someone climbing and descending the stairs.

"I think one of our men is awake" Nidhi said hearing the sound. Maitri and Yukti agreed while Divya and Aarchi looked at each other and scooted closer.

"Will we have to share with them?" Yukti asked looking at the bowl with alot of love.

"Am not sharing" Maitri said in a final tone leaving no room for argument. Suddenly the kitchen lights started flickering and the kitchen windows opened and closed loudly.

"Hey look this is how the horror movies start" Maitri whispered in Divya and Aarchi's ears as they both went and hid under the breakfast counter screaming for help. Hearing Maitri's words they screamed even more loudly.

"Guys chill. The weather outside looks bad so maybe because of that there's a problem with power. As for the windows, here I'll close them" Nidhi shook her head and walked to close the windows. She closed the properly and walked back when the windows opened with a force and Nidhi and Yukti were now a little afraid.

"Okay it is definitely one of our men doing it. Chill guys it's not that deep"  Maitri pulled all the girls out and took them to the power area and saw one wire was out of place. She placed it back using a rolling pin and the lights in the room stopped flickering.

"You guys need to relax. Ghosts aren't real" She said hugging both Aarchi and Divya.

"Don't say that bhabhi. One day if the ghosts feel bad that you aren't acknowledging their presence they will get mad at you" Aarchi said complainingly.

"I'll tell them I've watched thousands of horror movies and horror serials, nothing can touch me now" Maitri said walking back to the kitchen and took all the maggi bowls and they sat in the living room.

"Let's watch a horror movie, this was I'll even show you how ghosts aren't real" Maitri sat down with many crisps packets and other snacks along with her maggi.Despite Aarchi and Divya's refusal all of them sat to watch movie.

____

FEW MOMENTS LATER

"Arey she's going out alone, she's definetely going to die. Bas hogaya she's going to get possessed" Divya said as if she solved a Quantum physics question.

"Ssh" Maitri glared at her and asked her to remain silent. Aarchi wrung her arm in hers telling her she supported it. All of them watched the movie with keen interest with Divya's commentary in between. It was her defence mechanism against horror movies.

"Why the hell would you want to go camping alone that too in the middle of the night, idiot" Divya peeked from behind her fingers and complained.

"Such a boring movie it was. There's no link of what's happening what's going on, bas just added some jump-scare scenes" Nidhi complained finishing the crisps packet and searching for another movie to watch.

"Li...." Maitri was replying to her when she felt something pass behind her. She turned around to check whether it was her illusion or there was someone. Seeing no one behind she turned ahead confused.

"What happened?" Yukti asked licking the fork clean.

"I felt as if someone passed behind us" She said rechecking it again.

"There's no one" All of them looked behind to check but there was no one. Shaking their head they turned to watch another movie when they saw a shadow at the staircases.

"Yes?" Yukti asked feeling it was one of the men. The windows behind them opened pulling their attention from the shadow to the windows. When they looked back at the staircase the shadow was gone. Yukti's phone started ringing and she showed them it was from an unknown number.

"Hello?" She placed the phone on speaker and greeted.

A loud screaming voice followed by a gruff voice saying something was heard.

"Hein? Bhai vicks ki goli lo khich khich door karo pehle" Maitri said singing the main part. There was again some thing said which they didn't understand.

"Look bro its not that hard to clear your throat. We have a doctor with us she'll give you a prescription" Maitri said and held the phone closer to Nidhi.

"Behen zaraa prescription bolde bechare slash bechari ko" Maitri looked at Nidhi who was ready to say the medicines they should have when they felt something run behind them. Yukti cut the call and looked at them.

"Did you feel that?" She asked them and they all nodded. Aarchi and Divya covered themselves head to toe under a blanket and started reciting Hanuman Chalisa loudly.

"What's the max that can happen, we will get scared bas" Nidhi said trying to keep up the team's morale. They heard the noises of ghoongros as if someone is dancing. All three of them stood up and walked to the window to check where they saw a woman draped in red saree was going round in circles.

"Is any of the staff possessed?" Maitri asked trying to see who was dancing in the middle of the night.

"Could be. I've heard in such places there are generally ghosts of the previous King and Queens. One of our palaces also has one" Nidhi said turning around to look at Divya and Aarchi singing loudly from under the blanket.

"Is it a pet that you guys have? Baat kar rahe ho aap" Maitri looked at her sarcastically and Nidhi shrugged her shoulders saying that they really had one.

"Hai sachi mein" Nidhi said convincing her.

"In mohatarma ka kya karna hai?" Maitri asked looking at the woman dancing.

"Go do NOTON KI BAARISH" Yukti suggested and both of them liked the idea and went outside to find the woman missing.

"Sad for her, she missed our exclusive show for her" Nidhi said with fake remorse.

"What do we do now?" Maitri asked bored.

"Explore. Garden chale? I heard this palace has the most beautiful garden" Nidhi said happily.

"That's how the girls in the movies die when they suggest such stupid ideas" Yukti said to Nidhi shutting her up.

"If you think about it the girl who thinks she's the best dies first, isn't that like a thing the ghost is doing in your favour" Maitri said after a deep thought and the girls agreed to it.

"Let's go back" Yukti said after a while. They tried opening the door but it didn't open.

"Bahar se andar koi na ja sake, socho kabhi aise ho toh kya ho. Hum tum ek kamre mein bandh ho aur chabi kho jaye" Nidhi sang finding the door locked.

"Yeh haseen vaadiyan yeh khula asmaan aagaye hum kaha aye mere sajna" An unknown voice sang the song now scaring all the three ladies. They looked at each other to confirm if they were the ones singing but seeing them silent they turned around slowly to find the woman dancing.

"Naino mein sapna, sapno mein sajna, sajna pe dil aagya kyun sajna pe dil aagaya" Maitri sang without being scared and vibed to the song.

"Ye dil tum bin kahi lagda nahi hum kya kare" They heard the lady sing or more like aggressively speak the lyrics to them.

"Its a song didi, feel it and sing. Why be so passive aggressive about it?" Maitri asked taking a step towards the woman.

"What say guys?" She turned around to look at the other two to find them missing.

"OHKAAYYY!" She gulped down her saliva and very smoothly sat down on the ground.

"Raina biti jayey

Sham naa aaye

Raina biti jaye" Maitri continued the antakshri with the woman and laid down her head on the ground with her eyes closed.

"Yeh galiyan yeh chaubaran, yaha aana na doobara" She felt the voice approaching her and she closed her eyes tightly pretending to be asleep.

"Rangisaari gulaabi chunaariya re, mohe maare najariya sawaariya re" She sang and coccooned herself feeling the presence of someone else's body.

"RESHMAAAA!!!! Tere chehre mein woh jaadoo hai" She felt the ghost's fingers on her cheek but Maitri being Maitri sat upright and opened her eyes.

"Reshma isn't a part of the song. You need to sing something else" She said complainingly.

"She's not going to get scared guys" Aryaman looked behind her at the boys gang who looked at them in defeat.

Maitri pushed the hair away to see Aryaman's face recognizing his normal voice.

"Its you" She hugged him tightly laughing at her idiotness. Aryaman hugged her back and pulled her up.

"Maan gaye bhabhi ji aapko. You played antakshri with ghosts. We did everything to get you scared but you didn't get scared" Aviraj said saluting her. Nidhi and the other girls came behind them extremely scared.

"What happened?" Maitri asked seeing them scared.

"Ohh nothing we just did a prank on them" Vihaan said hugging Aarchi who hit him on his stomach and pushed him away.

"Ohh" She smiled at them and shook her head.

"What was that you did in the middle? Slept in an open ground?" Manav asked.

"That was me being clever. If the ghost was real and thought that i was asleep then I am going to be of no use to them" She explained happily.

"But whatever you say the vicks ki goli wins it all" Raj said laughing hardly.

"I know it works on everyone who tries to prank me" She said flipping her hair proudly.

"Leave it guys, she has Aahat and Fear files as her default system. She won't be scared" Aryaman said and pulled her closer.

"True" Divya agreed to Aryaman's words while Maitri showed him her biggest smile. Aryaman bent his head slightly and pecked her lips.

The gang spent the rest of the night watching an action movie and ended up sleeping on the sofas and floors.