There are some kids horror stories out there that never ever make it to fruition. They end up becoming unexplained acts. They mould into mere horror stories, just because people chose not to investigate. Primarily, because there was nobody bold enough to find out, or intelligent enough to unveil their curtain of reasoning. I feel sorry for such folklores. They become scary owing to outright negligence and stark cowardice shown by trembling bones. This one right here comes straight from the bag of kids horror stories which deal with the unaccounted. It had caught a village by surprise.
KIDS HORROR STORIES: THE STORY
A farmer’s family was blessed with a beautiful baby boy who had chimed in at a time when the farmer was really looking for a reason to hold onto. Loud wails of the newborn lit up the skies and he was all they could think of. Showering unconditional love at the child, their time became much more delectable. The child quickly became everybody’s favourite. Those who visited the farmer they would stay hours just for the baby. His laughter was enough to melt their hearts.
The shocker came one night when Lata, the mother of the child woke up to an awful quiet. She had just realized that the baby wasn’t making any noise like he used to every night. To check on him she put her hand against him but it hit her bed. The baby was gone. Scared she looked in the room first, then at everyone. To her surprise nobody was missing. She woke everyone up. Soon the neighbours were wide awake by the commotion too. It spread like fire, and now the whole village knew about it. Questions followed and Lata’s desperation oozed out in her incessant sobs. So the wild hunt began.
People had no idea where to look, but they scavenged anyway. Searchlights flared up, and nearby houses were trudged, but the baby was nowhere to be found.
“How could a toddler like that toddle away on its own. That’s not possible. Somebody might have taken him away.”
So every house was searched, no stones were left unturned. Yet the baby didn’t show up.
THE DRIED OUT WELL
A man went looking at the nearby field where a dried out well stood. As he neared it, he heard a child cry. Surprised he went straight up to take a look. In that dim flicker of his torch, he noticed a silhouette of a baby inside the well, crying with all his might. Amidst the savage exasperation he called for everybody. Somebody headed down with the help of a rope to fetch the baby back. When he was brought back they found that the newborn was intact. Nothing had harmed him.
A lot of questions went up in the air, but nothing came out. Soon everything went back to normal again. It wasn’t a few days until it happened again. The baby disappeared yet again. As if their lives had been struck by a surreal kind of déjà vu, people went looking once again, only to find him lurking in the well again.
“How did he get there? Is there a ghost who levitates him?”
Half of the people were instantly convinced that an unexplained act like that could be a ghost affair only. Then one fine night, Lata’s familiar screams broke the tranquility of night again. It had been happening constantly. The baby was found in the well yet again.
The rest of the crowd was convinced there was a ghost who took the child to the well. They called for a priest to do an exorcism, and then it all stopped after that. But the story didn’t.
THE FINAL GAVEL
The weird thing about the horror story is how when the child kept disappearing nobody decided to keep a watch to check who the perpetrator was or what was that taking the child to the well. May be if someone had taken a step to watch over, killing a few night’s sleep, we might have gone to the bottom of it. Probably it wouldn’t have become just like other kids horror stories then.