“But mom, we’ve not been outside the courtyard of this house the whole summer,” I told mom, in a whining voice. It was the end of our vacations, and we had not gone anywhere during the whole summer. I finally convinced mom to let us have a picnic somewhere. So we planned to go that evening, with some friends and neighbours. We started in the evening, a bunch of 16, bags packed, all huddled in a bus. The spot where the picnic was going to be held was not decided, so we drove aimlessly, searching for the perfect spot to have a picnic. The sky was getting darker and gloomier, and the temperature was getting colder by the time. The coldness forced us to wrap ourselves with our shawls. It froze our bones. We were enjoying the journey when suddenly our bus stopped, with a shake. We asked the driver what had happened, who told us that there was a problem with the gas, and that it would take him forty-five minutes to fix it. We were stranded in a road, with nowhere for shelter. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, a man appeared. He looked more like a monkey than a man, with a shawl, monkey-cap, and ragged sandals. He told us that his name was Chihuahua Neogi, and that he lived with his mother Shashika in a house nearby. Chihuahua took us to his house. It was an old house, with broken windows, no fire, only four rooms, and which seemed to have been crushed twice by a bulldozer. We went inside, nervous. There was an only lamp to light the hole house. We went to the four rooms, and Chihuahua slept with his mother in the kitchen. We all had our dinner, a delicious feast, of Tandoori Chicken and mouldy bread baked by Shashika, 3 days ago. Then we all slipped under our sleeping bags. 

         At night, I was awaken by the sound of mantras, or religious prayer, and the voice of the reader turned out to be Chihuahua’s. I pursued the voice and went inside a room, which didn’t seem to be a part of the house, and where I found Chihuahua sitting on a table, reading mantras. I felt frightened, and went back to sleep. After midnight, I found my leg being bitten by something. At first I thought it was a fly or a mosquito. But then it felt icky. Something solid, gooey. Then some sudden cold air hit my foot. I realized that the bottom part of my sleeping bag was torn. Then I sat up and saw a creature. It was licking my foot. As soon as the creature saw me, it leapt at me. It tried to bite my face, while I was holding it down. It was uttering my name “Ben”….”Ben.” Somehow I pushed it aside and stood up. I discovered that some of my fingers were already bitten. I ran, to the other rooms to wake up my friends. But then I had the most dreadful view of my life. Some of my friends were already lying on the sofa, their throats apart. Some of my friends were still alive. We all held the creature and tied it with a rope. We returned to the car and saw that the bus-driver was missing. Somehow we escaped from there, with our bitten fingers.

                                “Wake up!..wake up!”, brother woke me up. “We’re supposed to have a picnic today..right?” I realized that I fell asleep while packing my bag. It was a nightmare. A nightmare i’d never want to go into…again…..NEVER!!!!