Spooky stories in a spooky atmosphere

It was a cold winter night, foggy and cold. I was traveling with my joint family (not too joint, only 12 members) on the Kalka mail on our way to Shimla-Manali. The atmosphere outside the windows was perfect for spooky story sessions and to enhance the feeling a bit, all lights of our 3rd AC coupe were switched off. Everyone huddled together, and I began my story—The Old Lady in the Tumbledown Mansion (https://storymirror.com/read/english/story/the-old-lady-in-the-tumbledown-mansion/rh5ouszg) which everyone appreciated but I failed to send a shiver down their spines. 

As I sat thinking of a possible plot for a spookier story, one of my uncles began a story. He did not state the name of the story nor its author, instead getting straight to the point. It was about an urban legend. On a particular highway in the midst of a dense forest, there was a car sometimes that would speed past other cars traveling down the path at night. The car was unlike any other—larger than the average SUV, painted in black and the headlights were red. No one really bothered about it and let it pass by if not for a few college-going 'ghost hunters' who took their car to that stretch of the highway on a no-moon's night and waited for the speeding car with red lights. Once they saw it passing by them, they quickly revved up the engine and followed that car. They followed it for miles, even when it turned into a forest path and disappeared into the dark eerie forest. The next day, their bodies were discovered miles away from the forest and miles away from each other. How they got there or what was the cause of their sudden death is unknown but nobody dared to travel down that highway in the night ever again. 

This story was quite spine-chilling. So was the next one, narrated by my father. It is known as the Monkey's Paw by Willian Wymark Jacobs. It revolves around a family—Mr. White, Mrs. White, and their mischievous son Herbert—and a talisman known as the monkey's paw. It teaches that 'those who interfered with fate did so to their sorrow'. I highly recommend that you read it, it is a great story.

Then my father and both uncles (who all used to work at the same office in Bantala which lies between Kolkata and Sundarbans and is in the rural area) narrated the incidence of an unexplainable white cloth. Starting with my uncle's account: 'It was just nearing 22:00 hours and I saw a strange white object in front of a gigantic banyan tree which hangs over the highway from Bantala to EM Bypass after turning a corner amidst the darkness as my headlights pierced it out. The object seemed like a white sari fluttering in the wind. The unexplainable phenomena disappeared when the car crossed the tree but I can swear that I could see a white sari-like object just behind me in the rear-view mirror and it was following me.' What is surprising is that this unexplainable phenomenon was seen in the same conditions by the others too. My father, who is a bit sensitive and careful about driving and even more so when it comes to disturbances during this action, would probably have stopped in front of that unnatural fluttering object if not for one of their colleagues (Debaghna Uncle who was accompanying him) who urged him to go on without stopping. 

My other uncle’s account was stranger since he stopped as well as disembarked from his vehicle, at which he felt a strong gush of wind on his face. He immediately re-embarked and quickly escaped from the area with the thing following him too. Later looking upon old calendars for the dates of these incidences, I noticed that these three days (along with another one mentioned by my father because he had two such experiences) were all Amavasyas—No moon nights. A logical explanation would have been that there was something white fluttering in the wind that was put there by villagers to confuse people or something but apparently there are no villages at the reported spot for a three-kilometer radius. The paranormal explanation of such an apparition could have been that it was something which is only seen at night on Amavasyas in that very spot, possibly a villager who had got killed by getting run over by a car on a no moon night and he/she haunts the road searching for the culprit. What is not supernatural but still haunts the road are snakes. Thankfully, this office branch in the midst of snakes, tigers (there had been an incident long before) and supernaturals has closed and the employees have been relocated to New Town.

These being over and the shivering being commenced (mostly because of the cold damp winds of the night entering through the open door of the coach) I commenced the story whose plot I had thought of just then—The Ghost Train of '55 (https://storymirror.com/read/english/story/the-ghost-train-of-55/d64d14po) and that sent the shivers going on again. (This time not positively because of the cold as I myself had shut the door but because of my story) 

Overall, it was quite an interesting experience—all of us huddled together that cold damp winter's eve and with monkey's paw and white cloths going about. I do not really believe in the supernatural but neither can I deny its presence.