The Haunted House

All of us sat in a circle and were in deep thoughts. We were looking for a perfect open space where we could have our game of cricket. The playground was pre-occupied by the seniors who were having their football matches. We couldn't play in our compound as we already had a record of smashing our neighbour, Mr Kumar's windows with our hits! Just then, Aditya remembered Mr Douglas' house as it had a large garden.

Mr Douglas was a retired army officer who had shifted to Florida in the United States with his only daughter, Amanda. It had been a decade since he left India and his house was filled with cobwebs, dust and slush. The patches of algae gave the walls, which were once bright white, an ugly dull green coating. Rumour had spread around town that his house was haunted. A week ago, a traveller passing by his house had heard mysterious sounds. The night was cold and the frightening sounds gave him the shivers that he ran as fast as he could.

The district collector's secretary lived nearby. One evening, while returning home from the collectorate, he saw a bright light from one of the windows of Mr Douglas' house. He stopped his bike and looked more closely only to find a white body with a frightening face and flaring red eyes. He got so scared that he lost balance and fell off his bike. A few passers-by helped him get back home. He fell ill with a fever for a week. A news reporter who bravely went in to report on this 'Haunted House' never returned back. This had frightened the people as well as the policemen who started believing in ghosts.

These incidents terrified the common commuters who avoided that road for travel. But the boys of the local cricket club were brave and they were not worried as they were only playing in the garden and not entering the house. It was a tough match between the local cricket club, Chennai Champions led by Aditya and Madras Marvels led by Raghu.

The Champions won the toss and elected to field. In the initial overs, Marvels' opening batsmen scored huge runs but Siddharth got the crucial wickets for our Chennai Champions. The match was really interesting and finally, it was the last ball! The Marvels made 120 runs in 19.5 overs with 5 wickets. Prasanth was a fast bowler and he bowled his best ball at the captain of the Marvels, Raghu Swaminathan. Raghu's eyes were at the ball. He swung his bat and the ball flew in the air and smash! A large glass window of the house was shattered to pieces and the ball went inside. The ball was a new one and it was a shiny red cricket ball. The ball belonged to Prasanth. Aditya's team protested that Raghu should go in and get it. But Raghu's team disagreed. They claimed that Prasanth threw a strong ball and it was not Raghu's fault.

A loud sound interrupted the discussion among the teams. It was a scary and frightening voice. The noise of the shattering of the glass window had triggered the ghosts! They busted out of the door and came out in the garden to scare away the trespassers. They were bright white in colour and their light illuminated the grass around them. The eyes were blood red and deadly! They were floating in the air and laughing loudly on seeing our players shiver with fear.

Prasanth was a witty boy. He saw that the ghosts had left the door open and were distracted in scaring his teammates. So, he hatched up a simple and good plan to bring back his cricket ball. Slowly but carefully, he walked towards Aditya and dragged him along. The ghosts didn't notice their movement. Prasanth then told Aditya about his intention to get back the ball and Aditya joined him.

They entered the house and strong wind hit the doors and windows. The creaking sound of the doors distracted the ghosts. The moment they turned around to have a look at the house, Raghu and the other players made their way out through the gate. They ran as fast as they could, looking back every minute to ensure that the ghosts weren't chasing them. The ghosts just wanted them out and had no intention of following them.

Aditya and Prasanth hid behind the door as the ghosts returned back to the house. Just then, Aditya noticed something in the ghosts. They had a black band with propellers at four corners on their heads. He then remembered his big brother, a student of Engineering, using such a component in his projects. He remembered; it was a 'drone' that could fly in the air with its propellers. He then wondered if the ghosts were real or if they were invented to scare others. He went inside along with Prasanth. They saw a few computers connected together and discovered that these were used to track the drones.

Aditya had learnt all about electronics from his big brother, Nishant. He also noticed a lever. He pulled it towards the west, the ghosts came to his left. If he brought it towards the east, the ghosts came towards his right. There was another lever. He turned it towards the north, the ghosts moved upwards and when in the opposite direction, they moved downwards. He then understood that the ghosts were triggered by sound as well as the movement of the lever remote. Someone wanted the people to stay away from Mr Douglas' house. But who could it be? It was the big question in Aditya and Prasanth's minds. As they were walking ahead, to explore more secrets about the haunted house, they were lost in their thoughts – Who would want people to stay away from this house?

Suddenly the floor beneath them broke open into a secret path downwards. They were caught unawares and they fell into the path moving downwards. They tried to remain silent and couldn't help but scream due to the sudden fall. Three men who were sitting having a conversation in the basement got alerted by the scream. They got up, pushed open the curtain which hid their room and stepped out towards the secret path to catch the trespassers. The scare had left Prasanth unconscious but Aditya dragged him to a corner and hid behind a box. The men looked around but noticed no one. They thought that the path must have opened up by the wind and they would have heard the noise from outside.

Just for safety, they went up through the path to have a look in the garden. Meanwhile, Aditya started observing the secret room and noticed two men tied to a pillar with a rope and their mouths covered with a cloth. Aditya recognized them, they were the missing news reporter and his cameraperson, Rob Francis and Anant Varma of the National News Network. They were in deep sleep. Aditya woke them up and they realized that he was there to rescue them.

Aditya loosened their rope and hid them behind the box with Prasanth. Mr Francis and Varma understood his intention to stay hidden. The three men returned back down. They were so busy in their conversation that they did not notice that Francis and Varma had escaped. Mr Francis thanked Aditya for rescuing him and said that he fell into the secret path while reporting about this house that was believed to be haunted. Being an expert detective and news reporter, he explored the basement he had landed into and had recorded the entire conversation of the men hiding there. He had also gathered information that they were poachers in secret talks with illegal traders who traded in the specimens of endangered flora and fauna. These men bribed the forest officers and illegally hunted endangered species of animals including lions, tigers and even elephants!

The corrupt forest officers assigned to protect nature violated their duties and instead helped the poachers go unnoticed. These men then used the hides and fur of the animals to make expensive clothes and sold their horns and tusks as collectables. They had caught Francis when his phone rang but Varma managed to run from the scene. As he was running, he slipped over some sand and he was caught too. Their phones were switched off and the camera was seized.

Francis then asked Prasanth to secretly search the first floor of the house to get more clues. Prasanth secretly searched the wardrobes on the first floor and found clothes made from the fur of the poached animals. Prasanth also found their cricket ball and a camera. He opened a desk where he also managed to find the mobile phones of Francis and Varma. He then came downstairs where he met Aditya, Francis and Varma who had managed to reach the ground floor.

They all exited the house and went to the police station. They narrated the incident and showed the video to the Commissioner. A police team was sent to the house to carry out the investigation. They surrounded the house and captured the poachers. They also seized all the illegal goods. Meanwhile, the corrupt forest officers who helped the poachers were caught and severely punished.

Prasanth and Aditya were honoured by the police as well as by their school for their bravery. Francis and Varma also received accolades for their excellent reporting. The next day, the Chennai Champions and the Madras Marvels have faced face once again for their next match. Before they started a new match, Raghu said that though their previous match was abandoned halfway, Prasanth and Aditya were the true winners of the match for their bravery.