PEEK-A-BOO!

It was a dark and gloomy evening, coupled with heavy rains. Forest officer Anand Bannerjee cast a look at the Sunderbans. It looked beautiful, even in the dark.

It was just about 4:00 p.m. Queer place, he thought. Even after 25 years in the eastern parts of India, he still didn't understand the logic of sunrise and sunset. He had been to all parts of India, and never had he experienced darkness at 4:00 p.m.

The last year had been pretty strange as far as forest activity were concerned. In the first 24 years of his posting, he never had much activity apart from the odd poaching incident and accidents of humans. Life was as lonely as it was peaceful. Anand had no family to speak of. His parents were no more, and he felt getting married or even involved with the 'fairer sex' was a waste of time. He hated children, moreover.

But in the last year, there were atleast 10 human deaths. And all those dead bodies had one thing in common: the eyes were almost BURNT out, so to speak, but the bodies were totally untouched. Anand was put on the mission of finding out the causes of the deaths. And a person who had never ventured into the Sunderbans after sunset, had to do so now. It was a matter of keeping his job as a forest officer.

The forest was kept off human limits for three months. That was the deadline, the target given to Anand to complete his mission. Daily, he would go into the forest at 4:00 p.m. and come back by 12:00 midnight. 8 hours of hard work, with no result. He was into the last week of the third month. Anand wondered whether it was some kind of divine intervention that was keeping him safe.

Today, though, it was raining heavily. And the trees seemed to be whispering some unknown secret. It was inviting Anand to have a look.

He was not the adventurous type. But today was a queer day anyway.

So with a raincoat, a pair of gumboots, a bottle of rum and his trusty rifle, Anand set off into the wilderness.

It took him about 20 minutes to reach the forest. By that time, the rain had stopped. It was almost pitch dark by now. Crickets and grasshoppers were chirping away. The wind was still howling though, and the swaying trees seemed to be saying: "W-H-E-RRRRR-E WWWW-I-LLLLL YOUUUUUUU GOOOOOOOO!" Eerily, by the time it reached the word GO, it was shrieking. The words had a strange premonition about them.

Anand chucked the rum bottle. Whoa, he'd had too much to drink. Time to get a grip on oneself.

He entered the forest. His eyesight was quite keen, and his ears were sensitive to even the slightest of sound. Strangely enough, he could hear drums beating. It happened to be his own heart.

"I MUST STOP DRINKING! I MUST!", he said, trying to shake off an imaginary inebriated self. He happened to realise just minutes later, that he was NOT drunk. He was actually hearing the sound of his heart beating.

Why? He looked around. There wasn't anything for him to be scared of. He took a look at his watch, and almost fainted in shock.

It was almost midnight... how come? He turned around to retrace his path. THERE WAS NO PATH. He was surrounded by trees, darkness, and a whole new lot of strange sounds.

He tried to run. But where to?? He now understood the meaning of the swaying trees.

After running a while, he rested his hand on a tree trunk. He had to get back somehow. It must be only a bad dream, he thought to himself. He was going to get up and everything would be back to normal.

Unfortunately, when he faced the tree he was resting on, he realised that this was no dream... it was a NIGHTMARE. Two spots were gleaming at him from the tree. When he backtracked, he realised those actually could be EYES. They were closing and shutting, closing and shutting.

"WHERE WILL YOU GOOOO!!! HAHAHAHAHA!" the voice had become harsher, more chilling. The tree seemed to be swaying it's branches about. One branch came and cut across Anand's chest.

"AAAAHAHHHHHHHH!!!" It hurt. He was bleeding. A big cut right across his chest. The other trees had come to life. They were all saying the same thing. "WHERE WILL YOU GO?? WHERE WILL YOU GO??"

Anand ran about wildly looking for a path to escape. His worst nightmares were all coming true. Sounds of wolves howling, the trees screaming, and no place to go. Perfect. THIS was why people were dying.

BUT WOULD HE GET OUT TO TELL HIS STORY?? He looked at the path of light. It seemed inviting. He was sweating and bleeding profusely. It was the best chance he had.

It was like a hundred metres dash. All the trees began closing in on him. He sprinted towards the path. IT WAS THE WAY OUT! He kept going on and on and on...

Finally his small forest house was visible. He kept running and running and running.

REACHED! Phew... he turned around and looked at the forest. He almost fainted again.

IT WAS AS IT WAS BEFORE. He looked at his watch. JUST 8 P.M.

WHAT WAS HAPPENING TO HIM???? He WAS dreaming after all wasn't he??

He opened a bottle of rum, and gulped it down. He needed the rest. It was a harrowing experience. Those words were still ringing in his ears.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of sobbing. SOMEONE WAS IN HIS BEDROOM.

He rushed towards the bedroom. It was a small girl, with her face in her hands, in torn, tattered, blood-stained clothes. "What do you want?? WHO ARE YOU??" He asked in a harsh tone. He didn't like children, remember?

"I got lost in this forest for the past year. I couldn't get out. SOB! SOB! I survived somehow. I WANT MUMMY! I WANT PAPA! SOB! SOB!" all this with her face still firmly in her hands.

Anand was shocked. ONE WHOLE YEAR?? How didn't he spot her then?? Pity entered his hitherto hard soul.

"OK, my dear, I shall take you back to where you belong. Don't worry. Come with me."

"First I want you to play a game with me. Please. My mummy would always play with me when I would be sad"

Anand thought it was ridiculous, but.... "Oh! ok! Tell me what is the game about?"

"Whenever I would put my face in my hands like this, my mummy would come along..." Anand looked at his watch again. He thought his watch had gone mad.

IT WAS EXACTLY MIDNIGHT.

"...and try to cheer me up" Anand, scared, got up, but was still looking at the girl, whose voice had turned into a blood curdling kind of howl. "She too would get up and try to move away from me... but I would then open my hands out... HAHAHAHAHAHA" IT WAS LIKE THE DEVIL LAUGHING. "...and tell her..."

There was a chilling silence....

"PEEK-A-BOO!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA!"

Anand's eyes started melting out of his sockets. It was searing pain, almost as if it was burnt by acid. He started suffocating. The only last thing he remembered seeing was a pair of bright yellow eyes twinkling like stars, a mouth that was so soaked in blood he didn't remember seeing the teeth, and almost no nose. A face pockmarked by tigers pug-marks strangely.

Before he breathed his last, the monster girl revealed to him. "I was murdered brutally by a tiger in this very forest last year, Mr. Anand, and you turned a deaf ear to my screams and pleads! I lived off the bodies of all the people who wished to visit this forest! You preferred to sit back and have your bloody rum, didn't you? YOU HATED CHILDREN!!!! NOW YOU SHALL DIE!! AND MY SOUL CAN NOW REST IN PEACE!!!!"

With that, Anand died. And the girl disappeared.

After 3 days, Anand's deadline expired. The senior forest officials were horrified when they found Anand's body. Just like all other bodies, his eyes were burnt out, the rest of his body untouched. When they were about to take him away, a junior forest officer came with a young girl. "Sir, she got lost in the forest. We must take her back home." Everyone readily agreed. The girl was sweet, and very talkative.

And as they walked out of the forest house, the girl glanced back. HER EYES GLEAMED YELLOW FOR A SECOND...

ANYBODY READY FOR A GAME OF PEEK-A-BOO?