The cottage in the woods

I had to describe the cottage in the woods. I was asked to explain its existence, history and related issues in front of everyone.
I slowly walked from my chair and stood in front of everyone. Everybody was silent and had their eyes glued on me; some with their heads tilted, some with their hands on their cheeks, some sipping on to their cocktail glasses, some biting their well lipstick coated lips and some grinning at me, curious to know what I was going to say. It was a glamorous audience with exclusive dresses, suits and tuxedos.
I looked at everyone and calmly started talking about the cottage in the woods. …
"The cottage in the woods was supposedly built somewhere between the late18th and early 19th century, in the deep woods of America ." I started …
It is a small black cottage in the centre of the woods with huge trees surrounding it densely from all angles. There are windows on both sides. There were long cement stones with even gaps on both sides of the cottage. After all, the cottage was a funeral home and the stones were graves! No wonder the cottage looks so scary.
During the wars the place was used by the military to bury the soldiers while they camped somewhere in the woods.
However, a few decades ago it was turned into a lodge for visitors camping in the forest. But in spite of its beautiful natural surroundings and serenity it has failed to be a perfect place for campers.
Stories began about it, horror stories! And in no time it was declared haunted!
People couldn't sleep there, they heard noises, bullet sounds from guns, march pasts, howling voices, and men gossiping.
Gradually, people got visions of military men walking around the cottage; they appeared like translucent figures and shadows.
And then things got really bad. After sleeping at night people found themselves outside the cottage in the morning, sometimes inside the old graves! Somebody would dig them and put the cottage visitors inside, leaving it open!
It got worse when people started getting attacked! They would get punched on the face by invisible guns or were tied up when asleep while being all alone in the cottage. Sometimes they even got bullet wounds without any bullets in the body! And the worst was when people started getting killed! Their heads would be smashed with huge rifles, their bodies cut up with knives, with body parts and organs ripped off; all by invisible soldiers!
Perhaps the troubled souls of the dead soldiers could not tolerate visitors and intruders.
One day, a young guy in his early twenties went to stay at the cottage to find out if these stories were true or not. He had no idea that his curiosity could lead to his death.
It was late evening when he reached the place. He crossed the grasslands on the side of the cottage which was once the graveyard. He entered the cottage with great confidence. He unpacked his things, ate some dry food he had packed for dinner and fell asleep in his sleeping bag.
The night was deadly silent and pitch black. The only light was a flickering candle.
He had just fallen asleep when he was awakened by violent sounds of bullets and firing. He woke up, taking loud breaths. Shadows of running soldiers with rifles in their hands appeared on the walls of the room. He started trembling in fear of losing all his bravery at once.
Then the terror took place, bullets from invisible guns began and hit him all over his body!
The pain struck all over him and it felt like the most unbearable pain of his life, the agonizing pain of death. He started rolling on the floor in the pain, screaming.
But things could be worse than death and that is exactly what he felt when the ghosts of the dead soldiers were preparing his body for a funeral while he was not fully dead! He could feel everything! How they embalmed his body! How they stitched up the bullet wounds by dipping knives, needles, and blades on his body!
The pain was unimaginable and unexplainable; perhaps worse than death!!!!
The reason for the cottage's haunted history is still unknown. Recently the government has been planning to demolish the place but nothing is confirmed yet!

I stopped my story on the cottage and looked at everyone holding my hands together with a smile of satisfaction in telling my story..
Everyone stared at me. Some stunned, some hardly blinking their eyes, some with squeezed eyebrows and open mouths and some just glared. Most of them had tensed looks with frightened expressions.
I was happy that my painting had taken so much attention from everyone!
I was an artist and was standing in front of an art exhibition. An auction was going on and "The cottage in the woods" was the title of my new painting. It was my dream to paint a new master piece based on a real experience!!!!!!
What else could be the ambition of an orphan and lonely young man like me, who had grown up with no family and friends but just painting?
"So you went to the haunted place just to paint on it?" A nervous lady asked.
"Yeah, how could you? Didn't you find any other, safer place?" another lady added.
"I know you researched the history of the place, but I don't get one thing; how do you know about the sufferings of the young guy who camped in such good detail?" one man asked from the back.
"You need to be either a witness or be present on the scene to know his painful experiences. Plus, is that guy alive or not?" He asked with a very intense and puzzling look.
A silence fell over the room.
After a while, I answered in a soft and low voice.
"Well, ladies and gentlemen, I am the man who went to experience the happenings of the cottage so that I could paint on them. I wanted to paint from real experience! So what do you think? Am I alive or dead?"

Sharmeen Rahman is a student of the LL.B external programme of the University of London.