Short Story: The House of None (Part One)

Part One: Introduction 

Year 2002

For years, a man named David with his family lived in the house. Everyone knew them, personally. They were, what we say, good people, to be with. They hosted parties on weekends, went out on vacations, and were always happy. Hardly, people saw them in anguish. They also had a daughter. A little one, the one who always won hearts of people with her prettiness and innocence. She was an 8-year-old girl who was always seen playing with her dog, a mongrel. One Sunday night, he hosted a party for his neighbors. Next morning, local cops found 28 dead bodies from David’s house including his own family. All people present in the house consumed cyanide, which was obviously the cause of death. But, no poison was found in the food which people wolfed down, that night. After investigation of the case by the local police, the case was handed over to the crime cell of HP (Himachal Pradesh). They too couldn’t find anything significant which resulted in shutting off the case.   

Professor Roy read the summary of the case file and gave it back to his friend, Mr. Rohan Gupta. Rohan Gupta was a senior inspector in Shimla Police. At Roy’s request, the inspector had brought this case file summary.

“This is not a summary written by a Police Officer. The style is different.” Professor Roy said while he was pouring some green tea for Rohan.

“You’re right, sir. This is written by my 15-year-old son. The original file was in an unreadable condition. I told my son to rewrite it with whatever he found. This might be incomplete because some pages were entirely eaten by rats.” Rohan explained. This was not the first time Rohan had helped Professor Roy in garnering information about unsolved, mysterious, and closed cases.

“So nice of you, Mr. Rohan. Thank you for helping me get this information.”

“What are you going to do in this case? Hiring a person?”

“No! This time I’ll go myself to investigate this place. Make sure no one knows about it.”

“Don’t worry. I love my job too.” Rohan said and departed. But exiting the main door, he turned around and asked:

“Why do you keep on solving these mysteries?”

Professor smiled covertly and answered:

“I love to play with my mind. I like to go in depth of understandable cases. If I find the truth, I keep it to myself. If I don’t, I forget it. My brain has many mysterious that I have solved, much more are to come, and then one day, my brain will be a mystery itself.”

Confused by the words, Rohan left the place assuming Professor was insanely connected to criminal psychology. In other words, Professor deeply loved crimes, mysteries, and suspenseful elements.

Professor Roy, a tall man with a husky voice who had a personality to impress people in seconds had a very isolated existence. He was one of those people whom you’ll never forget but, wouldn’t be able to meet regularly. He worked as a helper in various NGOs which was the only job he had acquired ever since he was born. He never went to school but, he studied Science and Mathematics from his mother and father who left him alone when he was a 22-year-old adult. In a world of endless possibilities, stood a boy who had a nothing to lose, no goal to work on, and no desire to win. He chose nothing over everything. He spent to dedicate his life to those whom he can relate with!

He helped poor people, taught poor kids, and also joined an NGO which worked for old people. In the thick of surrendering and resisting, he discovered his love for the crime. He started reading crime and suspense novels, watching crime movies, studying about crime (criminology), etc. Soon he realized, crime was something – he craved to study but, in an unusual manner. Rather than reading books, he decided to take the non-theoretical way. He searched for unsolved news reports in newspapers and attempted to solve it. Initially, he failed terribly which left him doleful. Like everyone Roy too had to deal with failures, upsetness, and the idea of giving up but, he didn’t capitulate. He went on to track difficult cases; sometimes he solved them, sometimes faced problems and sometimes he left them for his own betterment.     

Once he got habitual with defeat, he stopped fearing to failures and solved some strange cases. He did not have friends to hang out with, no family, and no one to love. Marriage was never his cup of tea neither was he attracted to any women. Quite peculiar was his life. So was he.

“Make sure you don’t damage my car otherwise you’ll have to pay for it.” 

“Don’t worry, Sahib. Nothing will happen. Trust me and my driving skills.” Professor Roy said to the owner of the car. He had rented one for his long journey towards the northern part of Shimla, the capital of HP. The house in which David lived was near a valley, which was in between of Shimla and Kullu. It was not exactly in Kullu (a district in HP) but, on the way. The town was nameless but, people still lived there.
“I am just warning you. Don’t drive above 50 KMPH. It is an accident-prone area.” Owner of the car strictly instructed Professor Roy.

“Don’t worry, Sahib.” Professor Roy said and nodded his head twice in confirmation.

It was a long 8-hour journey by road. Professor had been on such journeys many times, and according to his prediction, he would reach David’s closed house by night. The house was rather deserted as there were rumors of ghostly activities such as – telekinesis. However, initially, the rumors were not believed by the people living around but, a strange fact was also that, no one purchased David’s empty house post-incident. A year after the incident, the houses which were nearby David’s house got acquired. In a little while, things got nastier and out of the hands of people residing there. The limitless disturbance was caused by the house. People experienced uncanny things such as banging of door during night time, some heard people talking, during daylight it’s door got opened and at night it got closed on its own. The most famous rumor about the house was – it had a life of its own. No one lived there but, still, the house never got old. It remained unchanged.

Professor Roy believed it was all nonsense. He didn’t believe in evil powers, and he often said, “I too look like a demon”. Though that might be true, somewhat! Professor checked the signboard of the route on the corner of the road. The bridge ahead was very narrow and at a time only one car was able to pass through. Professor Roy’s estimation could prove wrong because of this particular bridge. Now, he would reach near David’s house by midnight.

That night, there were 29 people in the party. 28 died. One survived. I need to find that one man! Thought the Professor.