True Horror Story: The Mysterious Disappearance in the Haunted Neighborhood
True Horror Story: The Mysterious Disappearance in the Haunted Neighborhood
Grandmaa could you share a true horror story with us?
My grandmother replied,
Everyone sit down; I’ll tell you a horror story from my youth.
She began narrating:
I was young then, around 15 years old. I had a friend who lived in the house beside ours. She wasn’t very pretty, but her hair was extremely long and thick. She often showed off her hair to make others jealous. Her mother would scold her and tell her not to do so, but she never listened.
Back in those days, it would get completely dark after Maghrib (evening prayer). It was a different time—there weren’t many people around, and the area was full of tall trees, deserted roads, and wilderness. The place we lived in was almost like a forest, with very few residents. Our elders used to say that a witch roamed the area after Maghrib, and many wild animals would also come out at night, posing a threat to people.
There was a story we had heard about a family who lived there—a husband, wife, and their two children. They often went out during daylight to collect firewood, taking their children along. One day, as usual, they went to gather wood, but their younger son disappeared. Despite searching everywhere, they couldn’t find him. As Maghrib approached, they returned home, but the boy’s parents and elder brother did not come back. They kept searching for the child. Soon after, their terrifying screams echoed through the area, and an eerie sound of a woman’s laughter sent chills down everyone’s spines. No one dared to step out to help them. After a while, silence fell.
The next morning, when daylight came, people went into the forest and searched for them. Eventually, they found their bodies hanging from a tree, in a horrible condition. It looked like they had been brutally attacked by a wild animal, but the strange thing was—if it was an animal, who hung their bodies from the tree? And that eerie laughter? Since then, it has been said that there is indeed a witch in the area who hunts people after Maghrib."
Continuing her story, my grandmother said:
My friend suggested, 'Let's go out after sunset and see which spirit is wandering around.
Her name was Sugra. Her family had recently moved to our area, and she didn’t believe in stories of witches or jinns. She would say, 'I won’t believe it until I see it with my own eyes.' I tried to stop her because I was a coward and had already heard too many such stories. I refused to go with her. Sugra said to me:
'Arre Khursheed, you’re such a coward! I’m going out tonight to see what kind of witch roams here.'
Saying this, she went back to her house. I didn’t tell anyone about this because I thought she was joking. Surely, she wouldn’t go out alone. She was just trying to scare me.
But the next day:
The next day, there was an uproar. Sugra was missing from her house early in the morning. Where had she gone so early? Everyone searched for her, and soon the news came that Sugra was found in the forest on a deserted path. She was hanging by her hair from a large tree, as if someone had tied her hair to a branch.
People tried their best to untie her hair from the branch, but no one could. Finally, they had to cut her hair to bring her down. She wasn’t breathing. Sugra’s complexion had turned completely white, as if there wasn’t a drop of blood left in her body. And just like that, she had died.
Even today, this incident haunts me. I keep thinking, if only I had told someone that Sugra was planning to go into the forest alone after Maghrib, maybe her life could have been saved.
SYEDA SHEHZANA HAIDER