Ghostly Stories: The Boy Who Played Violin for a Girl in White

Ayan is a very quiet boy. For as long as I have known him, one thing has surprised me: I have never seen his parents. I do not even know whether they are alive. If anyone asks him about it, Ayan cleverly avoids the question. There is always a strange seriousness in the boy. Looking at him, you feel a kind of tenderness. Truly there is something gentle in Ayan’s very face. Whoever has spent some time with him has felt a special pull toward him. These are the kind of ghostly stories that stay with you, and this one was told to us by his closest friend.

A Night on Cox’s Bazar Beach

From the beginning of our friendship, I saw that Ayan’s closest person is Raj. Raj and Ayan are complete opposites. Raj is very talkative, always speaking, laughing, joking. Ayan is the opposite, he does not let a single word out of his mouth without need. But when he does speak, every word has a meaning. I have never seen him talk for nothing.

The December holiday was on. A light winter fog and the lazy mood at the end of the year. A few of us friends decided to go to Cox’s Bazar. As planned, one day we all reached Cox’s Bazar. Our group of friends numbered seven in all. Ayan and Raj were the only two boys, all the rest were girls.

It was that night. The waves of the sea were crashing one after another onto the sand. From far away, from the chest of the dark water, came the sound of roaring. The cold wind blew our hair about. Around us was the faint noise of tourists, but our spot was relatively quiet. We were all sitting in a circle at the edge of the beach, chatting. Just then, between our words, Raj suddenly began to say some strange things about Ayan. At first we did not take it seriously. But seeing the look on Raj’s face, I understood he was not joking. Slowly everyone fell silent. Even among the roaring of the sea, only Raj’s voice could be heard. Raj was saying that he would tell us today about the events that had happened in Ayan’s life. I am telling that story as much as possible in Raj’s language, only arranged a little. Now the story begins, from Raj’s mouth.

Raj Speaks: The Tong Shop and the Old House

Raj says: My first meeting with Ayan was at a small tong shop. I was living in Jatrabari, Dhaka, then. A bachelor, renting a small one-room flat. My whole family lived in Chittagong, so in Dhaka I had to spend life alone. Every evening I went to that tong shop. A cup of tea and a bit of adda was the routine. But for a few days I noticed one thing. At the time I went to the shop, a boy came at exactly that time too. The boy would hold a cup of tea and sit quietly in a corner of the shop, talking to nobody, not even noticing who was moving around him. The first day I thought it was normal. The second day it was the same. The third day I noticed that the boy had been sitting for almost ten minutes looking in the same direction, not even blinking. Looking at him it felt as if he was no human, more like a living doll.

I was then no more than seventeen or eighteen, and the boy was about my age. I was naturally a bit sociable, so one day I went and spoke to him myself. From that day we were acquainted. The boy’s name was Ayan. From the tong shop the adda began, then slowly friendship. In time Ayan came to my flat, and later even got admitted to my college. Two years passed like that. In these two years I knew everything about Ayan, his pain, his past, his family, everything. But one thing I never knew: the most terrible chapter of his life. And truly, until then I did not believe that there could be something in the world with no explanation.

The house we lived in was a two-storey old house. Our room was on the second floor. Opening the door of the room, you would see an open roof, with a bathroom at one side of it. On the ground floor lived the landlord Kaka and Kakima. Though they were old, they treated us like their own children, especially Kakima. When we were ill she sent food, she asked after our studies. Life was going quite peacefully.

Ayan had one special talent, he could play the violin wonderfully. When he sat on the roof in the quiet of the night and played the violin, the whole atmosphere would change somehow. Many times I stood at the door and listened: a dark roof, the moon above, and in the middle, Ayan sitting alone. For some reason I do not know, he seemed very lonely then, as if he were completely alone even in a crowd of thousands. But in those days we did not think about such things. We went to college, went around with friends, had adda at night, watched ghost movies for fun. It even happened that in the middle of the night, sitting on the roof, I said laughing, if ghosts really exist, let one come in front of us one day. Today when I think of it, my own words seem ridiculous. Because I did not yet understand that some calls sometimes reach the wrong place.

The Violin on the Roof

Whenever I got a few days’ leave I would go to Chittagong, but Ayan never went. He had almost no contact with his family. Once, after about a week, I came back to Dhaka from my holiday. Entering the room I saw Ayan lying on his bed, and even though I had come, there was no reaction. The matter seemed unusual but I was not surprised, because he is quiet anyway. I arranged my things and freshened up. After evening I noticed that Ayan had gone to the roof and sat down, and then began to play the violin. That night he played the violin for a very long time, unusually long. As the night grew, the tune also changed somehow. Sometimes it felt as if he was not playing music, he was talking to someone. Once or twice I went and said, “Are you not coming to the room?” Ayan only said, “You sleep, I am coming later.” There was a kind of weariness in his voice. I said nothing more and fell asleep.

The next morning when I woke up, Ayan was not there. I thought he had gone out for some work. But noon passed, afternoon passed, evening fell, and he did not return. At last at six or seven in the evening the door opened and Ayan came in. At first sight I was startled. In just a few days he looked so thin. Deep dark circles under his eyes, a pale face, as if he had not slept for many days. I asked, “Is something wrong with you?” Ayan did not answer, he only looked at me for a few seconds and went into the bathroom.

At night after eating we went to bed. We each had a separate single bed. At about two-thirty at night I suddenly woke up. The room was completely dark. Since Ayan could not sleep without darkness, I had never been able to even put on a dim light. Out of habit I looked toward Ayan’s bed, and just then it seemed the bed was empty. But I was so sleepy that I did not take it seriously, and closed my eyes again. Perhaps not even ten minutes had passed when suddenly a terrible scream came from downstairs, the scream of an old woman. At once I understood it was Kakima’s voice. I switched on my phone flash and ran down. In my hurry I did not once notice whether Ayan was on the bed.

Kakima’s Dream

Downstairs, I saw Kakima sitting on the bed, trembling, and Kaka giving her water. I asked what had happened. Kakima, panting, said that she had seen a terrible dream. In the dream she saw that Ayan was sitting on her chest, gripping her throat with both hands. She could not make any sound, could not move her hands or feet, she only saw Ayan’s face. There was no feeling on that face, it was exactly like the face of a dead man. She said she had tried hard to sit up but it felt as if her body was paralysed. Then in her sleep Kaka’s hand touched Kakima’s body, and at that moment Kakima let out a scream.

The words felt strange to me. Still I told myself, it was a nightmare, nothing more. After talking with them a while I went back upstairs. Opening the door and switching on the light I saw Ayan in deep sleep on his own bed. I looked at him for a while, then drank some water and went to sleep. Nothing unusual happened for the rest of that night.

The next morning I did not ask Ayan anything, I had breakfast and went to college. The day passed completely normally, classes, adda, going around, everything as before. Even the incident of the previous night was slowly leaving my head. But that very night everything changed.

I do not know what time it was, suddenly I woke to the sound of someone whispering. At first I did not understand why I had woken. I opened my eyes and lay quietly for a while. Then I heard it, whisper, whisper. Someone speaking in a very low voice, so low that the words could not be made out, but it was clear someone was speaking. My sleep vanished instantly. Switching on my phone flashlight and sweeping it around the room I saw Ayan sitting on his bed facing the wall and murmuring something to himself. His lips were moving, but the words were not reaching my ears clearly. I called out, Ayan did not answer. I called again, “Hey, what are you saying? Why are you still awake? Are you unwell?” No answer. It felt as if he could not hear me. I got out of bed and went to him, and put my hand on his shoulder. The moment I touched him, Ayan turned to look at me. His whole body was soaked in sweat, his chest was rising and falling fast, as if someone had made him run a long way. His eyes were unnatural, tired, restless, terribly frightened. I asked again, “What is wrong with you?” But without answering, Ayan panted at me for some time, and then went into the bathroom.

The Spider on the Ceiling

I said nothing more. But this time I truly began to feel uneasy, and Kakima’s dream came back to my mind. I do not remember when I fell asleep after lying awake a long time. It must have been nearly three o’clock. Suddenly a strange sound like bones cracking, kot kot kot, woke me. The moment I opened my eyes, what I saw, even today when I remember that scene my body goes cold. Ayan was hanging upside down like a spider beneath the ceiling fan. Both arms and legs spread out, head downward. And his eyes were looking straight at me. For a few seconds I forgot to breathe. How I felt then I will never be able to write or put into words. It felt as if the blood in my chest had frozen. Suddenly Ayan’s neck tilted unnaturally to one side. And at that very moment, “Allahu Akbar!” came out of my mouth. I ran toward the door. Opening the door and running down the stairs I began to bang hard on Kakima’s door. After that I remember nothing. Complete darkness.

When I regained consciousness I saw that I was lying in Kakima’s bed. Beside me were Kaka, Kakima and Ayan. Ayan was sitting in a corner, perfectly normal, as if he knew nothing of last night. A doctor had apparently come and looked at me. I could not say anything to anyone, I only kept looking at Ayan, because one thought kept going round in my head: did I really see that thing, or was it all a nightmare? I should say one thing here: I loved Ayan like my own brother. He was not just my friend, he was one of the people closest to me. So I wanted what I saw to be false. But my mind would not accept it.

After a while Ayan went out saying he had some work. After he left I told Kaka and Kakima the whole incident. As soon as I finished, Kakima sighed deeply and said, “I understood from before that something was wrong.” I looked at her in surprise. Kakima said, “I did not say it in front of you because you might have been afraid.” I asked, “Why are you saying this?” Kakima was silent, then said, “When you were in Chittagong, almost every night Ayan sat on the roof playing violin. The first night we said nothing, nor the second. But on the third night your Kaka and I became suspicious. So we went up to the roof.” Her voice was trembling then. She said, “When we went we saw Ayan sitting there. But looking at his eyes I was frightened, because his eyes had no pupils.” A cold current ran through my body. Kakima said again, “As soon as your Kaka held him, Ayan fell unconscious at once. After he regained consciousness, he gave no answer to anything we asked, so we said nothing more.” Then looking at me she said in a low voice, “Raj, I am not sure, but I feel there is something with Ayan.”

I wanted to protest at once. I was very angry, because the one being spoken of was my friend, like my brother. Still, the terror I had seen in Kakima’s eyes was not acting. And at that moment, for the first time, a question arose in my own mind: do I really know Ayan, or have I been living for two years with someone I know nothing about?

The Girl in White

All that day just one question circled in my head. Ayan came back in the afternoon, everything normal. So normal that the events of the previous night felt unreal even to me. He talked as before, ate, even laughed once. But I do not know why, seeing that laugh of his, the inside of my chest turned cold. It felt as if the laugh was Ayan’s, but the person inside the laugh was not Ayan.

At eleven at night we returned to the room. That day I deliberately did not sleep, I lay with my eyes closed, pretending. I watched what Ayan would do that night. About an hour later I noticed Ayan getting up from his bed, completely silently, as if he already knew I was awake. My heart began to pound. Keeping my eyes half open I kept watching him. Ayan slowly went to the door, opened it and went to the roof. I waited a few seconds and stood hidden behind the door, trying to watch him. Looking around I understood that the place was not normal. There was no wind at all, but Ayan’s shirt and hair were blowing in the wind, as if a separate wind was blowing around him. Ayan stood toward a corner of the roof, a violin in his hand. Then he began to play. Slowly the tune began to change. There was such a sadness in that tune that listening you would feel someone was crying from far away.

I was watching from behind the roof door. And just then I noticed someone standing in front of Ayan. A girl in white clothes, long hair, face not visible. She was not moving, not speaking, only standing. And Ayan was looking at her and playing violin. My whole body froze. I wanted to scream, I could not. I wanted to run away, I could not do that either. It felt as if my body was no longer under my control, I was only standing and looking. Ayan kept playing, and that girl in white stood before him. Time seemed to have stopped. I do not know how long it went on, I only felt that all the sounds around had been lost.

Suddenly a terrible scream came from the ground floor. As the sound reached my ears it felt as if some unseen bond was torn, I suddenly regained control of my body. Ayan turned his head and looked down. And at that very moment I saw that the girl in white was gone, like fog smoke she had vanished into the dark in a few seconds. My eyes were blurring, everything was spinning. For the last time I saw that Ayan was standing still. Then everything went dark, and I fell unconscious on the floor of the roof.

When I regained consciousness I opened my eyes and saw Kaka, Kakima and Ayan all sitting in our room. Ayan was the most normal of all, he was sitting quietly in a corner of the room with his head down. I sat up and told Kaka and Kakima everything, what I had seen on the roof, all of it. Then we all asked Ayan together, “What is all this, Ayan?” But as always he gave no answer. Suddenly he began to cry uncontrollably. Seeing his crying felt bad, but by then we were sure that what was happening was not normal.

I asked Kakima, “Why did you scream?” Kakima said she had finished all her night work and was getting ready to sleep, when someone slapped her hard from behind. Frightened by the pain, she screamed. After her scream, they said, she heard Ayan’s voice from upstairs, Ayan was calling me loudly. Hearing the call, Kaka and Kakima came up and brought me into the room and laid me on the bed.

The First Imam, the Taweez and a Night of Whispers

The next morning Kaka brought an imam. After hearing everything he said, “Perhaps the evil eye of some jinn has fallen on the boy. It is not good to play such things awake at night.” He gave some blessed water and sprinkled it all around the house, and gave a taweez for Ayan, telling him to keep it hung around his neck always. We did so. Before leaving he said, “There is nothing to fear, InshaAllah there will be no more trouble.” But as night fell my fear came back. Again and again I felt like leaving everything and going to Chittagong. And I also felt bad for Ayan. What was really happening to him?

For this reason that night I asked a few friends from college to come to our flat. Four of us friends. I told them nothing, only asked them to stay the night with us. That night nothing unusual happened. The night passed in chatting and laughing. From the next day I began going to college regularly again. It felt as if life was slowly becoming normal. But one thing worried me: Ayan had become much quieter than before. Earlier he at least talked to me, discussed things. But now he was completely silent. He did not eat properly, sat in one place all day, did not even go to college regularly. When I asked, he only said, “I do not feel well.” So I did not press him much.

Three or four days passed like this, and the fear in my mind eased a little. But then it began again. One night, suddenly in my sleep I felt someone come close to my ear and whisper, “Nobody can save him.” As soon as I heard it I jolted up, and switched on the light at once. After the light came on the fear felt a bit less. I saw that Ayan was still asleep on his own bed. That day I did not dare to turn off the light. I drank water and slept with the light on. The next morning I noticed one thing: even after I had kept the light on all night, Ayan did not ask me a single word about it. It felt as if he had understood that I had been afraid.

After that, strange events began in Kaka and Kakima’s home. If something was put on the stove and she looked away for a moment, it would be lying on the floor. At night as they slept, the sound of heavy furniture being dragged came from the drawing room. As the days went by, the events grew. Pictures hung on the wall, clocks, things kept in the showcase, everything would be found disordered. But the strange thing was that this never happened in front of us. We would come back from outside and see the result, or after going from one room to another we would realise something had happened. Seeing this, Kaka went again to that same imam. But when he went he heard the imam had gone to the Ijtema, and it was not certain when he would return. Kaka came back disappointed. We too all fell into worry.

Kakima on the Floor

That night too we fell asleep. I do not know how late it was, suddenly I woke. Looking toward Ayan’s bed I saw he was not there. I grew worried. I went to the washroom and saw he was not there either. Then I noticed the door of the room was open. Going near the door my eyes went to the roof. And just then I saw that girl again. She was floating in the air. So much bright light came from her body that her face could not be seen clearly. And in front of her stood Ayan. He was holding the girl’s hand and talking nonstop. I was very afraid. But I noticed that the girl was not saying anything, only Ayan was talking. After that what happened I do not know, probably I fainted again in fear. When I regained consciousness I found I was lying right there. And Ayan was sleeping on his own bed.

Without delay I went down to Kaka and Kakima and told them everything. Hearing it, they said, “We must make some arrangement tomorrow. We must bring a good imam.” That night it was decided that Kaka and Kakima would stay in our room. Ayan was still asleep. We all went to sleep too.

I clearly remember that at about four o’clock at night Kakima suddenly began to get up in her sleep and was saying strange, strange things. Hearing it, Kaka and I sat up. But even through all this Ayan was sleeping peacefully, as if he could hear nothing. Just then Kakima suddenly pounced on Ayan. Kaka and I quickly tried to pull her away, but it felt as if unnatural strength had come into her body. Strange sounds were coming from her mouth. Suddenly Ayan pushed with one hand so hard that Kakima was thrown off the bed. Then she lost consciousness.

Seeing this scene only one thing was coming out of my mouth: La ilaha illallahu Muhammadur Rasulullah. Kaka and I kept reciting that again and again. Then I saw that Ayan’s eyes had turned white again. Strangely, I did not feel afraid anymore. I just held Ayan’s hand tight. I had heard somewhere that in such cases you must press the little finger of the left hand, so I did exactly that and kept reciting the Kalima continuously. After a while Ayan closed his eyes and calmed down. I was crying then. Hearing our screaming, several neighbours came and somewhat managed the situation.

The Imam From Gulistan

The next morning, from someone he knew, Kaka got the address of a well-known imam and brought him. I am not giving his name, I will only say that he was a well-known imam of Gulistan. As soon as he entered our house he began looking all around very carefully. Then he came to our room and stood in front of Ayan, looking at him for a few moments. Ayan looked at him with a steady gaze too. Then the imam slowly turned to Kaka and said, “What I had imagined, this matter is much more terrible than that.” Hearing this, no word came from any of our mouths. Without saying more he sat down in front of Ayan, took a small Quran out of his pocket and began reciting some verses.

For the first few minutes everything was normal. But slowly the atmosphere of the room began to change. For some reason I do not know, the inside of the room suddenly became unnaturally cold. Though the windows were closed, the curtains were moving at storm speed, as if wind from somewhere had come and was whirling inside the room. The imam kept reciting. Ayan at first sat with his head down, but after a while his whole body began to shake. I could clearly see that the fingers of his hands had become unnaturally stiff. Then suddenly he raised his head and looked, and his eyes were again completely white. Kaka shook with fear. Kakima stood gripping my hand tightly. The imam then began to recite the verses even louder. At that very moment the door of our room shut by itself with a thud. We all flinched. From one corner of the room came a sound like a suppressed growl, I could not tell where the sound came from. I only felt that there was someone in the room besides us.

After a while Ayan screamed. I had never heard such a terrible scream in my life, it felt as if several people were screaming at once. Then he fell to the floor trembling, and within a few seconds became completely unconscious. Silence fell again in the room, only the sound of our fast breathing. The imam looked at Ayan silently for a few moments, then slowly stood up. Kaka asked in a worried voice, “Hujur, what has happened?” The imam took a deep breath and said, “It is not one jinn here.” Kaka asked in surprise, “What do you mean?” He said, “There are two jinn here.” Our bodies shook. The imam said, “But the most surprising thing is that one jinn wants to harm Ayan, and the other wants to protect Ayan.” None of us could say a word. He looked at Ayan and said, “Raj, the jinn that you saw twice, that very jinn protects Ayan. And not only Ayan, for all this time she has been protecting all of you too.”

Two Jinn

I looked at him in disbelief and thought to myself, I never told him any of this, so how did he know that I had seen the girl twice! He went on, “The first time you saw that girl on the roof, the evil jinn was not able to do any harm to Ayan or to Raj. So it struck Kakima, it slapped her from behind. Because of that she screamed, and hearing the scream the girl left.” Kaka and Kakima sat stunned.

The imam said again, “As long as the taweez the first hujur gave was with Ayan, the evil jinn could not go near him. But at the same time that girl could not come near him either. So the evil jinn, unable to harm Ayan, began to torment you. It spoils things in the house, moves furniture. All this is their doing.” Suddenly I tried to remember, was Ayan still wearing the taweez? The imam seemed to read my mind. He said, “Ayan took the taweez off a few days ago. That is why that girl has come back to him.” He was silent for a while, then said, “She did not come to harm Ayan, rather she has been shielding him. On the day all of you were together, she was beside Ayan then too. Because of this the evil jinn could not get to him. And for that reason it took hold of Kakima. Even then its target was Ayan.”

We all listened in silence. Then the imam’s face grew even graver. Slowly he said, “But the most frightening thing is not this. The fight between these two jinn is not today’s. This fight has been going on from long ago. Most probably it is connected to Ayan’s past, and without knowing that past this mystery will not be solved.” Kaka asked in a trembling voice, “So what will you do now?” The imam replied, “Today, just before the Fajr prayer, I will come again. I will try to make them appear. At that time we will know where this story began, why they are tangled up with Ayan, and what has been going on all these years.” Saying this he fell silent. And I could not close my eyes for a moment all night, because only one question kept going round in my mind: what had happened in Ayan’s past that made two jinn fight for so long?

THE END

With this I end today’s story, Raj said. I know that right now many of you have questions circling in your minds, why these things happened to Ayan, what was the reason behind this mystery. To tell the truth, the root cause of these events is hidden in Ayan’s past. And the story of that past is quite long, if I told everything today the story would become very big. So if my story is published, I will try to send its second part very soon. There I will tell in detail about Ayan’s past and the true events behind this mystery.

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