Hidden

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 11; the eleventh edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

The night was silent, occasionally disturbed by distant howling of wolves.  Sanket was being lulled to sleep by the low rhythmic purr of his car engine. He was enjoying the drive through the jungle. He could have taken a longer but safer route. However he enjoyed the peace and quiet of the jungle, where he could drive peacefully without being disturbed by heavy traffic. The jungle was safe as long as you did not have to stop in between. Sanket always ensured he had sufficient reserve fuel and the car had been through thorough maintenance checks before he set out on these jungle drives.

Sanket’s reverie was brought to a sudden end as the car engine sputtered and came to a halt. The night was still young and there was a still a long stretch of forest ahead. Sanket checked his mobile phone. But there was no signal. There were only 2 options: either walk to the nearest area of civilization or wait and hope someone would pass by. The first option was ruled out as he had a good 20 Km to cover either way. Definitely the jungle did not look too inviting for a mid night stroll. He did not know if it was his imagination or the howling of wolves was really beginning to get more frequent and no longer seem all that distant. Staying inside the car seemed the safest option. Or was it? He thought he had just heard the trumpeting of elephants. He did not want to be caught on the middle of the road amidst a herd of elephants on the rampage. He had heard elephants had no love for cars. As he was pondering on his next course of action, he could discern a faint image of what looked like a dwelling lodged between the trees a few paces away. As the silvery beams of the full moon fell on it, he could make out the silhouette of a log cabin. Could this be the solution to his problem?

He mustered enough courage, got out of his car and made a rush for the log cabin. He saw a knocker on the door shaped like the head of a jackal. He knocked once. No response. He knocked again. No response. He was about to knock a third time when he noticed a pair of shiny red eyes. Glaring at him. About 7-8 feet away.  Advancing closer. In a frenzy of panic, he gave the door a push. The large wooden door fell open. He was inside with the door latched securely.

It was pitch dark inside the cabin. He tried to switch on his torch. But the torch did not seem to be working. Sanket was surprised for it was a new torch and he had put fresh batteries just before the trip. But he was always prepared for such eventualities. So he always carried a candle and matches with him.  So he lit up the candle and surveyed the insides of the cabin. The room was rather large and in the middle of the room was a huge king sized cot with images of jackals carved out in the bedstead. The bed looked freshly laid out. He could hardly see any dust on the floor. The ceiling also looked rather clean with absolutely no sign of cobwebs. Was someone living here? As he explored the room further, he noticed a sturdy mahogany table at the end of the room.  He went up to the table. On the table was an ancient looking book. He went up to the table and picked up the book. It had pictures of some animals on its cover – notably a jackal, an ibis, a falcon, a ram, a bull, a cat, a crocodile and another strange animal he could not identify  .It was titled ‘The Elder Scrolls’. He gingerly picked up the book and gently flipped through the pages fearing it might fall apart. But surprisingly the book was in very good condition. Even the pages had not yellowed. The lettering was bright and clear and seemed to have an alluring charm to them. But he was beginning to feel too drowsy. So he thrust the book into his bag, lay down and dozed off.  

He was woken up with a start by the sound of scampering feet. He had forgotten to blow off the candle before going to sleep and it had smoldered away, letting darkness take over the room once again. He got up and stuck a match. He looked around. There was nothing in the room. The match went off and he struck another match. His eyes fell towards an opening on the wall in one end of the room, leading to another room, probably the kitchen. He slowly got out of the bed and walked towards the room, his mind ablaze with anticipation. As he struck his fourth match, he sensed some movement. He came to a halt. His feet seem to have frozen to the floor as he saw the shadow of a 4 legged beast on the wall of the inner room – probably a wolf or a jackal. He remembered the pair of red eyes he had encountered outside the cabin. Had it got inside somehow?

His first instinct was to break into a run and rush for the door. But his curiosity got the better of him and he edged towards the smaller room. As it became evident that the animal did not seem too keen to make the first move, he picked up courage and he entered the room.  There he came across a small figurette of a jackal mounted on a rocking base like a rocking horse. That had been causing the shadow on the wall. He breathed a sigh of relief.  Probably a mouse had upset the figurette. But then there was no sign of a mouse anywhere. In fact there was no sign of insects of any kind, which was rather surprising given that the cabin was in the middle of the jungle.

By now sleep had left him and he was wide awake. It was still pitch dark inside the cabin. He glanced at his watch. It showed 12.17 am – the time he had entered the cabin. The watch seemed to have stopped. So he decided to check his mobile phone. Again 12.17 am. He was puzzled. The clock of the mobile phone could not have stopped. As he puzzled over this strange phenomenon he began to sense he had been having a strange feeling since he had entered the cabin. He could not exactly fix what the feeling was but he could definitely sense some strangeness in his thoughts. It was as if someone was tugging at his thoughts and trying to reorient them. But he dismissed such speculations as a result of the symptoms of fear psychosis.

Since there was no way of knowing if it was day yet sitting inside the windowless cabin, he decided to open the door and check out. He slowly unlatched the door and opened the door a little. The sun sent its bright rays through the gap in the door showing it was day time. With the sun back in the sky, his fears took flight. He picked up his bag and walked up towards his car. He waited for around 2 hours before a jeep came by finally.

“Ahoy there!”, he shouted.

The jeep stopped. Out stepped a man in Khaki uniform, apparently a forest official.

“Car break down?”, he asked sizing the car with a piercing look.

“Yes. Can you help me?”

“Ok. Hop on to the jeep. I shall drop you at Perangudi, where you can get hold of a mechanic.”

“That would great. Thanks a lot”

As they drove on, Sanket got chatting with the Haneef, the forest official, who seemed to be quite a friendly chap. He had told him about his family back at Tirunelveli and how he dreamt of getting an award one day for catching the notorious gang of poachers.

“By the way, Mr. Dantora, you mentioned your car broke down last night? Did you spend the whole night in the car itself?”

“No. I was lucky to find that ancient looking log cabin.”

“Log cabin? I have never seen one in this area. Maybe the poachers have set up a new camp. I must investigate.”

“But it did not look recent. It looked very ancient. Maybe you can come with me when I return with the mechanic and I can show it to you.”

“Great idea!  You can come down to the forest officers Bungalow with me for dinner after that.”

It was evening by the time they returned with the mechanic. The car only had some minor problems and the mechanic fixed it in no time. So Sanket set out to show Haneef the cabin. But the cabin seemed to have disappeared into thin air. Sanket looked all around. But he could see no sign of the cabin.

Haneef shook his head knowingly “The poachers must have got wind that we are on their track. So they must have dismantled their shack.”

Sanket’s face was red. “It was a sturdy log cabin, not a poacher’s shack that can be assembled and dismantled within hours”

“Calm down, Mr. Dantara. Evidently whatever you saw last night is not here anymore. There must be some explanation for this. The jungle can sometimes play tricks with the mind, you know, especially in the night time. By the way, I hope you did not happen to try any unknown mushroom last night to satisfy your hunger.”

Sanket could get an idea where Haneef was heading. “No, Haneef. I am certain. I was not hallucinating.”

But then with no leads there was nothing to be done. So they headed to Haneef’s Bungalow for dinner. Soon Sanket was back on his way pondering over the mystery of the log cabin that seemed to have got mysteriously hidden. He wondered if he had really dreamt it all as Haneef had suggested. But he still seemed to have a tinge of the strange feeling he had experienced in the cabin. Probably it would take some time to get over the after effects of fear psychosis.

This was meant to be continued and extended into a novella. But for time being the project has been dropped. Maybe one day I will. Till then this is a stand alone short story.

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.