A night in Hotel Naini

It was continuing to be a heavy downpour with frequent lightning when Tarit and Megh finally reached their much-desired Hotel after being almost 5 hours late.

It was their fourth anniversary and second honeymoon 👫, so they did a lot of research and finally zeroed in on this beautiful hotel in front Nainital Lake. It was off season, so the hotel offered them a very good package with discounts, and they just grabbed it.

They were overjoyed when they left home in the morning; this was a much-needed break they were waiting for a long time. They were still halfway through their train journey, when a torrential downpour started and suddenly the train stopped with a huge jerk. All the lights went off and everybody started panicking. After passing an agonizing hour with no certainty on what is going to happen next, they got to know that a huge tree has fallen on the train and the pantograph of the train broke in that impact, so the train cannot move now. It can only be fixed by an engineer, who will come from a nearby town, but due to heavy rain, he is also stuck.

Finally, after another two hours of wait, from torrential rain it slowed down to a drizzle, and the engineer arrived, but sadly he couldn’t repair it because it was damaged beyond repair. As a stop gap arrangement, the train authorities arranged for a coal engine to pull the train till its destination, can you beat that!!! A coal engine??

They reached their destination after much delay. That's the best the coal engine could do.... They were relieved when they reached their hotel and the staff welcomed them with a nice refreshing drink.

They were soon escorted to a nice spacious room with a beautiful view of the Naini lake. The clouds and the drizzle made the atmosphere enchanting, and both of them were mesmerized by the beauty of the nature outside their window.

But as soon as sun went down, the room became dark, and an eerie chill went up their spines 😨. They felt something was wrong, but just ignored it, thinking it may be just because of their exhaustions and the rainy weather.

They quickly freshened up as the hotel manager called and informed that they had arranged for an open-air candlelight dinner for them. The rain has also stopped by then and they also had made some nice plans on how to celebrate their special day.

They were seated in an open-air balcony with a nice view of the lake. The table was decorated with a nice table runner, a bouquet of roses, and an antique candle stand with three candles. Food was arranged nicely, and the smell of the food made them feel more hungry. But, strangely, they were the only ones there, even the waiters also disappeared, they thought they were being given some privacy to create the romantic atmosphere and enjoy their day. They were starting to enjoy the arrangements, but just before cutting their anniversary cake, Megh remembered that she brought a nice tiara to go with her beautiful dress and she wanted to take pictures in that attire 👸, so Tarit scurried back to their room to get it for her otherwise.... God knows whether he will get to sleep in the room or not…

While Tarit was gone, Megh was sitting alone in their table and enjoying the night view of the Naini valley; suddenly she heard the noise of a bunch pigeons fluttering their wings and flying away, she literally jumped out of her chair but couldn’t see any birds anywhere nearby 👀. She was so scared that she was about to run towards their room, but then she saw Tarit coming back and just as they were about to cut the cake again, both of them heard the same noise, they got literally scared; they flashed their torchlight towards every direction but couldn’t see any living soul nearby. The romantic atmosphere soon turned into a haunted one, and even the lights started looking dim, vibes became darker. They quickly finished their dinner, and with much hesitation, clicked a few pictures before hurrying back to their room.

In the room, as soon as their backs touched the bed, sleep engulfed them, they were so exhausted from their journey 😴.

Around mid-night, in her deep sleep, Megh suddenly heard a loud bang and someone, in a very deep British Accent, said, “Leave the room now.” Megh thought someone in the next room might be talking, so she went back to sleep, but within a minute, she heard the deep voice again, this time closer to her. She sprang up from the bed and woke Tarit up, within seconds, both of them heard the same deep voice again, “Leave the room now,” it sounded quite angry. By then, they were pretty sure the voice was coming from within the room; they switched on all the lights of the room, but there was no one there. Megh started shivering 😱, Tarit got goosebumps, but both of them tried to think logically and tried to go back to sleep, but as soon as they turned off the lights, the voice spoke again, and this time right next to Megh, “Leave the room now.” Megh and Tarit sprang up from the bed and ran towards the door without wasting a second.

Huffing and puffing, they reached the reception and inquired about the boarder next to their room but to their utter dismay, the receptionist was little hesitant at first but finally checked the register and confirmed that there is no one in the next room, but someone is scheduled to come next morning…they couldn’t believe him, so they demanded to take a look themselves and made him open the next room, but to their sheer horror, there was no one there. Reluctantly, both of them went back to their room, but none of them could close their eyes for the rest of the night, even they couldn’t switch off the lights as well.

Their romantic vacation turned out to be a disaster. They were not believer of paranormal activities but how could they ignore what they heard with their own ears. 

With the first sight of light, they packed their bags and checked out from the hotel. Thankfully, they found one rickshaw just outside the hotel, who offered to take them to a nearby hotel near the opposite side of the lake with good food.

On the way, the rickshaw puller told that locals never go near to that hotel in the evening, it’s believed to be haunted by an old Bitish man , father of a British woman, who fell in love with a local man, which was frowned upon by the society at the time. A fight broke out between the father and the woman's love interest and the next day the both the local man and the British woman was found dead under mysterious circumstances. The father could not tolerate the death of his daughter and committed suicide out of grief and guilt. Many guests and staff have reported flickering lights, hearing footsteps, and shouting, especially near the room where the father stayed.

Megh and Tarit was so scared that they couldn’t gather enough courage to look back at the hotel. They looked ahead and saw the beautiful sun coming up through the mountains…a new day, a new beginning.

The End

Pic credit: Google