Horror
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The Seventh Step
Veena Mehta One The ancient ghat on the banks of the Narmada shimmered under the golden light of Kartik Purnima. Clay lamps floated silently on the water like drifting prayers, their flames barely flickering in the still air. Pilgrims descended the wide, weathered stone steps in silence or chant, some with folded palms, some with…
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Chalk Outline
Nikita Kaul 1 The first time Tanvi Mehra heard about the chalk outline was during her third day at St. Augustine’s Residential Academy for Girls. It was whispered between two girls in the library, their voices low but their eyes flickering with unmistakable fear. The words “outline,” “disappears,” and “Ragini” caught Tanvi’s attention like hooks…
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The Marble Ghosts of Bhedaghat
Leena Rao Chapter 1: The Moonlit Arrival Viraj Saxena’s camera bag felt heavier than usual as he made his way down the dusty path that led to the riverbank. The sun had just set, casting an amber hue over the rugged landscape of Bhedaghat, a small town nestled by the Narmada River, near Jabalpur. Known…
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The Curse of Kundalpur
Niranjan Pathak Nina Kapoor’s heart raced as the dusty roads of Rajasthan stretched endlessly before her, each turn taking her deeper into the forgotten heart of the desert. The sun was setting, casting a golden hue over the desolate landscape, turning the world into a haze of orange and pink. Nina, a young historian from…
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Mangalpur Cemetery Records
Milan Chetri Part 1: The Forgotten Graveyard The road to Mangalpur was little more than a cracked ribbon of asphalt swallowed by the forest. Raghav Mitra leaned forward in his jeep’s passenger seat, squinting at the GPS signal that blinked in and out like a dying candle. “This better not be another ghost town with…
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The Forgotten Village
Amit Joshi Chapter 1: The Legend Ravi, a historian with a passion for uncovering forgotten histories, sat in his cluttered study, surrounded by piles of old manuscripts, faded maps, and ancient scrolls. His eyes glimmered with excitement as he uncovered a fragment of a long-forgotten legend, buried deep within the annals of history. It spoke…
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The Woman Beneath the Banyan
Anvita Kale The wind changed somewhere near Sangamner. It was supposed to be a simple road trip — two nights at an eco-resort near Trimbak, a break from city noise, and an attempt to make memories. But the wind that crossed the ghats that morning smelled like dust, wet leaves, and something else Meera couldn’t…
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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐜𝐡𝐚 𝐌𝐚𝐡𝐚𝐥
N. V. Rao One Kartik Rajan had written about many strange things in Delhi—forgotten cinema halls with broken projectors still facing empty screens, a clocktower in Chandni Chowk that ticked in reverse during an eclipse, and a hermit who claimed to dream in languages that no longer existed. But when his editor slid a dusty…
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The Perfumer of Hazratganj
Shamsuddin Ansari Chapter 1: The First Scent It was the smell that reached her before the crime scene did—sharp, floral, unsettlingly sweet. Inspector Ayesha Rizvi paused at the mouth of the narrow alley in Hazratganj, where the rainwater had begun to pool like slow-moving ink. The yellow tape fluttered in the humid breeze, but it…
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The Curse of Rishikesh
Kavya Patel Chapter 1: The Legend of the Goddess Rishikesh, a serene town nestled between the towering Himalayas and the sacred Ganges River, had always been a place of peace and spiritual tranquility. Pilgrims from all over the world arrived here seeking solace, meditating by the banks of the river, and performing rituals in the…
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The Stone That Remembers
Ananya Dhar It was not on any map, and yet Netarhat had a railway station — a rusted signboard leaning sideways, with “NETARHAT” painted in half-faded red on flaking wood. Arohi Sen stepped off the narrow-gauge train with a dull ache in her temples, the kind that came from climbing too high, too fast. The…
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Chilling in Cherrapunji
Pritha Mukherjee One Ani Roy stepped off the weather-stained bus and into the wet embrace of Cherrapunji’s legendary monsoon, the rain falling in silvery sheets that blurred the world into watercolor. His boots sank into the mud as he adjusted his camera bag, glancing back at Neel, who was wrestling with their gear under a…