Animal Instinct
“Do you know that we played with the spirits in school?” Kavita asked her cousins who were seated in a circle around her.
“Ya, right. You want us to believe that?” The rest of the cousins replied, giggling.
Kavita went on to telling them all about it. They had gathered at their grandmother’s house for the weekend. Not going back the next day, they could stay up late and tell stories.
As usual, they ended up talking about the ghosts.
Butch, their grandmother’s dog had joined them. A faithful dog, Butch had been with the family for seven years and was much loved by all. It sat next to Kavita quietly, as if listening to their tales.
As the night got darker, the ghost stories got more hair-raising. Everyone was so engrossed in the stories that they did not realise that their surroundings had become dead quiet, and a scent of frangipani filled the air. No one, but Butch, noticed this.
Suddenly, Butch started to howl. The girls were startled, and many let out a scream. Baring his teeth, Butch barked loudly at the space off the veranda. The girls saw no one there. They tried to call Butch back, but he did not respond. Unsure as to what to do, they all thought that Butch had gone mad.
All this while, Butch’s barking had drawn the attention of Kavita’s uncle. He came out and told the girls to get into the house immediately. He remained outside, however.
From the inside of the house, the girls could see that he was chanting something under his breath. Butch had stopped barking. After that, Kavita’s uncle soon came in with Butch.
The girls were terrible curious as to what had happened and all of them pestered him to explain. The uncle said nothing and told them all to sleep.
It was until the next morning that the uncle told them never to talk about ghosts after dark, for the ghost stories they had said to each other had attracted the unwanted attentions of the supernatural. Talking about them attracts them. Just like we like to listen to gossip about people, they too like to hear what there is to be said about them.