STORY TIME PEOPLE!
Well…what have we here! A story telling challenge! And I have been passed on the baton to continue from where it was left off!
Rajeshwariji—of Nihshabdblog.com fame—I hope you know what you have done! I am a storyteller offscreen, which is a well-kept secret. But my onscreen avatar? Oh, she was still hiding behind the curtains (pun intended; read the story that follows for more). You have dragged her out, and here she is, unleashing her madness!
I hope I have dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s of all the rules as I am not much of a rule follower. Fingers crossed!
A big thank you to Savio Paes for starting this story relay.
The Rules of the Storytelling Challenge
Read the previous chapter, add your own continuation, nominate the next blogger, and link them up so the story can keep rolling!
No overthinking and no resetting the story. Just pick up where the last blogger left off and let your imagination take over.
Now let’s dive in, shall we?
Here’s Chapter 1 by Savio:
https://theextraaamile.wordpress.com/2026/10/30/story-time/
Here’s Chapter 2 by Rajeshwari:
https://nihshabdblog.com/2026/10/31/the-stranger-in-apartment-4402/
Chapter 3
“Oye Rory! This is right up your alley, yaara. You are the one with the khujli(itch) for the woo-woo. Chal bata, yeh ho kya raha hai, eh? (Tell us, what’s happening) What next, flickering lights?” quipped Kabir.
Everyone laughed.
Rory kept staring at the photo with that strange face he wore every time something truly struck him as weird.
“Listen… he looks familiar, no? And look at what he is wearing.”
Rory pointed to the shirt the stranger with that odd face was wearing.
“It looks like it has seen better days as a curtain,” said Rhea.
For reasons known only to him and also perhaps out of habit, Rory jolted out of his reverie and turned around to look at the balcony.
He gasped.
Hearing him swear, Arjun turned around.
“WHAT THE… !!!” he cried.
There were curtains. Pretty, dainty curtains. Curtains he never wanted.
The curtains were cornflower blue—his favorite colour. With his current obsessions—yellow creeping zinnia flowers and blushing phantom butterflies—buzzing around them.
One could almost hear them eerily flutter in the cool breeze that was flowing in.
Kabir looked at Arjun aghast.
The curtains were the same print as the stranger’s shirt.
Arjun, ashen-faced, turned to Rory.
“Guys, who is in the shower?” asked Meera as she held Rhea’s hands in a tight clasp.
Fear had now found itself a cozy place to rest.
“Jet speed wala shower, sir. Arjun could hear the broker’s oily drone-like voice the afternoon he had visited the house for a casual look-see. Something had him hooked the second he had walked in, even though he wasn’t sure if he even liked the house all that much.
Rohan and Ketan, the Champion Choudharys’ as they liked to call themselves being Chacha Choudhary fanatics since childhood, pushed the others aside to investigate. They weren’t buying the drama the others insisted on spreading across the living room.
The others silently followed them, already to their bones.
The second they walked into the bedroom, the shower went silent.
Before they could open the bathroom door, they heard the broker Jamshed in the living room.
“Oye Screwala, how the fuck did you get in?” Arjun bellowed as he came rushing into the living room. The others followed him leaving the mystery of the flickering shower aside for now.
Jamshed Screwala walked past them with a client in tow as if he was walking through glass. As if he didn’t even notice them blocking his way. As though they didn’t even exist.
“Jet speed wala showerrrrrr, sirrrr. Dekhiye(Look)!” The shower sprayed water at a speed that could wash off the sins of humanity.
“Dimag ka dahi ho gaya kya, yaaron?” (Losing your mind, my friend?) A long-ago voice walked into their ears. A gravelly laughter followed.
The strange man from the photo was seated at the dining table, laughing at the motley group of friends who were petrified and ready to wet their pants now.
Swivelling around they stared at the man.
Could it really be him?
“Chakkar aara kya Arjun miyaan, mereku dekhke? Zara aiyne mein thopda dekh re, ekdumich haula dikhra tu!”(Ready to faint, seeing me, eh Arjun? Look at your ashen face in the mirror, you look like a fool!)
The rest of his friends, horror stricken now, look at Arjun. Then at him.
They both look identical with the same cornflower blue curtain for a shirt as the phantom butterflies buzz from one creeping zinnia to the next.
To be continued…
Who I do pass the baton now? I have a funny woman with the perfect comic timing in mind. But the rules ask me to pick a man. And I do have an equally funny man with a hysteric comic timing. Sri, do you want to take this up? Fingers crossed. I really wanna know where you take this. I have a freaky ending in my mind for this house of horrors but I am excited as hell to know how you manage to take it forward with your freakish comedy. Onward ahoy!
Sri @ sriwrites We are waiting for Chapter 4. Bring it on!
If for some reason the nominated person cannot follow through, feel free to choose another.
Update: Halloween night went on an all- night binge and the story went rogue. Ofcourse what else did you expect from us WordPressians?
Sri’s Chapter 4 is live now. Follow the trail of the madness. Beware what you are getting into. Don’t tell me, I didn’t warn you! Apartment 4402 awaits…
The bhoothiya link is here: https://wp.me/pdDhkx-14h
Care to drop a tiny pearl from the ocean of your mind?