Summary
Highlights
The narrator, Ricky, introduces a story he has often hinted at but never fully revealed. It concerns a flat in his building where strange incidents occurred, such as a woman seeing a lady sitting on her kitchen counter at 3:30 AM and a child being scared of a 'boo' in the bathroom. He explains that he can now share the full story because the flat, which belonged to a close family friend, has finally been sold. This is a personal horror incident he witnessed and experienced.
In 2007, a family of four (parents, daughter Pratiksha, 27, and son Atharva, 17) moved into the flat. One day, while her parents and brother were out shopping, Pratiksha, an introverted girl who loved watching TV, was home alone. When her family returned, they found the TV volume extremely high and Pratiksha unresponsive to their calls. After attempts to contact her failed, a young boy named Ashu was sent through a window to open the door. Ashu fainted inside, and when an elder eventually opened the door, they discovered Pratiksha had hanged herself. Her eyes were bulging, and her body was covered in self-inflicted cuts. Shockingly, all her right-hand nails were missing, suggesting something beyond a simple suicide. The police classified it as suicide due to a love affair, but the narrator and others suspected foul play due to the unusual injuries.
After Pratiksha's death, her parents left the city in shame. The flat gained a reputation: no family stayed there for more than three months, and those who did experienced bizarre occurrences. A few years later, a Gujarati family moved in. The wife, Auntie, began to feel constantly watched. Loud screams were heard from their flat at night, especially during Amavasya and Pournima, when signs of black magic rituals (dolls, coconuts) appeared outside their door and window. Auntie's health rapidly deteriorated, making her appear much older than her 35 years. She was diagnosed with cancer and died two months later, leaving behind two young children. The narrator questions if her feelings of being watched were truly a delusion or a real presence. After their lease ended, this family also left.
Around 2012-2013, a newly married, pregnant couple from Uttar Pradesh moved into the flat, attracted by its low rent due to its grim reputation. The husband worked, leaving his pregnant wife alone during the day, though she received support from neighbors. One afternoon, while sleeping, she felt a hand caressing her head, then squeezing her throat. She awoke to see a one-year-old, coal-black, faceless baby entity laughing and choking her. She screamed, and it vanished. Despite her husband and neighbors dismissing it as a bad dream, she was deeply traumatized and began acting erratically. She once claimed her husband had locked her out while the gas was on, but it was revealed she had the keys and nothing was cooking. Another time, she pointed to an empty kitchen, claiming 'he' was calling her. Three days later, neighbors found her sitting in her window grille, crying like a baby. It was later discovered she had suffered a miscarriage and was completely insane. This incident further solidified the flat's cursed reputation.
In 2017, the flat was bought by a young man named Swapnil. During his board exams, the narrator stayed with Swapnil while his own family was away. One evening, while studying, he felt a presence and heard breathing. He looked down and saw the same black, faceless baby entity staring at him. Terrified, he ran out and spent an hour downstairs with friends. Later, Swapnil found him and asked what was wrong, but the narrator couldn't bring himself to explain. That night, he had a vivid dream where he saw Pratiksha, exactly as she had been found after her death, with bleeding cuts and rope marks. She pursued him with a knife, but instead of attacking him, she repeatedly stabbed herself, eventually decapitating herself. The narrator woke screaming, and Swapnil, who had also experienced similar dreams, realized the gravity of the situation.
The next day, Swapnil called a tantric from his village. The tantric hesitated to enter but, after calling his guru, revealed that the house was cursed by a 'daaini.' The guru instructed them to remove an old water tank above the bathroom. Behind it, they found a red cloth bundle containing a baby's skull, bones, a coconut, turmeric, and vermilion powder. The guru explained that in 1993, a poor Bengali family lived there. Desperate for wealth and a child, the wife, who practiced black magic, sought help from a tantric. He gave her a daaini – an evil spirit from Bengali folklore that grants prosperity by taking others' lives. The woman adopted a baby and, at ten months old, sacrificed it to the daaini. The skull and bones found were those of this sacrificed baby. The daaini brought the Bengali family immense wealth, but it fed on the lives of those who suffered in the flat.
The guru explained that the daaini was responsible for Pratiksha's death, the pregnant woman's miscarriage, and Auntie's illness and death. The black, faceless baby entity that appeared was the spirit of the sacrificed child. The guru performed rituals to remove the evil presence, taking the items to a cremation ground. While the daaini never returned to the house, its lingering presence continued to cause issues. After Swapnil got married, he rented the flat out and moved elsewhere. A year before the podcast, Swapnil's elderly mother moved into the flat, only to die of a heart attack two months later, despite being healthy. After this, Swapnil finally sold the flat. The narrator concludes by emphasizing the chilling reality of these events, which they witnessed over 20 years, stating that the flat remained a source of conflict and unhappiness for all its residents.