The Blessed thread - Supernatural Writing Contest by Jerry Banfield

Hello everyone this is my entry for @jerrybanfield's Supernatural Writing Contest. If you are here, I would like you to continue reading my story till the end and then go ahead and make a post of your own if you have a story to share.

Just as @jerrybanfield mentioned as well, I love reading supernatural stories and it is even more amazing to read true accounts.

This is an event that very well point out the fact that there could be "things" that exist on this planet that we might very well never understand.

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I am from India and India is a land strung tight by a lot of superstitious beliefs and rituals. A lot of them are just baseless but a lot more of them may not be. I say "may not be" because I have had some personal experiences that have forced me to to believe some of them at least.

Like they say, let's start from the beginning.

It was a pleasant evening like any other and a five year old boy like me spent the evening chasing ball in the yard. We had a huge front and back yard which, right after the immediate proximity to the house, were mostly covered in shrubs or had trees till the end of the wall.

My mom used to make evening tea for all of us at home and prepare some kind of snacks to have along with it everyday. As any other day, she called out to me from the kitchen window to come in and have tea.

Now this is a re telling of the events basis what my mom told me later. The account and the events that happened is as is, I am only taking liberty in constructing the dialogues basis how she described it to me,

"Here, have these biscuits as well." said Ma, pushing some biscuits into my hand.

"Mom! I don't like biscuits, you know that! I got to go fast."

"Haha, okay little man. What is with the hurry?" she asked.

"My friends are waiting for me to come back to play." I replied irritated with all the questioning.

"Your friends? But I thought Nishan went to meet his grandma." She raised an eyebrow.

"I got other friends too, you know. I am going." With that I ran out to the front yard again.

Ma stood at the kitchen door watching me run away until I disappeared into some high shrubs.

As often as is the case with young children, She imagined and attributed it to me up imaginary friends to play with when alone and did not give it much thought.

Everything was fine for few weeks and then I started coming to her in tears complaining and crying about how "my friends" were mean to me. She again did not spend a lot of time thinking over it and forgot them soon enough.

But one day, it changed. I had not returned back home in the evening and was not even responding to her calling my name out from the window. She walked through the yard looking for me and came to find me sitting under a huge banyan tree that we had at the front right end of the property.

I was sitting down with my face buried into my knees and the way my body was shaking she figured that I was sobbing.

She came over to me and lifted my head in her hands.

"What happened? Why are you sitting her alone and crying too?" she asked quite worried.

I did not answer anything instead turned my hand to show her the marks near my elbow. It had black marks on it in the shape of a finger almost as If someone had hit me.

"Who did this?" she asked angrily.

"These friends. They also told me not to move from under this tree."

"Enough with this nonsense. Get up. Come this me"

"Ma no.. Please no.. they said.. They will .. Please ma.."

She pulled me up. I took one step forward and turned my head back in fear and was looking up almost as if there was someone standing there and I was looking up at their face.

"Come." She said pulling me forward.

I took another step and fell unconscious.

Ma screamed for help, half crying, somehow lifted me and ran back home. I was taken to the nearest hospital. I had developed high fever and did not wake up. I stayed in the same hospital for the next three days slipping in and out.

I regained full conscious on the third but fever was still there.

I was discharged from the hospital and went home. Some of the elders from the family suggested seeing a priest considering the turn of events and how there was no explanation for the mark on my body.

I was taken to a local priest who did some prayers and instructed me to wear a red colored which was prayed and blessed by them. They also instructed my parents that these "friends" that I were seeing were apparently spirits of our ancestors who did not receive proper rites after their death and were roaming around without salvation. These spirits apparently blamed us for not taking care of all the rites that needed to be done

He ordered few rites to be performed as well which we did and surprisingly I got better the very next day. This thread that I wear have always seemed to show that they work.

I was told that I was born under a special rashi which made me more susceptible to seeing things from the other dimension as compared to others.

When I heard this story for the first time from my mother, I was quite shocked. I had no recollection of this incident at all. But everytime I doubted the use of even wearing this thread on my hand and removed them something has always happened that made me run back to wearing one. But that is a story for another time.