Stephen had to shift to a villa plots in a lonely part of the countryside with his parents. His father worked as a forest ranger in one of the parts of India. There were stories about the place that an apparition haunted the area. The people of the village also believed in this witchcraft. The atmosphere, Stephen found around the place, was uncanny and mysterious. His parents did not believe in all these things. In the evenings they used to hear horrifying sounds and cries from the village. They were told that it was the witch doctor who performed all sorts of things to keep away evil spirits at night.

One night it was cold and wet. The weather seemed to be unpleasant and Stephen found it difficult to sleep. Suddenly in the middle of the night he “woke up by a scratching sound on his windowpane. He looked through the darkness and saw something with a strange shape trying to open the window, not able to visualise properly he groped for the torch and rushed to his parents room. But they could not find anything. Only the shrill cries of the witch doctor could be heard. Stephen became seriously ill. His father had to shift to the city. But the mystery was still there. People said that on a full moonlit night the village was haunted by a strange figure.