“This question is so hard!” Tehmia looked at the pile of math papers spread all over her bed and imagined them calling out her name like a ghost from a horror story. “Help me…” she cried softly.

Maheen rolled her eyes as she sat across the table scribbling in her notebook. “You’re such a drama queen, Tehmia. No way am I going to do your homework,” said Maheen firmly.

“But … but … don’t forget how much work I did for you last weekend,” reminded Tehmia.

“Right, your royal highness! Actually, you gave me a cold paratha while I spent hours doing your science project.”

“Ha, ha, ha!” Tehmia laughed, but she quickly stopped herself. “But I’m your younger sister,” she said sweetly.

“I don’t think being born 15 minutes later than me qualifies you for that position,” replied Maheen without looking up.

“Come on, Maheen. I’ll do anything!” Tehmia said finally.

“Anything?”

“Yes, anything.”

“Well …” Maheen said thoughtfully and her expression slowly began to change.

Ten minutes later, Tehmia found herself pushing open a creaky door. She peeked inside the dusty room filled with all kinds of junk, such as old computers, rusty wall hangings, a broken sink and antique furniture. This was their storeroom, or as they more accurately called it ‘the scary room of creepy things.’

Maheen had asked Tehmia to find a bag of ping-pong balls, which she claimed to have lost there. She said she needed them to finish her creative writing assignment.This made no sense to Tehmia, but she had agreed because this was the only way to get her math homework done.

The room looked worse than what Tehmia remembered from two years ago. She took a deep breath and went inside. Her first step landed on a squeaky toy that made a loud sound.

She stumbled in horror. Her heart was pounding, but at least she had made it inside in one piece. Phew!

The room was dark. She turned on the torch and began looking for the switchboard located at the other end of the room. Half way through, though, she realised something — the room stank! And not like normal things stink. Oh, no! It was more stinky than all the stinky things she had ever smelt!

Tehmia covered her nose with her hand to keep herself from throwing up. After a lot of climbing and jumping over oddly shaped objects, she finally made it to the other side. But as she came closer, the smell got worse.

She finally reached the switchboard, but it was blocked by a table resting against the wall.

She slid her arm behind the table and stretched it until it began to ache terribly. After a lot of grunting she managed to reach the switch.

‘Phew,’ she sighed, which was soon followed by a ‘huh?’

The switch seemed stuck! She tried to turn it on with the jerk of her hand, but the table lost its balance and almost fell on top of her. She jumped back quickly. But as she did so, she dropped the torch somewhere on the floor.

She got down on her knees and started looking for the torch. It was pitch black and the smell was also getting unbearable so Tehmia moved cautiously and felt something soft … and a bit strange on her foot. The scary room, true to its name, seemed very scary now indeed.

Finally, she found the torch!

“Oh! Thank goodness!” she exclaimed as she turned it on and pointed it towards her foot.

With horror she realised there was a dead and rotting rat under it!

She screamed and jerked backwards, banging her head against the table. Her head ached and her legs were shaking badly, but somehow she managed to tumble her way out.

When she went back to her room, Maheen was still scribbling something. Tehmia thought she heard a giggling sound.

“You look very pale, Tehmia,” Maheen said in a jolly tone. “Did you find the bag?”

“Ugh! Never mind the bag and never mind my math homework! I can do it myself.”

“Suit yourself,” Maheen replied.

The next day, Maheen proudly showed Tehmia her creative writing assignment on which she had scored an A+. Looking at the essay, it dawned on Tehmia why Maheen had needed those ping-pong balls after all. Her story was about the misadventures of a girl stuck in a storeroom!

Published in Dawn, Young World, July 13th, 2019