Flame Spectre

September 26, 2011 by Simran.C

There is an area near my house back in India, where the dead are cremated. The field is littered with pyres that are all that is left after the dead have been set a flame. Back in 2009 I was vacationing in India, it was a night in February and I had been out drinking with my cousins. After knocking back a few rounds of Royal Stag whiskey, I decided to head out for a walk. There were three of us and our route had no direction. We wandered aimlessly in the dark using our cell phones as torches. I told my cousin and other fellow a farm hand who works on our farm, to stop because I needed to take a leak.

When I began to piss I heard the urine make a sound like it was contacting something other than the soil. When I finished I was terrified to see I had accidentally peed on some sort of bone fragment. I picked the wet bone up (yea I know its gross, but don't judge me I had been drinking remember) and using my flashlight saw it had human molars and teeth, it was a jaw fragment; the bone also had teeth marks all over it like a dog or something had chewed on it.

Shaken and slightly soberer I told my companions of what happened, we came to the conclusion that some animal might have rummaged through one of the pyres and puled out a left over body skeleton piece. I told them I accidentally peed on it; they went silent but pretended like it was no big deal. Two days later I awoke early in the morning, maybe around 4 a.m, I went outside and saw our farmhand washing one of our cattle.

While we were having a conversation I spotted something which looked like a fire out in the fields. I told him that we should go check it out and that it could be serious if left unchecked, all the crops could get damaged. The farm hand looked at me and humorously said: "Saab kea aap raath ve pee raay thaay", he asked my if I was drunk from last night. I chuckled and told him to go F@!K himself, after we both had a good laugh. I filled up a bucket and walked out into the fields unaccompanied. When I was 30 feet away I saw it was a pretty large fire, yet it was relatively contained. Just then I swear it moved, the whole pillar of flame moved and in that second I noticed a dark shape in the center. I was petrified, I dropped the bucket and ran back, looking over my shoulder I saw the pillar move a blackened upper limb in my direction: I did not leave my house for one week and have not been back to India since. What I saw I have never read described before, I don't now what the hell it was, I don't know if it was a ghost a demon, no clue. I now think it was only me who saw the flame specter because I was the one who disturbed and pissed on the jaw bone fragment.

Hopefully I will grow to forget the terror I felt that morning, hopefully I never have to go back to my ancestral village...