"Not what it seems" — based on this theme, here is a short mystery story:
When the night train broke through the fog and stopped at the station, it was midnight. Anik got off alone on the platform. His destination was an old zamindar house called "Neelkuthi," which he had bought cheaply. The station master, seeing him alone, warned, "Babu, don't go there. What you see is not all true." Anik laughed it off.The next morning, after entering the house, Anik thought the station master's words were mistaken. The surroundings were incredibly calm, bathed in sunlight, and beautiful flowers bloomed in the garden. Far from spooky, the place seemed like a piece of heaven.
But the real mystery began after sunset.
- First sign: Standing in front of the huge mirror in the drawing room, Anik was startled. In the mirror, an old man stood behind him, but there was no one there in reality.
- Second sign: The fresh fruits on the dining table suddenly looked rotten and black for a second. Rubbing his eyes, everything returned to normal.
Anik felt he was losing his mind. Was he hallucinating, or was the house truly haunted?
In the middle of the night, a whispered sound drew Anik towards the library. There, an old diary lay open on the table. The last page of the diary read: "What is beautiful in this house is actually an illusion. And the one whom people think is a ghost is actually a trapped soul seeking help."
Suddenly, a shadow resembling a black figure began to move toward Anik from the wall. In fear, Anik shut his eyes. But no harm came. When he opened his eyes, he saw the shadow was crying and pointing towards a corner of the room.
Gathering courage, Anik pushed against the wall, and a hidden door opened. Inside was a pile of stolen goods and a modern CCTV control panel!At that moment, the station master entered the room with a group of people, all armed. The station master laughed, but that smile was no longer polite. He said, "Under the guise of a haunted house, we made this secluded place our smuggling headquarters. We had been scaring everyone away with projections and special effects. But you caught on to everything!"Anik realized that the real devil was man, not a ghost. Without wasting a moment, he took his phone out and turned on its speaker. The phone had already been connected to the police line. By then, the sound of police sirens began to blare outside.
As the police took the station master away, Anik looked calmly at the serene Neelkuthi. He smiled to himself—everything is not always as it seems!