I was 12 years old. In the holy month of Tihar (a Hindu festival when worshiping the goddess of wealth is the prime duty for all Hindus), I began to light up all the “diyos” (oil lamps) outside our little house. The atmosphere was so beautiful as every house lit up with colorful lights. As I helped my mom make rangolis at the foot of our front door, I noticed a man watching us. He had a solemn look on his face. Our eyes met and he smiled at me. As he came walking towards us, I could feel that this man had a connection with our house. Since our house was rented, he explained that he was the younger brother of the owner of the house. We welcomed him with sweets and special rotis that Nepalese people make.

The next day, something felt different. Although it was October, it felt much chillier than what October should have felt like. I brought a portable heater into my room as my mother called me for dinner. The first thing that goes into my mouth had no taste! I was shocked because my mother’s dishes were always very tasty. I didn’t talk to her about it since I didn’t want her to feel bad about her cooking. She seemed to be confused herself; she could feel that there was something going on. A sudden change of air in the house was felt by everyone. What could it be?…

My uncle entered the dining hall looking very pale. He didn’t seem to be in a very good mood like he always used to be. He took a chair and sat by the counter. He crossed his arms and mumbled something unintelligible. My mother asked him if something was wrong. He looked at us with troubled eyes and said that something happened last night.

My uncle said,“I watched the blanket being pulled away from me… I couldn’t see who it was, but every time I pulled it up, something seemed to be pulling the blanket back again. On the corner of my eyes, I saw a beautiful woman smiling at me. She was so beautiful, I couldn’t take my eyes off her.However, that is all I remember. Then I only remember waking up feeling exhausted.”

We were so shocked to hear this that we initially didn’t say anything to him. Uncle had always been a short-tempered man, who couldn’t stand bullsh*t. Hearing him speak about the incident made me shudder a little. My mother tried to comfort my uncle. I quietly slipped into my uncle’s room and examined everything. How could a woman have gotten into this room? Maybe he was just dreaming…

As I walked my way back to the dining hall, I noticed that the door was almost closed. I heard my mom speaking in a lower voice to my uncle. “Someone choked me when I was laying on my bed in the morning. I could see her…” As I was listening to her, I felt a sudden coldness around my neck. I got so frightened that I screamed on top of my lungs. I quickly looked around me, expecting a ghost but I saw something even stranger. I was standing on the hallway and I noticed that all the doors to all the rooms were shut closed. I frantically tried to open the door to the dining hall, calling out my mom. I could hear her banging the door and finally, as I opened the door, all the other doors opened as well. I could feel every little hair on my body standing up.

I was in tears as I rushed into my mother’s arms. I saw my mom being terrified for the first time in my life. She quickly ushered all of us to go to the temple room. The temple room was where we used pray to our gods and goddesses. I remembered the rosary my dad had sent us from England. I was too scared to go back to my room. My rosary was located under my pillow; I also remembered the holy water in my room. My dad lived in England for a long time so that he could earn money for the family. Although I missed him for the first fourteen years of my life, we often exchanged letters. In one of my letters, I told him about how I was having nightmares every night. The next month, a package arrived on the door and as I opened it, I saw a beaded necklace (which I later learnt that it was a rosary) and a small note. My father’s messy handwriting said, “Dear Nani (nickname used for a child in Nepalese) Keep this under your bed. This will protect you and chase away your nightmares. I love you, Dad.” I had less nightmares ever since I kept it under my pillow. Remembering that, I asked my mom to come with me to retrieve the holy water from my room but my mom insisted that staying in the temple room was safer for the moment.

My mom lit the diyos and performed a short prayer. She then quickly put tikas (rice and red color dipped in curd, which Hindu people often wear as a protection from god) on our forehead. The reason why I had the rosary and the holy water in my room was because my father was a Christian. After everything got calm, we went back to our respective lives. I went to school and my mother went to office. My uncle, who was too terrified to stay at home, went to stay at my grandmother’s place. I was the first one to enter the house after school, however, I stayed out on the veranda that evening. I patiently waited for my mother to arrive.

I felt bored as I waited. I played with our dogs and as I turned around to chase them, I saw a face at the window of our living room. I froze. The face was awfully white and I couldn’t figure out any emotion on her face; she looked at me expressionless. I drew a cross with my tongue and she disappeared. I couldn’t tell my mom about what had happened; I was too terrified to even speak about it. My mom cautioned me not to fear. I decided to sleep in my mother’s room, while my uncle constructed a small bed for himself in the same room. I couldn’t sleep. My mother and uncle quickly dozed off but I couldn’t forget what had happened. As I was falling asleep, I saw the Chudel and I struggled to free myself but she held me down and I could feel a force within myself. I felt like I was being sucked in by her. I couldn’t move. After what seemed to be five minutes, I gathered the will to survive. I decided to hold back my fear and fight against this entity. All of a sudden, she let go of me and in a blink of an eye, she stood by the door looking at me. I noticed that her feet were backwards. I began to see her forming into something very ugly. She went to my uncle’s bed and attacked him. I saw my mother in fear. My uncle was shivering and she seemed to be doing the same thing that she had done to me.

I grabbed the holy water I had brought with me and I threw the water on her. As I held the rosary with me, I whispered to god for protection. She immediately dissipated. The room got a little lighter and all of the sudden, this heavy presence had lifted off of me.

The next day, we went to consult one of the most powerful Shamans living in Nepal. He came into our house and was immediately struck by the presence of the evil spirit. Before we even had to describe her, he described her to us. She was an entity named “Chudel” or even called “Pisaach”.These entities by nature were very hard to remove once it is let out. The Shaman also said that somebody had visited our house and released the entity to haunt us. He described the man responsible for the mess and my mom immediately recognized him.

When we went to talk to the owner about his brother releasing “Chudel” on his home, he said that he was sure his brother was capable of such damage. His brother harbored hatred for him and the tug of war between two brothers dated since long ago. His mother told us that her son (the owner’s brother) was a male witch who practiced black magic. So getting rid of the ghost was impossibly hard. This particular ghost is usually described as the revengeful dark spirit of a girl who had been murdered by her family members or died during childbirth and treated harshly by her family members. She is a lost ghost who is trapped by her own tragedy and revengeful nature.

The reason why we were not able taste food was because she sucks on food. The food, in a house haunted by Chudels, become tasteless. She also attacks mostly men at night and sucks away their blood, energy and virility. I remember she attacked me that night. When I told the Shaman about that, he said that they often do prey on girls. He said that both my mother and I could lose our fertility. He gave us two options: Leave the house or leave the house. We were confused when he said that. He explained that the ritual needed to remove Chudel was painfully hard. It would cost a lot of money and it would certainly be a waste of time for us since we didn’t even own the house.

He said that if we stay any longer in that house, we would lose our health, wealth and eventually ourselves. We definitely couldn’t risk that. We immediately started searching for a house and rented a house overnight. Even though the owner pleaded with us to stay since they insisted to remove the entity, we thought it was best to move away. Since we now know what kind of ghost it was, we never dared to come back. We were very lucky to have escaped before any real damage took place; that is when I started believing in the paranormal.

Chudels are frequently seen in the remote highways and vacant houses of Nepal. These entities come in the form of a beautiful lady but their true form is extremely vile as they transform into some sort of creature. Driven by revenge, they prey on men, women, boys and girls. They suck the blood and life of everyone and everything they set their eyes on.