A man on a work trip to Darjeeling, India, shared this story after hearing it from his jeep driver during a long mountain drive to a nearby town.
The road connecting the two towns cuts through a mostly forested, mountainous stretch — cliffs on one side, dense trees on the other. Curious, the traveler asked the driver if he'd ever experienced anything paranormal on this route.
The driver said yes — back in January 2014, something had happened to him on this very road.
He had been driving back from the neighboring town later than usual, around 10:30 at night. By that hour, the road is almost completely deserted. While driving back, he spotted a young woman standing by the roadside, waving for a ride.
Right away, something felt wrong. There was no reasonable explanation for a woman to be standing alone on that road at that hour. Worse, he knew that particular stretch had a reputation — other drivers had reported strange sightings there for years. He didn't slow down. He sped past her as fast as he could without looking back.
A little further down the road was a cremation ground. As soon as he passed it, his jeep suddenly felt heavy, like something was dragging it down. No matter how hard he pressed the gas, the vehicle wouldn't speed up.
Thinking it might be a mechanical problem, he pulled over, got out, and checked the engine and tires with his phone flashlight. Everything looked fine. As he turned back to get in the car, he froze: the same woman who had been standing on the roadside was now sitting in his back seat.
He had no idea what to do. There was nowhere to run — steep mountain on one side, drop-off on the other, no other vehicles in sight. With no real choice, he got back in, recited a short Islamic prayer for protection, and started driving as fast as the road allowed, reciting verses under his breath the whole way.
The figure, he said, looked like a young woman of about twenty, wearing a plain white sari, with her feet not quite touching the ground — flickering, almost transparent, and moving unnaturally fast whenever he glanced back.
Eventually the road led to a small market town, where two men flagged him down for a ride — common practice in that area, where people often hitch rides between towns. Relieved to have other passengers, he picked them up and chatted with them for the rest of the trip, momentarily forgetting what had happened.
After dropping the two men off at their stop, he checked his rearview mirror again — and the figure was still there. He started reciting prayers again and pressed harder on the gas. After a while, the figure seemed to dissolve, as if it had simply dispersed into the air.
He finally made it home, badly shaken, telling no one what had happened. When he went to greet his baby, the child wouldn't stop crying at the sight of him. His wife noticed he looked unwell and brought him food, but he couldn't eat. He went to bed feverish and shivering.
His mother brought him warm water, hoping it would help, but his fever didn't break. As he lay there trying to sleep, unable to stop thinking about what had happened, he became convinced the spirit had attached itself to him during the ride — which, according to local belief in that region, sometimes happens, and can supposedly be broken by shouting curses at the presence.
He tried it. Moments later, a loud, unsettling crying sound — clearly a woman's voice — came from the bathroom. The whole household heard it and came running. They checked the bathroom first, but it was empty.
Then they checked on him and found him unconscious on the floor of his room.
The family waited out the night. By morning, he regained consciousness but had no memory of what had happened after he passed out. They decided to take him to a local imam (an Islamic religious leader, also commonly turned to for spiritual matters in many Muslim communities) for help.
The imam listened to the full account and told them that whatever had attached itself to the driver that night was not benign, and could have caused serious harm. He performed a protective ritual — what's locally called a jhar-phuk (a kind of spiritual blessing using prayers, blown breath, and blessed water or oil) — and sent him home.
The man was so weak afterward that he couldn't even walk on his own and had to be carried home. He spent the next twenty days in bed before slowly recovering.
Once he was back on his feet, he returned to driving the same route — he had no other way to make a living. But from then on, whenever he had to drive that stretch alone, he always lit a cigarette first. He explained that he genuinely believed spirits are repelled by fire, and that the smoke and flame kept them from approaching.
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