Police constable Shankar Chettri stood up from his chair, felt his head swim, and then sat back again. His seat was still, but the world around him seemed to turn. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and clutched the arm of his chair with both hands.

“Are you alright, constable Shankar?” a voice floated to his ears, and he almost jumped to his chair. The incidents of the past few days had left constable Chettri shaken. A few days ago, Chettri almost got shot by a criminal, and since then, he hadn’t been his usual carefree self.

“I’m sorry, boss. It’s just that I..”

“You don’t have to be sorry, Shankar. It’s perfectly fine. You put your life at risk to catch a criminal,” said police inspector Ravi Pandey placing his hands on Chettri's left shoulder. “The department thinks you need a break."

“That’s really kind of you, boss. But you don’t understand. Working on cases makes me feel alive. If I don't work, I become sweaty and jittery. I need some action, and I need it quickly."

Pandey drew a deep breath and said, “I won’t force you to take a break, Shankar. But, whenever you feel like having one, just tell me. I will grant you two weeks of paid leave.”

Just then, the phone rang. Chettri immediately picked up the receiver and answered the call.

“Hello, this is Nepal Police. How can we help you?”

He could hear someone breathing heavily from the other end. Chettri sank to his chair and held his breath while waiting for the caller to speak.

“Hello, police. I think there is a ghost in my house,” the lady whispered.

“I’m sorry, ma'am. Can you repeat that?”

“A ghost. There's a ghost in my house. Please come as soon as possible. I was in my house's hallway when I heard a noise from the first floor. I went upstairs to check, and I saw this man with a very fair complexion. The sight scared me and I looked away and screamed. When I checked again, the man had already disappeared. I live alone in my house, and for the last few days, I have felt the presence of someone else in the house. Please come save me," she said.

Chettri's heart began to race.

The lady then proceeded to give her address. The police department debated whether to send their officers to attend to such an absurd case.

“I don’t think we should investigate ghosts. We are the police, not ghosthunters,” said Pandey.

Chettri stood still and stroked his chin. He didn't agree with his senior's assessment.

“The way in which she said it was very convincing. She seemed genuinely scared,” said Chettri.

Pandey agreed to let Chettri check on the lady.

The house was located in Gyaneshwor. When Chettri rang the house's doorbell, he suddenly felt the whole thing was childish and wanted to return to the police station. But before he could change his mind, a lady opened the door. He could see fear in her eyes. Chettri took out his pistol, signalled the lady to stay quiet, and started searching the house.

He checked the house thoroughly and didn't see anyone. He then checked the windows for any signs of a break-in. There were none. At this point, he decided to have a conversation with the lady.

The lady’s name was Sunita Bista.

“Ma'am, I just checked everything, and I don't think there is anybody else in the house besides you. Are you sure you saw someone?"

“Yes, I am sure I saw someone. He had a very, very fair complexion and receding hairline. He was wearing a pant and nothing else. He even had red hair on his chest," said Bista.

“Do you have any idea how the person must’ve entered your house, ma'am?”

Chettri paused. A set of large footprints on the floor caught his attention.

“Are those your footprints, ma'am?”

“No. They are too big to be mine. Those must be the man’s footprints.”

Chettri took out his phone and took a few photos of the footprints. He knew that the lady was telling the truth; someone had indeed entered the house. He assured the lady that the police would look into the case and left.

The next day, the police started asking the lady's neighbours if they had seen a very pale-skinned man with red hair in the neighbourhood. Everyone said they hadn't seen anyone that fit the police's description.

Meanwhile, the forensics team that had examined the photographs of the footprints informed Chettri that the suspect was around 5’10" man with a slight limp on his left leg.

A few days later, Chettri was patrolling the lady's neighbourhood and he decided to visit her. As he neared her house, what he saw shocked him. He saw a man with very pale skin and red hair sitting near the window of the second floor of the lady's house.

He immediately radioed his senior and asked for backup.

When he got information that the backup was nearby, he knocked on the Bista's house door.

She greeted Chettri casually and asked him to come in.

“Ma'am, who is the guy walking around on the second floor?” Chettri asked.

The lady staggered backwards and uttered a sharp cry, “Is he up there? Please save me.”

The woman began to tremble, and Chettri held her hand and told her to calm down. Just then, the backup team arrived at the location. He asked a police officer to take the woman somewhere safe.

Chettri and Pandey led two teams of officers and started searching the house. For the next two hours, the two teams checked the entire house, but they didn't find anybody.

Pandey turned to Chettri and asked, ”Shankar, are you sure you saw the man in this room? Ever since the shooting incident, you have been acting strange. Are you sure you didn’t just imagine all these things?”

Chettri felt insulted by Pandey's remarks, making him very angry. He stared at Pandey, and a nervous silence lingered in the room. The junior officers in the room looked at one another uncomfortably.

Just then, everyone heard a creaking sound come from the attic.

Pandey signalled everyone to head to the attic quietly. When they opened the door to the attic, they saw a man hiding there.

When the officers shone their flashlights on the man, he started pleading,

“Please do not hurt me. I am not trying to harm anyone. I just wanted someplace to stay. I swear to god, I haven’t hurt anyone. Please believe me.”

When the person emerged from the darkness, the police realised that the man was a person with albinism, which explained the woman's description.

The police arrested the man immediately and took him to the police station. The man confessed that he was a homeless man who had been living in the lady’s attic for a week. One day she had left the house unlocked to buy groceries, and he had snuck into her home to steal food. But when she returned earlier than he had expected, he hid in her closet. Soon, he discovered the attic and camped there, coming out only twice or thrice a day to get food and to use the bathroom on the second floor.

Inspector Pandey apologised to Chettri for insulting him. Chettri finally decided to take two weeks of paid leave.