Curse of the star crossed Lovers

Back in 2010, just as social media was beginning to take a firm hold on society, a deeply disturbing image went viral. The photo depicted a tragic scene of a star-crossed lovers who had taken their own life. Shared widely through WeChat, it spread like wildfire, reaching users across the globe in just a matter of days. Those from Bumthang would likely remember the incident vividly, and most Bhutanese either saw the image or heard about it.

In the wake of the photo’s circulation, a major police investigation followed. But after a few months, the public buzz started to fade. However, something far darker began to take root at the site of the tragedy; a new urban legend.

Soon after the incident, whispers of a haunting began to emerge. Locals spoke of two ghostly figures, murmuring, crying, and wailing in the dead of night. Though religious ceremonies were held at the site by Lamas and other spiritual leaders, the rituals failed to fully cleanse the place. A sinister presence seemed to linger, growing stronger with every retelling of the tale. As fear and rumors fed into each other, the place became known as cursed.

People started to avoid the area altogether. At night, eerie noises could be heard echoing from the site, chilling those who lived nearby. Increasingly, locals began falling ill, and astrologers consistently pointed to that very place as the source of misfortune.

Despite repeated attempts to purify the location, the malevolent energy, believed to be the unresolved anguish of the two ill-fated lovers, proved far more powerful than anyone had anticipated. It wasn't until lives were lost that people began to grasp the true magnitude of the curse.

One night, a group of young men, intoxicated and skeptical, joked about the entire legend. One of them, brash and confident, declared that the haunting was nothing but superstition. Determined to prove his point, he bet he could spend the night beneath the tree where the suicide had occurred a year earlier. His friends, playing along, upped the challenge: stay there for just one hour after midnight, and they’d reward him with twelve bottles of beer.

That night, slightly tipsy and trying to hide his nerves, the young man was dropped off at the haunted site around 11:30 PM. His friends were to return at 12:30 AM. They drove off, leaving him with a flashlight and a bottle of beer.

But as they left, a sense of unease crept over a few of them. Feeling guilty, they decided to turn back early to check on him. They found him halfway down the road, stumbling toward them pale as a ghost and visibly shaken.

He leapt into the car, barely able to breathe or speak. Drenched in sweat, he trembled uncontrollably. Moments later, he began convulsing his body thrashing, his head whipping side to side. Then he began crying, clawing at his own face, tearing away skin.

His three friends tried to restrain him, but he flung them aside effortlessly, as if possessed by some unnatural strength. His eyes turned blood red as he wailed, yanking out clumps of his own hair until patches of his scalp were bare.

He finally broke free, flinging open the car door and escaping into the night. His friends chased after him, horrified, only to see him dragging his own face across the rough tarmac, leaving behind a trail of blood and skin. When he looked up, they gasped in terror his face was raw and unrecognizable.

Terrified, they watched as he stripped off his clothes and began scratching at his own neck, tearing at his skin. Wailing in agony, he vanished into the darkness.