Elecktro-Geist, or Something In The Powerlines
Jak Alam
Elecktro-Geist, or Something In The Powerlines
by Jak Alam
Copyright © 2025 by Jak Alam
All Rights Reserved
First Digital Publication January 2025
Cover Design by Finnialla Wright
Published by PULP Literary Magazine pulplitmag.com
In the Shadow of the Ancestor
I was awoken from my slumber by the collision of my face with the seat in front of me
Our Toyota HiAce had finally reached the village and was slowly making its way through the uneven and broken brick road
Everyone else who fell asleep, including my sister-in-law, who sat beside me, had woken up as well
It was almost evening, with some sliver of sunlight still illuminating the lake that the brick road went around
One wrong move and loose dirt, and the four wheel would have fallen into the lake, which looked green and nasty with slime. I wondered if any fish lived in it.
The driver drove cautiously, though the car kept bouncing, but after a while the hard part was over and we came up on a patch of brick road that was smooth and even
Soon, we were there, we had arrived at the ancestral family home.
It had been in my father’s family for generations. It was a decrepit colonial house, looking like the residence of some horrible witch
Unnatural silhouette of the structure forcefully imposed against the background of greenery It felt both out of place and out of time
It laid further into the village than any other house, so much so that it could be considered outside of the village
Two of my cousins rushed to the car to greet us and help with the luggage Our whole extended family seemed to have arrived before us
One by one, my parents, my sisters, my brother, and my sister-in-law, all descended from the vehicle
Upon entry, greetings were widely thrown and my brother’s new bride was the object of much attention. While our rooms were getting unlocked and opened, my sister-in-law was ambushed by a crowd of children, varying from the ages of 3 to
8, asking for salami money in advance for tomorrow The devious, little imps
We stashed up our luggage and set up beds in the allocated rooms of the house A bit of cleaning was in order
Obviously, as the younger, responsible brother, I had to play star-assistant to my sister-in-law’s cleaning efforts
As I cleaned out the cobwebs in the corners, my sister-in-law called out to me
She had a stack of yellowed papers in her hands, some looked like pages ripped out from an alphabet book with faded images and crayon doodles
“Looks like someone was drawing here”
Out of the stack, she pulled out a paper and showed me It had some drawings of some figures on it
The drawing depicted some stick figures that could be considered as human, with one even wearing a tupi
And in the middle of all of them, was this big thing in brown, with big red eyes and claws
“Some creepy drawings,” she muttered
The house was quite massive, but not very friendly to look at or inhabit. But it was what it was A piece of family heritage that still stood with patches
My family was accommodated in rooms on the 1st floor, while my sister-in-law was moved to a separate room on the 2nd, which had been refurbished just for her.
After all greetings were said and done, my middle brother instructed my dearest sister-in-law to always ensure that the heavy duty windows were closed before sundown
She chuckled and scoffed at his instructions, but after further re-emphasizing by me and my older sister of the importance of following this instruction to the letter, she nodded in understanding.
The first night was as expected Cousins chatting around the dining room, the adults conversing in the confines of the master bedroom, my sister-in-law complaining of hearing voices coming from outside.
The second night was almost as expected. After a busy day of Eid prayers, visiting the homes of neighbors and relatives, a lot of cooking, my sister-in-law complaining of lack of sleep and feeling like she was being watched and stalked by something
On the third night, as is custom in our family, my sister-in-law was brought up to the attic of the family home The elders were in attendance As was the Ancestor
He was so big that he could barely fit himself in that cramped attic He had to be in a squatting posture at all times
As was to be expected, my brother’s wife was distressed and mortified when she was brought before the Ancestor to receive his “blessing”
It was a custom in my family that whenever a new member was born or brought in, they would have to be presented to the Ancestor to receive his “blessings.”
My sister-in-law had to be held firm and dragged forward by the elders She had been rendered unresponsive upon laying eyes on the monolithic visage of the creature that defied any natural explanation
I don’t think there is any explanation for it The Ancestor has been with the family for as long as anyone could remember He is ancient Even my fervently religious parents didn’t think twice about venerating someone other than Allah. According to my grand uncle, my entire family line had descended from the Ancestor
My grand uncle had a habit of not being forthcoming with all the exact details.
Despite the dreadful sight of him, the Ancestor felt like a member of the family to me
Though my dear sister-in-law was of the opposite opinion; she screamed, struggled and begged me for help as the elders brought her within inches of the Ancestor’s grasp.
He stretched out his right hand and brought two of its inhuman sized fingers to bear upon her head.
As was usual, by the afternoon, everyone packed up and was ready to depart from the ancestral home Rarely did anyone stay for more than three nights, due to work or other obligations
Our ride arrived just in time for the sun to set We hurriedly loaded everything up and double checked that the house was sealed shut
The mood was jubilant among my family, except for the moods of me and my brother as we dealt with back and joint pains from all the luggage hauling
My sister-in-law was most joyous as we departed, she even expressed to my mother how she wanted to bring her sisters next year. My mother happily obliged to the idea
Evening came and the sun vanished, looking back at the house as we departed. Last I saw was a swarm of flying, blackish blotches engulfing the three story structure until the silhouette vanished into the distance.
Every night those things would come out of the woodwork and try to break into the house. And every night, the Ancestor would cower and whimper in the fear that they’d eventually break in
All My Co-workers Are Dead
gore, violence, mention of pedophilia
Once upon a time, there existed a fantastical place called the headquarters of Rotonda Transnational It was situated in your average metropolis, nestled between the arteries of multinational trading and industry
It was a place of diversity, modernity, equality, and integrity Or at least that’s what they readily advertised on their promotional materials
This was what first drew in a drained, if still optimistic, young man named Abdullah Yousha
But once again, like joining a university club with the expectation of proactivity and fun, he found reality to be wholly disappointing.
Underneath Rotonda Transnational’s beautified veneer, there was rot that permeated like the roots of a tree Mismanagement, fraud, negligence, harassment, sexual abuse Like a heap, it accumulated The rot started as a small pile, things you can hide away in a single cabinet, but then it bursted out to take up a room. Then an entire floor Eventually flooding the entire building With the concrete and glass holding back the tide of sludge that threatened to break free of its confinement
There was a vile stench that emanated out of it, and something picked up the scent.
“It” was attracted to the odor
“It” dove head first into the whirling cesspool, and settled in, working its way into the very fabric of the company
Then one day, “It” got promoted
The very same day, Yousha had filed a complaint for workplace harassment and lack of vacations This resulted in him getting assigned increased unpaid overtime
Clicking noises pervaded the office interior Two employees typed incessantly on their mechanical keyboards Sitting opposite one another were Mila and Yousha, both cubicles equally cluttered with stacks of files, both parties equally glued to their computer screens
Mila dozed off now and then from exhaustion From time to time she would fall asleep and wake up to find herself face down on the keyboard. At which point, she would proceed to delete the resulting amount of typos and get back to working on the reports that she was to review, complete, and submit in an orderly fashion.
Opposite her, Yousha was tired and drowsy, but with the help of copious amounts of sugared-up coffee, he pushed through his work with speed and efficiency, not minding his migraines and aching eyes
Mila leaned back from her computer and stretched her arms, letting out a noticeable yawn
Yousha kept on his task, typing away at his keyboard
Click, click, click, click, click
Click, click, click, click, click.
Mila rose from her dazed state and looked up from her monitor She turned her eyes to Yousha.
He sat with a straight back, a notepad in one hand and a calculator in the other.
Mila sensed this might be an opportunity to say something she had wanted to say She straightened her back and tightened the satin tie around her collar.
She let out a slight cough and proceeded
“So, is it okay if I send you the final draft of the Lafarge account tomorrow?” she asked.
“Sure, send it to my email by the evening,” he answered
Mila went back to her computer screen, and a period of silence followed Yousha engrossed himself in reading the contents of a manual
Once again, Mila felt an urge to say something and she gazed at him once more
“Hey, ar-are you free on Wednesdays ?” she asked
“No,” he answered
“Oh, when.. are.. you free, then?” she asked.
“I have work all the time,” he answered plainly, his dead eyes reflecting the monitor’s glow
“Do you have a girlfriend?” she asked him.
Turning over a page in the manual, he answered her, “No”
Hearing his answer, her eyes widened and a semblance of a smile came upon her face.
“Can I be your girlfriend?” she asked
Yousha put down the manual face down and grabbed his almost empty mug and took a sip from it He then said to her, “Go fuck yourself,” and picked up the manual to continue from where he had paused.
“What, I’m sorry, I didn’t get that,” she said to him. Her eyes widened.
She smacked her lips and posed another question, putting on a dazzling smile, “Let me take you out to dinner first. I’ll take you out to lunch or dinner perhaps. I know a really good place that has killer fried rice”
“No, thank you ” he said to her
“I might not be much to look at right now, but I tell you, give me an hour and I’ll be looking like a runaway model” she said
He didn’t reply. He kept on with his reading.
Mila just gawked
“Hey, come on, let’s not be rash I’ll pay for everything, come on!” Her face blushed and she smiled faintly.
He didn’t say anything
“I’ll let you touch my nipples, I promise!” she said
He didn’t react.
“You can fuck me in the ass in the bathroom right now, come on, go out with me! Just one time!” She begged him as tears welled up in her eyes
Still he ignored her pleas and kept on with his reading.
She couldn’t hold it in anymore, she covered her face and let the tears stream down her cheeks.
Yousha finished his reading as Mila sobbed. He went back to his work on the keyboard
Mila’s whimpers and the clicking sounds of the mechanical keyboard pervaded the room, and it was business as usual
An hour passed without any words.
Mila sat slouched in her adjustable chair She looked at Yousha, who worked tirelessly on his computer, chugging occasionally from his one liter bottle.
She sneered at him
“Why,” she asked, her voice cracked Black streaks ran down her face
“Why?” she asked, louder “Why won’t you go out with me?”
Yousha didn’t move, he answered without looking, “Because I have work to do.”
“Like hell! You aren’t the only one, ” Mila scoffed “Everyone around us has work to do, and everyone around has free time! Just tell me you have a girlfriend, or if you ’ re into guys ”
He stopped for a moment and finally looked at her, “Look around us and tell me who else is here.”
Mila, thinking it to be a joke, chuckled and turned her head to her surroundings
Soon, she was faced with a revelation They were surrounded on all fronts by scores of work stations whose occupants were presently lacking any heads
“Guess it was so traumatizing that you made yourself forget” Yousha said, looking around the room.
Decayed heads dotted the floor Blood staining the carpet in brownish hues
Mila’s brain tried its best to process what was infront of her but when confronted with the scene of corpses dressed in their work day best, It caused what can be best described as a train derailment in her logic
Yousha went back to his assignment. “Get back to finishing your work for the day, and go out to enjoy the vacation”
“Va..ca..tion…?” She stuttered.
“Yeah. I’m done with mine.” he plainly answered.
The noise of an ascending elevator sounded from the hall
The elevator stopped at this floor, its clunky doors sliding slowly open
In the room, Yousha collected his things, turned off his computer, and threw scraps into the dustbin While Mila settled into a catatonic state, still processing the carnage around her.
The noise of footsteps, loud and heavy, replaced the familiar noise of clicking keys and papers shuffling about. The footsteps grew closer.
Mila sat still in her chair, unmindful of the racket of heavy thumps until a large shadow encompassed her
She slowly turned her head around Her eyes widened and her breathing became heavy.
A being stood in front with countless arms, a grotesque almost human face, horns where eyes should be, and a blubbery mass for a body.
“I got a situation Wanna lop someone ’ s head off Which one of ya didn’t finish their work for the day?” It inquired Yousha stood up from his chair, jacket in hand, pointed his arm at his colleague.
“She hasn’t finished her work for the day and has failed to complete any of the tasks assigned to her in the past 6 months.”
He bluntly added: “Furthermore, she has been harassing me and verbally abusing me for declining her sexual advances Along with that, I’d like to report that Ms Barua has been embezzling money from the company for her own personal use ”
Mila displayed a face of shock to his statement She rotated her head to the being that was now staring right at her Into her very being
The towering executive’s expression had turned serious, stern
“Ms Barua, I am severely disappointed in your actions Not only have you feigned ignorance to your duties and conducted yourself in a shameless manner against the wishes of your fellow colleagues, but you have also violated the sanctity of the trust that is instilled between employee and employer through the company charter For such sacrilege against company values, I hereby terminate your employment Effective immediately”
“Wait, what?’ she said, flabbergasted, her eyes still dazed.
A brief silence fell upon the space The monstrous being cast its multiple protruding eyes onto Mila like a gaping abyss. She gazed back into the gaping abyss as well, not even a quiver of sound escaped her open mouth
Yousha turned his attention to the hanging clock in the distance, by the dozen or so desks to the south wall, where the computer monitors had a reddish brown tinge to their glow.
The being’s expression changed and gave way to a grinning smirk
“Enough with formalities, off with your head now!” It swung one of its arms, which transfigured into the form of a blade
Her head fell onto the floor, spilling bits of blood on the furnishing Her body didn’t budge from its posture and it would likely occupy that chair for many days to come
“I got it in one fell swoop, nice!! I’m the greatest of all time!!” the executive broke out into a maniacal gaggle like a little kid that had just won a race against his entire school by breaking everyone ’ s legs, the unsettling sound of its laughter echoed throughout the interior.
It then reared its head towards Yousha and extended one of its arms, which held an envelope
“Good job. Yousha. Here’s your pay and vacation bonus. You’ve earned it.”
Yousha put on his best smiling face, and extended both his arms to receive the envelope. “Thank you, sir.”
“By the way, when can you finish the plans for Project 420?”
“I’ll have it finished three days before your assault on the Ebenezer Academy for Disadvantaged Children.” He remarked, looking straight into the parade of eyeballs.
“Outstanding! Also I grabbed myself a few new pieces of meat, wanna join me? I got a premium ting, she got big lips, titties, you name it Plus she’s 14 What do you say?” The executive’s multiple eyes scanned for even the slightest twitch in the star employee’s face.
Yousha kept on his bestest smile, resonating with the politeness of a Tier 1 salesperson, “Thank you for your generous offer, sir. But I prefer 2D girls. So I’ll have to pass on that”
“Shame! Oh well, more meat for me, and I can get my beatin’ and eatin’ on See ya on the 6th”
Yousha trotted over to the elevator and descended to the ground floor Proceeding to go on his long-awaited vacation
Elektro-Geist, or Something In The Powerlines
Greetings to fellow travelers of the unknown and fellow Bengalis alike So before we get to the article I’m gonna put in a disclaimer that I’ll be using terms like “Cryptid”, “Creature”, “Predator” and “Entity” interchangeably to refer to today’s subject ***
In Bangladesh, power lines and electric poles are part and parcel of the day to day landscape In the cities especially, the gray, concrete poles can almost be seen as replacements for the green trees.
These power lines, a fixture in the skyline, are often tangled up with haphazardly placed ethernet cables and television lines.
It’s not unheard of maintenance workers working on the powerlines, birds and even passersby to get electrocuted. Even resulting in the loss of life.
But not everyone is convinced of such incidents being freak accidents.
Some are convinced that there’s something in the power lines that’s preying on unsuspecting victims.
On today’s subject matter, we’ll be looking into the topic of whether there’s a predator lurking in the electrical power lines of Bangladesh.
For some time now, reports and sightings of a supposed supernatural entity lurking in the powerlines have been making the rounds in supernatural circles of the Bengali part of the net
Eyewitness reports state the entity or creature to be either amorphous or a tiger with blue pigmentation that manifests out of the powerlines to pounce on its victims
While the majority of reports say the creature predominantly is seen moving through the powerlines, some eyewitnesses have reported seeing the creature prowling the streets strangebengalblogspotbd author: Dakshinaranjan
The entity has become a sort of cryptid, with people attributing several unspecified animal attacks and deaths as proof of its existence.
A notable death that’s attributed to this electric predator is that of Mushfiq Hasan.
Officially the story goes that Mushfiq Hasan died of a concussion resulting from debris falling on his head after a transformer blew up on a nearby electric pole. He had been coming back from the bazaar with bags full of groceries
But to some, not everything is as meets the eyes. According to the most accepted alternative retellings of the incident, Mushfiq Hasan had found himself in the gaze of the electric cryptic and subsequently tried to escape his stalker, only to walk right into its ferocious maws via the transformer on the electric pole
On the Women of Dhaka subreddit, a user posted about seeing something like a tiger traversing the power lines while stuck in traffic in Mirpur
Many in the realm of cryptozoologists and supernaturalists of the country have been thoroughly debating the nature of the supposed killer entity
None have been more vocal about their opinion on the matter than the president of the Bangladesh Cryptozoological Research Foundation and the Chittagong Cryptozoological Survey Organization, Ali Abdullah Maudhan, a controversial public figure who has long been ostracized by the Bangladeshi intelligentsia for his outlandish claims He has recently written several editorials on the issue and made a Facebook post that quickly went viral
In his post, Ali Abdullah Maudhan went in depth about the basics of the creature, the first confirmed reports, and the most popular theories about the nature of the supposed cryptid
And then he went on to posit his own theory, he claims that through a source of his, he got “his hands” on a Tatmadaw (Myanmar Armed Forces) investigation report This “alleged” report goes into detail about a recent investigation into a mysterious explosion that occurred when a group of kids in Myanmar’s Chin State, stumbled into an abandoned bunker that had been secretly constructed by the Imperial Japanese Army(IJA) during World War Two
According to “supposed” documents retrieved “allegedly” by the Bureau of Special
Intelligence, the site was being used as both a lab and a storage facility for weapons that the IJA believed would aid them immensely in their conquest of Bengal.
Manifests listed a particular weapon of interest to the Ali Abdullah, A Raiju Raiju is a legendary creature of thunder and lightning from Japanese Mythology.
Ali Abdullah speculates that the Raiju held at the bunker had been in a state of hibernation after being forgotten by its human captors, and was awakened by the intrusion upon its lair And subsequently trotted its way across the border into our country.
This revelation sent the internet into a frenzy and also stirred up a bit of an outrage towards the Myanmar authorities for keeping mum about such a dangerous creature jumping the border
Some readily accepted the theory while others debated the veracity of his claims, with some even arguing about the impossibility of such a creature making its way to Bangladesh to lurk in the power grid instead of returning to prowl the skies over the Pacific Ocean, which Ali Abdullah claims to be its natural stomping grounds
So far, Ali Abdullah has refused to come forward with proof for his claims.
In the supernatural camp, theories range from electro-plasmatic remnants of electrocution victims to the ghost of an animal or a maintenance worker
Amrita Saha, Dhaka based popular instagram astrologist and writer of the “Mirpurer Shakchunni” Tumblr blog, theorizes that the entity is a vengeful spirit familiar set loose by a practitioner of the dark arts intentionally or unintentionally
Rafikur Rahman Emon, front man of the Saigon Pandits rock band, who has recently been mired in allegations of inappropriate behavior with underage fans, argued on a podcast, that the entity was a metaphysical manifestation of people’s subconscious fear of depending on electricity
Commenting on the aberrant problem of loadshedding, he put forward that the inability of the capitalist government to meet the power needs of the masses had inflicted psychological trauma upon the working class, which resulted in the masses projecting their vulnerability onto a visible zeitgeist to cope with the trauma
Rafikur also lambasted Ali Abdullah Maudhon’s theory of the Raiju He decried Ali Abdullah Maudhon a fascist and further emphasized Ali Abdullah’s habit of incorporating the Japanese empire and World War 2, one way or another into his theories, no matter how implausible. Equating him to Graham Hancock, a controversial personality who promotes pseudo historical theories
He stated his belief that the attacks would cease once the government adopted communist ideals and gave stable power distribution to the masses
Not everyone is convinced that there really exists such a supernatural predator that perches itself on the electric poles like a gargoyle on those old gothic churches
There are many who believe it to be a hoax or a figment of people’s overly active imaginations or a case of shared psychosis
Turkish-Bengali psychologist, Alina Boz believes that the entity is not real but is merely an anxiety induced boogeyman of sorts She states shared psychosis fueled by social media to be the only rational explanation to the phenomenon.
Mithila Hoque, a journalist for the Daily Republican, even drew comparison between descriptions of the creature, Ali Abdullah’s claims and the monster from a recently released Korean movie that became a box office success in Bangladesh
In the movie, a small city is terrorized by a beast that only moves through electrical currents and devices The beast in the movie is referred to as a Raiju and the design of the beast is based on that of a Sumatran tiger
She then went on to talk about the impact of movies and other media on public perceptions of cryptids and supernatural entities Citing examples such as the Chupacabra and the Flat Woods Monster, and how the first wave of witnesses described the creatures with references to movies or other media that they watched or read recently
In lieu of this, web sleuths have started to search for the source of the first initial report
If it turns out to be a hoax, it would not be the first of its kind but surely one of the most successful attempts at making the Bengali population believe in a cryptid. Creating a bengali cryptid of the modern era
But what if it is true? What if there is something, a ferocious predator, traversing through Bangladesh’s tangled and twisted rows of power lines, stalking and waiting to unleash itself on unwary prey.
It remains to be proven or disproven definitely There’s no sign of it disappearing from the popular conscience anytime soon. Maybe it is real if you believe in it and fake if you don’t believe in it
Maybe you just have to be staring at the transformer sitting atop the pole and the black appendages sticking out from all its sides, and maybe, just maybe the eyes of the beast will return your gaze. Hopefully sparing you.
Jak Alam is a writer of Speculative Fiction, based in Chattogram, Bangladesh. He hopes to keep honing his craft and write stories that people will enjoy or atleast not think that it's a terrible concept. For any writing inquiries, you can shoot your shot at ethos493@gmail.com."