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Ghost stories have always had a fascination for children and adults alike. This story uses an Assamese folktale—of the Jokhini—and gives it some interesting twists. The Jokhini is a demon who lives in the forests of Assam. In traditional folklore, she is a demon who likes to lure grown men. Here, while she is the scariest of all the demons, she is lonely and friendless. Her ability to be scary gives her the only identity that she is proud of.

It is then that a little girl walks by, and all the drama in Jokhu’s otherwise boring life begins. We are told that Jokhu loved scaring little girls because ‘they screamed the loudest’. But, this girl–whose name we are not given—keeps walking calmly even as the demon swings from tree to tree and adopts tactic upon tactic to scare her. The realization that the girl is not scared of her creates an existential crisis for the demon.