Chapter 10 First Step Toward Neelmukhi
Aarav sat at the edge of his father's bed holding Bhaskar's cold blue tinged palm between his own warm hands. Each of Bhaskar's breaths was a barely audible whisper. The room smelled of antiseptic and fear.
The door opened softly. Arushi her face bearing the exhaustion of a sleepless night and traces of tears entered silently and sat beside Aarav. She rested her head on her younger brother's shoulder as if leaving all her strength there.
Aarav her voice was a broken whisper What has happened to Papa. How how will we cure him now.
Aarav raised his hand and stroked her hair like he used to when she was scared in childhood. His own voice carried a strange steadiness hiding the earthquake within. Didi Papa will get better very soon. I will cure him. Papa has contracted Neelhitoshi disease. And only one thing can cure this disease. I just have to bring it. From the Himalayas. I will return soon.
Arushi lifted her head a spark of faith visible behind the fear in her eyes. She held Aarav's cheek and hand as if the thread of her life was tied there. I have complete faith in you Aarav. Just take care of yourself. Without you we
Aarav cut her off bringing a light reassuring smile to his face. Yes Didi. I will take care. Promise.
He packed a small bag warm clothes water dry fruits and a small old photograph where all three of them were laughing together. He placed the photograph in the innermost pocket of the bag. Like a talisman.
One last kiss on Bhaskar's forehead. A tight hug for Arushi containing all the promises he could not say. And then he stepped out the door carrying a bag on his back and a mountain like burden on his heart.
The Delhi morning was draped in a hazy sheet. Aarav's steps led him toward the metro station. Every sound on the way the chai vendor's call a school bus's horn someone's argument seemed to come from far away from underwater. His world had now shrunk to just three things his father's blue skin the map of the Himalayas before his eyes and the fifteen days slipping away.
The metro station looked like the mouth of a gigantic metal fish. He bought a ticket passed through the gate. The crowd carried him along. Everyone here was in a hurry for their own destination surrounded by their own worries. None of them knew that the boy walking among them had set out on an impossible quest to save his father's life. This loneliness was heavy but it also gave him strength.
The train arrived rumbling on its tracks. He stood in a corner pressed against the window. City scenes began to pass outside tall buildings dirty slums garbage heaps then suddenly a green park. These fragments of life gave him a strange peace. He clutched his bag to his chest. His blurred reflection in the window asked him a question Can you do it. What do you know about mountains.
He closed his eyes. For Papa. For Didi. For me. He placed his hand on the pocket with the photograph.
The train entered a long tunnel. Sudden darkness. Now only his clear reflection remained in the window and what. Just behind him in the crowd a glow.
He turned quickly to look.
At the other end of the coach above people's shoulders a pair of eyes met his directly. Those eyes they were not golden. They were a deep luminous purple. With a strange mechanical gleam. And they were staring at him unblinking without any emotion. For a moment beneath those eyes he saw a loose purple scarf or something else.
A shiver ran down Aarav's spine. This was no ordinary gaze. It was surveillance. Perhaps Aagya Sangathan (the Aagya organization). Or something else.
He blinked and the vision was gone. Only ordinary faces in the crowd. He looked around his heartbeat quickening. Did I really see that. Or is it just fear playing tricks.
The train stopped at a station. On impulse Aarav got off. He stood on the platform trying to find those purple eyes in the crowd. But they were gone. Perhaps it really was an illusion. But his consciousness had registered a new fear he was being watched.
By evening Aarav had taken a room in a cheap clean hotel. Room number 205. It was small and cramped just a bed a table and an old fan. Outside the window a small market was visible shops closing for the day.
He put down his tired bag washed his face with cold water. Loneliness was now a physical presence in the room bouncing off the walls and returning. He looked out the window. Tomorrow morning he would catch the first bus northward toward the mountains.
He ate simple food and lay down. The fan's whirring was like a companion. Two things kept swirling before his eyes his father's blueing skin and those glowing purple eyes in the metro. Sleep was nowhere near.
Then fataak.
The room's light went out. The fan stopped. All the outside lights also vanished as if the entire area had lost power. Thick sticky darkness spread everywhere.
Aarav sat up on the bed. His ears strained. Silence. Then a sound srrrrr like some large insect crawling along the wall.
Just a power cut. Stay calm. He reached out to the bedside table feeling for the switchboard. His fingers recognized the plastic switches. He pressed one upward.
Click.
Nothing happened. The light did not come on.
At that moment a strong gust of wind hit his face. Aarav instinctively ducked his head. Something passed over him a fluttering wing of black mist tearing through the air with a fssshaaa sound.
Aarav jumped down and rolled away. In the darkness he knew he was not alone. His Devanshik powers awakened with a deep rumble a warm golden energy racing through his veins. He extended his hands and a faint golden light burst from his palms illuminating a part of the room.
In that light he saw it.
Clinging to the wall was a bizarre creature. Its body was humanoid but not completely. Its skin was deep purple leathery and scaly like the skin of a rotting fruit. Its arms and legs were long ending in sharp black nails. But the most terrifying were its eyes two pairs on either side of its head like black cores of a diamond emitting a green poisonous glow flickering in the darkness like a venomous insect.
The creature opened its mouth an involuntary inhuman scream emerged and the same green glow was visible inside its throat.
Aarav released a wave of golden energy from his palms toward it. Stay back.
The green eyed creature dripped from the wall and quickly dodged sideways. The golden energy hit the wall and scattered blowing up plaster dust. But the creature was not injured. It climbed another wall its green eyes now burning with a mad hungry glow. It attacked again.
This attack was faster. It cut through the air like a black fluttering ribbon its sharp nails reaching for Aarav. Aarav tried to project his golden energy as a shield. A spark filled explosion occurred as the green glowing nails struck the golden energy. The creature recoiled but immediately lunged again.
Aarav stepped back grabbed a chair and threw it at the creature. The creature slashed it with one hand wooden pieces flying through the air. Aarav was breathing heavily his powers not yet fully controlled. He felt his energy draining scattering.
The creature sensed this weakness. It made a quick feigned attack and when Aarav defended it came from below. One of its sharp claws made a deep gash in Aarav's leg. A burning pain spread through his entire leg. Aarav screamed and losing balance fell backward.
He rolled on the floor groaning in pain. Above him the creature burning with its green eyes slowly advanced toward him as if savoring its prey. From its mouth a drop of black sticky liquid dripped and wherever it fell on the floor smoke began to rise.
Aarav raised his hand a last weak golden glow emanating from his fingers. But the creature watched him like a spectacle and let out a victorious raspy laugh. It raised its claws the green glow intensifying bathing Aarav's face in a strange ghostly light.
Then
The window glass shattered loudly. But no one came in black smoke. Instead a sharp beam of white light exactly like a laser shot inside and struck the creature's green glowing head directly.
Zzzzzt.
A sharp lightning like sound. The creature screamed an unbearable metal tearing screech. Its green glow flashed for a moment and then extinguished. It recoiled holding its head from which something like black smoke was rising.
Aarav looked toward the window in astonishment. Outside on the rooftop of the opposite building a figure stood. In the moonlight it was just a silhouette tall thin wearing some kind of coat or cape. In its hand something gleamed perhaps the weapon that had released the white light.
The creature made one last growling sound then ran toward an invisible crack in the wall and disappeared as if it had never been there.
Sudden silence filled the room. Then the power returned. The fan started spinning again. The light came on revealing Aarav lying injured on the floor.
He sat up quickly and looked toward the window. That silhouette on the rooftop was gone now. Only broken glass and the cold night breeze remained.
Aarav looked at his wounded leg. The pain was sharp but not life threatening. He looked at the black smoke emitting liquid on the floor and the marks of sharp claws on the wall.
He was not alone. Not only had he been attacked but someone had also saved him. Someone else. Someone who was watching him. Perhaps the same one whose purple eyes he had seen in the metro.
Suppressing the pain he tried to crawl toward his bag where he had kept a first aid kit. His gaze remained fixed on the broken window.
The journey had just begun and on the very first day he had learned the path was not just difficult it was deadly. And now a new mystery had been added. A mysterious protector or perhaps another danger following him.
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