Spells

Chapter 14: Gift or Weapon?

                               1959

Plague

Plague hurried towards his hut. It stood alone far away from the others, old and tattered. He closed the door behind him and gently lit the candle, patiently waiting until he was sure that the match had given its light to the wick. It produced illumination, not much, but enough. He didn't need more than that, his hut was tiny. His eyes gazed across his empty home, running through the broken utensils, the pile of torn clothes and the old newspapers he used as blankets. Droplets of water leaking from the roof collected into a puddle in the middle of the home. The other puddle at the corner of the room was of blood. A rabbit's rotten body, once beautiful and full of life, was nailed above it. Its eyes stared at him full of shock. He had left it carelessly hung, knowing no one would come near his hut... no one ever did. They all thought it was beneath them. He supposed he still could have been more careful and hid the rabbit too, but he was only truly worried about people finding out about the book.

He had buried it safely in the corner of the room. He always hid it whenever he had to leave home, more out of habit than other, and this time he had been gone for days. But he had come back successful... He had found the herb of sarpgandha.

He limped across the room and dug for his treasure. The book lay surrounded by decaying skulls of animals, small and big. The book's perfectly black leathery cover shone, calling out to him. The familiar feeling came over him... The feeling of darkness. He embraced it.

Ever since he had found the book, he had thought of it as a gift from God. He had always felt that his life was nothing; it was everybody else’s, the Uppers, that mattered. They treated him worse than dirt and he thanked them for it. It was on them God had taken mercy, and it was him that God had chosen as a sacrifice. And so he followed what he thought was God’s will and served whom he thought God wanted him too. He hated but accepted that he was the Lower, that he would always be the one crushed into the ground while the others walked all over him. And even if he sometimes wanted to, he was powerless to do anything about it. Until he had found it... The book! He didn't know how to read at all but he understood it. And he knew only he could. God had given him the path to change his destiny, and he intended to follow it.

But lately, or perhaps since the beginning, he had an inkling that the book wasn't a gift from God, but rather a weapon from the Devil. It wasn't given to him to change his destiny, but rather to destroy other's. The more he understood the book, the more this feeling got stronger, and the less he cared about that. Did it really matter to him who saved him from his cursed life? All that mattered now was power to pay back the Uppers, they had received God's mercy long enough. Revenge is all he wanted. He himself didn't know how far he was willing to go for it.

He started reading the book, the strange symbols making perfect sense to him. He scratched his pale white forehead absently on which the scar ‘PLAGUE’ was inscribed by the Uppers. That’s what the Uppers had done to him when he was barely eight years old with Mr. Chop’s knife. It was revenge because Mr Chop's crops failed. They wouldn't have failed if he had never worked on it. The rain would have poured if he had never worked on it. He was a curse, a plague, and everybody deserved to know it. And so they branded him on his tiny forehead.

They called him Plague.

They called him the bringer of bad luck, the one who ruins everything.

Because that was who he was, and everybody knew it, but they didn’t realize just how much bad luck he would bring upon them until it was too late.

                         .      …

                              2012

Abhimanyu

Abhimanyu was a little angry and a lot worried. It was past nine and his little brother wasn't in the house, and he hadn't even bothered informing him where he was going. This wouldn't have worried him much back in Jaipur, but this was a new place. He could have gotten lost, or fallen into a pit on the lightless unconstructed streets, or a wild animal from the woods nearby could have hurt him in this darkness, or those bullies... Arul had wanted to talk to him yesterday but he didn't get the time.

What if it was something serious?

Suddenly, he wanted to know what his brother wanted to talk about more than ever. He looked at the clock nailed to the wall of the dining room again. He will give Arul fifteen more minutes to return, then go tell Dad.

Arul

The darkness was protecting him from the pain. ("Arul!" ) It was providing him comfort, he didn't want to go back. (“ARUL!”). But someone was calling him... (“ARUL!”)

Arul opened his eyes, his whole body feeling broken, like it had been dropped ten stories. Satya was calling his name repeatedly, shaking him softly. Arul nodded, and he stopped.

Arul cleared his throat, "What happened? Did I faint? How long was I out?"

"A few minutes. I was so worried I didn't know what to do."

Arul tried to sit up, the pain subsiding at once.

Thank god!

Satya helped him up, "Are you feeling alright? You were screaming before? What happened?"

"I honestly don't know, it hurt all over suddenly."

Satya paused and whispered, "Does that mean the spell worked?"

Arul whispered back, "Maybe."

They silently rested a few moments before making their way back slowly to their home. Abhimanyu was waiting at the doorstep.

"Sorry, we were playing basketball and lost track of time," Satya said at once.

Abhimanyu looked at Arul who nodded."You could have informed me."

"Sorry, I didn't realize it would go on till so late," Arul replied back.

"How did you get the cut on your cheek?" Abhimanyu looked closely.

"I fell." It was the truth, he did fall on a pebble after he fainted.

"Yeah, he doesn't have much stamina," Satya chimed in. He was replied to with silence. "Alright, I will be going back then," he continued before leaving, all the while with Abhimanyu glaring sharply at him.

Arul nodded and said goodnight to both, going straight to his room. Abhimanyu didn't look fully convinced with the basketball story, he most likely wanted to ask more questions, but he would have to wait till tomorrow. Right now, Arul just wanted to rest and forget this dreadful night.