Chapter 1
Chapter-1
‘Cling,cling’, the sound of the beer glasses clinging echoed through the deadly silent forest. Once in a while it was only broken by the loud cackling of the labourers who were forced to dig in the middle of nowhere for reasons they never even knew.
“Oh, come on you bloody bastards get digging. Stop lazing around, get back on your bloody feet, the lot of you.” Boss, the leader of his motley gang of five roared at them for he really needed to get this whole thing over with and get back to his lovely warm wife.
“but, Boss, we really did dig to the seventh layer, don’t we get a break? After all, we deserve a rest.” The opinion voiced by the straw haired Tim was energetically seconded by everyone in the group.
“Yaah, yaah, hear hear.” Saying this they went back to their boozing and well one can only nag for so long, ultimately the Boss too succumbed to their whining and he too popped open a beer and chugged it down like it was his last drink.
“Boss, do you know who hired us to build a post here, well this was once a deserted area right?”.
Even though, the question was asked by the one-eyed man, he seemed to have voiced the opinion of many.
“Hell, the lot of you don’t know when to speak or when to shut your trap, if you don’t shut it right now, ill shut it out for you.”
Well, it can be said with absolute confidence that this threat was not seen through. For after a few minutes, the silence of the forest was broken by the same man’s snores.
“Phew, the Boss sure is a scary man, right?”
“Scary? shut your trap boy, this place is a lot worse scary than him.”
“How so, old man?”
“Well, legend has it that this whole place was a deserted land abandoned by the AGNI SECT”
“AGNI SECT, who is that?”
“It is said that there was this sect which ruled over us mundanes and other sects likewise and they were the lords everyone feared but somehow vanished and no one knows why.”
“Then why are we being hired to dig in this accursed land?”
“That’s because, you one-legged imp, the DHRUVA SECT wants to build another post and show off its wealth.” Alas, the old man’s voice was a bit too loud for it unfortunately woke up the Boss.
“Get to work, you lazy-asses, quit dilly-dallying, do you wanna lose this job or what?”
For the next few hours, only the sound of their spades hitting the earth could be heard. The men tirelessly worked for hours and it was dawn when they struck something.
‘THUD’, they were unable to proceed further unless they got it out of their way. Many thought that it was gold buried by the AGNI SECT. Excited whispers broke out throughout the crowd, unable to bear it a moment longer, the Boss shouted.
“Quiet down, you fools, you boy and the old fellow come here, dig this thing out of here.”
The two of them, with eager spirits, went down into the ‘grave’ and started digging with it all their might. Slowly a black coffin with symbols engraved on it from a long-forgotten age was unearthed from the grave. Everyone and even the Boss had just one thought. What the hell was a black coffin and a costly polished one at that doing this god-forsaken place. It seemed someone had gone to all the trouble to ensure that this coffin was not found by any, yet here it lay unravaged by the passage of Time.
They lifted it out and the men started to inspect it, they pushed each other to get a good view. The boy was pushed in front and his head banged onto the edge of the coffin and blood started dripping from his forehead to his chin. Time seemed to pause, for the blood from his chin slowly trickled into the coffin and exactly one drop of blood fell into the dead centre of the coffin where a symbol was placed.
Soon the coffin started to glow and it rose above the ground. Suddenly, a huge explosion occurred, the lid which was sealed shut was blasted open. It then landed on the ground with a thud. For a moment, everyone was afraid to move, then they all huddled together to get a look.
And inside it, they saw the corpse of a man with all bones and skin. He was sickly pale, but it was his eyes which stood out, ruby-red eyes, eyes that belonged to a mad man who was long gone. Fear gripped them, for everyone knew who he was.
“Aatma” , the boy whispered and the man turned his ruby-red eyes with a child-like grin but was easily misunderstood as a maniac glee for the fangs he sported on his mouth.
