The seen and the unseen

CHAPTER 6 - the story

 CHAPTER 6 - the story

 Dravya helped me through the stones below the waterfall, and finally behind it. I was under the impression that waterfalls only have rocks or hills behind them. But I was wrong. It really was a cave. It was dark, but some light penetrated through the water, making designs on the rocks of the cave. It looked scary, but in a beautiful way. My eyesight took some time to adjust to the surroundings. “So you were saying…?” Dravya still hadn’t told me the secret. He took a deep breath and finally started speaking.

“Okay. Here it is… A long time back, at the time of dungeons and magic and castles, there were some people who could switch souls. Imagine, you are in somebody else’s body and someone else is in yours. At first, it was a fancy. Initially it was done to make sure everything was orderly or merely for fun. But then, there are two sides of every coin. Some of the evil gained this knowledge and started exercising soul switching for their own selfish purposes. Getting into someone else’s body and committing a murder, leaving eye witnesses and then switching back to your own body was a common crime. It was discovered later on however, that the murderers who switched souls, couldn’t remain in one body for a long time, until the body accepted the soul fully. Their own bodies would reject the souls, so they had to find and trick other humans in believing that giving their body to this soul was beneficial to them. The word spread worldwide, and most of the souls were destroyed by ‘soul destroyers’. At a certain period of time, all the soul destroyers were mysteriously killed, all at the same time simultaneously. We, the guardians have some of their knowledge, but not all. And as for the souls, some of them still exist. Right here in this forest. They are captive here. And we make sure they stay here. But last year, an incident happened and one of them escaped. With all our efforts we managed to smuggle him back, but the threat has been powerful ever since.”

For a story, this sure was pretty interesting. Given the kind of person I am, I wouldn’t have believed in any of this stuff. But there was something. Something that made me believe in it all. We’d reached mid-cave by this point of time. Dravya looked like he was feeling lighter, getting this out of his system. We walked a few minutes in silence. It took me some time to digest this. Seriously, if a soul entered in mine, and I was caught at the crime scene, I’d have no proof saying that I was innocent. “Can you?” I asked him, doubtful if he would answer. “Can you switch souls?” The question made him uneasy, just like I thought. But the curiosity in me was at its highest by now. “I… I can, in theory. But we’re not allowed to. We believe that it will start the riot again.” It made sense. “How do you do it?” I wanted to know more, but he replied with “It takes years and years of practice and knowledge. You can’t just learn it overnight.” Hm. Makes sense, again. The thought of someone entering my body chased me again. “Is there a way one can resist a soul from entering in?” “I was coming to that.” He said, his eyes wide and sparkly now. “The only thing you need to do, is do not offer resistance. I don’t know why, but it works.” Well, now that didn’t make any sense. He continued, “We guardians can spot a soul even from a distance. But humans can’t see it.”

His voice was the warning type, “Be careful. You’ll never know if you’re with a soul host. If you are, it can get pretty dangerous. The soul may choose you as a host, if it wishes for your body. It makes you do anything, be anyone. It can hypnotize you to believe in anything it wants.” As he completed his sentence, he pointed towards something ahead. I could feel my surroundings brighter, windier. Yet, I felt uneasy in my heart. He was pointing towards an opening. I started walking towards it and realized that I was walking alone. I turned back to see that he was standing still. “Come on” I nudged him forward. He refused. “This is where we part. You go to your world, I’ll go to mine.” He simply turned away and left. He didn’t even let me say good bye. I yelled “thank you” after him, but I’m not sure if he heard.

I started walking towards the opening. God knows where it would take me. As soon as the cave ended, I saw trees. Huge trees. I made my way through the monstrous leaves and saw my group! Looking back at the way I came, no one would ever have guessed that there is anything beyond the plants. I silently joined my friends from behind. “Thank goodness you’re here. Where were you?” Aksha said, more angry than worried. I shrugged it off with “I got lost”. Aksha knew I was avoiding the topic and she let go. The last student came abseiling and we started moving forward. No one noticed my detour, again, and I was safe. That’s what mattered.

“We’ll have lunch here, under the shade of the trees. That’s how it was in old times” Kumar sir informed us. Finally the guides distributed food to us. It was ordinary, except for the taste which was rural-typical. We’d gotten used to that.  “Where had you been?” John asked me silently. “I noticed you were gone.” He’d observed that. Shit. “I was lost” was the only excuse I could think of. He wasn’t completely convinced, but a cute smile changed his interest. “We have the remaining half day off today. What are you planning to do?” he asked, impatient. I wasn’t really aware of that. And frankly I had no plans of going out anywhere. He offered me in joining me anywhere I wanted to go. It seemed fun, but I didn’t feel like going anywhere. I just wanted to snuggle in my warm cozy bed sheet in my room. “Do let me know” he said again, and this time I grimaced. He suddenly seemed so irritating. “Tell me that one more time and I’ll have you out of the camp I swear” I snapped at him. And I walked away, briskly.

What was happening to me, seriously? I had no right to talk to John like that. I had to apologize. I went back to where I was. He was still there, slightly shocked. Similar to what Aksha had been, the first time I snapped at her. “I’m so sorry” I said, putting so many emotions in those three words. I’d hoped he’ll behave exactly like Aksha. Instead he gave me a cold look and said, “I don’t know who you are anymore.” And walked away. I should’ve felt guilty looked down and walk away. But I had changed so much in the past few hours. I held his collar and dragged him near a tree, pinned him to it and glared. “Don’t you dare talk to me like that” I gritted through my teeth. I expected him to throw some words back at me but he looked scared. Scared like hell. I loosened my grip and he ran away. Towards Aksha. I was sure he told her the entire scenario. Now I felt ashamed, Aksha always confided in me. I wasn’t sure how she’d react this time.

I went towards another tree. A little far away from the others, but within the periphery. Dravya’s words were still echoing in my ear. “Soul hosts” he’d said. A series of images started playing in my head. My behavior. I wasn’t like this. It was almost like someone was possessing me. And then out of the blue, I pictured Armaan. Tiara thought he was a friend. But their age difference was almost as much as me and her. He’d hypnotized her. Armaan could be a soul host. An evil spirit. He must’ve gotten into me when I entered the forest for the first time, without letting me even know about it. It was him all along… it was just a theory, but it sounded about right.