"Pankaj..." His neighbour stuttered, the hair fallen over half her face swaying with each frightened, heavy breath she took. "What are you doing?? And why are you smiling like that?!"
"I'm afraid that's not Pankaj!" Kumaran darted at the possessed girl, Pankaj or whoever she was.
"You? What are you doing here?!" His neighbour got shocked.
"You didn't see me kicking my way in? I'm here to save your carrots!" He ignited his hands with divine power and reached for Pankaj's head from behind.
Bones crackled – gross and unsettling to hear – and her head twisted around in a violent snap. Her hands flashed and clutched his wrists, stopping him effortlessly.
The tip of her lips creeped all the way up to her ears; she beamed a notorious grin.
"Ooo... Who do we have here?" In demonic voice she chortled, crazy eyes glaring him.
It was all too quick and unexpected that even he was left open-mouthed for a second – but not for long.
"Now I see why she wanted you to wipe that silly smile off your face!"
"Shoo!"
He got flung upside down at the window. Glass splintered behind him on impact, and be felt the wooden frames press hard against his muscles and hit his bones. He bounced from it and crashed on the floor.
The concussion from it lasted for a few stunning seconds. He heard numbing echoes of what was happening around him as he held his head and struggled to collect his knocked out senses.
"Now... Where were we?"
"Pankaj... stop!"
It took a while but he somehow shook off the dizziness and managed to get up on wobbly legs.
"That was something..."
If he had taken any longer, thing would've definitely become ugly; Pankaj was ambling to his neighbour, a splintered and ragged piece of wood in her hands, her shoulders sinisterly jerking in jolly chuckles. His neighbour was already dying with fear, her shaky arms and legs wriggling as her hands and feet pressed against the floor in an attempt to push herself away, but she was already flat on the wall.
Immediately, Kumaran grabbed the first thing in reach – a lamp – and tossed it at bulletspeed at Pankaj.
Once again, she blocked it with her hands. Parts of the lamp broke and grazed her face.
With her thumb, she wiped the blood off her graze and gazed at it for a moment. That surely may not have hit physically, but it definitely hit the pride.
"I'm not done with you yet!" He smirked, hoping to pull the leg more and force a mistake out of anger.
Ferociously, she turned to him and let out a fierce scream.
The taunting was working.
"Yeah, no. Singing auditions are closed. Nonetheless, with that voice? You're disqualified! But keep trying." He continued with the taunts, swiftly moving his hands in the air drawing invisible patterns and symbols.
He knew, the evil that possessed her wasn't ordinary. In order to subdue it without harming the host – which, in this case, was Pankaj – either he needed an amulet or a high-level spell. But as always, his luck was playing hard to get and the amulets were back in his room. He had no time to fetch it, and it was pretty obvious to him that Pankaj wasn't going to prepare sandwiches in the meantime. Hence, the option left at hand was to use a high-level spell that he was capable of using only once in a week given his current extent of skill and experience.
"You may not be happy you got my attention!" She hissed.
"And you won't have enough time to be happy or angry, now that I won't be holding back anymore!" He clenched his right fist.
Holy patterns and symbols lit up in the air before him.
"This is..." Realisation startled Pankaj. "Why you?!"
"Congratulations! You found out!" He exclaimed and grinned confidently.
All the glowing patterns and symbols granulated, bursting into ribbons of divine energy and streaming into his first.
He sprung at her again and swung his left arm, aiming straight at her face.
She dodged again but in doing so, her head came closer to his other hand.
That is exactly what he had planned.
"Right into the net!" He pressed his palm flat on her forehead and curled his fingers tight around her skull.
"I won't let you–"
"Jai Hanuman!" Kumaran shouted.
She froze.
In rapid succession, he breathlessly chanted a mantra in sanskrit.
From his hand, a sacred surge of light radiated in bulk into her aura. The collision of contrasting energies made her body tremble head to toe. She screeched, her hands clutched onto his, trying to free herself.
Finally, divinity dominated and the darkness withered away, wildly gusting out the doorway.
Kumaran took his hands off her head.
Her limbs loosened and her eyes closed. She plopped flat on the floor, fainted.
"Oh God..." He heaved exhaustedly and crashed down on his knees.
It was over.
"Aaaaaa!!!" A shriek from his neighbour at the top of her longs interrupted his break.
That was a reminder It wasn't really over...
"What the hell?!!" She held her head in utter shock, looking at the whole scene.
She clearly couldn't believe nor understand what just happened, and Kumaran couldn't believe that such unbelievably weird faces were possible until he saw hers contort out of disbelief.
"Yeah..." He winced, holding his back, "You're welcome... Now let's head to the hospital?"
YOU ARE READING
Bombay Shaman - episode 2: The Haunting Hunter
ParanormalContinuing to live in Mumbai to train as a shaman, while waiting for his master, Kumaran gets involved in another paranormal incident surrounding his reporter neighbour, Shilpa. With fatal threat looming over the head of his neighbour and few others...
