Bombay Shaman - episode 2: The Haunting Hunter

PART XIII: The ghost of Pankaj

It was quite difficult to be searching the forest in the dark of the night, especially a forest as thick as that one,  one engulfed by the shadows cast by tall, dried, and black trees. Moonlight had a hard time finding its way through the gaps in the overly grown crowns.

Kumaran and Das stayed close to each other, throwing their torch light around as they proceeded into the forest at a moderate pace, not so fast, nor too slow. Dry leaves and dead twings crisply cracked under the pressure of their feet. The faint fog of the night scattered the torch light and made things seem frightening than they were.

Das' imagination seemed to be getting the best of him, he seemed to be on edge. He often jerked and immediately turned on his heels whenever there was slight weird sounds or when the wind blew too hard and rustled the branches and dry leaves hard.

"You alright, inspector?" Kumaran asked, looking back at him.

"I thought I heard something... This place... something is horribly wrong with it..." Das looked up at the crowns of the trees.

"You can feel it too, huh?" Kumaran followed his line of sight and looked up. "Even without being a shaman. Well, the evil pressure of this place is too much, so yeah."

On the tree tops, hidden amidst the eerie growth, mourning ghost of people were clinging to the branches, staring down at them. They didn't seem to be of the modern age. They belonged to a time that was decades old, but they surely weren't the villagers. They seemed to have been half-eaten up, some were wounded and bruised, and the others were covered in blood.

"Can you guys help me and my — uhhh what do I call you?" Kumaran momentarily looked at Das and then turned back to the ghosts. "Can you guys help out me and my comrade over here if you're not our enemies?"

The ghosts drew back, hiding behind the the cracked lines of branches. They ogled Kumaran with an expression he couldn't understand. He couldn't exactly tell if they were not willing to answer or if they were afraid. And if they were afraid, were they afraid of the evil — or had they sensed his own complex energy that resembled that of a demon's?

"Who are you talking to?" Das asked, beads of sweat glistening over his forehead. "If you're trying to scare, I must say this is a very bad time and place for childish jokes."

"I'm not joking." Kumaran cleared, still looking up. "There are really ghosts here. Though I'm not sure who they're. It doesn't seem like they're willing to help though. We are on our own I guess."

"Ghosts..." Das looked at him and whispered Lord Hanuman's name under his breath again. "Are they trapped here? Or did they never get salvation?"

"I don't know. Either ways, they need help. Let's proceed." Kumaran walked on cautiously.

If all those ghosts and the village was the work of the same evil that haunted Das and Shilpa, then Kumaran couldn't imagine just how strong it was. Once again, he got proof to conclude that what he was up against... it was nothing ordinary or something he can make short work of. He had to battle it with everything he got, but he also had to make sure something worse didn't happen...

He glanced at the rudhraksh amulet around his wrist and then focused his eyes on his surroundings.

For some time, they scavenged the uneven forest grounds and travelled to its depths, searching for a dead body of the psycho or some kind of hint. They found nothing. Till one point, Kumaran followed the density of the evil energy, but then it became even over a big area.

"We already searched here thoroughly, there is nothing here." Das finally said. "We are wasting time. And we are in forest at night. This is unsafe. There might be animals—"

"Did you hear an owl hoot or a wolf howl, inspector?" Kumaran turned to him.

"No. Why?"

"That's 'cause normal animals and birds avoid such places where evil is concentrated," Kumaran explained. "This isn't a waste of time. The evil is here. I can feel it. The energy is dense here, but I can't pin point it. Bear with my half-baked skills, but we need to do—" He abruptly paused. His eyes caught sight of something behind Das.

"What? What is it?" Das got uncomfortable by his reaction, and looked behind him. "What are you looking at? Nothing is there?"

Das was clearly unable to see her, but Kumaran could. It was the ghost of Pankaj, standing so afraid, her legs trembling. Her head had that wound she got when she fell down the window and it was oozing blood. Her skin was white and pale, all dry and cracked as if decaying. She was looking at Kumaran with wide eyes, her lips quivering, almost on the edge of breaking down and bursting into tears.

"Pankaj?" Kumaran asked.

She nodded.

"Oh my God..." Kumaran whispered under his breath.

She turned and looked back at him, as if expecting or beckoning him to follow, and then started walking in a direction.

Kumaran immediately started following her, forgetting to explain to Das what was happening.

"Where are you going?" Das asked, throwing the torch light in his direction.

"It is the ghost of Pankaj. I think she wants to show us something." Kumaran continued.

Das followed behind him, "But what if it's a trap?"

"Maybe, but that's unlikely. I don't sense any vile intention. Don't worry."

"You better know what you're doing, Kumaran." Das frowned.

"I got this." Kumaran said that, but deep down, he was unsure of the situation but he didn't want to scare Das.