The apartment of Swetha was like any other middle-class apartment, an assortment of basic furniture of cheap quality to meet the everyday needs of a common man. Three garland-decorated photos hung in on eastern wall of the living quarters along with portraits of Gods and Goddesses; they were the photos of deceased family members. Two of the photos were of an elderly woman and man; they were old, black and white, belonging to the seventies. The third one was of a woman past her thirty, it was a recent one, and it probably belonged to Swetha's late mother. Even though she was smiling in the photo, Kumaran felt as if that woman, wherever she was, was far from happy, worried and in great unrest if anything.
The father then opened Swetha's room. The lights were off. Kumaran switched them on. It was plunged in chaos. The bed had its sheet off and the blanket had become a carpet. The computer had been left on over a desk ladened with emptied coffee mugs, puckered papers, and stationary. The wardrobe was open, clothes scrambled inside. Files and documents were mopping the floor. Dirty, unwashed dishes of meals were being partied upon by flies. Every single aspect of the room seemed like it belonged to a greatly disturbed mind.
Kumaran looked at the father, thinking he didn't care to clean his daughter's room, but he himself was awestruck as if seeing it for the first time.
"This seems... was she mentally okay?" Edha asked.
"She was always silent near us," the brother said with a sore throat, crying silently. "Maybe providing for the whole family alone was too much for her..."
"My daughter..." The father fell to his knees, whimpering. "I never knew... that my little daughter was so troubled..."
Kumaran knelt beside him and tried to support him. "Uncle, I will save your daughter, trust me. Please, you have to stay strong for your children."
"Yes... just please save my daughter."
"Please brother, save my sister..." The brother joined his hands and pleaded.
Kumaran nodded.
"Kumaran, is this the work of that demon too?" Edha asked, her fists clenched.
"Lemme look around a bit more."
It took a ten minutes for him to thoroughly check the whole apartment, every corner of it.
"Hmm, there is nothing wrong 'bout the place," He said finally. "No evil energy. No demonic presence. No cursed object. No influence of black magic. It is clear of it all."
"Then? What is your conclusion, Kumaran?"
"Too early for any conclusion. However, there is a pensive sadness to this place. If it was only her room, I won't be surprised. But the whole apartment? Not normal. And it isn't only recent. Have ya two been depressed too? Be honest please."
"No, just the usual worries of any family." The brother said.
"Hmm, alright." Kumaran shoved his hands into his pockets. "Ya go back to hospital and attend to Swetha, I will go inspect Mrs. Shipra's apartment and see what I find."
"But we don't have keys to her apartment?" Edha asked.
"Don't need em."
"You're gonna pick the lock?!"
"Not my way."
"Then?"
"Ya will see."
The old apartment building of Mrs. Shipra was painted with moss and smelt of stagnant water and aged bricks. It was a poorly maintained structure. Her apartment was in the sixth floor on the backside.
Kumaran walked to the back of the apartment, and Edha kept giving him a doubtful look.
He looked up and tried to spot the window of the apartment. "That has to be the one."
"Is Rapunzel going to throw down her hair?"
"Nah, that's too childish and romantic. And why ya followed me here, ya should've taken the elevator and waited out the door, unless ya wanna stay down here alone and wait for me."
"Go up the elevator and do what? The door is locked. I'm nurse, not a lock picker. And what are you gonna do? Jump up there?" She rolled her eyes.
"More or less!" He clapped his hands and looked around. "How lucky we are, nobody is around."
"Eh??"
Kumaran jumped up the wall and his feet stuck to it. He looked back at her and winked, "See what I mean?"
Her mouth was agape.
"Close your mouth, some fly might whoosh right into it." He walked up the building. "And get to the front door."
The window was almost opaque with oily dust. It was very hard to look through it. He pulled it open hard, the latch broke and fell away.
"Whoops. I hope I don't need to pay for that." He hopped in through the window.
It was almost dark. He took a step and was immediately sorry when he heard something crack under his feet. He continued to walk across the room, dully lit by the soft light of the neighbourhood, and turned on a flickering bulb.
Around him lay another sorry excuse for a room, an uglification further uglified by the cheapest of broken furniture. It was undoubtedly the room of Mrs. Shipra's son, the victim of the demon.
There was a knock on the door. He had forgotten about Edha, who was waiting for him at the door, while investigating the room and its energy.
He opened the door of the boy's room and strode up the dark living room. He unlocked the shabby, termite-eaten, and somewhat moist door of the apartment.
"What took you so long?"
"Got engrossed in the job, sorry."
"Found anything?"
"Another messed up room; think he was even more disturbed than that Swetha girl." He looked back at the room, its light flickering on and off.
"Why are the lights off?"
"Oh yeah, I was in that room for so long."
Edha turned on a switch and the fan started, noisy and racketing like an old car engine. She tried the other switch and the tube light came to life, not making much of a difference, it was just a few uses away from dimming out.
"We can't be here for long, so do your thing quick."
"Gotcha." Kumaran got back to work.
Again, he found nothing paranormal about the house, but he could still feel the pensive sadness in its atmosphere, and it wasn't confined to the boy's room, it was even present in the tidily organized room of Mrs. Shipra.
"You done?" Edha asked when he closed the son's room.
"Yes."
"Conclusion now?"
"If the demon was one to actively attack, the victims or their families would've noticed. My guess is, this is a passively aggressive demon; it doesn't leave any trace of its work either. So whatever it does, it does at midnight, when its victim is fast asleep. And an elementary lesson, demons find it easier to attack weak souls, especially the ones who have low mental and spiritual resistance, both of which is a common characteristic of depressed or disturbed people. Two people get admitted in two consecutive days, chances are this demon became active only recently, and it does a hunt every night. With each hunt it becomes stronger. Better stop it fast." He walked out of the apartment and took out his phone.
"You have anything in mind?"
He scrolled through the map of West Dadar. "I set up a tracking circle on the roof of Swetha's apartment, covering the entire region of West Dadar. The blood from Mrs. Shipra's son will have energy signature of the demon, it will make tracking way easier. When it gets active tonight, we find it and exorcise it."
"Why her apartment?"
"It's tall."
"Whatever that is, let's do it."
He looked at her, eyebrows up. "Let's?? Ya wanna come for the exorcism now, huh?"
"I literally was back in the hospital too. I'm curious about this. And maybe you might need me; doesn't matter even if you're some big shaman, at the end of the day, you are my shockingly careless friend."
"Nice point. Okay, let's do this then!"
AUTHOR NOTES
Now Kumaran has a small idea about the demon and is ready to track it using the blood sample of one of the victims. But is this little information enough to find the tricky demon? Will the young shaman be able to find it before it finds another soul to prey on? Read the next part to find out dear readers!
I hope you're enjoying the story, if you are, please do vote and comment. Open to genuine feedback; that would help me rectify my errors.