Saturday, September 14, 2013

The Wraith Master's Chronicles II : A Man called Esckezi


Chapter 2: A Man Called Esckezi.

Bobby arrived in the heart of a small town in Scotland. He was seeking the person whose details were passed on to him by Daniel. Bobby looked at the mail on his phone. Dr. Arianne McGraw, Parapsychology expert and paranormal investigator…Bobby thought it sounded fancy. He arrived at the address that was provided to him. It was a small building with apartment houses. He walked up two flights of stairs and rang a doorbell on an apartment’s door. The door was opened by a woman who appeared to be a scholar of some sort. She had a rather heavy pair of spectacles. She was short, appeared eccentric and gave Bobby the creeps.

“Hello dear, can I help you?” said the woman looking through Bobby.

“Hello, I am Bobby Mehra. I am looking for Dr. Arianne.”

“That would be me.”

“I was told that you can help me with my condition.”

“What exactly is your condition?”

Bobby pulled his sleeve up and showed the mark of the wraith to the woman. The woman appeared to be in shock.

“Good Lord, these things always happens with tourists. Won’t you come in, dear?”

Bobby was directed to sit on a seat opposite to that of Dr. Arianne. She was apparently reading a book before he came. The woman sat down and then with a grim look said, “I wish I could help you but no cure for that condition exists in the world to the best of my knowledge.”

“That is depressing.”

“Well, being marked by a wraith has its own advantages.”

“Advantages? I am feeling gloomy since the moment this happened to me. I cannot think of anything good.”

The woman got up and took out a book from a rack of books. She obviously looked like the bookworm type. She turned several pages on the book and showed Bobby a page. It had a bizarre illustration on it. It showed the sketch of man with a fire around him and ghosts cowering in fear. Bobby could not make any sense of this.

“What is this?”

“It’s a sketch of a man showing man cursed by a wraith warding off ghosts.”

“I do not understand.”

“Wraiths often feed on the happy memories of humans. The memories aren’t lost. They are still there but difficult to access.“

“That explains my problem with recollecting good memories, Doctor but what does that have to do with this strange picture?”

“By a slaying a wraith, you have liberated a lot of dark energy from the wraith. The dark energy enters the body of the person who was marked by the wraith. In this case, that would be you.”

“Isn’t Dark energy a hypothesis used by astrophysicists?”

Dr. Arianne smiled and took off her glasses as she sat down on her seat. “No, dark energy is very much real. It is just that conventional scientists do not understand it as well as us.”

“So I have dark energy within me, I assume that is what the fire in the picture means.”

“Correct, Dark Energy wards away normal ghosts.”

“So wait, wraiths are different from Ghosts?”

“Yes, there are many types of spirits but wraiths are the only spirits with dark energy. The dark energy usually scares most spirits.”

Bobby wondered what he had gotten himself into. He was inclined to not believe any of the things the woman was telling him but he did not know what to believe in anymore. He was marked by a ghostly spirit which was called a wraith. He did have a mark on him and he did have trouble recollecting all the good that had ever happened with him in his entire life.

“I don’t know what to say. I can keep spirits away from me now but when I die I become the worst kind of them. I don’t think there is much to celebrate.”

“Well,” the woman looked at Bobby, “You can use dark energy as a source of power and a way to commune with spirits.”

“Huh? How is that useful?”

“It will give you access to practically infinite knowledge. It is possible that you may even find a cure for your own condition.”

“How do I use dark energy in the way you suggest?”

“You will need training of course.”

“And you will train me?”

“Of course not, you must be trained by someone who has a good command of dark energy.”

“Can you recommend someone?”

“As a matter of fact I can. Leave me the address of the place where you will be for the next week and he will find you.”

“Who is "he"?”

“Well I don’t know much about him. In our network we just know him as a man called Ecskezi. None of us have ever met him in person but we all acknowledge him as the authority on dark energy in the world.”

Bobby nodded. He gave the woman his address. She was of not much help to him and she referred a person who in most probability doesn’t even exist. He had to leave for India tonight. He wondered if he could find a solution in his own country which was known for mystics and spirituality. The day passed and Bobby was dozing off at a terminal at the airport. He saw a most bizarre dream. He saw that he was in the airport but the all lights were switched off. The whole room was dark and empty. There was a one more person on the room, a pale looking man in a policeman’s uniform. His hat was hiding most of his face.

 The man walked up to him and said, “You reek of dark energy foreigner but I have no one else to turn too. I have been roaming this place for fifty years now. I have been so lonely.” Bobby could clearly see the man’s face now. It was completely pale and had a large wound on it that appeared as if he had been slashed across his face. This man appeared to be a ghost. No human could live with that kind of wound on the face. The shock woke up Bobby. He realized that he was dreaming. The terminal around him was indeed empty but it was lighted properly. Bobby wondered where the people went. 

He got up and walked into an area with more people. His flight was announced shortly. He went through the security checks and boarded his plane. The plane was mostly vacant. The route was not a common one and there was just one flight the whole week. His trip to Scotland lasted a little over a fortnight. Castle Glenburg was the last part of his tour. 

A day later the plane landed in Mumbai, India. Bobby had tried sleeping several times during the flight but he would keep having dark and gloomy dreams with ghosts talking to him. Didn’t that lady tell him that dark energy keeps ghosts away so why are they bothering him in his sleep?

Bobby arrived at his apartment house in a building in downtown Mumbai. He was extremely tired. He really wanted to sleep but he did not want to see more ghosts. However, he could not fight off his sleep. He eventually fell asleep on his couch. He saw another dream. He saw an old man whom he recognized. It was Mr. Verma. He was Bobby’s neighbor who had passed away four years ago. The old man came and sat beside Bobby on his couch.

“You look like a mess, Bobby. Seems like you are not used to seeing us.” The old man started laughing.
Bobby had so far not responded to the ghosts in his dream. He decided to reply this time. “Why are you in my dreams Mr. Verma?”

“Oh, it is because you have dark energy around you. Beings of our realm cannot approach you while you are awake. However, when you are asleep, your dark energy sleeps with you.”

“Why approach me at all?”

“Because your eyes have the capability to see me, and ears to hear me.” The old man was still laughing. “Your spirit has been corrupted by a dark ghost. It is full of dark energy. You are closer to our realm than your own.”

“What do you want from me, old man?”

“I want you to fulfill a request of mine so I can be at peace. I cannot go to the other side because I am not at peace.”

Bobby woke up at this moment. It was the middle of the night. Bobby realized that he was both tired and jet lagged. He had arrived to Mumbai in the afternoon but it was past midnight now. He had a severe headache. He had trouble remembering the dream he had seen. All he could remember was Mr. Verma. Bobby had a difficult night encountering Mr. Verma and many other people in his dreams. All of them wanted something from him. His doorbell rang. He opened the door and there was a small man standing there.

“Hello, do you happen to be Bobby Mehra?”

“Yes, what do you want from me?”

“Ah good, you have finally arrived at home. Sorry for the short notice but I am here on the behalf of Mr. Esckezi.”

Bobby froze for a moment trying to recollect where he had heard that name before. He recalled that it was the name mentioned by Dr. Arianne.

“Wait, how did you find me?”

“You left your address at Dr. Arianne’s sir.”

“Who are you people? I also left my phone number; you could have called me first.”

“Sir, I am just an employee whose works for Mr. Esckezi’s estate. Now, I hope you haven’t unpacked, we will be taking a short flight to Mr. Esckezi’s private island in the Indian Ocean.”

Bobby wondered if these people were for real. He decided to play along with the flow. If things go out of hand, he could fight the small man. Bobby picked up his baggage and followed the mysterious man. There was a car waiting for him. The man directed Bobby to sit. The two men sat in the passenger seats. The car was driven to a section of the airport which was usually used by private planes. 

Bobby wondered what was going on. He had expected this Esckezi guy to be nothing more than some quack using an alias over the internet. But chauffeur driven cars and a private plane trip were things he had not imagined to be a part of the equation. Bobby wondered if he is in bigger trouble than he had imagined. The man who had escorted Bobby to the airport pointed at a small plane.

“This will be your ride, Sir. Do not worry, it will be quite comfortable. Mr. Esckezi has insured that you get better than first class service. “

Bobby was feeling lost. Should he board the plane? He wondered what he has gotten himself into. He wondered if the thing that happened in Scotland was even real in the first place. The mark on his hand could be some kind of a chemical stain. However, his dreams seemed to speak in favor of the wraith theory. He hoped that this Esckezi character can solve his problems or at least provide an understandable answer to all that is happening around him. He boarded the plane. He was greeted by a single hostess who took him to his seat. The plane had excellent interior decor. This Esckezi guy certainly had a good taste. It looked reminiscent of the pictures of private planes Bobby had seen in photography magazines. The hostess smiled at Bobby and told him.“We will be reaching our destination in around five hour’s time. Please make yourself comfortable Sir.”

The plane took off and went over the sea. Bobby stared out of the window to look at the water below. Something disturbed him and he blinked his eyes many times to confirm what he just saw. He was sure he saw faces on the sea's surface looking up at him, Hundreds and thousands of faces. He realized that the wraith’s curse was real. He had been having rather strange experiences which were a little more real than mere delusions. For most of the trip after the incident, the only thing he saw below was the ocean and an occasional ship. He heard the hostess exclaim that the aircraft was unusually cold. He began to wonder if he was responsible for that. He remembered how the terminal in the Scottish airport had mysteriously become empty. It was perhaps the coldness around him which drove the people away. He spotted an incoming island. The aircraft was descending onto the island. It was a tropical island with forests all over it. He wondered why Esckezi had to live on a remote place like this. As the aircraft flew over the island, Bobby saw a palatial mansion, huge gardens and a small airport down there. Just who was this Esckezi person?
The hostess instructed Bobby to tighten his seatbelts as they will land shortly. The plane began to circle the airport and slowly descended onto it. Bobby was full of curiosity as he alighted from the plane. The air was clean and the jungles were beautiful. It was cooler than Mumbai and the surrounding forest felt unreal. A man in a beach shirt and a pair of colorful shorts with a straw hat and sunglasses was standing at the tarmac smiling at Bobby. He was short, plump and his face had an aristocratic beard. He looked old and was probably in his sixties.

“Welcome to my Island Mr. Mehra.”

“You are Mr. Esckezi, I presume.”

“Yes, that’s the name I go by in the world.”

“Can you help me out of my condition?”

“Unfortunately, I can’t Mr. Mehra, there is no solution to your problem.”

“Then why did you bring me on a secluded tropical island thousands of miles away from my home?”

“I am sorry Mr. Mehra but you forget why you were told to meet me. I will help you understand your dark energy and train you in its use.”

“How does that help me?”

“To begin with Mr. Mehra, it will get rid of those nasty dreams which you have been having since your encounter with the wraith.”

(C)Rishabh Mittal

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