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
