Rakesh increased his speed, he was already getting very late. His both hands were on the handle of his cycle and on the seat rested a big cardboard box. The box contained earthen lamps which he hoped to sell and earn some extra money so that he can gift something to his daughter today, on Diwali.
His village Narayana was a little far from the city Ujjain so he had to start his journey early.
He had taken a shortcut through the jungle, though many people knew of this shortcut it was rarely used because one can only walk through here, vehicles cannot pass from here.
Everything was going normal till he noticed a big jute bag hanging from one of the tree.
He looked suspiciously at the bag but finally curiosity took over his fear and he pulled the bag down. He untied the mouth of the bag and opened it while taking a long breath but after glancing inside the bag he felt weak at his knees and before he could react he slumped down unconscious on the ground.
____________
'click'
'Click'
Multiple sounds of camera clicking could be heard as the press vans swarmed around the area where Rakesh found the jute bag. Though the cameras of press were rapidly clicking but they were not able to get something significant in the pictures as they were held back by the constables surrounding the scene. The press knew nothing what had happened there, they came here by following the police vehicles in hope of finding some exciting news.
While the press was constantly trying to guess what had happened in this isolated part of forest police officer Sumit was circling the dead body extracted from the jute bag.
His day had been bad since morning, first his wife cursed his job as he didn't got a holiday even on Diwali and now this.
But above all the condition of the dead body really worried him. Well the body was in good condition but the problem was the face, it was painted black and the eyes were painted red in colour. Apart from this the thing which made Rakesh pass out and nearly him as well was, the killer had made a cut from mouth of the victim to both his ears, and the blood seeping out from the cut made its own art on the face of the person. The face didn't even looked human anymore, it looked much more like a demon's face. The cut made a strange evil smile to appear on the face of the dead body, Sumit could only imagine Rakesh opening the bag and suddenly looking at a face which could easily be mistaken as a evil ghost.
This act of the criminal horrified him as well as gave birth to fear in his heart, a person who could do horrible things like this,
Is he even human?
In his heart he prayed to God that he never find the answer!
His phone suddenly rang,
unknown number
He picked it and the recently regained color of his face after seeing the body drained out.