For Aditya, feeling a touch was a kind of shock after being sort of "projection" for so long and not being able to touch anything, he was even ready to attack. If Rajveer hadn't spoken on the right moment things were going to get really ugly.
'what.. were you doing?' Rajveer asked looking behind Aditya where he had been standing covering his eyes with his arm like he'd been posing for a sketch or something.
'what I was doing' Aditya asked with same puzzledom. 'okay wait how long it's been since I was gone to find my chakram?'
Rajveer looked back and forth between Sidharth and Aditya as if it was some kind of a joke but then Aditya was looking pretty serious
'5 minutes' Rajveer said spreading his hands 'when you didn't come back we came behind you and find you here, posing, like.. you were standing in the middle of some sand storm.'
That's impossible Aditya thought, for him, it was like a whole day
'what happened?'
'leave it, what important is..' but before Aditya could complete his sentence, all three flashlights they were holding, dimmed and flickered. The air suddenly becomes colder and filled with a faint smell of rotten fish. Perceiving the danger, Aditya handed Sidharth his axe and unsheathed his sword. Then from the shadows behind Aditya, a figure appeared. Fear coughed Rajveer's throat but his expressions were enough to tell what he was watching.
'he is back' Sidharth said in his usual way, grim but fearlessly.
Aditya turned in clutter, his heart pounding hard with his ribcage. In the flickering white light of their mobiles, was standing a boy, his face slumped down dripping wet with water with his long black hairs sticking to his blueish pale face. Algae were hung here and there on his body. he had been looking like a corpse that had just been pulled out of the water. Aditya who had just witnessed the whole past of the boy had understood the very moment that the boy was out of himself. He was in his ghastliest form, breathing heavily with the same wheezing sound, connoting his anger and disgust very clearly.
Pearlized in fear. all three were watching the boy as he slowly lifted himself up in the air, he picked his head up in a jerk and let loose a horrifying wail while tearing his jaws beyond extent and showing his pure back teeth and jowl. His hairs sticking with his forehead a moment ago were now ruffling backwards, showing his pure white eyes. He lifted his both hands as a zombie does, and the entire tunnel rumbled,
It started as a minor earthquake, then it started to grow, more and more intense with every second, until it was hard to stand on feet. While they were several feet underground the earthquake was the scariest thing in the world for them, even frightening than the ghost roaring ahead of them. They grabbed each other's hands for the balance and ran. Tiles shattered and busted behind them. They crossed a crossway and the boy again appeared in front of them. They stopped abruptly, turned and ran again, when they reached in the middle of the crossway, the entire roof shattered and fell. Aditya who was on the right side, he had to dive on his side of the tunnel as Rajveer and Sidharth dived to the left, nearly forbearing getting turned into a grease spot on the tunnel's floor. But their landing was still hard, even after their clothes on their joints had received some serious scratches. However, they got up almost instantly. Because of anxiety, their bodies were stupefied, minor brushings were meaningless. When they got up there was a waist-high mound of rubble blocking the way.
'Rajveer' Aditya yelled
'yeah'
'look behind' he bawled
But he was already late, before they could even react the spirit knocked them into the air, both Sidharth and Rajveer impinged with the wall and fell on the ground. Anger filled inside Aditya's chest and with a yell, he threw his chakram with such an accuracy that it would have hit the spirit in the face but before it could connect with it's target, the boy disintegrated in the shadows by himself.
Silently he emerged behind Aditya. He maybe thought that he could surprise Aditya this way but Aditya swirled the gladius and slew it in the spirit's neck. He snarled and shot backwards but didn't disintegrate the way he did last time. Aditya got that they had only a little time left before their weapons will become useless in front of Vishal's rage.
Anyway, Aditya ran for his friend's aid, he climbed the mound and landed on another side, till now his friends were on their feet again even though a bit lamely.
'guys, listen we can't escape him we have to face him, it's our only chance'
'but how' Rajveer asked 'you just saw how strong he is'
'believe me, I have a plan' Aditya promised 'but we must hurry, we must find the place where Chalawa was leading us to'
'but why?' Rajveer asked frustrated 'and what plan?'
'Rajveer please! we don't have time for explanations' Aditya locked his eyes with Rajveer's 'you have to trust me, I will try to explain everything in the way but first, we have to reach there somehow. He will be back any minute and I am afraid that we may not be able to make him retreat this time'
Rajveer nodded trying to cool down his nerves.
'okay, but still how do we get there?'
'I can get you there' Sidharth volunteered
Rajveer and Aditya shared a confused look but after all that weird stuff happening around it was no big deal, besides, they knew Mantrik was controlling Sidharth and until they were working on his plan, he would likely want to keep them alive.
'are you sure?' Rajveer asked trying to look modest.
Sidharth nodded
'how far it is' Aditya asked
'few miles'
'lest go then, he is getting stronger every second, we don't have even a second to waste'
Sidharth nodded, Aditya picked his chakram and they ran,
Carefully taking turns and passing crossways, while their pulse-pounding hard in their ears they kept following Sidharth. after being near to his death even Sidharth worked carefully, pausing after each block, to make sure the ghost boy wasn't waiting in ambush to attack them, and then went ahead.
It was uncertain that when a tile will be shot from somewhere and bash their faces into nothing but some minced meat or even something worse than that will happen but until now it had become a do or die situation. Either Aditya's plan was going to work or they were all going to die.
But at least there were some minor chances in following Aditya's plan, on another side if they were trying to get out from there it would rather be a suicide. Besides no one even mentioned any desire to get out of the tunnel.
Meanwhile, Aditya had recited a short version of Vishal's story also the plan to defeat him.
Luckily even the ghost boy didn't appear for some time.
'how far' Rajveer asked after about 10 minutes of precipitate run
'state ahead, just have to cross one more parting of the ways'
'stop here' Aditya announced.
Everybody stopped, looking up ahead they were able to see the carcass of Chalawa at some distance, the demon Aditya had killed also how close they were to their deaths but it wasn't the time to admire their achievement, even bigger trouble than Chalawa was impendent. Aditya took off his backpack and started to grope in it, his hands were shuddering as well as his full body but he was trying to look as calm as possible, Rajveer too wasn't any better.
After a minute Aditya pulled out small bottle and a small metal container from his bag. The things Suresh had given them for a later use but if they haven't use it now, there wouldn't be any later left for them to use it. also, the material was looking enough for using twice.
For the bottle, it was containing the "Gangajal" the water from the sacred river Ganga. very powerful in religious and spiritual means, it works as liberator over ghosts. Sages and saints have been using it in their spiritual practices for purifying things, since it's origin from the lord Shiva's hairs. It is considered so holy and pure that it can even wash all sins of a parson by just taking one bath in the river.
When Aditya open the round metal container, it was filled with up to the top with a kind of ash. "bhabhoot", the leftover in the fire pit after any yajna in honor of the gods, works similarly to the Gangajal.
Aditya got up, 'Rajveer, make cup with your hands'
Rajveer did and Aditya poured more than half of the bhabhoot in his hands. Then he put it back in his bag and opened the Gangajal bottle.
'make a circle with it'
Again, without any question Rajveer started to make the circle followed by Aditya who was pouring Gangajal on the bhabhoot after him. However, for some reason Sidharth had maintained a difference with his friends since Aditya had fetched the holy stuff out of his bag. As soon Rajveer and Aditya finished the circle they jumped inside.
'hey, Sidharth come inside' Aditya whispered, squinting here and there.
Sidharth coughed 'what!' he asked as if he didn't listen the first time.
On the name of coming inside the circle Sidharth face was like he had just swallowed a mouse. Funny, Sidharth who hadn't showed any fear of anything till now even when he was fighting the spirit all by himself was now scared of a mixture of some ash and water.
'come in' Aditya whispered more urgently
Nervously he stepped forward but again stopped few inches from the circle but he knew he didn't have any other choice so, he decided to get on with a scold as he jumped. So careful that he landed in the exact center, as far possible from the line of bhabhoot and Gangajal.
'ready guys?' Aditya asked.
They nodded
'let's call him, he may not attack us in the circle but he will have to when we call him by his name and if.. if my plan worked, we will jump out of here and he would get trapped in the circle and.. will not be able to harm us at least until I will find a permanent solution'
'you didn't mention the "if" before' Rajveer put in nervously
Aditya ignored the comment he knew that if they wanted their plan to work, they must have trust in it.
'on three guys one.. two.. three'
'Vishal' they said simultaneously, for a moment nothing happened but then, the air pressure suddenly seemed to be dropped, the cold increased, their flashlights once again flickered and dimmed.
Name the devil and devil is here.
Emerging from nowhere the sprit lounged at them, they only had time to be stupefied before Vishal's ghost entered the circle and knocked them out of it, he roared, turning his face to everybody's side, showing who's the boss over there. Rajveer and Sidharth collided with the walls and Aditya fell on his hips skidding toward the pond. Vishal's appearance this time was even horrible than before, his neck was half eaten. Literally, eaten as if gnawed by some animal. The angrier he was getting the uglier and spookier he was becoming.
After their collision with the hard-stone surface of the tunnel, whether it was with their hips or their backs, all of them were yearning on the floor. The ghost saw this and put forth a step to finish things up, he was already standing close to the streak but before his feet could cross the line a shield of white energy appeared from thin air and shot him backward in the circle as if he had just touched a naked electric wire directly from the voltage transformer. He tried again and again happened the same, he was completely shocked, he roared in disbelief but it did nothing to free him. Aditya's plan was working and they had captured him. A kind of energy bubble was locking him inside and was only visible whenever he tries to get out of the circle.
No matter how hard the impact was but still it wasn't the time to rest and they knew it quite well, also the excitement of their plan working helped as they stood up and gathered, the ghost was now staring them with pure hatred and it must be said that he was not looking any less creepy despite being locked and harmless.
'man..' Rajveer exclaimed while punching Aditya on his shoulder 'you did it, your plan worked'
Aditya smiled, it was really a huge relief especially for him because it was his plan and if it didn't work as expected the blame was going to be on his head.
For a minute everyone was admiring what they had achieved, just a week ago they could not even think of doing something like this even in their dreams but here they were fighting with things dozens time more horrifying than the things they ever watched in any horror movies.
'god, we…' Rajveer exhaled 'we have captured a.. ghost' looking at the desperate but also frightening face of the ghost. As if it was going to stay like this forever but was it? absolutely not.
The spirit closed his eyes as if concentrating, then again opened them with a jerk, wider this time, and the wind started to blow in tunnel, enough fast to give the boys a gentle push backwards and making them cover their eyes but wasn't any good if the ghost wanted to hurt them.
'oookayy guys I take my words back' Rajveer said pointing toward the circle they had drawn 'we have captured him, yes, but just for a little while'
Because of the ash being wet it was sticking to the ground but it hadn't even been a half minute and the circle had already started to be erased.
'Rajveer give me the rope' Aditya gulped
All the excitement and feel of jubilance was had disappeared in one stroke.
Rajveer took off his backpack and gave him the rope as quick as possible, then again shot to his feet in battle posture, frowning his Kattar and shield.
'now Sidharth Rajveer listen to me' he said trying to sound brave but his voice was trebling 'you have to stop him until I come…'
'go ahead you saint's disciple we don't have time for a pep talk' Rajveer said while clicking his joints from neck to wrists, then he sniffed and exhaled the thing he used to do whenever he was nervous 'beside I am yearning to fight a ghost face to face, how many times in a life you get a chance like this? I tell you, never. I have it and I am going to enjoy it even though it would be my last stand'
Aditya just stared him of a moment, his jaw dropped.
In every person's life a time comes when we feel really proud of our friends and that's how Aditya felt that time just the feel was 10 times stronger as it was a life or death situation, Rajveer didn't look at his friends even once from the moment he said this and Aditya knew why, he was trying to look strong so others would not lose their confidence. he tilted his head, thinking how lucky he was to have such loyal friends, then he put a hand of Rajveer's shoulder and nodded, he turned to Sidharth who was also crouched in fighting position his axe ready, Aditya patted on his shoulder too and ran toward the pond.