He was a true vagabond. Maybe a week or two had passed by. Nobody cared to spare a glance at a shabby boy, except for one passerby who once poked the lifeless sprawling boy with a stick just to make sure he wasn't dead by any chance.
It was a village of bangle makers. Blind people were commoners here, their eyesight being affected by the suspended particles of materials they used to make bangles from. Working inside the furnaces without light and fresh air, many had respiratory problems too.
So no one ever questioned a scruffy boy's origin and appearance.
" Must be the illegitimate son of that worker who died in the accident at the furnace months ago"
Thought people only in the initial days, after which no one had the time to worry about a stranger when they would often struggle to fill up their stomachs.
A nearby snack shop would often be bustling with customers during the mid day and in the evening.
The noises from the shop were the only way for him to know when the sun was up. It was not like he would sleep at night, he would still be sitting stone faced with eyes wide agape in the same posture which would often give off a scary appearance. And the open eyes still couldn't get even a ray of light of the day because of his ruffled long hair that often covered more than half of his face.
But the cycles of days and night didn't matter to him. Those noises often entered his ears but never did they act as a signal that the next day had come.
They often signified that along with the rise of sun to the point above his head in the afternoon and then setting further, his mind would be chaotic with same intensity as the sun.
It was even to the point that the noises from the shop in the mid day were almost unreachable to him.
And he was better left undisturbed throughout the day and night. There was a reason why wild dogs or the vultures didn't even stray near him despite his unmoving body.
There's always an in-built instinct of fear in all beings. Even animals could tell.
Because one time when a child, of less than his age, after observing him for days decided to prank the silent weakling, he had to pay with his life.
It was the deceased boy's death which was nearing, it was not an unnatural death as others might think. As unbelievable as it may sound, the aura of doom was already hovering above the boy's head.
It was just that sinister existence which led the poor boy to mess with him, further luring him to become the reason of his own doom.
Where could he have ran off to? There were voices shouting out his name.
Into the scruffy boy's ears, fanatically urging to make some move with a bit of hurry in it's tone.
There was no way to silence out those voices calling out his name. The boy would have been found anyway by tracking down those voices but it was good that the place he ran off to was isolated, not that it mattered to the one hunting.
He did not raise his head once to look into the fearful eyes of his prey. His face was still covered as the boy had witnessed him everyday.
The petrified child could only call out his mother's name in the silence as his body started to tremble involuntarily.
A reflection in his pupils was not of a child he had pranked. He could not shift his eyes from the emerging waves of darkness from behind the predator in front of him.
Maybe it was his illusion at the time of extreme danger. But should his body freeze despite the adrenaline rush in his body?
A thick globular bead of sweat jolted off his forehead when a large force pulled out his limbs in a split second. Blood splashed from the two sides of the body, as if a broken faucet was turned on, splashing the body fluid in all directions.
The other two limbs at the bottom too, were pulled out at once. The expression of this criminal's face had still not changed.
The only visible part was those lips, which involuntarily quivered due to jerk of his movements. If not for a 'sigh' at the end, one might have mistaken him to be a robot acting under command.
Yet this predator left the place without any remorse. He seemed to have neither any feeling of excitement nor any feeling of accomplishment.
Like a work or command which was given to him, he did the job and left.
He was nowhere to be seen in that village after that. Report of a missing child was filed immediately.
Rumors began to trip on everyone's lips. Yet none of them could guess the way boy died, a dead body standing on his arms and it waved with it's feet.
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The vagabond was now wandering through the woods, from villages to villages. Surrounding sounds gave him a general sense of location at times.
Through the hair covering his face, he could barely see a few centimeters ahead. He gave off a creeping appearance, which often made the watching people flinch and the small babies cry with fear.
A gait of a soldier, appearance of a vagabond, calmness of a saint but temperament of a depraved, he should have been caught and kept in cages.
Yet here he was, a wandering predator in the light of the day.
-------------------
After few months,
The trees formed such a dense canopy that all underneath was left unlit.
Yet at a narrow lake, patches of light could be seen illuminating the clear water at places. A small gap in the canopy let in the warm rays of sun to shine upon the water.
At one such point in the lake, a boy was sitting on the pebbles under water. The disturbance on the even surface of lake travelled far along the slow current.
" Ren, don't smoke for long. We have to get moving as soon as possible! "
"For heaven's sake.... Tsk"
A young man smoked at the shore of the lake. His average features put on an irritated look. His uniform clarified his profession and a name badge hung on the left shirt pocket.
He was an officer from the investigation department at the city. One of his three colleagues called out to him, to remind him of the time and then there was once again the calmness of the nature that surrounded him.
He was the only one who came this far from the unmetalled road connecting two villages for a smoke. Being apart from home and wandering from villages to villages to solve a murder case felt like a punishment to him.
" How many days have I been sleeping on the shabby uncomfortable beds of those make shift guest houses..? " He let out the smoke while talking to himself.
" F*ck these degenerates! " He cursed while throwing the half burnt cigarette on the ground.
A slight crunch sound, inaudible to ears came from underneath his solid boots as he crushed the remaining cigarette.
He crouched after pulling up his pants a little, cupping his hands to fill them with the lake water.
splash
He ran those wet fingers through his rough hair, damping them superficially.
Another splash of fresh soothing lake water seemed to calm down his nerves to some point. He folded the cuffs of his full sleeved shirt to expose his arms upto his elbow.
He washed his forearms with the water, rubbing them gave a relaxing feeling. The faint smell of metal remained but he didn't care. At last he unclasped the pin behind his name badge which was visibly covered with dust, accumulated when driving on those village roads. He carefully dipped the badge in water, brushing his fingers over it to clean it.
" Now this is why I've been wanting to get a transfer to -- ah"
He looked to his right. A sharp bawling sound from the direction interrupted him terribly that he almost lost his balance on his toes. For some reason, it was literally hard to ignore.
His hands paused for a while, comprehending the sound he had heard and a feeling of fear enveloped him as he began to start making his guesses.
Sure enough, in the forest as dense as it was, it was not abnormal to have wild predators hunting for their prey. Actually, it was their mistake from the beginning to take a break here in the middle of a forest. And the bigger mistake was his to stay even this long into that forest.
Who knew what kind of animal it was, it was definitely stupid to make a stop here. He immediately withdrew his hands from water and proceeded to stuff the badge in his pocket.
However, his feet froze when his fingers brushed against something soft, warm and meaty.
The piece pulsed as if it had a heartbeat, a sick mockery of life.
Cold sweat formed on his forehead. He gritted his teeth as his nerves tensed up by the terrified thoughts while withdrawing his hand from the pocket.
A meaty piece, slick with blood, dangled from his trembling hand.
There was no mistaking. A piece of skin warm as if fresh. By it's texture and appearance, it was definitely skin of internal body which was still filled with blood. Warm blood oozed out from it when pressed and because of it, his pocket was tainted with this animal's blood.
He frowned aggressively and turned around to see the lake water from which this piece of skin was possibly taken out along with his badge.
At one side, scarlet blood flowed along with the water current, the color of which was concentrated in some tiny waves while some had pieces of shrouded meat flowing.
Could an animal shroud it's prey like this?
Maybe when it's irritated..
Terrified, quivering steps prayed that their car should not be far from where he was. His racing might have made a bit of sound, however there was no choice. A stream of blood seeped out from his fingers as they clenched the badge, pressed the meaty piece within them.
He couldn't bother throwing it out at the moment.
Another shrill sound of a bird sounded loudly in the jungle and a scavenger was seen taking a flight hurriedly towards the canopy.
He ran with all his breath focused in one direction, trying his best to make least sound so as not to attract the beast towards him. At a distance a car was spotted, and he sped up.
One, two and the third one was himself. There were only three of them in the car.
" Hey, what's with that look? You see the witch these villagers keep talking about? hah ah.. " A man laughed looking at Ren.
Ren glanced at the other one napping on the back seat and asked with an alarming hesitation,
" Where's..... Where did Joe go?"
His face was pale and his breath irregular.
" He went in that direction to relieve himself. He's gone for too long, we're getting late."
" I actually thought you might have met him."
A feeling of extreme nausea made him cover his mouth that made the other concerned. He wanted to run from this place.
But before he could tell what he speculated, he couldn't shake off the possibility that Joe might be alive. And in case he was, it would be betraying to leave their friend behind. They at least had to check once, look out for him once.
" Did you hear the sound just now? "
" What sound, I had my headphones on. Is something wrong? "
He looked at the man beside him who was still clueless and the careless sleeping obese man behind them who had a fractured limb with a chilling glance.
He then he got off the car with the clueless man, walked towards the direction his colleague had pointed out with small hesitating steps.
The two were being careful at every step. The clueless man was still somewhat at ease but though Ren did not want to admit, he was looking for sign he could use it as an excuse to turn back and leave.
He had an ominous feeling about it. It felt like something was definitely not right.
His colleague somehow convinced him to split up and look for the missing man.
" F***. I should have lied- told the baldy he was dead!.....saved my-..myself. Not a lie........just survival.." He cursed, shedding off his loyalty to his colleagues.
*****