I stared at the scroll floating in front of me. Things were not making sense at all and I was a hair’s width away from a full blow panic attack. Last night’s murders and now this unnatural looking magic scroll made me wish that I should never have decided to come to this cursed place. I look around me but something about the scroll would not let me drag my gaze away from it from long. Just go away. I prayed. I just wanted this fucking thing to get out of my face so I can start drinking and pretend it was a bad hallucination caused by some drugs or a prank or whatever insane justification my mind would come up in the morning. Hanuman Ji just give me the strength to bear this.

Parakram (Power)- 0.8>>1.3

I felt a dull ache starting in the pit of my stomach, which slowly spread towards all of my extremeties. The ache increased till it became a sharp pain, which soon turned into a feeling like something hot and molten had replaced my blood. I could feel my body shutting down as the scroll disappeared and I felt everything go dark around me. I heard the same old voice whisper in my ear, “So rash my child. But nothing happens without a reason and yet nothing is beyond our power to overcome. Remember, Lord Agni protects all mortals from evil.”

I tried to get up and failed. I could hear Rohan’s step coming towards me and stop nearby.

“What did you do?”

I don’t know.

“I said.. WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO!!?” he yelled at me as he caught me by the throat and started choking me. “Nothing..” I tried to tell him as I made an effort to raise my hands to stop him. He applied more force as he came and sat on my chest. He was putting his whole weight down on me and it was getting harder to breathe. Suddenly, the weight was gone as Nitin tackled Rohan off me. He smacked Rohan hard in the face and then hit him twice more. Naina was right behind him and she quickly came and helped me get up. The pain was slowly lessening but I had to lean on Naina to stand properly.

“You stole from me, bastard.” Rohan said. “Now she will kill us all.”

“Do you want another slap or will you SHUT UP?” Nitin roared at him. He is usually a pretty chill guy but he was totally flipping out right now.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“I have to get away from here.” Rohan broke away from Nitin’s grasp and started moving towards the stairs. Nitin tried to get in his way but he was too quick for him. I dashed towards Rohan and caught him by the bicep. He tried to yank his arm away but he couldn’t break my grip.

“Dude, let go of my arm you’re using too much power.” He grimaced as he kept struggling. Nitin had caught up to us by then and slapped him again in the face. “You have no right to say that you dumb fuck. You were trying to kill him a minute ago.”

“You don’t understand. I had a vision, where we are overrun by monsters. Listen, bhai, we have to go. You know I’m not lying right?” He looked me in the eyes. “When we saw the scroll, I heard Vaishali telling me that she will visit me again tonight, just like she used too.” He was sweating like crazy. “She didn’t sound right.. I-I know that it doesn’t make sense, but she said that by the Accords I have my chance to live.” He started hitting me, kicking and pushing. “Just let me go.”

I just stood there and let him hit me. He wasn’t hitting me very hard, more out of protest. But I knew that Vaishali hadn’t been there on the roof with us. But I also knew that if I brought up the scroll, Nitin and Naina would think us mad and lock us in our rooms, before we were carted away to an asylum. I didn’t know what Vaishali was up to. I just knew that she had killed her family, and done some curse magic or whatever bullshit this was. I had to quickly think of a way to buy some breathing space. I knew just the thing to do.

I raised my hand, motioning Rohan to stop hitting me. He slowed down with his his kicks, but still kept punching my arm.

“Listen to me Rohan,” I slowly reached out to grab his other hand, “Listen, dude, I can get us out of this.”

Rohan stilled, finally giving me a moment to clearly look at his face. He looked hysterical.

I arced my head back and smashed his face in. I could feel the wet blood on my forehead as it rearranged his nose. I heard Naina gasp in shock behind me and Nitin took two steps away from me as he came crashing down between us like a felled tree. He was out cold, bleeding everywhere.

Naina stuttered, "Di-Did you kill him Vijay?"

I knelt down to check his pulse. It was steady. I heard a melodic chime and focused on it.

Manobal (Will)- 1.3>>1.4

Huh. Will went up.

I looked at Nitin who still looked a bit wary.

“Let’s take him down to his room. Maybe he’ll be more reasonable when he wakes up.” Nitin nodded and grabbed hold of Rohan’s legs. I picked up his arms and gestured at Naina to hold the door open for us. She gave me a reproachful look as I passed her by but didn’t say anything. I appreciated it that she didn’t. I was going to have to figure out this magic scroll stuff if I wanted to regain control over this rapidly deteriorating situation. But before that I had to prepare for a late night rendevouz between two lovers.