I had finally caught up to him.

The path was steep and dangerous, with slippery gravel hell bent on sending you to an early death. I had been chasing after this holy man for over a week now. I had spent all my money four days ago and hadn't eaten since the last two. I had begged food from local villages I had passed through, but my chase had lead me in to the deep woods where I had been living off the occasional fruits I could find. I thanked the Almighty that I was not denied water at least. The small mountain streams had the purest, coldest water I had ever tasted. It was a shame that a man can not just survive on water. Well, some men can.. but they have already transcended humanity and are now beyond such petty labels like man or woman. My target was one such man.

It had started a month back. I had been on an office vacation with my colleagues to Dhanaulti. It's a small hill station and my company had booked a hotel there for some nice R&R after we had finished a big project. There were nice hiking spots and the snow covered mountains were beautiful. The locals were warm hearted and humble, and the place had a tranquil vibe that really calmed our city-frazzled nerves. We started our day with breakfast at our hotel, usually some bun-omelettes and buttered toast, aloo-paranthas and hot tea. We'd go down to the lake and fish there, sometimes we'd try and flirt with the pretty village girls. My buddy Rohan was a real player. He'd flirt and tease the simple-minded girls, who'd giggle back at him and shyly went on with gathering wood and other chores. I'd roll my eyes and curse Rohan heartily, and he'd always smile and say, "Bro, I'm just having some harmless fun." I wonder now if I had just punched him back then, we could've avoided so much pain.

All of us had our own room on the second floor of the hotel. As night approached, we usually had bonfires in the courtyard where all of us idled around drinking booze and smoking some weed. I was hanging out with this cute sales executive Naina and we had a good vibe going. I'd been flirting with her ever since this vacation started and it seemed that tonight was the night. Naina had dark brown eyes and long curly hair which she usually tied in a ponytail. Tonight she had let her hair down and had my head in her lap. We shared a joint as she ran her fingers through hair. Her dark hair brushed me as she leaned down and kissed me. Her lips were incredibly soft and I could taste the strawberry chapstick she had on. "Mmm. Never figured you to be a strawberry girl." She laughed and kissed me again. I could hear a couple of catcalls from a few dudebros nearby. She broke off and looked away, a faint blush on her face. I mentally cursed those idiots who had to ruin my moment. I caught her hand, and gave her a small tug. She turned towards me and said, " Do you want to go join the party with the sales team."

Awesome. She was feeling shy. Thanks a lot bastards. I knew If I let her return to her friends, I wouldn’t be getting her alone tonight. Today was the second last day of the trip and I had to make my move. Tomorrow we'd all be packing and then go to bed early, since we had to catch an early flight back to Delhi. It was now or never.

"Come on bro. We're gonna make a bong out of this Pepsi Bottle." yelled Zaid, another one from the sales team.

Bingo.

I turned towards Naina, "You know, I've this really great weed from Kerala back in my room and some packets of Mars Bars. Why don't we go pick them up and go join them."

"You can't pick up and ounce of weed and some chocolates by yourself." she giggled.

"I also have some Hershey's Kisses which we can snack on." I smiled winningly at her.

She perked up at the mention of chocolates and reached out to hold my hand. I told the others we'll return soon with the good stuff and went back to the hotel. Another colleague told me to get back soon and not get lost in Naina’s eyes up there. Very smooth Nitin. I can see why you spent the entire vacation drinking and not hooking up. She started going towards the stairs but I pulled her towards the elevator.

"You're so lazy!" she teased.

Yes. I definitely want to walk up two flights of stair when I could make out with a hot girl in the elevator.

"And you're so sexy!" I teased back.

"No, I'm not!" The little minx was having fun. Give a girl a compliment and they start fishing for more. Luckily, I've never been good at giving compliments. So I just pushed her against the elevator and leaned in, gently caressing her cheek with my fingers. Our faces were so close that I could count her eyelashes. I put my hands around her waist as we both moved in for a kiss. I brushed my hand against her tight rear and then slowly caught her by the hips. She gripped the back of my head and slipped her tongue in my mouth. Things were getting hotter as I lifted her against the elevator. She responded by wrapping her legs around me and moaning in my mouth, suddenly gripping my face and kissing me with a passion that surprised me.

Pretty soon, we were on the second floor but I lingered in the elevator, making out with Naina. I stuck my foot between the elevator door and kissed her heartily for a while before the siren in the lift went off. I dragged away a giggling Naina before the noise summoned a security guard to badger us and we headed off to my room. As we passed Rohan's room, we could hear sounds of the bed creaking and woman's soft moans. My boy was getting it on. Naina had started blushing again, her face red like a tomato. I gently squeezed her hand and took her away from there. Then we went back to my room and lost ourselves in passion. After we finished our lovemaking, I rolled up a joint of that Kerala weed and lit it up. Naina soon passed out after a couple of puffs and I was left to finish the whole joint myself. I blew smoke rings in the air, listening to the sounds of insects from outside my window. Soon, I drifted off to sleep, lulled by the weed and post coital bliss. As I fell asleep, I briefly wondered who was it that Rohan was having sex with when all of our colleagues were at the bonfire.

~

Apparently, it was one of the village girls.

Rohan had charmed one of the daughters of our neighbouring farm owner. The girl had gotten up at the crack of dawn to get back to her house, thinking nobody would find out. But through plain rotten luck, her mother had gotten up for a drink of water at night and had noticed her daughter missing as she passed by her room. She had raised a ruckus and her father, uncles, and brothers had spent the whole night looking for her while being armed to the teeth with knives and axes. They had thought that she might’ve been dragged away by a tiger or panther, which is not uncommon in their mountain village. They were not amused to see her returning after an obvious amorous encounter. For a while they had surrounded the hotel, leading to a tense standoff between the staff and the villagers who were demanding that they give Rohan to them for dishonoring a girl from their community. They were planning on a shotgun wedding between the two. The girls from my office were having a field day with such scandalous news. Rohan was understably unamused.

“It was just a little fun bro. I’m not marrying some stupid village chit just because I had sex with her once.” He was hastily shoving clothes in his suitcase as he dashed around the room looking for the rest of his stuff. “I’m getting out of here in a this afternoon, you can bring the rest of the stuff later when the others return.”

“It isn’t very nice to run away from your girlfriend now.” Nitin was lying down on Rohan’s bed and relaxing. He had dropped by to help Rohan pack but after passing him a couple of T-shirts, he was apparently exhausted and started rolling a joint.

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“First of all, fuck you! I don’t need this shit from you right now dumbass.” He lifted up a case of single malt whiskey which we hadn’t gotten around to opening last night. He frowned as he looked at his suitcase, “I don’t think I have enough room for that.”

“That’s what she said.” Nitin and I say reflexively at the same time.

The tense atmosphere broke as we all started laughing. Nitin lit up the joint and passed it to Rohan after a couple of puffs. Rohan took a few drags, then sat down on the floor with his legs folded like a yogi. He closed his eyes and started slowly cracking his knuckles. He would take a puff, then slowly crack one knuckle. I counted seven before I coughed and held out my hand. The fucker was hogging the whole joint!

He looked embarrassed and passed me the joint. He then lay down on the bare flower and asked me in a serious tone, “Tell me honestly Vijay, I’ve made a real mess of things haven’t I?”

I passed the joint back to him, “Well yeah, but you can still salvage it. Just meet the girl’s family and apologise.”

“You can always get married to her bro. Vaishali seems nice. Girls from the mountains make really great wives. All traditional and shit. Plus they have great stamina” Nitin winked at Rohan.

“Fuckers, why don’t you both marry her and take turns fucking her if you like her so much. I’m done with this bullshit.” He picked up his suitcase and headed to the door. He turned towards us while opening the door with one hand, “I guess I’ll see you guys back at the office.”

“Ummm…” Niting pointed towards the door where Rohan’s ‘girlfriend’ Vaishali was standing, apparently listening to everything we said. She was a beauty, with long brown hair and a fit, curvy figure. She was wearing a traditional choli made of bright colours and silver jewellery. She was also royally pissed. Her eyes burned with a cold anger and when she spoke, it was in a low calm voice that send a shiver up my spine. She looked at Rohan and asked, “What about the promise you made me last night, when you said you’ll never let go of my hand after I gave it to you?”

Rohan, like a mega-asshole, just shrugged, “I don’t remember any such promise.”

“Do you remember what happened what between us last night, or have you forgotten that as well?” she was crying quietly now, “You said that you love me.”

“I say that to every girl I meet. It’s not my fault you’re a silly girl who believes in that love crap.” Rohan looked uncomfortable meeting her eyes.

“You’ll believe in love, I’ll make sure of it even if it’s the last thing I do.” she nodded at Rohan, and then smiled at me before she turned and left.

There was a moment of silence in the room. I looked at Nitin, who just shrugged and started opening the case of whiskey which Rohan was trying to pack.

Rohan lit the joint which had gone out during all this drama, and then looked at me, “Well that went okayish?” Feeling irritated, I just walked upto him and took the joint away from him. Fucker had been hogging that weed all day. Greedy Bastard.

There was knocking at our door. I went and opened it, saw Naina standing outside. She smiled when she saw me. I moved in to kiss her lips, but she turned her face and I got her cheek. This cheeky girl.

“What it is Naina?” I asked her after inviting her back into the room.

“Well we might have to extend our vacation here for a couple of more days. There’s been a landslide last night and the only road down this mountain is blocked.”

“Well shit.” Rohan responded, eloquently as always. He opened his suitcase and dumped all his clothes over Nitin, who just lay there on the bed like a beached whale. He was on his second whiskey and only his hand holding the glass was visible beneath the contents of Rohan’s suitcase. He passed the bottle to Rohan, who took a long swig straight from the bottle. He took another shorter sip, then passed the bottle to me. I wiped the mouth of bottle before I took a sip. Who knows where that guy’s mouth has been.

Naina told us that the evening bonfire party had been cancelled because of Rohan’s scandal, and the hotel owner had asked us to inside till we left. The hotel owner was an older gentleman, from an old rajput family. Old Mr Bisht took hospitality very seriously. His staff was polite and hardworking, and apparently doubled as bodyguards as well. I saw atleast ten men near the Hotel gate, armed with rifles and hunting spears, a couple of the guards had lathis, which were six feet long hardwood sticks that could crack a man’s skull open. His guys were just at the gate to make sure that none of the girl’s family snuck in later at night to do some mischief to us. He was a wily old goat who knew his neighbours very well.

Me and my friends spent the whole night awake, in the event something bad did happen. We spend the whole night playing silly drinking games and drinking some absolutely awesome coffee Nitin made. Nitin really was full of surprises. Soon enough, the night passed and we could hear roosters crowing. Dawn had come and there had been no trouble from the girl’s family. I finally let out a sigh of relief.

We went down to the dining room for our breakfast. I saw Mr Bisht speaking with Zaid, who looked ill. Mr Bisht looked uncharacterisically serious. My heart started beating louder as he just kept looking at us, his eyes moving over all of us before finally landing at Rohan. He just kept staring at Rohan with increasing intensity before he collected himself with a deep breath, and then turned and walked away to his office. I went down to the dining table and started buttering a piece of toast. I needed something greasy after a whole night drinking. Naina and the others sat down next to me and started pulling eggs and sweet rice porridge towards them. Zaid sat down in front of me with cup of tea in front of him. He added some sugar and started stirring it with a spoon. He kept looking out the windown as he kept stirring for a while. He finally took a sip from his cup, then told me the news.

Vaishali’s whole family had been found dead this morning, poisoned to death. She was missing and nobody knew where she’d gone away.

~

The whole village was in an uprorar. The men of the village had broken off into groups of five and started scouring the nearby areas. The women were making preparations for the last rites, gathering wood and other essentials the cremations. Mr Bisht had ordered a full lockdown of the property. We were not to stray outside because the village was simmering in anger over last night’s incident.

My colleagues were full of nervous chatter. So far, not all of them knew the details about Vaishali and Rohan but it was only a matter of time before it was known. Me and Rohan was holed up on our hotel roof, waiting for Nitin to return with more whiskey. We were really drowning ourselves in booze, Rohan was drunker than I had ever seen him. He kept drinking with that steady pace and glazed eye of a person drinking to forget everything. All of a sudden, he gave a startled gasp.

He put down his glass of whiskey and starting waving his hand in front of him, liking trying to wave away a buzzing fly. “Are you seeing this shit?” he continued to wave his hand through the air. “It’s like a floating piece of burned paper, some kind of Sanskrit writing on it.”

Why do I put up with this idiot? I asked myself again today.

Then I made the mistake which changed my life forever.

“Well, what does it say?” I got up from my seat on the roof railing and stood up next to him. This fucker is hallucinating, might as well enjoy his imagination.

“अहं त्वां मम दुःखेन कुटुम्बस्य रक्तेन च शापयामि”

The words echoed around me and I felt as if they were vibrating, slowly sinking into my flesh and travelling through my blood into my brain, and then into my consciousness. As Rohan was reading the words, I felt a sliver of lightning shooting up from the base of my spine. It seared my spine for a couple of inches before suddenly disappearing. The words were still echoing around me but I could now understand them, and with that understanding came a fear that made me almost piss myself. The Sanskrit words now could be understood, and in Vaishali’s voice they said. “I curse you with my pain and with the blood of my family.”

I saw the burning scroll that was floating in mid air, my mind was screaming at me to get away from Rohan, from the roof, even if I had to jump off the roof. I saw Rohan down on his knees with tears in his eyes. Suddenly, the wind around me picked up, and I heard an extremely old and venerable voice whisper in my ear, “My child, quickly grab the scroll.” I felt like somebody had slapped sense in me that moment and I saw Rohan reaching out with his hand to touch the scroll. Some instinct told me that I would be very, very, very sorry if that happened. I leapt towards the scroll and yelled, “Rohan, look behind you!”

Rohan quickly turned back to check and I grabbed the scroll.

It seared my hand with it’s heat and I felt burning pain in my right hand which suddenly cut off with a hiss of burning flesh. Time slowed to a crawl around me as the scroll’s burning ashes floated up from my arm and arranged itself into words in front of me.

Name- Not bestowed/Unearned

Karma- Chaotic (Curse of the Kichkindi)

Chakras- N/A

Divine Alignment- Not chosen

Gurukul Lineage- None

Parakram (Power)- 0.8

Manobal (Will)- 1.3

Atman (Soul)- 1

Universal Energy (Available)- 5