Chapter 24

They reached the bungalow within an hour. Mary attended a call and left the bungalow telling Juwan that she had to do something important that she forgot about. Mary was indeed very much interested in figuring out Ms. Susan's death but other than that she did have other important stuff to attend to.

Juwan didn't care whether she was around or not. He was starting to get used to her staying in the bungalow like it is where she lives. But then he had no energy to think all of this. His head was clogged by fatigue and he could think of nothing to do other than sleep. A small part of his mind that still had a pinch of enthusiasm wanted to complete the assignment that Mr Nehru had given. But that too faded and he made his way straight to the bedroom after locking the entrance to the bungalow.

Silence.....

As he hit the pillow and closed his drowsy eyes, sleep engulfed him like the dark night-sky covering the earth. Except the sky has infinite stars illuminating the dark void, unlike Juwan's unconscious mind that knew nothing but the darkness.

It's hard to tell when he started dreaming. But he did have a lot of dreams that he forgot after waking up. But one dream, embedded deeply in his subconsciousness reminded him that nothing is back to normal and he is still contaminated. Not the whole dream but part of haunted Juwan for a few minutes later when he woke up.

In the dream, he was in the tower of the castle in hell. Behind him, all the aristocratic men he saw in hell were standing. Axile was also among them. He had a wide grin and was walking towards Juwan. The scary part was - he had a huge blood-stained machete in his hand and was swinging it at Juwan. It was very clear that he was aiming for Juwan's soft gut. Juwan dodged the machete and stepped back quickly as Axile advanced. At last, Juwan was at the edge of the tower and all he could do to escape the Machete then was jump. He gathered up his courage a second before jumping into cold blood surrounding the castle. The thick viscose liquid stained him and tried to engulf him. Its cold and engulfing nature had already vanquished the crocodile that was once dwelling there. The blood was suffocating him. At least that's what he thought until he noticed the ugly fingers that were clasping his neck tightly. Juwan screamed under the blood when he got a clear view of what was happening to him. There was a humanoid creature next to him-choking him. Its limbs were decomposed and torn with worms sneaking under its decayed skin. Its face was half decomposed with its jaw and nasal bones visible. Its red-fleshy fingers were tightening their grip on Juan's neck as he wriggled under the blood to escape its iron clutch.

The humanoid creature's appearance installed fear in Juwan's head. Anyone facing against a scary creature resembling a half decomposed dead human would lose their spirit to fight till the end. The worm-eaten face was just inches away from Juwan's and he heard a weird noise coming from the nostril bone. As he struggled to pull out of its grip he saw something wriggling its way out of the nostril bone. It was a few centimeters long and thin. A hell-worm. It had sharp teeth lined at a particular side of its slim body. Juwan could see the disgusting worm feed on the remaining fleshy part of the creature's face when was struggling. Overwhelmed by fear and renewed by a new strength to live Juwan kicked the creature's bony chest using his knee. It was tough, given that there was very little space between them and the flexibility it takes to bend underwater with restraints around one's neck.

Unfortunately, the kick did nothing to the creature. It hardly budged. The grip became tighter by the passing second and Juwan's sight started fading. And eventually, he fell into dark unconsciousness.

It was indeed one hell of a dream. It seemed very realistic that Juwan could hardly believe that he was still alive when he woke up.

"Weird...First the dream about the dragon and now the zombie?" Juwan wondered aloud, "What's going on? Am I losing it? Is cancer getting doing a huge toll on me? Can it have mental impacts too?" Too many questions dazed him. Juwan shook his head vigorously before getting up from the bed. He picked up his phone and found three missed calls from Riya. And there was also a message from her. It was short but enough to get Juwan back to his sense.

It read.....

(Jana was poisoned - come to the Reverie asap)

Juwan shock himself wide awake before jumping out of the bed. In a few minutes, he was out of the house locking the door. The trip to the hospital didn't take him long. The Reverie was the best hospital in Loral. It was a typical hospital in all manners except that it is the largest in the town.

The hospital's huge walls are always decorated with political arts of emblems and slogans. Inside the façade, the massive area filled with multi-storied buildings, differentiated into Blocks, the hospital grounds are enormously spacious. The out-patients are usually taken care of in the A Block. And the in-patients admitted in the B Block. A small building establishing the hospital reception, connected the two blocks with a fanciful tunnel. The front gate also has a separate route for emergency cases, which leads to the casualty block. Frankly, it's the largest for about a 50 km radius.

It was Juwan's second time in that hospital. Last time he was the one admitted. The reception lady didn't recognize Juwan but he recognized her the moment he saw her. It was Ms. Julie. She was the nurse who attended to him during his time in the hospital. She was really kind to him. Though being a professional she had an unfortunate habit of dropping trays. In his three days stay in the hospital he had noticed Ms. Julie dropping trays at least 10 times. Many wouldn't call it being professional but other than that she had been a great nurse.

What was she doing as the receptionist? Did she get into any trouble and end up here?

Juwan wondered but then pushed away the thought since it was none of his business. He asked her where Jana was admitted and used the tunnel to get to B block. On his way Juwan watched out for the doctor who treated him when he was admitted. The lies he had already told him was bad enough and he didn't want his friend to know about his diagnosis. On reaching B block he took the elevator to the 30th floor. The first room to the right in the 30th floor was where Jana admitted. . He knocked on the door twice before he heard a tried voice from inside.

"Come in…." It was Riya.

Inside the room Jana was sleeping on the bed in a blue hospital-gown. And Riya was sitting beside him, with her eyes peeled on her phone's screen.

"What happened?" Juwan asked. Riya took a moment to turn off her phone and answered him in a tired voice.

"Nothing serious. For now, the doctors are certain it was just food poisoning. But an hour ago, the head doctor checked on him and wanted to run a few more tests."

"Why? Did he find anything bad?"

"Mm. Seems like, recently there have been a strange illness spreading across town, randomly. They have no idea what is causing it or if it is even an illness. It is plainly a set of common symptoms. And thankfully nothing serious has happened yet." Riya put her phone on the table and brushed Jana's hair as she replied. "They haven't really told me much about the detail. But the doctor is sure it's nothing serious so…." She took out her phone again and started surfing through as she continued her explanation, "For now he has shown symptoms of vomiting and dizziness. Hopefully it's just food poisoning."

She tried to put up a straight forward face but Juwan could see that she was really scared. It has been a couple of months since Jana started dating Riya and they are really close. Very few people including Juwan knew about their relationship. Jana being a boarder, usually sneaks out and spends the night at Riya's home. Everything was just sailing perfectly when this had occurred. The previous night when Riya found Jana unconscious, it really freaked her out. She had somehow gathered up her strength and had taken him to the hospital. Slowly she moved up from her seat as she placed the phone over her ear and spoke to her housekeeper.

"It's Riya. Sorry I had to leave home last night and I forgot to leave the key by the vase. Yeah. Something urgent came up. No. Don't," there was a momentary pass of silence as she listened, gritting her teeth, "Ok, I will be there in a few minutes." She cut the call and shoved the phone inside her bag and got ready to leave.

"What happened" Juwan asked when he saw her leave.

"I forgot to leave the key for the house keeper. Seems like she has been waiting for an hour now. And she didn't even bother to call me. The mad woman is threatening to tell my parents about Jana." Riya walked towards the door, "Anyways, take care of him for a while. His parents will be here soon. I called them to let them know but since they don't know about us, I was a bit vague. If they ask anything explain things but don't let them know about the two of us. I have been here since early morning and I really need a bath too."

"Sure." Juwan couldn't say anything else in return. It all happened so fast. Everything that has been happening is too quick for him to catch up. Jana had been his close friend for a very long time and waiting for him at the hospital was the least he could do. With little patience and a lot of care Juwan waited.

In the eerie silence of the room within the first half an hour, Juwan ran out of patience. He knew he had to patiently stay by his friend at such a time but it was just too hard. The past week had been filled with mental turbulences and massive turns of events in his life and Jana's condition was the icing on top. Though Juwan didn't mind missing classes, he was fully aware that he has to maintain his attendance to 80 per cent to be eligible for the final exam.

Further, Roger wasn't specific about Juwan's condition either but the one thing that he made clear was that Juwan has to be trained. According to him, he will need all the time he could get to be trained for the upcoming supernatural events in his life. And the visions getting worse could just be the beginning of something much worse. Random thoughts and worries swirled inside Juwan's mind as he slowly slipped into a dark void of fatigue and fell asleep in the chair.

"Sir...….Sir!" The nurse's voice was getting louder by the minute, "Sir!" Juwan woke up to the heavy voice and realized he had been asleep for nearly 2 hours. A tall nurse was leaning towards him with a medical kit.

"Sir, the IV drip is not functioning properly. I have fixed it for now, but it might stop again so do keep a watch." The nurse said in a light voice. Juwan nodded and replied a feeble "yes", that was barely audible. He rotated his head as sounds of muscular relief propelled through his neck and got up from the chair stretched his body messily. By the time Juwan had a clear view of the nurse, he could see obvious signs of annoyance in her face.

" Sorry, what were you saying?" Juwan asked and the nurse answered as simple as she could before getting out of the room. Juwan yawned involuntarily as he made his way towards the mirror in the room. As he gazed into the mirror, he understood the annoyed look the nurse gave. He was a mess. His cheeks and chin were covered in dried drool and his hair was all ruffled up. He washed up the lethargy and freshened up. Juwan felt stupid for being so messy and was about to sit down when the doors of the room were opened by an anxious huge man in his late 50s.

"Jana?" a deep voice escaped the huge man's mouth as he gazed at Juwan for some kind of assertion.

" Yes. He is sleeping, sir." On hearing Juwan's reply, the man let out a deep sigh of relief.

"Oh. I am his father. We tried our best to get here sooner." The man said as he entered the room. His hugeness filled the entire door leaving just a tiny gap.

"We found him? Where is he? Let me in dear! Dear!...Let. me. in." A woman squeaked behind the huge man and tried to squeeze her way through the tiny gap. Surprisingly, she was able to! On seeing her son lying unconscious in the bed the woman rushed to the side of the bed. The man looked at Juwan curiously. Juwan had been keeping guard ( sleeping) for a while and he totally forgotten what Riya had told him.

Idiot, he scolded himself mentally before explaining everything to Jana's parents.