Ch 1: The beginning of the end

I still remember, it was a cold night and for some reason, I wasn't able to sleep. I kept peeping out of the window in hopes of seeing something interesting, I live in a compact countryside house which has deep woods at the rear side and a road that connects to the main highway, so there was always something interesting to watch at all times. My bedroom faced the woods, so I woke up to the sound of birds chirping every day, and slept to the sound of crickets every night. But, strangely that night was oddly silent. There was no sound of anything what so ever. Suddenly my mother came into my room, she is the most beautiful woman I know, she has blue eyes, brownish-white skin which has a calm glow to it. She has long dark and silky hair which flowed all the down to her ankles. She was Ankita, an editor in a local news franchise. But, I never knew my dad, I know that my mom and dad were a happily married couple, but he vanished when I was about a month old, my mother is a strong woman but every time someone brings my dad's name up, there is a visible sorrow and a faint light of hope of meeting him again someday, to be honest, I also wished to meet my father and find out how he really was, everyone says that he was the kindest man they knew. But, that night when my mother came into my room there was a definite upsetting look on her face. " Is there something wrong ma?" I asked. &Not a thing honey.& She replied with a smile on her face, although I could tell that there's something wrong by looking at her face. Soon we decided to watch movies until we're sleepy and able to sleep again. I voted to watch a comedy movie so I could get over the feeling of being watched, to which my mom agreed. We started to watch a really old comedy movie, we had popcorn and coke, we were having a blast. It was 4 in the morning and we decided to sleep as we were sleepy, and since it was Sunday we were going to sleep till the sun was over our heads. I clearly remember turning the T.V off. We both went into our rooms and went to sleep almost in the same sec that we crashed on our beds. The next morning both of us got up to the loud noise of the T.V playing in the living room, mom turned the T.V off and we went back to sleep, we woke up again at 1 in the afternoon. Both of us were hungry so we ordered some food. It was a usual lazy Sunday we both went to watch a late-night movie and enjoyed our day. It was about midnight when we returned home, and the T.V was somehow playing music this time, both I and my mom agreed that it's time to buy a new T.V. It was Monday the next day so we just changed and slept as soon as we could. We got up the next day and got ready for our day, I'm class 11th science student, being a new girl to the collage, boys took a lot of interest in me. But I knew that if I get into a "guy situation", my mom would be pissed at me. Trust me no one would want that, my mom is a nice person until someone gets on her last nerve. But even with all that in mind I had my eyes set on only one guy, his name was Adnan Singh, he was a tall guy with a good in-shape body type, he was good at academics and sports too. I was playing hard to get so we didn't talk much. But one day all of a sudden Adnan came up to me and asked if we could hang out someday. I was so happy that I couldn't stop smiling for hours. We went to a movie a few days later, it was a good romantic movie. It was pitch dark, the only source of light was the screen, soon the most romantic part of the movie came on. Adnan held my hand through that part, suddenly my heart felt like it's going to pound out of my chest. A moment later he started to look at me in a very seductive way, he moved towards me, I knew what was going to happen, I felt an urge to stop him, but my body kept moving on its own, my heart was going a 1000 kmph, my eyes were shut closed. Then his lips touched mine and I felt the most amazing feeling, this was something I had never experienced before in my entire life. That wasn't the end of our date, we spent the day and had fun, we held hands and watched the sunset. My mom was going to come home late that day, so I decided to invite him to my place. We were in my room eating chips and cuddling, suddenly I heard my main door open, I knew that it was mom, and I was scared for my life. I made Adnan sit on the couch with some books, he sat there quietly but nervously as the footsteps approached us. I went inside and waited for my mom to come to me, soon she entered the living room. She smiled at Adnan and then she came into my room. "What is a guy doing in the house at this hour?" She asked me in a silent but angry tone. "We're just preparing for the exams ma" I replied silently and nervously. " So it would be alright if I joined you guys in the living room then!" She asked again in an angry tone. After that all three of us sat in the living room, I was planning to make Adnan leave in a few minutes, but all of a sudden Adnan got up and made his way to the kitchen, my mom was still staring at him. He returned with a knife and he had a blank expression on his face, it was clear that he was up to no good. I and my mom made a run for the door just about when he was going to attack. We somehow managed to escape him and hide in the woods behind my house. My mind was filled with questions, I was angry, sad, afraid all at the same time. A couple of hours passed and when we thought it was clear to get out of the bush we were hiding in, the moment we stepped outside we saw Adnan standing right behind us waiting for us to come out. We screamed and started to run again, but this time Adnan caught me. I remember struggling for my life in his arms, but he kept whispering a chant in my ears. The videos were paused by the doctor of the asylum. "This is the case of Purva mandlekar," said the doctor in front of the committee, then he explained the situation to them. Purva was found days later in a puddle of the pool beside the rotting bodies of her mother and Adnan. Both of their faces were bitten off, Purva was the only survivor in that incident. There were cult markings all over the place. It seemed as if some cult used Purva, her mom, and Adnan for some sort of ritual. "Come to Raghav." Doctor called Raghav a Jr. Doctor who was in charge of the Purva's case. " When Purva came in the asylum, she was covered in blood and flesh, which leads us to think that Purva killed both of the victims and ate their faces under some sort of influence." Explained Raghav. The meeting went on for a couple of hours after the meeting Dr.Raghav went to check on Purva. "There is something coming Doctor," said Purva in a cold and chilling voice. "What's coming?" asked Dr. Raghav. Dr. Raghav wasn't that worried about her escaping of someone busting her out of the asylum, because the asylum was located on an isolated island and the only means of escape was a hospital authorized motorboat, it's the location was only known to higher-ups. Even going on a rampage was nearly impossible, as the asylum had multiple lockdown systems, stun grenades, and rubber bullet guns. Purva, on the other hand, was smiling like she had it all figured out, Dr. Raghav didn't pay much attention to her. A few weeks later people started to disappear, the management was brainstorming for the solution and cause of this problem. Months passed but the rate at which the people were disappearing kept on increasing. Dr.Raghav started to keep a close eye on Purva, he had a hunch that she might be the cause of all this problem. But, he had no proof of that. One day Purva disappeared with no trace, Dr.Raghav was shocked as he thought that she was the one responsible for all this. Dr.Raghav was walking down the hall lost in his thoughts, suddenly alarms went off and all-electric devices were now just metallic waste, which included communication. The only functional thing was the total lockdown systems. Dr.Raghav started moving towards the control room which was on the 1st floor. While he made his way to the control room, he noticed that there was no one in the asylum. It almost felt like everyone disappeared into thin air. He finally made it to the control room and found Purva just sitting on a chair waiting for him. She was covered in blood and flesh like she was when they found her." What's happening, where is everyone" asked Dr.Raghav in a nervous tone. " In Hell& replied Purva. I will kill everyone, I will eat their faces" Purva shouted. The only thing Dr.Raghav managed to get out of his mouth was "Why?". "Because the voice says" replied Purva. It was clear that Purva killed her mother and her boyfriend, and everything she said was a lie. Dr. Raghav threw the stun grenade which he picked up on his way to the control room and took cover behind a computer desk. Purva was disoriented and he took advantage of the situation and activated total lockdown. Before the lock was active, Dr.Raghav jumped out of the window and hoped he doesn't die. He lands on the muddy ground and makes his way to the shore where he stumbles upon the escape boat by sheer luck. There he finds emergency comms and makes contact with HQ. He explains the situation to them and escapes the island, never to return. No one knows as to what happened to Purva or the people who went to capture her. The last contact the men made at the HQ was, "She's hungry for our faces".

TO BE CONTINUED.....

-Ritik Varhade