Chapter 14: Viboupa, Shellen and the macabre
Vikaya stared at the ever-changing sky. The place where the day changes but time never passes and nothing ever ages. Is it greater than any curse?
"You didn't tell me - Why Tae?" said Zar hovering over to her, his eyebrows raised like a tower
"Isn't that obvious?" snorted Vik
"Alright, but what would aggravate you more - the fact that he might have saved you without having any liking towards you. If there was someone else in your place he would have saved that person too. Or, he saved you only because he liked you?" said Zar
"I agreed to answer only one riddle" said Vik and walked away
"Wait!" said Zar "I always demand an explanation, you have to answer something"
"And if I don't?" asked Vik, mockingly of course
Zar fell silent at this unexpected rebel. He just stood and stared at Vik who was walking back to his coffin
"Come on now" called Vikaya
Zar didn't know what to do!
'Wait this is MY territory!' he said to himself
"Well, it seems like we are in a catch-22 situation Pekassador" he said, an annoying smirk on his face
"As per our deal I can't kill you but I won't move forward if you don't give me the explanation" he said and sat down
"Wow! It seems like cheating is branded into the souls of some people! It doesn't stop even if you are dead!" yelled Vikaya
Zar's blood boiled being called a cheat but he cooled himself down
He shrugged casually and just sat there, throwing rocks which was an unusual sight, seeing he is a wraith
"Alright!" said Vikaya thumping her fist in her palm
"None of the things would aggravate me" she sighed loudly
Before Zar could jump in with a cheeky 'Why' she continued
"Because both scenarios prove that Tae has got a good heart. If he would do it for anyone, he is brave with a heart of gold and if he did it just for me he is brave for love and wants to everything for the woman he loves" said Vikaya but there seemed great sadness in her words
Zar walked up her slowly and sat down beside her
"Did you get closure?" he asked
"I wish I could slap Jay" she gulped
"There was a guy like Jay when relationships were pretty new to me and he behaved the way exactly like Jay did, his sweet words were only to play with my feelings and use me" she said looking away at the horizon
"But sadly I wasn't able to do anything like today" she said and slapped her knees. She stood up
"But why do I feel you did something?" said Zar squinting his eyes
"Oh yeah, but I am not sure he read the message" she said brushing off her hands
"I think he did" winked Zar
Before blocking him off on all channels Vikaya wrote him a burning message. A message that would forever be like a worm in his mind, eating at him slowly.
"I wish your parents loved you enough so you wouldn't have to sleep around trying to run away from the deep hollow within you…"
The message began like this and ended like
"So if you ever require money, since your main job is to sleep around and I was one of your first clients let me know I will pay whatever 10 or 20 dollars you charge for your below average services"
"Come on, let's go" said Zar excited
"Oh ho" said Vikaya shocked
She picked up the chains, and a mysterious energy wrapped her and Zar together and the coffin became as light as a feather ready to float
"Shall we begin?" asked Zar slyly ready for the magic of his storytelling
"Now you shall enter the world of Prince Vibuopa, a boy Shellen and a macabre ghoul" the Hhital eyes turned vile and creepy
Vikaya stopped and turned around noticing the odd change of his voice. As soon as she looked behind, chills went down her spine. Her hands shook, loosing all strength while holding the chains and before she could utter a word she was cosmically disintegrated into fine specks of the Universe and transported to the strange land
It is often equal to miracle when kids turn out different than their parents. There was such a miracle in the kingdom of Kepasnia ruled by the greedy yet empty-headed King Stultus. With his empty head filled with bizarre red herrings by those who want to hollow-out the Kingdom, the King exiled Crown Prince Vibuopa believing that he could rule the Kingdom for eternity.
The wise Prince tried to convince the King using all methods but all were futile as only the mind has the power to understand, the empty head does not. The Prince accepted his fate and moved faraway with his wife Mavya
The peaceful and loving couple lived a happy life. Mavya was a clever designer while Viboupa brought her creations to life. Mavya's creative side came up with tool designs which would make the day-to-day life easy and Viboupa, a metalsmith knew how to give it physical life
One day, leaving the house to sell their creations in the marketplace the couple left but their journey was halted by a terrible sight
They saw a woman wailing heavily
"What happened miss?" asked Mavya
The woman couldn't stop her sobs and just pointed to the torn clothes laying on the ground
"Is someone hurt?" asked Viboupa
"My son!" the woman cried
"Where is he?" Mavya asked urgently
"My son is going to be next!" she cried
Both of them tried to calm the hysterical woman
"Here have some water" Mavya handed her a glass
The woman finally gained control of her emotions and her sobs slowly died down. Gulping down two glasses of water she was finally ready to make some sense
"There is a nasty, macabre ghoul who hunts boys of our village" said the woman. She hesitated, unable to utter the next words
"My…my" she quivered with fear "My son is going to be next"
She broke down again
"Did you tell King Stultus about it?" asked Viboupa
"The King!" the woman was suddenly filled with rage "That stupid King won't even listen to us!"
"He said that it's not his concern a ghoul is terrorizing the village" the woman said. Her rage seemed dangerous, as if she would kill the King if he appeared in front of her again
Viboupa clenched his jaw and fists, if it was possible he would clench his whole body in rage. This wasn't the first time the Kingdom had suffered due to his father's utter stupidity and cowardice
"Where does the ghoul live?" he asked the woman
"A river begins at the end of the village, after a walk the flow of the water subsides, beyond that point there is a vast moor, it used to be a cemetery but it was abandoned after the rumors of a ghoul possessing it began" the woman said
"The ghoul's time is up" Viboupa announced "This was the last boy he got his hands on"
Viboupa bent down and shuffled in his large bag and pulled out some unique weapons
"Don't worry miss, your boy and all the children of this village will be safe from now on" he said
Securing the weapons he turned to his wife
"Honey, wait" she said and picked up some weapons herself
"No dear" he said and pulled her closer "I know you are a fighter but I have a duty to protect you"
"No, we have a duty to protect each other" she said her eyes filling up with tears
"I know but this duty, to protect these people is not yours, it's mine. Please understand"
Mavya slowly let go of his arm, tears running down her eyes
"Don't worry I will come back, pray to the heavens, they love you" he smiled. He pulled her closer hugging her tightly and finally kissing her before reluctantly letting her go and running off towards the river
Putting one step after the other, as tears fell before each step he promised himself to slay the ghoul and come back
Mavya cried and sat down, praying for her husband's safety and victory but an unexpected element appeared
"Maa?" a teenaged boy came running towards them. Vikaya, this time had gotten the role of the teenaged boy
"Maa are you ok?" he asked hugging his mother
Knowing the past view happenings the boy's eyes widened with shock and anger
"What?!" he yelled "That man just left to take on the ghoul alone and you let him?"
"But.." he mother began
"How could you maa? You let that man sacrifice himself for me?" he said
"So..should I have let that ghoul take my boy?" the mother said
The boy groaned and before his mother could wrack her brains the boy ran away, heading straight towards the river
"Wait Shellen no!" she cried but in vain
Viboupa reached the abandoned cemetery and saw the demon's hideout - a cave lined with bones and ashes. Without a single noise he slowly entered the cave and to his surprise and delight saw the ghoul sleeping
The ghoul was a creature of utter disturbing darkness, the whole place made Viboupa shiver with discomfort and made his skin crawl
Without wasting any time, he fished out a terrifying weapon. A thick body laden with multiple sharp blades but it wasn't that ordinary. With a smooth strike he lodged the weapon into the ghoul's belly! The ghoul opened his eyes with pain and terror but before he could move Viboupa pressed a button on it and it immediately opened inside the ghoul, a star-like network of blades and spikes
"OWWW!" he yelled with pain and rage
Viboupa was relieved thinking this might be the end of the macabre ghoul but to his horror the ghoul pulled out the weapon and glared at him. Viboupa stepped back. The ghoul got up slowly and stared at Viboupa and glanced around
"It was foolish of you to come alone" he said and swung the weapon to strike Viboupa but he was sharp and dodged it just in time
Viboupa rolled over and ended up in the corner and to add even more to his horror he saw the ghoul's wound healing rapidly
"Oh this? Don't you know anything about ghouls boy? Then this might be your last day" the ghoul said and stepped towards Viboupa
"I will decorate your carcass here" he said and laughed
He lifted his dark, death-laden hands to grab Viboupa's neck but a swift, sharp strike mutilated his head! A ball full of spikes and blades hit the ghoul on his head and immediately opened into a larger ball as soon as it hit him
"AHH!" he yelled and turned
"Has a victim ever come to find you?" Shellen said
"No" the ghoul replied
"Well, today's your lucky day rat maggot 'cause here I am!" Shellen announced and threw another ball at his head which the ghoul caught before it could reach him
"What?" the ghoul gritted between his teeth
"I was the victim you were supposed to hunt but this guy came instead of me" Shellen explained
"Oh" the ghoul was delighted "And even though you were saved you didn't run away?"
"Nope" Shellen said
"Oh today indeed is my lucky day. You know a fortune-teller once told me that I would be killed by 'two mighty seeds of courage' his words not mine by the way and here I see two tiny, utterly stupid 'seeds' he sneered at them
"But you know I killed the fortune-teller because I hated that prediction" he gritted between his teeth and charged at Shellen like a vengeful wraith haunting the place
Shellen dodged in time but before the next attack could happen, Viboupa swung a heavy, twisted mace and struck him hard at the back of his head. The ghoul landed on his face, a heavy thud that shook the bone-laden cave
Viboupa and Shellen got together
"I tried to kill him but his wounds heal!" Viboupa said shocked
"The creature is obsessed with all things death do you think death comes easily to him?" said Shellen
"Did you really just walk in here not knowing how to kill a ghoul?" the boy said shocked
"Well, I have taken down a demon before so I thought how hard could it be?" said Viboupa
"A demon? A demon is nothing compared to a ghoul! Ghouls are the result of the sins of black magic" said Shellen "There's only one way to kill them"
"Striking the head and heart TOGETHER! Multiple times" said Shellen "That's why no one had ever been able to kill him"
"And no one will ever" the ghoul replied in a ominous tone
Viboupa and Shellen nodded at each other. Before the ghoul could stand on his feet both of them began striking blindly and violently on his whole body
"Ahh!" they yelled as they hit him with full rage
The ghoul cried with pain and anger
"Now!" yelled Shellen "One two three!"
Two heavy strikes, one on head another on heart hit the ghoul sending shock waves through his body. But it didn't stop there, the strikes happened again and the another until the ghoul was no more
In this way the terror of the macabre ghoul finally ended
Vikaya found herself in a familiar terrain again
"Oh" said Zar as he saw her cowering, her arms covering her head
"That ghoul was ghastly" she said almost whimpering
Zar sighed and walked over to her and stroked her head
"I am sorry, I think it was too much this time" he said softly
"What kind of creatures are these? How do you know all these stories?" said Vik her face still buried below
An ominous silence filled the place and Vik felt chills down her spine
Where was Zar the Hhital?