11. Real safe

"Relax," 'The Coward' says to me screaming up my lungs, and making my voice echo in the empty stadium, full of silence from dead bodies.

"It fucking hurts!" I demand.

I was in a soul state, having an out-of-body experience, as one of the guy holds my soul intact within the air, with his energy.

Rakshasas, or Asuraas, these monsters fed on souls, and many other things which came at the cost of the living usually.

And currently, I was in such a state where my soul was in a controlled state by this Asuraa… Aathmahaari, which basically stand for a being which feeds on souls. His wish was directly given to him by the god of death, of the Hindu mythology, Yama.

Yama is someone known to deal with deaths of humans. And he has had a share of mistakes which occur, since he has to manage both the good and bad souls, and has to judge them.

Yamaduthas, are beings which basically are demons themselves, but serve Yama and help with bringing the souls to him. How or who they are… I'm not sure, but they serve their lord well.

Aathmahaari was one such demon who prayed to gain wish from Yama. Now, Yama may be a strict god, but who doesn't like to be pleased by a worshipper? So he couldn't resist and appeared to him. Aathmahaari was ever so kind to Yama, and celebrated a fest with Yama himself.

Yama got greatly pleased, and that is one the great shot of a wish was taken… to be a Yamadutha, and serve under Yama. But Yama was displeased, he saw the vast kingdom of the demon and disagreed, saying it is stopping low.

Then give me something similar, maybe I can deal with some souls on a part of a land on Earth myself. So that your work gets easier. And all my servants shall help me too.

Yama couldn't have possibly given the wish of controlling a soul to every servant of this demon, but agreed to the other part, after a little thought.

Aathmahaari is supposed to have passed on and create ways to gain power by sacrifices of the living, and also feeding on the soul. Sacrifices would be sent over to him, making him powerful, while he had to give only a portion of his wealth or power to the person to have performed the ritual. And in the end, that person would be gained by Aathmahaari too.

And such a presence was right in front of me, holding my fucking soul. This grasp felt worse than being choked by Peak.

"You died… but I had to have a talk with you. So you can't be blaming us for trying our best in keeping you from going towards your eternity of cessation."

"What even is special about her, that we had to kill so many? We decided to stay low," Aathmahaari says.

"Ashwatthamma will be here any moment," says the acting leader of Asuraas, the one who had talked at the opening of TTT. Manavasura, or the human demon.

Yes, usually… yeah, well I can't keep giving perfect details always, well, not all demons just go by praying gods. Some get their wishes granted by sages, or slay sages or gods to gain powers. Or like Aathmahaari, they gain by feeding onto something.

Manavasura, is the start of the new age, Kaliyuga, or the dark age. Also called as the age of demons. He set out to kill gods by all means, and with his army. He even must have coined the term Kaliyuga, for all I know.

The leader of Asuraas came along and helped Manavasura. However the battle went… the two, and also the other Asuraas, were the only ones left standing.

There are many theories that the gods just were fed-up and closed the doors to their world, making it impossible for anyone to go back there. So these last Asuraas were left on Earth.

That was another reason why gods never showed up to Earth. Kaliyuga is such an age where everything comes to an end. An end brought by Manavasura, as initially the gods merely predicted that this could happen, but Manavasura was the catalyst.

Also, the powers of Manavasura was due to all the sins of humans.

Gods figured that having humans repent after their death, for all their deeds, would stop this, and that was the purpose of Yama. But it just didn't, sins had still occurred, and punishment of the afterlife could not cancel it out. So, that gave Manavasura the powers he needed to fight the gods.

"I'll handle him," someone says, appearing.

What looks like a five foot tall person, in masked clothing, appears in front of me, while looking at Manavasura. He glances at me, and then at 'The Coward', making me shudder more.

"Whatever you are doing… better be good," HE says.

"Yes sir," 'The Coward' says, shivering helplessly in front of this presence.

Such a short being… yet could scare the shit out of anyone… maybe except Ashwatthamma.

Yet another person I didn't have the name for. The most secretive one.

HE disappears, leaving us all here, in between the corpses of even my teammates.

"Don't bother. You shouldn't care for such things. All of this is fake," 'The Coward' says. "You are struck here, Einya King."

"What do you mean? We… it can't be. Am I dreaming?"

"Basically. But in a rather vivid way. It is your dream but… there is no way for us to be fake, as we know everything about ourselves, things which even you wouldn't know."

"Like?"

"But I can't tell you. Perhaps… that is the whole picture here. I and the others know for sure we are real, but we could possibly not contradict or tell you things which your knowledge holds."

"But how can you be sure?"

"I have a hold of your mind, since the time you thought of me. And… I feel another unknown presence there, having a hold on you too. Hence I can conclude this isn't real. And you seem to have experienced such a dream before."

"But that was stopped…"

"How?"

"The others did."

"But did they explain anything to you? Have you received ANY new information? Information that you already didn't know. Or perhaps seen unpredictable things? Besides this I'd say."

He was right… I crushed on Endal, and knew for sure that I'd surely get some from him, if I wanted to. The matches. Peak. Even this… it was predictable. I even… predicted that whatever was wrong with me, Pack and my brother would take care of it. So could this all be real?

"Of course, you can't put your head around it. Because of such a presence on your brain… oh it feels me talking to you," 'The Coward' says, looking into the space.

"What even is it?"

"It even seems to have played with you, so you can die here, in the hands of that Peak…"

Even the name… I have it to him, and it just was officialised.

"Who?" I ask.

'The Coward' looks towards me.

"Ah, but could I give such an information? Would it be predictable perhaps, or real?"

"But I know for sure that you could tell me the truth."

"Ah… perhaps it works that way," 'The Coward' says. "Promise to think my name, right as you reach outside. My real self will figure then."

I nod. "If it ever happens."

"Roach is scary but… I think she can't bind you forever, however worse your condition could be."

Roach… that was a creepypasta.

Roach used to be a mother. A mother of who… that part is forgotten, and I thought it was last writing. Roach was born with an interest in acting plays. She got quite famous in her little village, everyone knew her.

Back then, the village people had problems with losing their younglings, who used to wander away in the night, and never return, or return bleeding, and eventually die. The causes were unknown, and perhaps many… that was how the world was.

The village people wanted to do something about this. Since the kids were notorious, they wanted to find the cause themselves, and run into the night.

Everybody decided the children should be scared, without having to go through the real fear. So making something up, perhaps a tale of some ghost, would work.

Roach, still human, was the candidate for this. She was to act like a ghost, and scare children every time she found them awake in the night, wandering off.

It worked, and the kids stayed intact, leaving the village to unravel the mystery of the killings themselves. But even then… causalities could never be nulled.

Roach's kid died, in a brutal way, and she cried holding her kid's corpse, in the worst state possible. So she couldn't continue doing what was her job… understandably.

But it drives her crazy. She determined to keep the kids away from the streets, at night. She didn't want others to end up like her kid.

The next time she saw the kids in the street, she jumped and scared them. It didn't work, the kids just watched her, from a distance, wanting to solve the mystery. So Roach killed a kid, in order to scare the others.

After finding this about the made-up ghost… the village elders were furious. They gave Roach an earful, and removed her from her job, and asked her to rest.

But the ghost of the late night, never stopped. There were more killings.

In the end, the villagers decided to kill Roach, and set her as an example for the village, to not go outside, by giving her the worst of deaths, than any other found by the villagers before.

That turned into their doom, the village was wiped out by Roach, now as a ghost. But she didn't stop after that.

Roach to this day, is in search of her kid, searching in the night, for kids who feel like her kid. And she watches them, and makes sure they go to bed, by giving them the creeps of being watched.

Only the kids can see her, as she invades their mind, and slowly makes them perceive her.

If you see a cockroach watching you in the middle of the night, and you are sure… it probably is her. She'll get bigger and bigger, the more you are awake, and will try to harm you.

She'll follow you around if you are walking, and you can find her in the mirror you pass-by, sometimes. And if you remind her of her kid, she'll closely look after you, and get really mad, if she is attached to you, and you stay awake even a little longer.

But I wasn't a kid… and… she couldn't… unless, she was around the guy I hooked up with. And NO, he was not underage… really. Pretty sure he was like… maximum one or a bit more years younger, that's all.

Since I left him in the night… she attached to me? To look after me?

"It is time to send her to the afterlife from here," 'The Coward' says to Aathmahaari. "Whether you die in her hands or not… think of me when you get out. We have a deal."