Death's Time Keeper Page 3
Life post the bully was almost like any other normal kid at the orphanage I was now moved into a dormitory with other kids but only for some time. The bully‘s last look would sometimes come in my dreams and ask me for my candy and money and I would dare to say no, only to get punched on the face. Sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the night having such nightmares and the kids sleeping next to me would wet their pants horrified by the noise that would be created, this compelled the staff at the orphanage to quickly shift me to a room once again. The next ten years just passed by and I would always try to remember most of it but could only recall a few incidents.
There was a time in my life as a kid at the orphanage when I felt really ill. Many doctors were called and many priests were consulted. I was also examined by some witch doctors but no one could really tell what was wrong with me. My forehead was a burning hot furnace and the thermometer recorded a temperature that no one had ever seen. I could overhear conversations that I was possessed and under a spell of evil spirits. I felt as if going under some kind of a transformation spiritually, stepping into the world of more dark forces. It continued for a month or so and then one morning I was again healthy. The doctor’s just couldn’t explain this in scientific terms. A witch doctor also requested Mr. George to study me for the coming weeks but just after his first visit he poisoned himself to death. Mr. George conveyed the message of his death to me; I found it very strange but mystery was something that had surrounded me all my life so I didn’t bother to give it a second thought. Though by now I was having a sense that whoever I wanted dead would live no more. So that night I stood in front of a mirror and practiced my powers. I would raise my hand to the level of my face as if a deadly ray would come out of it and kill the person it was pointed to. I started getting a rush with all this power of my imagination.
The very next day at lunch another child double my size was troubling my friend, I went up to him and did my super power act, I raised my hand towards him and felt as if a ray was coming out and will kill him in no time. Nothing happened and very soon many other children gathered around and started laughing at me, even my friend was laughing at me by this time and throwing their food on me. I felt as if I would kill them all and out of embarrassment just ran out of the refectory trying to escape from the rain of food. My reign of power did not last long as I realized that yes I have been bringing death to a lot of people but after this illness and today’s incident I had realized that I just cannot take anyone’s life I wish for and yes I didn’t have a true friend at the orphanage. From a fierce warrior of death I was turned into the joker of the orphanage. Comments would come in flying from all directions, though no one would still dare to hurt me due to my bloody past but no one left a single opportunity to make fun of me. There were also no death’s that involved me for a long time in this period.
There were just a few more incidents on my birthdays especially, I would feel lonelier and was it by chance or destiny that it would rain a lot and the same hole of the bully amidst the ground would just lit up in the similar blue colored flame. I would rush towards the ground but by then it would have been gone and there would be no trace left behind. I would look up at the sky and it would be all evil trapping the goodness of the light within it and not letting it out, just after a lot of effort lightning would escape from its grip making a lot of sound before vanishing in the sky of uncertainty. I would again start the long walk back to my room and often wonder why there is no one around when there is such an incident taking place? To confirm if the children are still there I would often sneak into the dormitory to find them fast asleep.
I was just not sure what to think and how to find out answers and then on my eighteenth birthday I decided to end my life. I went to the top floor of the orphanage and stood on the edge, as I looked down and thought to myself,
“Oh this is going to hurt; I think I should have jumped from the lower floor!”
There was a large audience of many children standing downstairs and cheering me up to jump. Well I decided to go for it but I couldn’t gather the courage to make the leap, then something pushed me from behind. I could not see who it was and I was pretty sure there was no one there except me but as soon as I was in the air, my life started to flashback in front of me. It was all there from the beginning to the bully and finally now. Even as these pictures were before my eyes, I felt my body floating in the air and then I disappeared, the next thing I knew that I reappeared above my bed floating in the air and then I fell on the bed making a loud thud voice.
Moments later Mr. George rushed in my room and asked me if I was okay.
I replied, “Yes Sir, I am okay and was just having a bad dream.”
“Well the children reported that you had jumped from the top floor, but I don’t see you hurt. No one could have survived that big a fall.”
He was checking me for any signs of injuries.
“I think they were lying to you sir, I am all fine as you can see.” Mr. George agreed and then left the room to bash up a few children.
I did not have the courage to try it again so I never did but occasionally went up the roof to get a clue as to who had pushed me on that day. It would be deserted place and I never found any clues there, just kept on looking at the same spot where I made that leap from.
The group of children, who had seen me jump, was a frightened lot. They used to just run away and never cross my path or be in my presence. I was curious about this and once caught a small kid who was also one of the few who had seen me jump and I could easily overpower him to speak up.
I asked him, “Tell me, had you seen me jump that day?”
He was shivering to the bottom and just started crying.
I asked him again, very politely this time, “I am sorry if I startled you but I just need a yes or no and then you are free to go.”
He said “No” and then ran off; this made me all the more worried as now I wasn’t sure if I really did jump or was it a dream?
Drowned in the ocean of miseries and mysteries I just stopped thinking about it. Was it too much to ask for if I was looking for only answers? That was the first time I went into the church of the orphanage to seek answers. I did not know what to say or what to expect at the church but as soon as I entered it, I felt home as if I just left all my worries behind the door and was a new person. I felt enlightened by putting my head down on the feet of the almighty, but I still didn’t get answers though it didn’t matter till the time I felt enlightened.
One of them also had to be the day when I was shifted to the new premises of the orphanage at the new location in town. Finally after nineteen years, Mr. George managed to convince the authorities for me to be shifted with the big boys. It was sort of a working hostel for homeless people like me.
The day as I could clearly remember was not so pleasant to begin with. Kept my bags beside the bed that was assigned to me in the dormitory and looked around, it was a deserted place at that time. When checked with one of the other boys passing me he said that everyone’s off to the factory or where ever they work and will be back by nightfall, he asked me if I was new there to which I nodded in agreement and a smile crossed his face as he left me wondering what was next for me? Got my stuff into the cupboard and started to explore around. The place had a beautiful location up on a small hill in the eastern end of the town, it was said that the castle belonged to first king after the dark ages and was a cursed one.
I recalled the same story that the elder staff had told the story of “Death & the Knight with Potion of life” which was something like this. Long ago just after the dark ages, the wizard of the four mountains had successfully created a potion of life. Drinking it on the night of full moon and dark spirits would make anyone immortal. Just before ten days to this day, this news reached the King who wanted to cheat death and live forever. He sent five of his brave knights out to bring back the potion of life. Four of them returned empty handed as they were unab
le to cross the hurdles of the four mountains created by the wizard and were hanged to death & later buried in a dungeon beneath the castle.
The fifth one however was a smart knight as he was planning how to get into the castle knowing the fate of his four friends. He was sitting beside the pond of mystery in the forest of dark spirits, not knowing what to do. A spirit appeared before him who had no face but a dark color smoke in a hood. He took out his sword and pointed it towards of what he thought was the soul of evil.
It said, “Oh brave knight put down your sword for I am here to help.”
“Who are you, show yourself?” The spirit then removed the hood from his head of what came out was a face that had evil written all over it.
It said, “I am the last surviving spirit of the dark ages. You may call me Death” and then it whispered something in the knights ears, disappearing right after that.
The knight now knew the secret way of getting into the castle of the evil wizard; he went inside and killed the wizard as guided by the spirit. As promised by him he returned to the pond and handed over the potion to death. The spirit almost snatched and instantly drank it and disappeared. The knight went to a pond and filled the empty tumbler with water. He then added a little honey and few rose petals to it, what came out was a pink color liquid. He then presented himself before the king and placed the potion on his feet. He also told the king that before killing the evil wizard he had told him that one has to drink this potion every year on the night of full moon and dark spirits to be immortal and that this potion can cheat death but not aging and at seventy years the aging would also stop.
The king who was then forty years was pleased and rewarded the knight with gold but he was a clever king and put the knight, his wife and four children in prison only to be released once a year to bring the supply of this magic potion till he turned seventy. He also promised to release them once he turned seventy. So for the next thirty years the knight was released once a year, just ten days before the night of full moon and dark spirits and he would make this potion and get rewarded on his return. After twenty nine years it was the last time the knight had to fetch the potion for the king. However unluckily for the knight this time which was the last one just five days later after his quest for the potion, the king discovered that it was all a lie and that the knight had fooled him. He ordered his guards to kill the wife and children. The guards when reached the dungeon did not find any of them in the cellar and reported the same to the king who sent many men to search for them but they were never found. It was said that Death told the knight what was about to happen and planned all this for the knight, who had built secret tunnels in the last twenty nine years beneath the castle that would lead him and his family safely to the jungle. He had also collected handsome rewards and all this gold was good enough for him to lead his life. Death how ever had other plans.
The night when the knight was taking the gold and his family from a tunnel out to the jungle the wall collapsed and all of them were buried alive. Just before dying the knight cursed death and took out another potion of life that he had secretly kept from death and made all his four children drink the potion, death appeared to stop him but it was too late and all of his four children were immortals. The king who realized that all these years he had been not been drinking the potion of life suddenly fell on the ground as the water of the pond was poisoned by death and all these years the king was drinking a slow poison.
He was dead in a few days, thus death appeared and said” Death always has the last smile.”
The four children how ever lived on and death had to adopt them as the potion only had to be drunk once unlike the story made up by the knight, death knew this so these four became its timekeepers of the four directions.
Death told them, “Son’s you all can never die and can only pass on your soul to a different body unless if, willingly you want to sacrifice your souls to save someone.”
Well I never believed this story but always got too interested whenever and where ever it was being told as I could relate being the son of death; maybe the elder person had a distinct way of narrating it that would catch the attention of all the children. Every time we listened to it I would find many boys at the orphanage fighting over that they were the son of death. I had a sense of being in the middle of all that happened in the story for unusual reasons.
Lost in these thoughts I found myself in a lonely and dark part of the castle. In front of me was a dark alley, dark enough to convince me not taking it up but just as I was turning away to go, a cat popped out of the bushes and scared me with its sudden movement. It then ran into the dark alley and disappeared. I looked carefully at the bushes it came from and found a hidden wooden door behind the bushes it was locked by a prehistoric looking lock. I moved towards the door by clearing the bushes but something stopped me from doing so, could feel blood rush through my eyes as if my eyeballs would just fell on the ground. It was maddening pain and anxiety as I was choking and then it happened to me for the first time.
Someone took my hand from behind, “Hey what the hell are you doing here?”
As I turned towards him, he looked at my face he was the scared to death.
I shouted “three days.”
Could see my face in the rain water collected on the ground, I could see a reflection of what looked like the devil.
The man fell on the ground running back in the same direction he came from. I woke up back at the dormitory. This was the starting of many such instances where I would last remember trying to do something and then suddenly the rush of blood in my eyes and then everything would black out and then I would find myself at a totally different place. It mostly happened as soon as I felt asleep.
Well back at the dormitory, trying to figure out what happened? All the new boys were summoned by the bad boys of this place. One of them who looked like the boss around sat at the back. His face was quite familiar but I couldn’t recall where I saw him. They were taking everyone for a ride turn by turn as to what looked as a ritual where they showed who’s boss around.
Then it was my turn and the boss looked at me and ran screaming out of the room while others followed him not knowing what was wrong. Three days later their boss was found hanging by the castle’s entrance door. I could not relate it the first time and for times to follow as to what was happening and I had to wait until I would one day turn twenty.