Dwandv:: The Battle for the Gate

by Dinkar Goswami

  In the form of the resurrected churel, Bubba let loose a well-aimed venomous arrow into the heart of the village that had ridiculed and spurned Sheila, as he had done so before in other villages, causing chaos and destruction.

  On a moonless night, Sheila glided to the edge of her village, followed by a band of ghostly pishachas, and descended noiselessly near the majestic peepal tree. Assuming the form of a stunningly beautiful woman, the churel entered a by-lane of the village, while the pishachas, who had become invisible, spread out to infest the weak and fearful. Covering her head and part of her face with the drape of the sari she wore, she commanded one of the pishachas to follow her. She knew where Vicky would be. He was sitting outside a liquor shop with his drinking buddies.

  Sheila drew nearer and then heard her husband exclaim, “Oh my god!” his mouth agape.

  Vicky stared in disbelief at the beautiful woman who stood beguilingly before him. “Get lost!” he slurred in his friend’s ear and gave him a rough push, sending him on his way.

  Sheila, the churel, approached Vicky seductively. She cast aside the part of the sari covering her face. Her dazzling beauty hypnotized Vicky. He lurched drunkenly toward her. Vicky wrapped one hand around her waist, drawing her closer, while his other hand caressed her back. Her lips curved into a sneer and revealed a dark mouth right before his startled eyes. Her sharp talon-like nails raked a bloody trail across his back. The heat his body was exuding triggered a response in her own body, and a foul odor assaulted Vicky’s nostril. Retching with disgust, he tried to push away from her embrace and fell backward.

  “Aaa-iii-eee-eeeee!” Vicky started to scream, but it was cut off abruptly as his vocal cords contracted. The churel grabbed him viciously by the throat, lifting him off the ground, and squeezed. He watched as her face morphed into his dead wife’s. Horrified at the transformation, his alcoholic stupor vanished instantly.

  Shocked, Vicky realized this creature was none other than his dead wife Sheila. She sank her talon into his bulging jugular, and his blood spurted on the churel’s face. Her skin absorbed his blood in ecstasy. She slashed his face with her free hand, opening a wound on his face. The churel gazed into his eyes. Vicky was too weak to resist her terrifying gaze as his body began to sweat and shrivel. She spat on his face, his sweat mixing with her slimy saliva. She was a product of fire, and when her saliva entered Vicky’s body through his wounds, mouth, nostrils, and eyes, it literally made him steam. He shook violently, bloody steam emanating from his every pore. Life began ebbing out from his body as he dried and shriveled. The churel inhaled the steam inebriated by the stench. When Vicky’s spirit left his body, she turned to the pishacha behind her, throwing his shriveled body. The growling pishacha threw her ex-husband’s remains into the village well. It would putrefy and pollute the pure Himalayan waters of the well from which the entire village drank.

  Just as Bubba had desired, the churel, along with the pishachas, had just sealed the fate of the entire village, not sparing any man, woman, or child. All were doomed except for her dead husband’s family. She had other plans for them. Sheila would make sure that their souls were consumed entirely before she separated their spirit from their bodies. She wanted them to be damned forever.

  CHAPTER 16

  PURGE

  Gerua approached the churel. As Gerua got closer, the churel turned around and extended her arms toward Gerua and whispered, “Please... help.” Then the churel saw the unsheathed kukri in Gerua’s right hand.

  Gerua held the kukri lightly. Her kukris had been blessed according to rules laid down by the ancients. The weapon was lethal against sinister forces, organic or supernatural. The churel was unaware that Gerua’s kukri was capable of cutting through anything and could slice through and separate energy, and even the hardest elements on Earth and beyond. The kukri had blades that were eighteen inches long. Each blade was straight from the handle for six inches and then curved sharply inward at an angle of twenty-eight degrees. The blunt side was half a centimeter thick, the cutting edge was razor sharp, and the blade was etched with symbols in the language of the ancients. Only Gerua could wield the weapon. Gerua had worn the two large kukris on her back, blades crossing with handles pointing downward. As Gerua approached the woman in red, she touched the blue stone in her belt buckle. Neither the churel nor the pishachas could hurt her now.

  Seeing the kukri in Gerua’s hand, the churel stood up, and her shape changed. Her hair grew scruffy and unnaturally long. Her lips turned thick and black, and her tongue—dark, long, and bristly—lolled out of her mouth. Her once beautiful mouth broke into a sinister grin, and Gerua could see her rows of teeth. Like a lizard, the churel licked her eyes and then her rough lips. She opened her mouth, snarling and shrieking, as she pounced on Gerua. The afflicted villagers around her saw her pounce. Some made hoarse growling noises, and some laughed gruesomely. The raucous and coarse laughter that came from deep within their bodies was not human. The churel tried to rip Gerua apart, but she could not even scratch her skin. The churel retreated, perplexed.

  She stared hypnotically into Gerua’s eyes, but Gerua was unperturbed. Gerua moved toward the churel, and the creature backed away. The churel spat on Gerua’s face. Gerua deftly sidestepped, the spit landing harmlessly on the ground, causing the ground to singe. The churel let out a shrill shriek and attempted to morph into her ghostly form, but it was too late. Gerua moved with inhuman speed toward the churel, slashing downward with the kukri from head to the churel’s prenium, cutting the churel into half, right down the middle. The two halves fell away from each other, the blunt edge of the kukri blade pushing them apart. The pishachas possessing the villagers witnessed the churel fall, and their growls and laughter turned into raspy shrieks. Some of the pishachas released the villagers they were tormenting and came toward Gerua in their horrifying solid form meaning to tear her apart. Gerua stood her ground.

  Gerua was aware that a pishacha relied on the inability of the mind to comprehend the horror and the fear of seeing the apparition. The pishachas used this fear and doubt to cause havoc and confusion in the human mind. The pishachas could also possess a mortal to weaken the spirit. They either caused the mortal’s self-destruction or forced the mortal to harm other mortals. To cause physical harm swiftly, a pishacha had to assume a horrifying physical form and use its superior strength to inflict terrible wounds. Gerua knew that the village was infested with pishachas of all kinds, including ones that had bodies and faces covered with scales or spikes capable of ripping human flesh.

  A scaly pishacha reached Gerua with intent to enter her body in the pishacha’s ghostly form and then turn solid, thus hoping to tear Gerua apart from inside. The pishacha’s repeated attempts to enter Gerua’s body were unsuccessful. The belt shielded her against the pishacha. The confused pishacha instinctively adopted its terrifying scaly shape and extended its dark leathery wings to engulf Gerua. She had taken out both her kukris from their scabbard when she saw more pishachas surrounding her. She slashed with the kukri in her right hand at the scaly pishacha, and the kukri cut through the pishacha’s scaly neck, decapitating it. Some other pishachas with bodies covered with spikes and sharp bony horns threw themselves at Gerua in an attempt to peel off her flesh. Gerua cut them in half before they could reach her. Once cut by the kukri, the pishachas were done for. They even tried rejoining, but they were not able to. Gerua dealt with the pishachas as if she were bestowed with the authority of a higher power. As her kukris slashed through the pishachas, Gerua invoked a mantra. The mantra not only commanded the pishachas to leave the villagers they were infesting, but it also invoked the pishachas to take their solid forms. The mantra also caused the pishachas unbearable agony. Desiring to stop Gerua’s incantation, they instinctively attacked Gerua in their solid forms one after another. When they did, Gerua cut them down. More and more pishachas left their hosts to attack Gerua, only to fall prey to the skillful strokes of her kukri. Soon, Gerua had created pishacha carnage.

 
Two pishachas, who had been doing Bubba’s bidding for many years, had been tormenting the family of the chief of the village. When these pishachas saw the carnage, they knew that they had to let Bubba know. They were afraid of facing Gerua but were even more terrified of the prospect of facing Bubba with the news of failure, but they had no choice. They knew that they could either face Bubba or be destroyed by this woman with kukris. They had encountered exorcists and powerful, virtuous yogis before, but had never experienced such destruction. The two pishachas made their hosts cover their ears and run far away from Gerua’s chanting. They released their hosts, turned invisible, and rushed to Bubba in their ghostly form to tell him about the terrifying pishacha carnage they had witnessed.

  One pishacha that possessed the daughter of the village chief caused the girl to attack Gerua. Gerua was protecting the villagers from the pishachas, so the pishacha concluded that Gerua would not harm the girl. Gerua scabbarded the kukri in her left hand, took the beaded necklace she was wearing, and held it in her empty hand.

  As the girl approached screaming at her, Gerua put the necklace around the girl’s neck. The girl shook violently as the pishacha possessing the girl was forced to release her and take its solid form. Gerua dispatched it swiftly with the kukri in her right hand. After the pishachas in the village were dispatched or had left, Gerua returned her kukris to their scabbards and sat in a lotus position a little away from the carnage she had created. She took off the beaded necklace, held it in her hand, and recited a new mantra 108 times, exactly the number of beads in the necklace. The pishacha carnage in the village soon turned into dust. The disoriented villagers slowly approached Gerua. They could not remember what had happened. The darkness that had been engulfing the village cleared. The surrounding forest came to life, and birds and insects could be heard in the village once again.

  Bubba heard what had happened. He wondered who this woman was, who had defied him and his edict. No one could defeat the pishachas and defy his edict at this scale. This woman had destroyed the churel and the pishachas without using siddhi, and with only a couple of kukris. This was inconceivable. From the description of the woman, he suspected that this could be the same woman who had been declared dead seventy months ago. But that woman had no such skills, only a dangerously virtuous spirit that warranted destruction. Bubba had to know.

  Gerua stopped chanting as she saw the chief of the village approach. She had purged the village. As the chief and other villagers began to orient themselves, she helped them understand the bizarre events that had happened. She explained to the chief that the edict had afflicted them. Her presence and her words gave the villagers the strength to face their tribulation. Gerua asked the chief to clean the village’s well, remove the bodies, and properly cremate the dead. Meanwhile, Gerua had taken two planks and nailed the two parts of the churel’s body to them. Gerua buried the parts separately, far away from each other, outside the village so that even the villagers would not know the location of its remains.

  As the villagers regained their focus, Gerua gathered essential herbs from the forest to treat the villagers who were weak, wounded, and sick. She also explained to the village doctor which herbs to use and what to do to treat the ill and infected. She would have left earlier to return to the ashram, but on the request of the chief, she had agreed to spend the night and tend to the infirm.

  Bubba reached the edge of the village while it was still daylight. He had positioned himself on a high tree near the entrance. He looked for the woman but could not see her. He also could not see the churel’s remains or that of the pishachas. He could see the villagers tending to the injured, cremating their dead. Perhaps their savior had left. Then his eyes fell on Gerua as she emerged from the forest carrying herbs. She had an air of invulnerability about her. He watched her treat the villagers with the herbs. It wasn’t until she looked in his direction that he saw her eyes and realized that this must be the woman his disciple had lost to the mountain almost six years ago, reporting her dead. Had there been a disastrous mistake? Bubba knew a yogini when he saw one, and she was no doubt an accomplished yogini. It was apparent that she was superbly trained. He needed to know the extent of her training and understand if a mistake had been made.

  The following day, Gerua expressed her desire to leave. The village chief and other elders repeatedly requested her to stay, but Gerua politely declined. Eventually, the chief offered to give her a ride for a part of the way to her destination in his old pickup truck.

  The old engine of the pickup truck shrieked in pain as the chief changed from the fourth to the third gear. It was a light load, only Gerua in the back and the driver and his wife in front. As the truck reached a steep slope, it began to slide back down the slope. Gerua jumped off the back of the pickup, landing without a sound on the dirt road. With one sinewy arm, she stopped the truck from rolling back.

  “Thank you for the ride,” she said once the truck had stabilized. “I will make my way to the upper mountain on my own now.”

  “Please reconsider. Stay with us for a few more days,” the chief begged once again. “Everyone will feel safer. No one could have done what you did for us. We don’t even know your name.”

  “Please believe me, you are safe. I thank you for bringing me so far up the mountain, and I wish everyone well. My name is Gerua, and I will return.” Not waiting for a response, she began scaling mountain ranges, heading for the Savage Mountain.

  CHAPTER 17

  FRUSTRATION

  Bubba returned to his labyrinth-like cave system that contained hundreds of cave units that he used for different purposes to cater to the needs of his aghori as well as his paranormal army. He had already sent one of his aghori disciples to watch Gerua’s movements. Bubba summoned the two pishachas that had made it back from the village.

  “I know you fear this woman, but you must not,” said Bubba. “I am willing to give you another chance to capture her before she disappears. At this very moment, she is headed for the upper mountain. She will be full of confidence, perhaps overly so, and her overconfidence is what we have to use against her to make her fall while she climbs. If she falls, she will be injured and weak, and that is when she can be captured.”

  Bubba continued. “You will not try to launch a direct attack. I believe yog has found her and she is highly trained. If you face her when she is not injured, she will destroy you.” The pishachas looked at each other and growled. “I believe she has been trained by the best the mountain has to offer and she has some knowledge of the ancients.”

  Bubba ignored the pishachas’ raspy shrieks and looked at them icily. The pishachas retreated slightly. They fell quiet, and suddenly, the room seemed to get colder. Bubba knew that because their existence was based on fear and pain, the pishachas themselves lived with a constant sense of fear and pain. They only experienced relief when they transferred their distress and pain to mortals. All he had to do was increase their fear and pain, and they could be relied upon to transmit it to mortals, who were easy targets.

  He continued as his voice became even more chilling.

  “Understand that I need her alive but weakened, so that I can extract information from her. You must weaken her before capturing her.” Bubba had been angry when he had found out what had happened in the village. But now he saw it as an advantage because the woman had revealed herself. And as far as he knew, she didn’t know yet that Bubba was after her. He wanted to know how tough Gerua’s spirit was and what her weaknesses were.

  He sent the pishachas as far high as they could go. The pishachas initially had a hard time figuring out where Gerua would go next as she climbed rapidly in a zigzag pattern alien to the pishachas. So, they cracked the partially snow-covered stones at all places they believed she would climb so that the stones would break under her weight.

  As Gerua climbed, a stone, which Gerua clasped to pull her up, broke away from the mountain. As she fell, her training took over, and instead of tumbling, she continued to face the mou
ntain. Her hands served as ice axe, locking into a fissure in the stone, and her toes pierced the mountain face, stopping her descent. Gerua’s limbs became tools to hold and carry her body swiftly upward as she disappeared to heights where the pishachas could not go. The bewildered and terrified pishachas would now be subjected to Bubba’s wrath.

  Bubba saw this remotely through the pishachas’ unintelligent minds and let out a terrifying roar, shaking his head from side to side. All the occupants in Bubba’s cave system cringed in terror.

  Gerua heard the roar of as it blasted of the Bubba’s cave system and echoed on the mountain. She continued to climb speeding upward, leaping from one slippery stone to another, the echo fading behind. Her heart full of confidence she smiled inwardly and thought, the fight for the village was won. A trailblazer to the oncoming Dwandv-the Battle for the Gate-had been set in Himalayan stone. She knew her enemy now and she would be ready!

  CHAPTER 18

  ABILITY

  Gerua was fully familiar with the Himalayas. She knew the secrets of the mountains. It was now home, and Gerua knew her home well. She scaled the mountain with ease and grace, moving swiftly and silently upward. It was as if the mountain wanted to be conquered by her. She moved effortlessly toward the upper mountain peaks, disappearing as she climbed higher and higher through the clouds. She soon reached the perpetually ice-covered rocks and the extremely thin air.