Warlock

by Vickram E Diwan

  CHAPTER 8: THE HUNT & ESCAPE

  When she finally opened her eyes it was already day, Payal found herself lying on the floor of the drawing room of the farmhouse. It took a little while for her to remember where exactly she was. But when she remembered, the terrifying events of the previous night hit her psyche like a bolt of lightning.

  She got up and ran out madly barefooted until she finally reached the iron gate of the estate. She was about to run straight into the locked iron gate; when a pair of dirty hands got hold of her waist from behind. She struggled wildly but succeeded only in falling down on the ground along with her captor.

  She turned her head and saw that it was the same dirty man, who she had seen in the porch on the preceding night – the madman, dressed shabbily and unshaven for many days and not bathed for weeks. She once again tried to get up and run towards the closed gate. But she was unsuccessful as Bittoo foiled her attempts yet again.

  “Let go of me; take your filthy hands off me, you pervert! I know all about you and your dirty tricks with women,” she shouted.

  Bittoo had to use more strength than he could muster from his lean and weak body, to pull down Payal by her left elbow and make her sit beside him on the ground. He motioned with his hands and facial gestures for Payal to sit still; on the wild grass-covered ground, which they were sitting on and which was right next to the muddy path that led from the iron gate to the porch of the distant farmhouse.

  He strained his ears as if trying to hear something and twitched his nostrils. Presently the pack of four Rottweiler dogs came running towards them and surrounded them. Bittoo tried in vain to scare them with a broken glass bottle and getting up half dragged Payal away from them. The dogs growled and watched them with blazing eyes.

  All of Payal’s resistance vanished, seeing the ferocious canines. She shuddered to think what would have been her lot, had the dogs caught hold of her while she was trying to climb out of the gate. She turned to Bittoo and putting a hand on his right arm said sincerely, “thank you.”

  He nodded as if he understood it; as he walked alongside her. She soon realized that he was taking her back to the farmhouse; she stopped abruptly on the path. When Bittoo looked back at her questioningly she moved her head from right to left indicating that she did not want to go back to the farm-house.

  Bittoo moved his face near his head to indicate a person wearing a mask; Payal understood that he was trying to tell her about the Warlock. “Yes, him, I don’t want to go back to him”.

  He again used gestures to indicate that the Warlock had gone away and wasn’t coming back any time soon. He urged Payal to walk again and come with him. She resigned and went with him; when they reached the farmhouse, Bittoo, instead of walking into the porch took Payal to the rear side of the farmhouse.

  Bittoo took her inside through the rear wooden door of the farmhouse, which lay open; he led Payal to the kitchen inside the place. He opened the refrigerator and took out a cold chicken dish along with a loaf of bread. He sat down on the floor and indicated Payal to sit with him and eat it.

  “I can’t eat cold chicken; how can you?” she asked. “Here give me that; I will warm it on the gas burner.

  Payal made Bittoo sit on a chair at the dining table and after she had warmed the chicken dish, she and Bittoo ate it with the loaf of bread. After they had finished with their brunch, Bittoo indicated Payal to come with him. Perplexed and unsure, she went with him; he led her to the direction of the vast grounds and grassland of the estate that lay beyond the farmhouse. Payal tried to talk him into using the toy-train but Bittoo stubbornly refused to climb it.

  Thinking that she may find some way of escaping her captivity, Payal proceeded on that long journey in the vast grassland. Soon she understood, why Bittoo had led her to the ‘Circus’; in a torn tent of the Circus was the makeshift home of that well-meaning madman, Bittoo. It consisted of nothing more than an old and worn out bed and a large trunk made of tin.

  When she went through the heap of junk in that trunk; Payal found an old pink ‘T-shirt’ and a loosely fitting, rough and worn out pair of light blue jeans that was covered with a few patches. Upon digging deeper, she also came upon a pair of old sports shoes. She ordered Bittoo to go out and when she was sure that he had gone far, she quickly slipped out of her torn dress. She wanted to change her clothes before Bittoo was back.

  Unknown to her, he already was back and at that very moment lay on his chest on the ground behind the tent, peeping at Payal, by raising a small portion of the tent. He saw her fair-skinned ankles before the dress fell down to hide them; he saw her ankles reappear as she got out of the dress. Bittoo moved his head a little further to see Payal more fully.

  It lasted only for a few seconds as she quickly slipped into the loosely fitting pink ‘T-shirt’ and the blue jeans with patches. She sat down on Bittoo’s bed and tried the shoes. Bittoo meanwhile rose up from the ground and walked away mumbling to himself, thoughts which he alone understood. Talking to himself like that he emerged out of the sector Circus of the Warlock’s den and went away in the direction of the shattered ruins of Gypsies further away.

  Payal back in the tent knew nothing of that. A pleasant breeze was blowing in the estate; coming inside the tent it brushed Payal’s face and her body. She put back her hair that fell on her face, finding a piece of thread; she tied her hair behind her head in the shape of a ponytail. What to do now? She pondered. Again search for a way out? But she had already tried and exhausted all possibilities in her mind, she argued with herself. The only way out now was that either her friend Shalini rescued her or she sneaked out after Rudolf Schönherr came back in the evening and tied up the dogs.

  The heavy food, filled tummy, the comparative safety and absence of any immediate danger, after the exhausting and nerve-wracking experience of the preceding night was making her sleepy. She yawned sitting on Bittoo’s bed, which with a blanket had started to appear quite cozy and comfortable. She found herself slipping on the bed as her feet got the blanket on its own accord. The pleasant breeze had only contributed to her sleepiness and before long she fell asleep.

  Telling herself that she would wake up within an hour and walk the long distance to the farmhouse and the iron gates still further, Payal covered her body with the blanket. Before she knew, she was fast asleep in that dirty bed of a madman. Her mind needed the calmness of sleep, where her consciousness could escape, at least temporarily from the tension, fear, and apprehension of the future; and whenever human mind needs anything, it devises an ingenious way to attain it.

  Shalini was sitting in the drawing room of her flat with her boyfriend Naresh, Abhay and Payal’s parents. It has been more than a week since Payal had disappeared and they were still clueless as to what had become of her. On the urging of Police and much to their discomfort, they had visited morgues to look at the unclaimed and unidentified bodies of young women, who had died in accidents or had been sexually assaulted and murdered in the city. They were very much relieved to find that Payal was not among them, but that alone was no guarantee – as Police told them- that she had not met a similar fate.

  Naresh and Abhay had both taken leave from their respective jobs and were assisting Shalini full time in the search of Payal. They had even visited towns like Faridabad, Gurgaon, Noida and Ghaziabad in the National capital region (N.C.R.), whenever the Police found the unclaimed body of a young woman or an unconscious and unidentified victim of a crime or accident was hospitalized. They had gone as far as Jaipur and Lucknow in their futile search. Shalini meanwhile had called all the modeling firms, advertisement-makers, film and television studios in Delhi and film city of Noida and all the coordinators and agencies that found work for actors. She had herself visited many such firms and studios and inquired if anyone had an idea of her friend’s whereabouts. But it seemed as if the earth itself had eaten, or the sky had swallowed Payal, the manner in which his had disappeared without a trace!

  “I am beginning to suspect Rudolf Sch
önherr for Payal’s disappearance,” Shalini declared.

  “Why don’t the Police arrest and interrogate him?” Payal’s mother, Mrs. Chatterjee demanded.

  “He is a big man; rich, famous, powerful and respectable,” reasoned Abhay. “Police cannot arrest him on a mere suspicion.”

  “I don’t care how rich he is; if he has anything to do with my girl’s disappearance, he ought to be interrogated by the Police,” she said looking at Abhay with disapproval.

  “The boy is right.” Her husband said coming to Abhay’s rescue, “Police do not function on your whims; they have their own procedures to follow.”

  “I met Rudolf Schönherr two days back,” said Abhay, encouraged by the support of Mr. Chatterjee. “He’s a thorough gentleman and he showed great concern for Payal’s well being. He promised me all help and said he would make inquiries about Payal, through his various contacts in the entertainment business. He has called me twice since, to find out about the progress on our front, and seems very sincere in his desire to help us.”

  “All a drama! I am going to the Police and I’ll see how they don’t arrest that Schönherr!”

  Her iron determination and refusal to hear any arguments forced the others to accompany her to the office of the ACP, who was a friend of Naresh. Abhay, though still unconvinced of Schönherr’s guilt was forced to tag along; because he couldn’t stand up to Payal’s gutsy mother. Also, he didn’t want to antagonize her in hope of a future relationship with her daughter; which would need her blessings. And above all, because he truly loved and was worried about the well being of Payal, irrespective of whether Rudolf Schönherr was guilty or innocent in the matter.

  The development ended in an anti-climax when Rudolf Schönherr flatly denied before the Police that he had any knowledge about Payal’s whereabouts. He reiterated his concern for her well being and vociferously denied any wrongdoing on his part.

  Among Payal’s well-wishers, only Abhay, who had personally met and had been overly impressed by Rudolf Schönherr’s personality bought his explanation. Payal’s mother and Shalini remained unconvinced, while Mr. Chatterjee and Naresh were undecided on whether he was telling the truth or not. Two days later Payal’s father went back to rejoin his job, from which he could not remain absent indefinitely. Naresh and Abhay also joined duty, albeit reluctantly; with nothing left to do but wait for some news of Payal to emerge from somewhere or the miracle of her safe return home, somehow.

  Payal was fast losing the count of days and nights since she had been a captive in Warlock’s Circus of an estate. Though it had been only a few days, to her it seemed that she had spent an entire lifetime imprisoned there. Time, it seemed had decided to strech; the long days and nights seemed to continue forever. She had nothing else to do, except wander in the wilderness of the vast estate, with or without the company of the madman, Bittoo. With wild bushes, scorched earth, thickets of trees and serenity it appeared to be part of a jungle than a modern city; every day of the week was the same in that place and it was the movement of Sun rather than a clock that decided the activities of the inhabitants of that place. Payal saw monkeys, squirrels, lizards, snakes; and also crows and many birds that had made nests on the branches of the trees in the estate.

  She was close to tears when she saw her own image in the mirror above the washbasin in the farmhouse. She looked no different from Bittoo, wearing those rags as clothes. It was of little consolation, to think that she had a bath every single day in the bathroom of the empty farmhouse.

  Rudolf Schönherr had forgotten all about Payal ever since he had tricked her into coming here. She was on the verge of starvation on the fourth day, having exhausted all the eatables in the refrigerator. It was Bittoo again, who came to her help; he brought her fruits and sometimes leftover food. Payal declined to eat the latter at first, but the demands of her body got the better of her pride, and she had to eat that leftover food.

  She tried to find out, as to how Bittoo had come upon that leftover food; did he know of a way to get out of that prison? She had the intention to use the very same tunnel, or escape route, to get out of that god-forsaken place; but either Bittoo did not understand her question, or was too scared to talk about it. All that she could gather from him was, that some mysterious forces were spying on them continuously though she was unable to comprehend as to what exactly that meant.

  With nothing else to do, Payal spent the long days exploring the vast Raul estate; she frequently used the toy-train to travel around it. She soon became familiar with most of the areas of the estate; of which four places were most notable and stood out. The farmhouse by the lake, the Circus, the Gypsy ruins and an empty stable of horses, rest was all empty grassland, made up of uneven surfaces: ditches, mounds, wild bushes, and trees.

  Escaping out of the estate was out of the question, the pack of Rottweiler was on constant vigil during the absence of their master. Many times she had ventured to the fence perimeter, only to be challenged by the dogs. She had shouted for help but no one had listened to her pleas in that wilderness.

  Before she could realize a gradual change had dawned upon her as a result of her long captivity. She reconciled with her fate and did no longer try to escape from the den of evil. It was as if she had lost all hopes of her rescue and had given up on the life itself. She gave up bathing and roamed unclean in the empty wastelands of the estate, dressed in her rags. Her once silky hair was now full of dust, unwashed and uncared for; indeed she looked like a mere ghost, a shadow of her earlier self. It was a rather curious sight; to see a man and a woman dressed in rags, loitering around the vast grounds, sometimes together sometimes separate.

  Payal had lost all concepts of days and time, to her it seemed that she had always been a captive in those very parts. And her life as an aspiring young actress, her laughs with her friend Shalini, her dinner date with descent and amiable Abhay; it all seemed like a distant dream gone away. Perhaps long periods of her solitude, depression, and hopelessness had rendered her an empty existence with nothing to accomplish.

  It was on the twenty-third night of her captivity that the things finally came to a head. The man with the Golden mask had come to the farmhouse and after playing with his dogs locked them. After a while, they began to growl and bark continuously, despite several reprimands from their master. After he could not ignore their barking any longer he got up and realised that Payal had escaped!

  After snorting cocaine, the Warlock got up and walked out of the farmhouse with firm steps. He was wearing his hooded robe, Golden mask and high heeled leather boots. He was also carrying his sacrificial weapon with him. He had not let loose his dogs because he wanted to capture Payal alive and imprison her in the dark cellar one level below the basement of the farmhouse.

  His destination was the ‘U’ point of the tracks, where the toy-train was stationed, with its nose pointing towards the direction of the vast wasteland of the estate that lay beyond the farmhouse. Warlock opened the door of the first carriage and sat on the seat inside; he checked the last carriage and saw that the plastic containers in it were full of gasoline. He started the engine, pressed the levers and the toy train slowly started to move on its tracks.

  After a slow start, it soon picked up speed and rushed towards the sector Circus; Warlock could see only emptiness all around him, as the toy-train moved on its tracks. A circular shaped light in front of the engine threw a beam of light on the tracks ahead. In the lonely and cold moonlit night, the toy-train ran away with its lone passenger on its tracks, which were spread all over the estate.

  He stopped the toy-train in the Circus and systematically started searching for Payal. After covering the entire place, Warlock was convinced that she wasn’t hiding there; if not there, where? The logical next destination was the empty stable that lay further ahead. He climbed on the first carriage and once again the toy-train was on the move, this time towards the stable. But all his efforts were in vain; Payal wasn’t in the stable as well; he next went to the G
ypsy ruins. The masked-man laboriously searched the entire ruins, each hut, and house; he searched behind every shattered wall, everywhere. But it proved to be as futile, as the search back at the Circus and stable.

  He fell on the seat of the first carriage, exhausted and fatigued. Where the hell she was? He thought angrily. It was almost as if the earth itself had swallowed her; she had vanished as if she had never ever existed on the face of the planet!

  Payal was sitting on the carpet-covered floor of Rudolf Schönherr’s bedroom in the farmhouse for the past fifty minutes. She had been in that very room all along, since the beginning of the hunt, waiting for a good opportunity to escape. She was not bothered as much about the barking dogs but the weird sounds coming from below the wooden floor of the room unnerved her. It was as if imprisoned and tortured souls were withering in pain.

  She had figured out beforehand that the Warlock would search for her on the estate grounds, using his toy-train. She had, therefore, hidden just next to the wall of the farmhouse. After she had heard the back door open and had seen the Warlock going in the direction of the toy-train, stationed at the ‘U’ shaped turn of the tracks, she had quietly sneaked into the farmhouse through the open back door.

  And while the hooded-man had been searching madly for her all around in the vast estate, she hid in the farmhouse. As the clock ticked, her fears were creeping all over her body. Maybe it was a sense of defeatism or self-doubt that had overcome her; the result, however, was that she felt her life to be in a great risk, expecting the masked-man to charge into the room at any moment and stab her to death.