The Haunted Fortress of Bhangarh: Book 1

50. The one that he remembers clearly

Ever since Kalavati had been able to partly free herself from the walls of Bhangarh—all thanks to Rudra spending the night in the premises—she had been able to venture out, cross the different realms existent on the mortal planes, but she could never fully utilize her powers. Nascent they were for reasons best known to her, but Shravani knew it for a fact that the lady in red—as Rudra and his friends had nicknamed the spirit—could exhibit her full powers once every fifteen days. Hence, the attacks were at least separated by a two-week gap. Otherwise, Kalavati would've swept everyone off the face of the Earth and taken Rudra along with her to the supernatural realm.

Sighing, Shravani fixated her gaze at a point two feet above the ground on the wall opposite her cot. Within no time, her lips parted and her eyeballs went rigid, the pupils turning into black stones. She became frigid to the touch, and a pallor spread across her features. A black smoke emanated from her entire self—massless, swaying along with the wind, blurry. The amalgamated smoke did have its iconic feature, though. Her red, raging eyes, almost as if someone had lit a fire beneath.

Ragged huffs emanated from the entirety of the mass of formless blob of smoke before chantings resounded inside the hut—sinister in the intonation. The birds and insects roaming around the hut dropped dead. So did the lanky stray dog curiously peeking inside the windows, flopping on the ground with a thud. Lifeless.

Soon enough, the spirit had accumulated enough energy—negative energy from the morbidity around—and it was able to transport itself to another realm.

The supernatural realm.

Suspended between the Earth below and the sky above, the realm was a stretch of flat land, invisible to the naked eye, nestled between the dark clouds, floating in midair. The clouds not only engulfed the realm from all sides but they also served to form the boundary around the premises of the land of the dead. The only entrance to the supernatural realm was the massive metallic gate with spikes on its ends. However, those spikes were nothing but the skulls of the humans and animals fallen prey to the residing spirits. Touted to be the darkest realm across the universe, the supernatural realm had another protection in place. The obsidian tar-like substance, gooey in nature, coating the clouds and the gates, separating the realm from the outer atmosphere.

The spirit approached the gates and crooned a song. Out of tune and not at all melodious. But that prompted the guards to stride up to the gates.

The djinn boasting crimson skin and guarding the entry to the realm glimpsed at the red eyes and the black smoke that the spirit possessed. "What are you doing here? Princess has retired to her quarters."

"I need to talk to Princess Kalavati," the spirit's garbled voice said. "I need to disseminate some really important information."

The entrance swung open to reveal a darkness so deep that one wouldn't be find their way out of it without a source of illumination. However, the spirit deftly navigated through the darkness, meandering the nebulous pathways with an ease that could startle the onlookers. The shapeless and ever-changing forms of the quarters and residences popped in front of its vision before disappearing in a haze when moved a certain distance away.

Finally, the spirit halted in front of a noticeably dark stretch of nothingness. By the time it was able to discern the human skeleton hanging from the roof of the edifice, the entire structure had sprung into her line of vision. A square-shaped single-storied building with its edges constantly molding onto itself, the lines creating a blur for the passersby to watch in bafflement.

The spirit entered the building once it received permission to. Landing at a dark oval chamber inside, it bowed in courtesy in front of the obsidian throne situated two steps above the ground. The lady with her red veil drawn up to her nose had her one leg propped over the other, the grey smoke blurring her outline, and she nodded at the spirit.