Chanchal had not slept well since the head had come on board.
She had spoken to everyone about her nightmares. She argued that the strange phenomenon and the tragic incidents on the INSO Dwaraka were influenced by the discovery. But no one listened to her.
People laughed at her stories as if it was some infantile fantasy.
And now the incident involving Tara was beyond bearable. Tara, who was the life of the party, reduced to charred flesh that was barely breathing with the help of machines.
Her father's stories were true. The head belonged to Rahu. The source of all misfortune and evil in the universe.
It had a brought upon them an ancient curse. And it would destroy them one by one.
She couldn't wait to reach Sudarashana station, offload the thing and get back to her life.
Presently, she was working in the mining bay to distract herself.
When they weren't prepping for an expedition, the miners rarely visited the section, except for minor maintenance tasks. Perks of being a space miner. You might have 5 months in a year where you are constantly on the go. They would spend the rest of the time waiting for the commanding officers to identify a suitable destination and travelling to the planet.
But idle hands meant, Chanchal's mind drifted to the horrifying visions of the head and Tara's maimed body. So she serviced the drill bits on the earth borer. Although they had machines to perform this task, Chanchal preferred doing things the old way, with a grease bucket and brush and rags. She was lovingly cleaning connecting heads on the hydraulics unit in one of the legs of Earth Borer 248 when she heard a noise.
Wet footsteps.
"Hello, who is there?"
More footsteps but no response to her queries..
"Is that you Boss?"
More footsteps.
"Raghuram, stop playing games with me, I am not in the mood for it."
She placed the part she was cleaning back into its port, closed the panel and stepped away from the machine.
She looked up at the borer towering over her. Its top nearly kissed the hull of the ship and its giant feet, the size of tree trunks, radiated out from its central structure which housed the control centre, dwarfing other equipment in the bay. A colossus that never failed to impress Chanchal.
The footsteps were coming from the other side of the machine.
She did a quick walk around the borer to see who was playing silly buggers with her. She grabbed a large spanner just in case.
<Someone running>
The mining bay was often a chessboard of darkness and light. Chanchal's eyes scanned the surroundings mostly clothed in shadows, but occasionally revealed by light panels high in the ceiling.
She had walked past two of the giant legs of the borer when she spotted a dark figure.
Sh reached into her pocket and pulled out a small torch.
She pressed the power button as she walked towards it. "Who is it?"
It did not move.
Her father had taught her a mantra to give her strength in the face of fear. It was a hymn to the great goddess Durga. She chanted it as she edged closer to the silent figure. Pressing the button on the torch repeatedly, did nothing to activate the device, so she started hitting it against her right thigh.
She was close to her target. It did not make a move. It did not breathe.
She banged the torch against the wall. <hitting of the torch>
The torch came alive. She stopped and directed the beam of light towards its intended destination.
For a second she thought she saw Tara's charred form, her skin like Coal and wet, rotting bark, the whites of the eyes oozed a soupy mess, and flared up red patches of inflamed flesh glowed like embers.
Chanchal let out a scream and fell back on her butt.
She scrambled backwards for some distance, before coming to a stop.
She lifted the torch up to light the same spot.
Nothing. Just some chain harnesses.
She laughed nervously.
"Chanchal you silly girl," she said.
She stood up gingerly. Her bum hurt from when she landed hard.
<hiss>
She turned around and standing before her with is fangs exposed and its mouth framed in a snarl was a half human-half serpentine monster.
Chanchal ran.
What on earth was that monstrosity! Some kind of alien form that had got on board the ship when they extracted the head?
There was no other explanation for it and Chanchal knew she was not dreaming.
She could hear it catching up to her. Chanchal ran up the stairs that would take her to the landing, which linked up to the rest of the ship via a long corridor.
There were 5 flights of stairs between her and freedom. If she got up there fast enough and exited the section through the door, she could press the emergency button and seal the mining bay with the creature trapped in it.
She willed her feet to be faster than it had ever been, as she took two steps at a time.
The creature was right behind her.
One more flight of stairs.
She felt a sharp pain on her upper back.
Her muscles, which were not used to vigorous activity were giving up on her, she thought.
Her energy systems drained and she slowed down.
A cold feeling swept through her body.
She was nearly there. She got to the landing on top of the last flight of stairs and smiled.
One last dash at the exit door.
She couldn't hear the creature anymore. Maybe it wasn't fast enough. Maybe it gave up.
Then her legs collapsed under the weight if her upper torso. She fell hard.
Pain radiated through her body.
She cried out.
Now is not the time Chanchal reminded herself.
The door was close to where she lay. She crawled towards it with the help of her arms.
The creature climbed up the last flight of stairs and came to a rest on the platform.
<hissing>
She crawled, certain that the monstrous being was watching her in amusement.
"Help," she screamed. "Help me."
She looked up at the mining bay security camers. Surely, her plight was being streamed to one of the monitoring panels on the bridge. But then, she noted that the red lights on the top right corner, which signalled activity, were absent.
No one knew what was happening to her. The crew were oblivious to the fact that there was a monster on board.
Her arms were tired. The lactic acid buildup in her muscles forced a rest.
<slow walk>
Chanchal wept.
The creature that had sunk its fangs into her back and paralysed her was about to deliver the killing stroke.
And Deliver it did.
The creature that had the ability to transition between Sudhir and its monstrous form with ease, grabbed Chanchal's hair and ripped her scalp clean from her skull. At once, it started pounding the plates of the skull with its clawed hands, till it cracked open the bony cage and exposed her brain.
YOU ARE READING
Meru
Horror(Complete) Indian mythology inspired horror story set in space featuring a toxic love triangle. INSO Dwaraka, the Indian National Space Organisation's most advanced mining spaceship has had its share of tragedies, but when they retrieve a mysterious...
