Bombay Shaman: Nightmares at Dadar

PART VII - Can't give up

The child was admitted in the same hospital next morning. The anomaly was, his parents reported that he never woke up from his sleep and was found dried up on his bed, in a state of coma. That only meant that the demon was growing even stronger.

After the doctors were done putting every possible effort to no avail and decided to place him in the ICU out of some hopeless hope, expecting some kind of medical miracle, Edha found the right time to sneak Kumaran into the little boy's room for another unauthorized exorcism.

Kumaran did do it right again, and Edha aided him despite her wish to run in the opposite direction at full speed – she even got to greet the disfigured, dark being with her shrill shriek.

However, the child remained in coma, so did the other two victims from earlier.

Kumaran later sat on the steel bench outside the child's room, his hands clasped and covering his face. He felt overwhelmingly tired, annoyed, and angry.

Edha came and sat beside him.

Swetha's father and brother stood in front, waiting for him to say something that would reassure them; but he had not a speck of solace for them.

"I failed." He muttered. "If I had done better, maybe that child would've been in school by now..."

"You did what you can," she patted him. "Don't beat yourself up. Think of what you can do to make things right in the present, rather than dwelling on what went wrong in the past."

He shook his head and pressed his teeth. "How do I stop something that is everywhere? By the time I find it, it already finishes its bloody job – another poor victim... wish uncle was here, but he isn't... these poor people are stuck with me, a half-baked shaman."

The father and son turned away, trying to hide their tears.

There was dead silence in the passage for a while. But then,

"You know," Edha said, in a very consoling and hope-arousing manner, "the Kumaran I knew from Chennai, he'd make several mistakes, horribly silly and stupid ones, but with each mistake, he'd learn, pick up the pieces, and try again, over and over, until he did it right."

He looked up at her.

She smiled at him. "Remember?"

He nodded.

"So what did Kumaran learn this time?"

"It attacks everyone in their sleep, causing torturous nightmares to lower their spiritual and mental barriers and defenses, making 'em weaker. Maybe, when any of 'em falls below a certain degree of spiritual and mental resistance, it finally preys on 'em. The problem is, I don't know who has the weakest resistance and who will become first." He clicked his tongue. "If I had someone with the weakest resistance, then I'd know it where it would–" he stopped, an idea sparked in his head. He shot a look at her.

She frowned, annoyed. "Don't even think I'd guess what's in your mind! I don't even know this stuff."

"You," he called Swetha's brother. "Ya wanna help your sister?"

"Anything for Swetha!" He wiped his tears.

"This is gonna be a risky gamble, but it's the only option I can think of. Do ya trust me?"

"I don't."

Kumaran blinked.

"But anything for my sister!"

"Good," he chuckled.

His plan was simple. The demon's host were the ones with weak barriers, so he chose to make Swetha's brother the bait by manually reducing his defenses using his own magic – the brother even had to fast the whole day and survive on very little water – thereby guaranteeing him as the next target of the demon. To capture the demon, Kumaran placed paper amulets in the brother's room that would activate and bind it upon entering the plane of humans.

And so came the night yet again.

AUTHOR NOTES

Failure to save a child did make Kumaran upset, but thanks to Edha, he remembered his resilience and came up with a plan to stop the demon. Now it's night again, and the demon will come back soon for another soul. Will Kumaran be able to stop him this time? Read the next part to find out dear readers! 

I hope you're enjoying the story, if you are, please do vote and comment. Open to genuine feedback; that would help me rectify my errors.