Searching For The Cursed (Shattered Souls #1)

Chapter 13

As Arudra laid beside the lifeless form of Sreeshanvika, staring at her ardently, the invisible flesh eating worms started to be visible. Tears of unbearable pain twisted his guts as he watched her form getting fully consumed by those. Those covered her from head to toe. Her lifeless blank eyes soon was covered with those too. Arudra whimpered in pain as he saw his beloved's material body wasting away again.

The pain was so severe that he closed his eyes and tried to imagine himself in Patal. The torture he had endured for years, decades and centuries seemed very less than this. What was his fault? Why was he going through this? Why was fates so cruel to him?

Every Vrikajina after getting consciousness, yearned for their mate. It was the biggest blessing of Sarabhaswara and their reason for living. But Arudra wished he had never known Sree in the first place. That would have been better than this torment.

By nature Vrikajinas were protective of their mate. Kept them above all and everything. But here, he was forced to kill her with his own hands. Not once, or twice. He had done this for six times now. Six times he had to see her die and endure this pain. Six times he had died with her. Only to be left alive in a world without her!

Arudra opened his eyes. And there she was. Sree! His Sree! Sitting right in front of him watching helplessly as he suffered. Her mortal body had wasted away and nothing remained. Now, she had come to her true form.

Arudra remembered the day clearly when he first met her. He was only twenty six. Pretty much a kid by Vrikajina standards. He was out in the forest for hunting and there she was. Amidst the beautiful nature. Playing with butterflies that floated right through her. He felt the pull and knew it with absolute certainty that she was his.

***

Almost Eight hundred years ago...

The jiggling of bangles caught his attention. He turned his head towards the sound to find her. And there she was. Over the bridge that connected the mountains. The pearl like water droplets were just a little away from touching her. The waterfall behind her cascading down with a force held a beauty in it's depth. But the real beauty that made it noticeable was the girl standing there with open arms as colorful butterflies surrounded her.

Mate!

A wide smile spread across Arudra's face as he felt a warmth spreading through his chest. The void of his heart was getting filled. A sense of completeness surrounded his existence. The essence of life flowing through him.

But something was amiss. Arudra frowned slightly. Something was different. He did feel complete in her presence. But the overwhelming need to mate wasn't awakened. He had heard that once a Vrikajina met his true one, his Anu, a unbearable urge to instantly copulate drove them crazy. But Arudra felt no such a need. He was happy and contented to watch her, but felt no urge to either touch or mark her.

Strange. What was happening? As he stared at her in confusion, he noticed something. Something that made his eyes wide in astonishment.

No! It couldn't be! That was impossible! He stared at her blankly as his mind refused to accept it. Refused to accept what she was as a butterfly passed straight through her form.

The form of a Vetala (hostile spirit).

Vetalas were the hostile spirits trapped between life and afterlife. They appeared human until they attacked taking a demonic appearance with snake-like eyes, claws and sharp fangs. They used corpses or objects as their host to move from one place to another and stayed mostly around cemeteries. They could travel through time and space. And they could see the past, present and future.