The Haunted Fortress of Bhangarh: Book 1

78. A race against time

Her blood-curdling scream alerted the already nervous Rudra and Rishabh, and they skidded to her side without a second's delay. Upon crouching down, they were repulsed due to the malodorous stench emanating from within, and as their eyesight adjusted to the darkness, they were startled because of the ghastly wraith. The ashen skin, the bloodshot eyes, the wide-jawed and twisted smile, the numerous long and sharp canines dripping with blood and a thick yellow liquid that couldn't remotely be called saliva, and the horrific hands sliding out of the meshed windows to clutch the screaming girl's arm so tight that the boys were drawing a blank due to the sense of panic and haze cocooning them.

"Rishabh! Rudra!" she shrieked at the top of her voice when the frigid hold tightened and the maniacal laughter of the phantom thrummed against her chest.

Rishabh tried to pull the girl's shoulders away from the mangled apparition but to no avail. The grasp just kept tautening, and her yells continued getting shriller. Until confusion rattled Rishabh to the extent that he could only tug at his hair and yank at her shoulders in tandem.

Rudra was in an equally dazed state due to the sudden intrusion into their plans. The girl was shouting because it hurt her. He could see the angry red marks developing on her fair skin in the faint illumination, and the manner in which the phantom was forcing her towards him, Rudra was certain the wraith would coerce the girl into defying the laws of Physics and traverse through the meshed window. And that would mean an excruciating and very distressing death. For her. His confounded gaze landed on Ishita's other hand. Her palm was open while the back of it rested on the cold ground. The extinguished lighter was lying close to her wrist while the locket was still clasped around her fingers, but it was not shining anymore. Discerning that it had lost all its powers, he snatched it from her and rushed to the other end of the balcony, holding it in a straight line with a weak beam of the moon.

Rishabh had his eyes darting back and forth furiously between the crying Ishita and the demon before landing on the sword he had clutched in his hands. His first instinct was to slash the sword through the wraith's arm holding her, but then slicing it was like cutting through the air. The swish resounded, but nothing tangible happened to the arm, and the sinister chuckle only grew in decibels.

"Mumma!" Ishita cried when her fingers harshly brushed against the fine metal net affixed to the window. "Rishabh! Help!"

"Yes, yes," Rishabh muttered as he perspired profusely. Another attempt to slash the wrist of the ghost or the forearm. Anything that was outside the window and could be accessed by the humans. But nothing happened. Another attempt. Two more attempts. All futile.

"Rishabh!" Ishita yelped when the wraith began coercing her arms to draw her towards itself.

Rishabh had his lips parted and his eyes widened in disbelief when he sensed that the girl was slipping away from his hold and inching towards the window. His tug and yank at her shoulders couldn't hold her back. His dumbfounded vision went behind him, and he shrieked, "Rudra! Do something!"

Rudra continued to hold the locket in a straight line against the moonbeam. Clouds had not enveloped the natural satellite, and the piece of trinket should have gotten charged just like Ishita had been doing all this time. Nothing special needed to be done, right? But then again, as Rudra realized, the jewellery remained powerless and wrapped around his wrist. He stared at it for a moment, drowning the screeches and the yells and the laughter as he tried to concentrate for a single second to figure out what could be done. Until Ishita's vulnerable cries and Rishabh's helpless request fell on his ears, and his gaze went to the scene of devastation in front of him.

The girl's arm was already bleeding, and she was more in a state of shock than in real pain, but it was agonizing nonetheless. A few minutes of constant struggle from her end, and the apparition would succeed in the attempts to draw her through the fine metal net. They were losing precious time, but there was nothing they could do, and he could slump his shoulders and remain as motionless as a statue.