The Script of Evil

11 - The Slaughterhouse

Kadin is standing in front of her gate and scrutinizes Bird Street. There is no sign of Billy. Where could he be? It is getting late.

He just went to get out of his school uniform and into casuals and promised to fetch her afterwards. Something is wrong! She received numerous calls from his smartphone which she missed because her phone was in her room while she quickly made something to eat in the kitchen and the radio was on.

Damn! She wishes that she heard the calls and wonders why he hadn't text her, because now she is clueless. She tried to phone him afterwards and only found the answering service until her battery was deflated.

She wants to yell out of frustration and worry and decides she has to walk up to his home in Park Drive. She starts to walk briskly. What if they have caught Billy? She remembers that the booklet is still in her room. Billy gave it to her when they were at Vyasa to keep until they have the time to go and put it back. Something spurs her on because she must reach Billy's home as soon as possible to see if he is safe. The booklet will have to wait; they'll collect it later on.

Maybe something unforeseen happened and his mother needed him urgently and something went wrong with his phone. Maybe he is safe at home; and is the booklet so important for those dangerous men? Then she remembers the warning on the first page in Sanskrit: "Put me back where you found me before the world comes to an end and if the devil visits you, don't look him in the eyes." Vyasa was adamant that they should return the booklet immediately before the curse hits them.

Maybe they should have listened!

She begins to jog.

***

It is a rough ride and Billy must use his hands to support him and prevent him from toppling over. The man still stares at him with cold, hateful eyes and sitting against the sliding door, he blocs any possible escape. What are they planning? Is the booklet really that important or did they kill the old man and want to get rid of an eyewitness? That must be the reason why the man doesn't inquire about the booklet and only gestures that he must keep quiet.

Maybe he is on his way to his execution. Vyasa's warning now rings in his ears: there is a curse on someone who keeps the booklet and then these strange words that none of them understood: "... if the devil visits you, don't look him in the eyes."

Is he going to meet the devil? Maybe these men have instructions to prepare him for the devil!

He shivers when he thinks back about those street kids with the strange eyes that followed him and gazed at him with their blue eyes and acting like zombies. Vyasa warned them that an ominous wizard probably is their leader. How on earth did these men locate him so easily? He was so sure that he had ditched them the moment the lift's door closed. Then again he sees the blue eyes of the boy that stares at him when the lift's door closed. And he remembers the eyes of the boy who stared at him when he exited the lift and then followed him.

"If the devil visits you, don't look him in the eyes ..."

He shivers with goose bumps all over.

If they want to murder him, he has no control over that. If they only want the booklet, he's got an ace up his sleeve that he must play as cleverly as possible. The problem is that he wants to return the booklet without endangering Kadin because the damn thing is in her possession. If he gives it back, what assurance does he have that they won't liquidate all eye witnesses?

The van suddenly turns sharply and jolts to a halt. Billy doesn't see anything and ignores the man flatly that stares at him. The van is motionless for a few seconds and then moves abruptly forward just to stop dead again. The front doors open and then close. Are they at their destination?