The Black Magic Bully

Lets Get out of This

Over the next few days I tried to tell people about the 'Master', every time I tried, my throat would freeze and my entire body would chill. I thought for sure that this was a warning from the master, who would kill me for sure if I ever told anyone the whole thing.

All this was making me very anxious most of the time, the fear was building up. I thought of telling this to Raghav. "Are you stupid", he would say, as if I suggested jumping in front of a moving train. "Master will kill us both!".

I was hoping for a better answer. I told Raghav about a senior I knew, that I thought may be a member of the family. "It will be a very long time before you will be able to recognize other members of the family, and that will be after the instalments. Then he started talking about the instalments. For him, each instalment cost 20,000 rupees, though it would only be 3000 rupees per instalment for me, and there were 5 instalments. My initial down payment of 2500 was only to improve the improvement capabilities of my mind, the other 5 were for the body. First right arm, then left arm, then right leg, then left leg. "And the last one is very important", he continued, "it is for your cock", he stated, "Because you know, sex life is important".

"But my cock is already 6 inches!", I pointed. "Then I guarantee, it will get to 7 inches after doing instalment number 6", he said with full seriousness.

Raghav went on about the instalments. For me the second instalment for the right arm was due, and there was a deadline on how soon I had to pay it, within a week. Two days later he said that the left arm instalment was now open, and I could pay both for 6000. The limb instalments were meant to reduce the amount of effort I needed to improve the strength, flexibility, size and muscle endurance of each limb.

"It's not like there is some discount if I get both instalments at the same time, and it won't be easy to get that money", I pointed. "Well I would say it would be better if you got both arm instalments at the same time, remember you can borrow from anyone", Raghav suggested. "If you take just one arm instalment you will notice that one arm is getting much stronger than the other, and you don't want that", he said. "I will think about it, I said. "Raghav looked around in my room. This laptop here; do you really need it; you could sell it you know". I looked at my laptop, it had my name written on it in permanent marker, and had been provided by the university.

The next day, Raghav talked to Kirti about joining the gym. Apparently, there weren't any openings in the gym, as no one had left the gym between then, but Raghav really wanted to join. I did not listen to the full conversation.

The next day, I asked Raghav about the master. I knew the master as a scary looking yellow figure with a triangle shaped head and large black eyes that looked like they were sucking light into them. "When I communicate, I only see the eyes", he responded, signalling that the master was so elusive to his disciples that he rarely showed any more of his form. "They're black aren't they", I asked. "Yes", he answered, "black, totally black".

A few days passed, my instalments were getting overdue and even Raghav was surprised at how grumpy the master was to get paid as soon as possible. I had tried to tell a few of my acquaintances about the black magic, but every time, my blood ran cold. Being a member of the family made me feel uncomfortable, and despite Raghav confirming that improvements from the magic come very gradually, I still felt like I was cheating. I started wishing I was able to put more focus into my work, and didn't like it that I would finally find self-improvement so much easier than others. On top of that, the threatening pushing nature of the master was getting to me.

At the same time, the master was pushing us to get the instalments. They apparently had a deadline and interest, just like everything else. I decided I wanted to leave the black magic. That night, I asked Raghav how I could leave the family. "You sure you want to leave", he asked. "Yes" I said. Raghav knelt down into his most serious prayer position. Meditating for a whole minute. He got up. "Leaving the magic will cost you 25000 at your stage", he answered. "and I am pretty sure if you wait any longer, the fee will increase", he added. "Still, I don't think this magic will be good for you, you're not as worthy as I thought", he added. My heart sank, but by now I was so overcome with fear that I took the suggestion for the ridiculous bailout fee seriously.

The next day, I started asking questions about our laptops, though not nearly as much as I should have. Apparently, these days you can download AutoCAD on your phone, and that is just what I . Turned out the laptop wasn't really needed right in the first year. Raghav had suggested that the money I got from selling the laptop could be used to get a tablet, on top of paying off the exit fee.

The day after was the last day I was to have when I could exit the contract safely. We decided right there that the laptop was to be sold to gain money to exit the contract. We looked at the thing, I had my name on it in permanent marker, but Raghav had a bottle of spritz on his countertop that erased it like magic. We agreed not to admit that the laptop had issues with its sound system, which didn't work. Raghav had a lot of contacts on his expensive smartphone, and among them were the numbers of several nearby electronic store owners. He called several of them, telling them that I already had a laptop better than the one provided by our university, and that the one they gave had no use for me. He also told the m the laptop was fully functional (in reality the audio was not working), and that they could use it for whatever they wanted. After going through 10 different options, he found that the highest bidder was a small electronics store in downtown Jaipur, near MI road and St. Xavier's collage. It was pretty far from Manipal University, so we called a taxi, which was 1000 rupees both ways. Raghav asked me to pay the fee, and I decided to take my debit card to a shop to get the money. This was simple, I would ask the campus convenience shopkeeper to swap slightly more than 1000 rupees from my card from his card reader, and exchange it for that in cash. I went to the shop with Raghav to do that, but apparently that was illegal, and they would get caught by the police, so it turned out my dad would have to know I withdrew the extra 1000.

I quickly thought up an alibi. It was simple, I went to a movie with my friend, to be said when my dad queried. And needed 1000 rupees for the round taxi ride to the theatre. The taxi arrived quickly. And I wrapped my jacket around my waist as Raghav called me to the car. "This is a style I learned a while ago", I told him, "it's really popular in America", I continued, as we boarded the taxi. I was sad, that I had joined this and not continued, finding it so badly disturbing. The shop was about 45 minutes away, and when we finally arrived, it wasn't in plain view. Raghav called the shop owner. Winding a bit into the shops directly around the road was the shop he had called. It was one rather small room, with grey walls, and a picture of a horse on the side. One that was bucking up in a vast green plain. The shopkeeper told him that he had agreed to buy the laptop for his friend, who for some reason did not have a working computer in his home. We waited for 45 minutes in the shop for the guys partner, then he finally arrived.

Raghav told the shopkeeper's partner that my laptop was an extra and in perfect condition, saying nothing about its non-functional audio system, besides that it worked well. He demonstrated some of its features.

The shopkeeper's partner replied that he thought the laptop was really fine, and would be useful for his household use. After a few more words, we gave it to him and he gave us the 19000 rupees in cash.

Raghav handed the cash to me in front of the shopkeeper. I put it in my wallet. Now I just had 6000 rupees more to give to my agent to finally escape from the mentally discomforting black magic. I would do that by borrowing still more money from my businessman friend Aditya Shubham, or so I thought.

On the car back home, we talked about the black magic. Raghav told me that its results were not meant to be immediate or even fast, the full effect would gradually happen in small hops ever the whole year. That he thought I would be a good candidate for the magic, but I was way too timid and unaware of my surroundings, and several more things. We kept talking, to forget my pain. And in between I lied to my dad that we had both gone to see the premier of 'Thor: The Dark World'. Of which I asked Raghav the synopsis, that I conveyed to my dad over the phone.

The cab went on back to the university. I was relieved that I had finally exited the mentally disturbing coercively expensive black magic course. Though Raghav said the magic master would still know me, obviously.

Back at the campus that day, Raghav told me what I was relieved to hear, that since I had exited the black magic course the remaining fees would be very low.

I called Aditya to help me out with the rest of the fees, but he told me that I should withdraw the rest of it myself, and maybe call the authorities. Thus, I withdrew the remaining money. I had to make another excuse for my dad.