CROSSFIELD TRILOGY : Volume No. 01

Chp. 05: Janet

The boy ran under the faint moonlight, gravel crackling beneath his feet,his heart throbbing loudly inside his chest.
Behind him, the overturned car lay on the street burning with flames. He didnt look behind. There was no point in doing so now. His parents must have been burned to death or intoxicated by the sheer amount of carbon that was released by the fire. However, why was he still alive then? Why couldnt he have died with them? Did God spare him from a burning death only so that he could live through one filled with misery? He hated god! God gave his parents a passage to the afterlife so why the heck wasnt he allowed? God had isolated him, made him an outcast. Tears welled up in his eyes as the boy forced himself to run. He held the tears back. He would never cry, never show God that he was weak. Never.
The boy turned into an alley, gasping huge breaths of air. Out of the blue, a cold hand grabbed his feet. Losing his balance, the boy fell flat on the ground, a gentle stream of blood ran down the 9 year old's nose. Wiping it with one hand and using the second for balance, he stood up and turned to face......'
"Assem! Hey....Assem! Wake up!"
The image of the boy facing the intruder in that dark alley bagan to fade as a gentle hand woke Assem.
"Oh, its you Daniel. Wha....what happened?" Assem asked as he tried to stifle a yawn.
Daniel frowned. "You have been dreaming about that wretched dream again haven't you?"
"Um..yeah I guess" Assem said as Daniel sat besides him.
"For how long have i been asleep?" Assem asked, his eyes moving around the familiar room.
"Well, you slept almost as soon as you told me about your encounter with the demon, considering that, its almost 2 hours more or less a few minutes."
"Hmm" Assem forced himself to sit upright. "How is Janet by the way?"
"She's asleep now. Sarah is checking on her. Anyways-"
Before Daniel could complete his statement though, a low rumbling sound stopped him. He looked at Assem who sheepishly ran a hand over his stomach. "Guess I'm hungry."
_______________

A small chandelier hanged above, radiating light only enough for the small table. The rest of the restaurant was covered in darkness. Few knew about this but the restaurant just wasn't your typical cheap Chinese hotel. It was also a place where Daniel, a 60 year old War veteran treated illegal patients.
Most of these ranged from petty theives to major criminals and some times even exorcists.
The 60 year old veteran now sat under the dim light of the chandelier as he watched Assem quickly eat a plate of cholle bhature (chickpeas and flatbread). "So..this girl that you've brought. She isn't normal." Daniel said eyeing Assem as the latter put a piece of the bhatura in his mouth.
"Yeah. I know." Assem nodded
"You knew?" Daniel asked surprised.   "I didn't realize it at first but she was already bleeding when I found her. By the looks of the stain on her clothes, she must've probably bleed for 10 minutes. Apart from that, if I remember correctly, I took about 7 minutes to fight with the demon. Adding the travel time it took for us to get from the warehouse till here, it has to be well over 1 hour. By then, her shirt should have been soaked red but I don't remember that being the case. Infact, there wasn't even much of blood as residue on the cover of the cab's seat. Even if we leave this reason, there was a demon chasing her. Till now I had only heard of demon killing humans. However this one.......... he wanted her. Not only that, he was also willing to negotiate my safety if I handed the girl to him. He said and I quote 'hand over the girl to me and I will spare your life.' I dont think any demon would think about its prey so much." Assem stopped and took a sip of water before eyeing Daniel.
"The demons talked?"
"Yeah. Strange isn't it?"
Assem asked. The facial expressions on Daniel's face grew more and more concerned.
"By the way what made you think she wasn't normal?"
The doctor gave a sigh. "What made me think? Assem, almost everything about this girl is abnormal." Daniel removed a passport from his pocket and handed it to Aseem. "I got this from her bag. She is a 15 year old who came from the States to India alone and was found bleeding to death in a random gully. Any sane women would have directly gone to the hotel much less traveled alone. However, the main reason which increased my suspicions was the rate at which her healing took place. There were some shrapnel and metal pieces stuck in the cut that were obstructing the healing process. After I removed them, her blood clotted pretty fast, and even the bleeding stopped. Another 3 days and the scar will have healed half way. This speed......is what makes me believe that she could be a non human."