sas chp 11

CHAPTER 11 - i'm dead
The stroke between midnight and dawn was about to strike. Given that it is the strongest, most powerful time, I had to start at that particular moment. “What we need to duplicate a soul, along with will power, some chants and a little blood, is a pentagonal crystal which radiates the mixed energy of the sun and the moon. Shera had hidden that crystal in the cave, which not so unfortunately, I found. I liked her hiding place, so I didn’t change it. Take the car straight to the cave Kumar. That’s where we are headed.” He still hadn’t recovered from all the shocking news I’d just given him. A small part of me wondered what he’d do if he knew about it earlier.
I ordered Kumar to carry the sack. As I entered the cave, I started walking straight towards the wall. It was full of illustrations, which a layman would never have understood. I asked Kumar to unload Tiara out of the sack. He did so obediently. She soon started fluttering her eyelids. I used the newly bought gloves to take out the crystal very carefully from behind an intelligently camouflaged rock. If I wanted to know the way the things worked with Tiara, I had to get a look at Tiara’s soul from within. But it was not a very wise plan. What if Shera suddenly became active and threw some stunt like last time? So I thought of something else instead.
I was planning to send Kumar in Tiara’s body. He had no control over his soul what so ever. I’d teach him the techniques, learn stuff from him, and then kill the girl, thus taking care of both their souls. I started chanting the usual lines. It wasn’t magical, but it stirred up some energy, some vibrations which strengthened my will and motive. I knew this procedure would make me physically weak temporarily, so I’d also arranged for sugar beforehand.
A tiny screeching voice broke my concentration. I could feel myself fading away. I felt extremely weak. I ate some sugar too, but there was no improvement.  Unable to understand what’s happening, I let go of control over Sana’s body. A minute wouldn’t harm, right? After all Sana was completely unaware of my plans since she had no knowledge of how souls worked. A minute, sixty seconds to be precise. I let Sana be herself again, and decided to rest after informing Kumar the same. I asked him to hide, just so that Sana has no questions about him. Her curiosity would only complicate things.
Sana’s POV:
I was myself again! Lately I’d been comparing myself with an alien in my body, but I was me. I remembered Clark’s every word very clearly. He’d said things like “resist”, “peek into his soul”. And I had actually done that. I never even knew I was actually capable of that. Just like Dravya had been silently monitoring me from within, I did the same to him. He was far too ignorant to believe that a nobody like me could play a trick on him. His over-confidence helped me. I felt like pouring my heart out to someone. I felt so… wrong. Dravya had killed Tia’s mom. The one who’d murdered her mother, was within me. It was me, in a way. But this was no time for supernatural stuff and its resulting guilt. ‘You are Sana. Think of people who love you, and those whom you love’. These were words which had motivated me throughout the night and the day till now.
I never would’ve thought that this field trip of ours was actually Kumar sir’s plan to help Dravya acquire my body. And Armaan was Kumar’s sir’s son?? How on earth was that possible?
I heard a screeching voice and ran towards it. There they were, Clark, Armaan and some other guys and women who I was sure, were guardians. They gathered around me, walking in a very threatening way. “You found me!” I yelped in surprise. I spotted Aksha, Martika and John behind all the guardians. All of them looked puzzled, except for Mr. Devoul who looked absolutely sure about wanting to destroy me right here, right now. Armaan looked at Tiara, his eyes full of concern and protectiveness. And then his eyes shifted towards me again, fierce and wild. He took one step towards me and my heart started racing, out of fear. “No! Stop! It’s me Sana, not Dravya”. All of them looked at me expectantly like I had something else to say. What was I supposed to but?
“Tell us something only Sana would know?” One of the guardians suggested. I started blabbering about all the movies I saw with Aksha, the hot chocolate, the night outs… But Armaan cut me off mid-answer, “Everything that Sana knows, this so called ‘Dravya’ knows. He’s peaked into her soul.” He made sense actually, but what else could I do to prove the truth. I was sure now that Dravya wasn’t his real name, but it didn’t matter at the moment. Thankfully, Clark’s thoughts were positive, “Wait Armaan.” He turned towards me. “Sana, tell me the last sentence I told you before ‘Dravya’ took over you? You were resisting him at that time so I’m pretty sure, he was blocked out. That was easy. “Peek into his soul" you’d told me. “And I did! I need to talk to you guys about what I know. It’s of urgent priority that you hear me out. But I’m only talking to the two of you. Since the matter is too confidential.” I gestured towards Mr. Devoul and Clark.
I was so glad, they finally accepted the truth and walked over with me. They told me that they’d planted a tracker on me and that’s how they found me. God knows when they did it, but thank God they did! “One minute is up and Dravya is trying to take over me. I’m blocking him as much as I can, but I don’t know how long I can do that. I didn’t know how I scanned his acts this entire time, but I did. And this is the information I gathered-”. I told them all about how the ‘thing’ they were protecting is long since gone from the container it was held in. That it was a powerful pentagonal crystal. And that Dravya was on the hunt for the knowledge of duplicating souls, but all he’d managed was splitting it.” Even I knew what havoc would’ve been created on earth if evil souls were copy-pasted.
However, I skipped the part where Shera had duplicated herself in Tia. It was wrong that she’d interfered in life and death matters. Although I was kind of glad she did. Otherwise, I never would’ve met Tia. Plus, she was talented enough to let her soul be hidden from the guardians as well. Why let her efforts go waste? But if this entire drama was a result of dangerous knowledge being shared, I assumed ignorance was bliss for everyone; especially after knowing that Clark was, in fact, lured in for selfish purposes once.
I turned towards Armaan, “I know now why you’re so protective of Tia. You were supposed to be on the safeguarding duty the day Shera was murdered. And trust me when I say this, I’ve seen in Dravya’s thoughts how powerfully she fought. She wasn’t killed. She sacrificed herself hoping that Dravya, who was within her, would die too. But he escaped. And if you really were on her place that day, Dravya would’ve taken care of you then and there and the entire mission would’ve slipped he would have succeeded in duplicating souls that night itself.” For the first time, and probably the last, I saw a tear roll down his cheek. Uhm, correction: make that two, followed by two more. “And that’s not it Mr. Dev- Oh I mean Armaan, there’s something you should know.” Both Clark and Armaan snapped their heads up at me. “Armaan, your dad. I didn’t know he was your dad, he was actually our professor, but he is Dravya’s alliance. And even worse, Dravya’s gonna kill him after he gets what he wants.” I must’ve blurted that out pretty fast since I could see it took a few seconds for them to give me a response. Two more tears. If the situation wasn’t so critical, I think I would’ve video shooted him crying, just to blackmail him in the future, just for fun.
On second thoughts, maybe I wouldn’t. He was always rude to me, always a monster. But it was all for Tia, to keep her safe. I didn’t even realize when I wiped his tears and assured him everything was going to be okay soon. I silently wished so too. When he looked back at me, I could see a broken Armaan. Somehow, it broke my heart to see him like that. My heart started racing again, and this time it wasn’t out of fear. “That’s not the only reason I care for Tia. She’s a great kid. And Shera was an amazing person. Good at work, good at everything. I respected her. She was my inspiration. Sometimes I wished she was my mother.” He spoke through his sobs. No I definitely wasn’t recording this on camera. Plus, I missed my parents too, Aksha’s mother too. Once we were out of this mess, I hoped we’d live a happy carefree life like before.
“How dare you ruin my plan!!” I was threatening myself. Okay, that wasn’t good. I thought I’d blocked Dravya but apparently he was more powerful than I thought. “Armaan go and find your dad. Tell him this to get out of this mess. Dravya will kill him” That was me speaking now, obviously. Armaan started to follow my instructions, when Dravya spoke again, “What’s the big hurry? I’ll make things easier for you. Come here Kumar” I called, err I mean Dravya called. He stepped out. He was just as shocked to see his son as a guardian. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he yelled at me, and I felt even more congested. That’s when I realized what was happening. Dravya was taking the other half of his soul back. In a few seconds, I realized that Dravya’s entire soul was within me and it was impossible to block him now. But I wasn’t giving up, so we were in power with each other. I had two distinct parts at the moment: the seen, and, the unseen.
I could read his mind so I knew what he was upto. “Armaan save your-” but it was too late. Kumar sir was crumpling on the floor. “What’s happening?” Amraan shouted. “I’ve crushed your beloved father’s soul from within, he’s dying. And there’s nothing you can do about it”. Both Clark and Armaan bent over Kumar sir, “I never stopped loving you son” were his last words and his breathing stopped. If I thought I’d seen a tear in Armaan’s eyes, I was now seeing an ocean of tears. I was shocked as well, and Kumar sir had been a good professor. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach.
Armaan got up and went somewhere, but I was vaguely aware of it. I was also vaguely aware of all the hands. The other guardians had got a hold on me. That was the only way to catch Dravya, physically at least. Dravya chuckled, making me look so evil that I saw Martika gasping. Dravya was now silently planning. He wasn’t letting me know what he was thinking. Although for a microsecond, his train of thoughts spilt. He was planning to divide his soul again, assuming they’d kill me soon. So at least he’ll have a backup.
That’s when I felt the cave shake with an ear-splitting shuttering sound. “NO!!!!!” Dravya yelled. I was looking straight into Armaan’s fiery eyes. He’d destroyed the crystal with the usual guardian weapons. “HOW DARE YOU ARMAAN… I’LL KILL YOU!” Dravya said. He took advantage of the distraction and pulled out a knife from one of the guardians that were holding me. I took advantage of this situation and before I could take another step towards Armaan, I gave my brain instructions to plunge it right in my heart, now that Dravya’s soul was completely in me. Two times I plunged the knife, just to be sure.