The Chronicles of Shamballa

Chapter LXVIIX: The Dead Don't Talk

Carey shook his head and rubbed his eyes- the figure was gone and only Ram sat beside the fire looking at him.

Half an hour passed and nothing happened. The wind howled all around and Carey sat there beside the fire watching, anticipating an attack of some sort. Ram has dozed off again, that poor old man had a simple mind and character. But Carey’s brain was firing at full speed, running at different directions. He grew anxious and kept wondering why he was seeing dead bodies in the middle of nowhere. A few minutes later, he convinced himself that these were just constructs of his mind. As his eyes grew heavy and the fire burned down, he felt a strange presence lurking behind him. He turned to look and found a dark figure standing on the edge of the hill. Carey was shocked but he didn’t let fear grip his senses. He stood up boldly and clenched his fists, knowing that whatever it was, he was fully capable of fending it off.

“Who’s there? What do you want?” said Carey standing beside the fire- the dying flames illuminating the right part of his figure.

The dark entity said nothing but Carey observed that it looked like a man, covered from head to toe in thick black clothes. He took a step forward and asked again but still no reply.

“I’m warning you, state your intent or leave here, I don’t want to fight,” said Carey trying hard to recall his powers.

“Oh, foolish foreigner, you think you can fight your way out of here?” replied the dark entity in a deep husky voice.

Carey knew that he had heard the voice somewhere but he couldn’t recall who it was.

“You think you can have everything you want? Success, money, love?” the entity continued his monologue whilst standing still like a statue, “you’ve made it so far but you will never see Shamballa, not before you answer for your sins,”

“Who are you? How do you know about Shamballa?” asked Carey.

“You bloody foreigners, you come and take whatever you please from our country and do not care for who lives or who dies,” the entity replied.

“Wait- I know you- it’s you- Kali- but- you were dead, back on that hill,” Carey said.

“I am dead you fool but I have unfinished business, I have come for vengeance, it is because of you that I was killed and it is you who took the love of my life away from me,” replied the entity, now taking a step forward towards him.

“What on earth are you talking about? And how do you speak such fluent English- no- no- you can’t be Kali, he’s dead and the dead can’t talk!” Carey said preparing to attack.

The entity didn’t respond for a second and then suddenly it flashed across and grabbed Carey’s collar.

“Look at me- look at what you’ve done to me! You will have to pay!” said the entity showing its horrific rotten face and growling like a demon.

Carey immediately punched that thing in the face and followed with a flurry of left and right jabs until the figure finally disappeared into the darkness. He had no idea what he witnessed but he was sure that demonic forces were at play and they were trying to intimidate him. He looked around and everything was back to normal, the fire flickered slowly and Ram Babu slept cosily by its warmth, like he didn’t hear a thing. But suddenly, he hears crackling noises on the ground like the earth was tearing itself apart. To his great horror, Carey saw the earth cracking open and mutilated hands appearing through the cracks. There were a dozen pairs of hands- just hands bloody and distorted like they have been freshly cut off from the body, all crawling out from the earth and creeping towards him silently.

“Oh! Sweet Lord, Ram! Ram, wake up, get up now,” he cried out but Ram was sleeping like a baby.

The bloody hands kept piling up from the ground and slowly moving towards him. He immediately took a piece of wood from the fire and tried to shoving them and kicking them away. But the hands kept piling up and he was running out of space, the more he kicked them, the more kept coming, each one, trying to grab his leg. It was an eerie sight, something straight out of a horror novel. And as he kept stepping back, he kept yelling at Ram to wake up, those horrific hands were reaching for the fire and beyond the fire was Ram- sleeping peacefully. Then he felt somebody like somebody was standing behind him but before he could turn around something screamed at him from behind. The scream was so loud and high pitched that he had to drop the firewood and cover his ears and close his eyes. A minute later, he opened his eyes and saw that the hands were gone, everything was again back to normal and standing not five feet away from him was the dark entity claiming to be Kali.

“Die!” it whispered and Carey was immediately being pulled into the ground.

The earth below him turned into quicksand and he could see those dastardly hands pulling him from underneath. He screamed and yelled and tried his best to fight but he could do little to save himself- they were dragging him to Hell itself!

Some unholy force was pulling down on Carey. His legs sunk into the seemingly solid ground which had now turned into sand. He could see those bloody hands pulling on his legs and despite his best efforts, he couldn’t free himself from their evil clutches. He kept screaming at Ram but oddly enough the old man was fast asleep. He was now waist deep into the hole in the ground, desperately trying to claw his way out while the dark apparition stood silently, watching him being dragged six feet under. He knew that if he didn’t get out soon then this would mean sure death. Fortunately, his fighting instincts began to rise, he could feel the adrenaline swiftly rising and suddenly, his eyes lit up. A sudden surge of power emanated from his eyes and it lit the entire area. He was able to crawl out from the hell-hole with little effort and slowly stood up and faced the apparition before him. The apparition that called himself Kali immediately showed his demonic face and howled at him. Carey was not intimidated at all, instead he was surging with so much power that the air around him turned into a mini hurricane. Ram had awaken by now and had crept himself into a corner and watched the amazing event as it unfolded.

Strangely enough, Carey hadn’t felt so much power earlier. He would realize this later that the closer he got to the actual location of Shamballa, the more intense his powers became. He was starting to feel a tingling sensation in his arms and saw this sparkling wave of electricity running from the edge of his shoulders to the tip of his fingers. He looked at the apparition and rushed towards it. He swung at it with his full force and his fist ran right through it like it was made up of nothing but air. The apparition disappeared and slowly things began to turn back to normal. Ram Babu immediately ran towards Carey who was now observing his powers slowly turning down.

“Are you all right Sahib?” Ram Babu asked with great concern.

“I’m fine, thank you, just a few scratches on my feet, hm, but I guess I’ll be all right,” replied Carey staring at his feet.

“What was that? Demon? Did the witch send it to kill us?” asked Ram.

“Well I don’t think the witch would dare attack us again, no, old friend, this is something much sinister, they were spirits!” Carey replied.

Ram’s mouth opened wide as he heard those words- ghosts and spirits scared the life out of him.

“But spirits, here?” he asked.

“Good point, I think I know who those spirits belonged to, ah, it will be dawn soon, light the fire and let me tell you a story while we wait for the sunrise,” said Carey.

He would then tell him how the ancient kingdom of Shamballa was attacked by the enemies and how it fell. Most of the enemy soldiers who died in the battle field weren’t even cremated or given a proper burial. Their corpses would be trapped in ice and some would rot and eaten by vultures. But their spirits were forever trapped and doomed to roam this place for eternity. Those were the spirits that attacked him and tried to mess with his mind so that he would die a miserable death. But thanks to his powers, they couldn’t do much harm…

A small breeze blew and flickered the flames of the fire as Carey went deep into his thoughts. He deduced that if the spirits of the dead soldier were here then the battlefield i.e. the kingdom of Shamballa wouldn’t be much further. That would explain the extreme change of environment- he was definitely on the right path.

“So this is what the Yetis warned us about then,” said Ram.

“Apparently so, yes, they knew that spirits haunted this place and they also knew that I’d be able to fend them off. But from here on, we need to be careful and quick on our feet, somehow it seems to me that the path ahead is full of surprises,” said Carey.

His mind went back to the map that he had seen earlier and he began to visualize the route in his head. He hadn’t slept well in days and yet he wasn’t tired. He kept thinking of the Princess’ condition and he felt deeply responsible. But he couldn’t forget what the apparition told him earlier, the one that pretended to be Kali. How did it know so much about him? If it was messing with his head then it is possible that it only showed him what he believed. But then again, if Kali were alive, things would have been completely different.

Somewhere deep in a hole in some cave, the Dutchman sat shivering in cold with his body covered in the thickest fur. But his clothes weren’t enough to beat the temperatures in that nightmarish valley. He had undermined the cold and his only hope was a bottle of brandy that he had fortunately brought along with him. He was waiting for sunrise so that he could be back on Carey’s track. After all that he had observed, he knew Carey was close to his goal. This expedition was more than he hoped for instead of a simple hunt and kill. But he had seen what Carey could do and the creatures that roam around the mountains. He thought of raising his p*****t once he was through with this mission…

And further down the valley, Ashanti sat frozen in ice, meditating. She wanted more power to defeat Carey and she had to find a different approach to finish him off. As an offering to the dark gods, she cut off some goat’s head and prayed earnestly. This time she would rather die than fail…

The entire valley was dead silent as the winds died down, this was the calm before the storm…