The Cult

By Vasudev Patel

“I am fearless, therefore I am undefeated”, Hitesh said, in front of the people gathered beneath the orange shaded rocks of a cave somewhere holding flambeaus and giving a slight nod to Hitesh. “Do you know, why I have called all of you here, brothers and sisters, in this cave”, he spread both of his hands in opposite directions and towards the cave walls, the flames gave his shadow a flickering ambience of a shapeless creature spreading his claws and about to catch its unassuming prey. “It is in this cave, that we will sow the seed for the next world, and we will be the pioneers to lead this world, our faith was formed years ago, for this day, soon, very soon, our king will come and lead us”, this was greeted with loud cheers from the crowd of roughly eighty men and women from nearby villages, some already knew who Hitesh was and some are about to find out. “I have found a way to bring him back, we are going to have a lot of work to do in the coming days, are you with me”, Hitesh said as loud as he can knowing the answer, “Yes”, the crowd shouted back in unison. A smile spread out on Hitesh’s face. The kind of smile a tiger would have just before it snapped the neck of yet another of his victims, the smile of a hunter catching his prey, or of something worse. “All hail the ten-headed king”, Hitesh shouted and turned around towards the wall that had the creature made from his shadow, and as he knelt hailing the ten-headed king once again his shadow became smaller, almost like a child. His shadow pulled itself down like a curtain revealing an image of someone in a meditative pose, legs folded and hands of the knees, thumb and index finger making a circle with the other fingers spread out and the palms facing skyward. It was like any other image of a man meditating if not for the golden ornaments the image seemed to be wearing and it had no head attached to the body that was meditating. The body in the image was surrounded by heads, but these were not the part of the image. The image of the headless meditating body was surrounded by heads nailed to the cave wall to form a circle around the headless man. The heads were relieved of the blood remaining in them so that they don’t sully the image of their king. 

“Get off the road”, Mohan yelled as he honked the horn of his father’s jeep. Some cows were sitting on the road as cows often do and might have been having an important get together from the looks on their faces. In all seriousness the cows stood up and went to the side. “Thank you”, Mohan sarcastically yelled and the cows as he waved at them on the side of the road. He was greeted with a long moo which could have meant anything from ‘Whatever’ to ‘Goodbye’. Who knows what cows think or say. All this yelling and Rahul’s laughter from the front seat woke Ravi up in the back seat. “What happened?”, he asked in the middle of a yawn. “Nothing”, Rahul replied “Mohan just got yelled at by a cow”. Ravi gave a laugh mixed with another yawn. “Who knows what cows think, they might have been thanking you for letting them get off the road”, Ravi said as he tapped Mohan’s shoulder like someone would tap a child’s shoulder to assure them, although he was smiling through the whole exchange. “How far are we?”, Ravi asked as the last of sleep seeped out of him. “From the abandoned village, not far”, Mohan replied as he looked at the sky through the windshield and then at his watch, “We will probably reach there just before nightfall”.

They reached their destination around six in the evening. Rahul was the first one to get out. “This village is abandoned, right?”, Rahul asked, as calmly as the ocean under a full moon. “Yes”, Ravi replied with a grunt as he pulled their bags out of the jeep. “So, why are there lamps lit in the houses?”, Rahul asked with the same calm. “Oh, sorry, I forgot to tell you, they have not gone of since the village was abandoned years ago”, Mohan replied as he got out of the car. “What happened Rahul, scared of some lamps?”, Ravi asked in a mocking tone. “No, not scared, just, curious”, Rahul replied. “Come on, let’s help him with the bags”, said Mohan as he tapped Rahul on the shoulder. “We need to set up the cameras”, Mohan said and started lifting the bags along with Ravi and Rahul.

One by one they placed their cameras in and around the village, six in total. It took them around an hour and a half to set up all the wireless cameras, and another twenty minutes or so to set up the receiver and the laptop in the back of the jeep to receive the video feed of the cameras. They started receiving video around half past eight. When they received the first glimpses of the village through their cameras Mohan said,” Its time”, and he and Ravi got out of the jeep with Rahul to monitor the feed of the cameras.

“Hello viewers”, Mohan said in an excited into the video camera Ravi was holding with the village in the background,” We have reached the abandoned village of K- “. A scream rang across the village. The three of them froze for a moment. “Where was that from, did any of the cameras catch anything”, Mohan asked in a panicky voice, almost screaming himself. “No, not even a- “, Rahul was replying when another scream roared across the village, this time louder and longer. Ravi started to walk towards the village with his camera still on. “What are you doing?”, Rahul said getting out of the jeep. “We have to record it, whatever it was, we need to get it on video, now”, Ravi said as he turned around from the village and towards Rahul. At first, Rahul thought Ravi was joking, he almost laughed, almost. “Did you not hear the scream?”, Rahul asked in as calm a voice as he could muster up. “It is because of the scream, that we have to go, somebody could be in need of help”, Ravi said trying to keep away the excitement from his voice but some of it still seeped out, “They could be in real danger”. Ravi was excited because for the first time since they chose to make videos about debunking haunted places and uploading them, they may have a chance to see the real thing, ironically, Rahul was afraid of the exact same thing. 

While Rahul and Ravi were arguing about whether to go in the abandoned village or not, Mohan was wondering who gave out those screams. The two screams came from two different people, at least that is what he was thinking, but when they were setting up the cameras, none of them saw anyone, not even an animal, who could have screamed like that. None of the cameras got anything or anyone. So, who could have given out those screams?

“We have to go in”, Mohan said just as Ravi seemed about to throw his camera on Rahul, but seeing Mohan’s agreement with him he decided not to. Ravi looked towards Rahul with a satisfied, what are going to do now, smile spread across his face. “Fine, we will go in the creepy abandoned village, towards the scream if you two want to”, Rahul said with as much sarcasm as his fear would allow him, “But the minute we see anything dangerous, we run, okay”. “Absolutely, I am curious but not enough to die”, Ravi replied.

They started walking towards the village. Ravi had his camera turned on and in hand. He intended to record everything so he was the one walking in front of the other two, Mohan was in the middle and Rahul was at the end of their small posse. They stopped just before they crossed the border of the village. When they were setting up the cameras, crossing into the village was nothing, but now, two blood-curdling screams later, it seemed like their feet weigh a lot more than they are supposed to, for a few minutes none of them moved then Ravi took the first step into the lamp-lit village, and the other two followed. 

The shadows danced along with the fires from the lamps on the earthen walls of the houses. They walked in the spaces between the houses and among the many shadow people dancing on the walls. Ravi kept recording everything. As they slowly neared the centre of the village, the layout of the houses became clearer to them. They have not thought of this when they were setting up the cameras before but the houses seemed to be made in concentric circles, with straight paths in between houses. They slowly made their way towards the centre of the village, where they believed the screams came from. When they reached the centre of the village, the realized that the houses in the village were not set up in concentric circles but a spiral with the centre of it being a well. It would have been a simple well, if not for the fact that none of them had seen it when they first crossed this part and also Mohan saw a tongue the size of an elephant’s trunk, retract into the well. He was going to dismiss it and chalk it up to panic and fear but then he looked at his other two companions and their sweat dripped pale faces told him that they saw it too.

The mysteriously appearing well, the retracting tongue, whatever excitement Ravi had has now seeped out along with the sweat. Rahul was the first one to turn back and start running, the other two were just a moment behind. They ran and ran and ran, along the path they took to come into the village, between the dancing shadows which now looked like the jaws of whatever it was that went into the well. They ran and just as they caught a glimpse of the jeep, they found themselves on the other side of the well. Just as they realized that they have reached the well again, they heard a roar coming from the well, not a recognizable roar like that of a lion or a tiger but a much more sinister one. This roar was not loud like the screams they have heard, this roar was terrifying nonetheless. This roar woke a primal fear in them. The fear of the dark, the fear of the unknown, the fear of a creature that is so far removed from reality that it might as well be their worst nightmare. They ran across the well towards the direction they came from yet again with Ravi in the front and Mohan at the end and yet again they caught a glimpse of the jeep only to find themselves in front of the well once again. They ran across the well many times before the realization hit them. They were stuck in the abandoned village and the well is somehow keeping them here.

“I told you we should not come in here, I told you and you didn’t listen”, Rahul yelled in between sobs. “Shhhhhhhhh, do you want to call whatever was attached to that tongue to us”, Ravi whispered to Rahul as they sat a few meters away from the well. “It would be easier”, Rahul whispered between sobs, “It would be easier to just die, at least it would be better than being stuck here waiting for it to come to us”. “We don’t even know that it eats humans”, Mohan tried to cheer Rahul up, Mohan himself needed some convincing of the fact he just stated. “Don’t we? Look around Mohan”, Rahul said now calmer than before but still giving small sobs, “Where did all the villagers go, what happened to them, let me tell you, they were all eaten by the monster in the well”. After a moment’s pause Ravi said, “Where are the bloodstains”, he was not questioning Rahul but just stating a fact, “There are no bloodstains anywhere in the village, if that thing ate the villagers”, he said pointing towards the well, “There should be bloodstains”. In their fear-soaked minds they never realized that there were no bloodstains to be found in the entire village, not a single drop of blood. “Why does it matter that there are no bloodstains, why does it matter that it, whatever it is, ate the villagers or not, we are still stuck here, that thing is still there in the well and we still have no way to get out”, Mohan said, the anger in his voice slowly increasing along with the volume, by the end he was yelling. The other two didn’t know what to say so they remained quiet. A scream came out of the well along with a low rumbling. This scream was not loud like the previous ones, just a last whimpering scream before the lion kills the deer. “Your phone has some signal, right?”, Ravi asked Mohan after looking at his phone, and Mohan took out his phone and shook his head after looking at it. Rahul took out his phone and shook his head, still crying but calmer now then he was before. “We have to go in the well”, Mohan said with a low voice, maybe to not alert the creature or maybe to mask the fear in his voice. “Have you gone mad”, Ravi said, “Look at Rahul”, he said pointing to Rahul, who was still crying, “You still want to go in the well”. Mohan looked at Rahul for a moment, then said, “Yes, yes I do”. “Why”, asked Ravi in a low whisper. “Because I think that the way out of the village could be in that well”, before Ravi could interrupt him Mohan continued, “There is no way out of the village up here, right? So, the only place left to look is at the bottom of that well”. Ravi seemed to ponder at Mohan’s suggestion for a moment, then he said, “Ok, yes, that is the only place left to look, but we still have that thing between us and the bottom of that well, what are we going to do about that thing?”. Mohan paused for a moment, then said, “We can use our phones to get the thing out of the well and then go in it”. “Ok, but what about Rahul, we can’t just leave him here, and in that state, he may as well be just a bag full of stones”, Ravi said. “Leave me and go then”, Rahul cut in with a voice full of fear and panic. “Nobody is leaving you”, Mohan said, “Just give me a few minutes”. He took all three phones and went back in the direction they cam from but instead of going straight he turned and disappeared behind a house. After about ten minutes or so he came back. “Once the creature is away from the well, we are going to run, okay?”, Mohan said as he sat beside Rahul. Ravi wanted to ask how long before they are going to run to the well but decided against it. After about five minutes Mohan came back a sound rang across the quiet village. Ravi recognized the sound as the alarm sound from Mohan’s phone. He turned around and looked at Mohan. “I changed your alarm sounds to mine and set them for the same time”, Mohan whispered, “And now, we wait”. At first the creature didn’t even respond to the sound. But, just as they though that their plan had failed, they saw black claws grab the edge of the well. The claws, almost the size of their arms, made them freeze. The thought of whatever was inside that well made them paralyzed. Fear or determination, whatever it was, none of them made any sound as the creature slowly came out of the well.

First came the wolflike front feet, only they had no fur and had long black, curved claws. They bent at an awkward angle, the front feet were out of the well but there was still no sign of the head or the rest of the creature. Then the long, serpentine tongue came out of the well and waved slowly around the well, like a snake’s tongue does, as if to inspect the surroundings. Then came a low growl. The growl unfroze them for a moment but they were still too afraid to do anything. After the growl the creature’s head came out of the well. Its head seemed like it had no shape. Mohan and Ravi tried to focus on it and make out their tormentor’s face but it only gave them a headache. The legs, at least the ones that were out of the well seemed solid enough but the parts closer to the body seemed to dissolve in the night. Slowly the full body of the creature was out of the well. The main body of the creature, the head, the torso seemed to be almost shadow, to almost dissolve into the night. But the legs, the reptilian tail and the tongue seemed to be corporeal enough. They seemed to extend from the shadowy mass, which seemed to be almost the size of their jeep, if not bigger. Looking at the body of the creature seemed to give them a headache so they decided not to look at it. Headache or the fear of the unknown shadowy monster, not looking at it seemed to be the right thing to do. If only the people who were gathered in the cave thought so too.

Inside the well, there were stone stairs extending from the wall of the well. They were wide enough for a single person to stand on them. One would have to be very careful not to fall. At the bottom of the well there was an opening wide enough for the creature to squeeze through a more that two people to walk side by side. Through the opening was a cave, lit by the flambeaus of the people who were there when the creature first appeared. At the far end of the cave was an image of a headless man sitting in a meditating pose, index finger and thumb making a circle, the rest of the fingers spread out and palms facing skyward. The image was surrounded by ten heads facing outward, these were the heads of the first ten followers Hitesh ever gathered. They agreed to be the sacrifice in order to resurrect the ten-headed king. They failed to resurrect him but they succeeded in summoning a creature from the other world. A creature of darkness and terror. The creature seemed to be a lanky, long-limbed man made of pure darkness. The creature towered feets above the crowd. The chants of, “All Hail the Ten-Headed King”, rang across the cave. If they only knew that this was not their king, this was far worse. The creature smiled, with a mouth that made a circle around the place where its face should have been. In the middle of that circle opened an eye, darker that the darkest shadow and deeper than the deepest depths. The eye seemed to draw the people in the cave into it and when the people were quiet and in control of the creature, its shadowy body compressed into the form of a cloud and four wolflike, long and awkward bending legs grew out of it with long claws, a long tail grew out of it and a long tongue extended out of the place where its mouth should have been. One by one it devoured all the people in the cave. None of them let out even a whimper, except for one or two who the creature released from its hypnosis just before it devoured them, just to hear them scream. Soon after the creature was summoned the stones of the cave which glowed orange from the lights of the flambeaus were painted red by the people who were holding the flambeaus. After it had devoured everyone in the cave, the creature went up the well to look for more people but found no one so it came back down. The creature was still hungry but it seemed to the creature that it had devoured everyone in that village, so, it decided to do what every murderous monster from another world does, to lay a trap. It placed a trap so that anyone who entered the village could not leave, weather it was a nearby farmer, a bird or three unlucky paranormal enthusiasts. Then the creature heard something coming from above ground so it went back up the well.

The blood-painted walls, the meditating headless man, Hitesh’s remaining, half-eaten leg, the three friends would have seen all of it, if only they had made it to the well.

By Vasudev Patel