The Truth

Rani and Satish were a happily wedded couple. They had been married for three years and were savoring their moments of being together.

      Maybe a negative force was envious of their joy. Some weird happenings in their house had deeply agitated Rani. At night during her sleep she would hear a raspy, female voice calling her. It would disappear when she awoke. She pondered whether it was a nightmare or a hollow illusion of her mind. She was evinced of the truth when it occurred regularly. An evil spirit of a woman was haunting her home. While combing her hair in front of the mirror one day, she saw the gory, disfigured face of the woman and she almost swooned.  When she told her husband about this he would laugh at her and say it was her wild fancy. When her hubby went on a tour for a month, the spirit grew even more formidable.

      Helplessly, Rani confided this in her best friend Sohini and she resolved the problem by telling her about a lady necromancer Geeta whom she knew.

      Rani invited Geeta to her house at that night. As soon as Geeta stepped into the house, she inhaled the rancid smell of blood and sensed a powerful entity within.  Her eyes told of her detection as objects began leaving their holds, passing through the air and drops of blood were splashed on to the ground. Seeing this, Rani became petrified as a stone and Geeta mollified her by dashing cold water across her face from the sink faucet.

      A gravelly voice of a woman sent a chill down the spine of Rani. Geeta instantly recognized it of the diabolical spirit they were hunting for. She asked it,

"Why are you here? What do you want?" The spirit did not answer, instead pointed her to a particular direction which Geeta understood to be that of the grave of the woman.

      Geeta told Rani that a necromancy ritual was needed to be performed in order to know why the spirit dwelled in their abode, what it wanted and to ultimately exorcize it. Geeta forbade Rani to go out of the house while she would cast the spell.

    Geeta looked at the dark, velvet sky at midnight and then cautiously approached the grave. She drew a circle around the grave and burnt a mixture of henbane, aloewood, hemlock, saffron, opium and mandrake. She opened the coffin and touched the corpse three times with her wand till it rose.

    Geeta saw a pallid woman standing before her. Geeta asked her the reason of harrying Rani and she revealed a sad reality. After their first anniversary, a hot woman had joined the office where Satish worked. The woman named Piya, fell in love with Satish and was crazy about him. Gradually a secret affair grew between them which reached to the extent of fornication. Piya became pregnant and asked Satish to marry her. Unfortunately, Satish did not divorce Rani and marry Piya. The psycho lover Piya, then committed suicide by shooting herself. Geeta was shocked on hearing this tale. She then realized that Piya was wreaking her vengeance.

    Geeta relayed this story to Rani. Tears streamed down the cheeks of Rani and in deep disdain, she decided to end her marriage by filing a divorce. 

Word Count_ 563