THE CULT - Chapter-1

Chapter 1
Descent into Chaos
------------------------------------
Matt’s heart was racing abnormally and the total darkness of the room was slowly ripping him apart. A sense of doom had dawned upon him. “What is this Godforsaken place? Tia, aargh, why the heck did I bring her along?” Matt asked himself. Matt had plans of spending the night alone with Tia but his inherent lust for adventure proved deadly. He painfully remembered the old mystic’s words, “The place breeds evil. There are rumours that the people engage in some sort of arcane devil worshipping ritual.” He should have heeded the sadhu’s words but he had also heard rumours about the heavenly beauty of Bhanghar. “At night the place magically transformed into a Shangri La.” Matt remembered his guide’s description of Bhanghar. He had learnt that the place was desolated after dawn and brought Tia along with him. They were captivated by the sensuous beauty and spent more than four hours in the cold woods of Uttarakhand. It was close to midnight when they came back to reality. Matt had an urgent need to relieve himself and was enjoying the call of nature when it happened. The next thing he heard was Tia’s muffled cries and the heavy rustling of the bushes. He ran for it and was met with a spine-tingling silence. In an instant he heard the crack of his skull and felt a searing pain. Darkness was all Matt remembered.

Matt opened his eyes to find himself isolated in a horrific cell. The silence had a chilling effect on him. He could not bear this torture anymore and in a fit of fury started banging on the wall. This banging had the most astonishing effect as he could hear someone calling him by his name from the other side. He distinctively heard the cries, “Matt… Matt, you there?” It was Tia. Matt was about to respond when he heard her screaming, “Aaaaaah, aaaaaaah… noooooo don’t hurt me…aaaaaaaaaaaah” and her cries died. Matt was shaken to the core. “I’ve gotta escape from this fuckin hellhole.” cried Matt desperately. He was now regretting his visit to India but he knew he was entirely responsible. He frantically searched for an escape route or anything that could potentially save his life. It was to no avail. Matt had no bearings of where he was nor had he the faintest idea of the time as it was pitch black.

All of a sudden there was a screeching on the metal doors of his cell. The noise was unbearable. He saw the door open and two dark figures approaching him. His heart ceased to work. He wanted to shout but the sight had made him dumb. As they dragged him from the cell towards a distant source of light, he caught a glimpse of one of their faces. It was human, no doubt, but so grotesquely distorted that he fainted that very instant.

As his eyes slowly opened, he felt an excruciating pain throughout his body. Soon he realized that he was lying on his back and his arms and legs were stretched and chained. He felt like his legs were about to tear apart. It was dark but he could make out his surroundings. Again, there was no one in sight. At that moment Matt felt a hand on his forehead and was about to scream when he realized it was Tia. “Shh, shh, it’s me Tia; we’ve gotta escape. I’ve got the key” said Tia cautiously. “How’d you…” Matt started when she fired back at him, “Keep it down will you! No time for all that. We’ve gotta get outta this hell.” She freed Matt from his chains. “Aaaah. I can’t walk, I can’t walk”, writhed Matt painfully.’’ Just bear with me for a few minutes and we’re outta here. I know the way”, assured Tia. Matt was relieved but he knew they had to move carefully. They were crouched all the while. Matt was cautiously following Tia. They could hear voices and they were heading towards that direction. The sounds were becoming clearer; they were coming from a large hall just a few metres ahead of them.

As they approached the hall they could hear voices chanting gibberish and there was music too▬ a wild and rhythmic beat was being played. “Gawd! What the fuck is this? How’re we supposed to get past these hillbillies” moaned Tia. “Stay here and don’t move ‘till I come back. Lemme check out if there’s any way that we could use to sneak past them” replied Matt. The ritual was being performed at the end of the hall. There was a huge door which was the main entrance and going through the door was a dangerous affair. But Matt decided to take the risk as there was no other way. He had an advantage though; he could slip past these maniacs unnoticed as they were engaged in the ritual. Tia was afraid to be left alone but she trusted Matt. Matt crouched through the door slowly and frantically scanned the hall for a place to hide. There were a pile of large wooden boxes scattered at the back of the hall and he darted towards it. Partly relieved for having found a nice spot, Matt carefully looked for doors or windows or any opening that he could find and there was nothing. Suddenly Matt heard loud barking and howling sounds from where the ritual was taking place. He decided to have a look and shuddered at what he saw. Matt had never seen anything so horrible in his life. It was repulsive and extremely nauseating. “It’s a sacrificial chamber”, Matt was trembling…