The Ceremony
Prakhyaat sighed so heavily that the tea in his glass quivered and almost spilled out, snapping him out of his thoughts. He felt the tea's aroma, the uncomfortable bench below him, and the banter of the middle-aged men sitting on the opposite bench.
“Do you wanna bet?” One of the guys was saying. “I’m ready to bet a thousand rupees.”
“There are around a hundred people in this village,” said the other guy, scratching his balding head. “How can you bet on exactly one person?”
“Guys, come on,” said the owner. “Stop being so crass. You wouldn’t like someone else betting on your lives, would you?”
The first guy guffawed. “I’d like to see them try, Sham. I padlock my house the whole day of the Ceremony. Nobody gets out until the next day.”
Sham, the shopkeeper, sighed and shook his head as the guys paid and left, still laughing.
He turned to Prakhyaat looking into his tea glass intently and said, “Sorry about that. People here are so used to the Ceremony that it doesn’t hit them as hard anymore. You’re working at the Bank, right?”
Prakhyaat looked up and nodded.
He was new to this town, this little place called Arampura. It was previously called Aramane Pura, meaning “The Palace City” but turned into Arampura over generations.
The shopkeeper cleared his throat and said, “You know what the Ceremony is, right? You know about it.”
Prakhyaat nodded again. “I mean, it’s pretty famous not to know about it.”
“True, true,” he beamed. “So, you visited the palace? You must have come just a month ago, right?”
Prakhyaat raised his eyebrows and nodded again.
Sham cleared his throat again. “So, the palace? Did you see it?”
“Yes, last week.”
“Good, good.” Prakhyaat swallowed the rest of his tea and got up. As he pocketed the change, the shopkeeper whispered, “Just… um, be careful. Sometimes, newcomers are too enthusiastic about the Ceremony, and that never goes well. You look like a smart man, so I hope you are one too.”
Prakhyaat nodded again and went back to the Bank.
This was Prakhyaat’s first transfer. His last office was in his hometown, and he was dying to get out of living with his parents. When this opportunity came up, he jumped headfirst into it. Many people had rejected working in Arampura because of its history, but it seemed perfect to Prakhyaat.
It was already two months since Prakhyaat had started living in Arampura, but he had no friends yet. People hardly talked to him and he ate his lunch alone in a nearby hotel. After work, he would go straight to his modest one-bedroom house that he had found with some difficulty as the whole town was filled with hotels for tourists.
On a Friday, his fellow clerk and deskmate Ram leaned over to Prakhyaat as he was packing up, and said, “So, second Saturday tomorrow, what plans do you have?”
Prakhyaat let out a small smile and said, “Nothing.”
“Really? Come on, you must have some plans. I know there isn’t much to do here, but you must have something planned.”
Prakhyaat sighed. “I was thinking of visiting the palace, maybe the museum and the library.”
As he started walking out, Ram followed him, slinging his backpack on his shoulder. “Haven’t you visited the palace before? You’ve been here, what, two months or so. The first thing people do is visit the palace.”
“No, I’ve seen it before. I just like it.”
Ram snorted. “Like what? The murders? Deaths? Or the Ceremony itself?”
Prakhyaat tried to hide his annoyance. “It’s — it’s all fascinating to me.”
“I guess so,” Ram stared ahead. “Not if it becomes a part of your life from your birth,” he let out a big sigh. They walked silently for a while, and then Ram said, “Okay, I have to take a right turn here to my house. Do you want to come in for a cup of tea?”
“Maybe some other time.”
“Some other time then. Have a good weekend!”
The next Monday afternoon, Ram stood in front of Prakhyaat’s desk and knocked it with his knuckles until he looked up. “Come have lunch with us,” he said.
“Oh, it’s okay, I don’t mind eating by myself.”
Ram shook his head. “Come have lunch with us.”
Prakhyaat knew he couldn’t get out of this, so he went with Ram. Their lunch group comprised three people, Ram, Chandra, and Kailash. During lunch, Prakhyaat learned that Ram’s full name was Sriram and Chandra’s full name was Ramachandra. But as Sriram was the first to join, everyone started calling Ramachandra just Chandra to avoid confusion. Chandra was also an outsider like him, but he had been there for two years already.
After waiting for more than fifteen minutes for a free table at the restaurant, they finally sat down. The place was filled with tourists, and Ram and Kailash had annoyed expressions as they looked at them. Chandra noticed this and told Prakhyaat, “These locals are weird.” Ram and Kailash scoffed.
Chandra continued, “I tell you, it took me almost six months to even make small talk with these people. You’re lucky that Ram has pulled you in so early. Otherwise, they avoid us like injections, talking to us only when it’s absolutely necessary.”
“I mean, can you blame us?” said Kailash and dropped his voice. “The whole town is filled with tourists all the time. It’s gets overbearing pretty quickly.”
Chandra shrugged. “Probably, but Arampura is standing tall only because of tourists. Otherwise, none of us would even have jobs.” He turned to Prakhyaat and said, “Tourists are filled here at least 3–4 months after the Ceremony. It dies down a bit in the middle, and then the number rises again 1–2 months before the Ceremony. Do you know that the ticket prices are double in the first month?”
“And that’s why the locals don’t like tourists,” Ram said. “We never had peace in this town.”
Chandra rolled his eyes. “But we aren’t tourists, are we now? We came here for work, not sightseeing.”
“Prakhyaat would disagree,” said Ram, grinning. “He visits the Palace every weekend.” The other two looked at him, wide-eyed.
“Uh…” Prakhyaat was caught off guard. He felt a mild annoyance at Ram for throwing him under the bus. “I think the novelty hasn’t worn off yet.”
“It will, trust me,” said Chandra in such a defeated tone that everyone started laughing.
With that, Prakhyaat was invited to have lunch and tea with them every day, and he graciously accepted.
A few months later, on a Friday evening, as Ram and Prakhyaat walked back home (they had become unofficial walking buddies now, and Prakhyaat even liked walking back with Ram despite him never shutting up), he asked, “Going again on Sunday?”
Prakhyaat nodded and braced himself for a jab. It had become a thing between the four of them, poking fun at Prakhyaat for visiting the Palace weekly.
But this time, Ram surprised him by saying, “I’ll come with you.” Prakhyaat stopped in his tracks and looked at Ram. “Are you serious?”
Ram chuckled and said, “I am, truly.”
Prakhyaat resumed walking. “You’re just making fun of me.”
Ram jogged to join him. “I’m not! It’s been years since I visited that place and I want to see it again with my friend. I won’t make fun of you when we visit, either. I promise.”
They met outside Prakhyaat’s house on Sunday and started together towards the palace. Prakhyaat felt the familiar adrenaline rush as they reached the tall gates that would block the view of the palace when closed. They slowly walked up the wide stairs to the entrance (Prakhyaat had bought a yearly pass and the palace was free for locals). The palace was a huge, sprawling building. It had a great entrance hall as one entered through the front doors, a banquet hall, a dance floor, and numerous rooms spread across three floors. It would take a person at least two hours to go into all the rooms on all the floors without stopping.
As they entered through the giant front doors with intricate carvings, Prakhyaat asked Ram if he had ever tried to enter the palace during the day of the Ceremony, and to his surprise, Ram smirked and nodded.
“Twice, actually. consecutive years, when I was 7 and 8. We had a bet going at school. The first time, it was who would touch the gate, and the second time, it was, who would go inside the palace.”
“But don’t they — ”
“Lock the gates? Yes, they do. But there are other ways.” They were inside now in the great hall, along with a few other tourists who kept clicking pictures of every corner that had faint blood stains.
“Ok, I’m invested. Tell me everything.” They started making their way up the stairs to the first floor.
“So the day before the Ceremony, they have a grand puja and then they padlock the gates, right? Nobody stays near the gate the next day. Nobody even goes near it until the morning after the Ceremony, when the town head, the priest, and the police remove the lock to find the body.” Prakhyaat nodded impatiently, he knew all this by heart by now.
Ram continued. “Usually, everyone in Arampura locks their house the whole day. We have dinner early and go to bed early. No one goes out. When I was seven, our friend group decided that we would go to the gate the night of the Ceremony and whoever touched the gate would be known as the bravest one of the group for one year. So, we decided to meet at the end of the road that led to the palace.
It was hard to get out of the house. But there was a window in my room that I could fit through, and after everyone went to bed, I sneaked out. We all gathered at the meeting place except for two who couldn’t get out of their houses, and slowly made our way to the gate.”
Prakhyaat jumped as someone from behind brushed his shoulder as they went ahead into one of the numerous rooms. He looked at Ram, expecting him to laugh or call him a scaredy-cat, but Ram had not even noticed what happened. He was seven now, standing at the gates in the dead of the night, very scared but trying to come off as nonchalant to his friends.
Everyone was going into the rightmost room of the ground floor where the Ceremony had taken place the last time. “Let's go there,” said Prakhyaat, pointing to another room.
They went into the room with just two people and Ram resumed telling his story.
“We slowly made our way to the gate, all five of us. We were scared, jumping at the smallest sound. We stood at the gate for a long time, whispering among ourselves, deciding who should touch it first. Nobody was ready, so we decided that all of us would touch it at the same time, on the count of three.”
“And?”
“We did it!” Ram laughed as though he didn’t believe it. “We stood side by side, and held our hands near the gate. Someone counted, and we touched it, all at once.”
“Did something happen?”
Ram shook his head. “Not a thing. But it calmed our nerves and I was brave enough to peer into the gate to see if I could see what was happening inside. There are a few cracks here and there, and there was one that was in my eyeline.” He fell silent, gazing at the wall but not really looking.
“I remember seeing light at the top floor room that faces the gate. The rest of the palace was dark. I freaked out, and when I told the others, they also took a look, freaked out, and we all ran back home. We were so proud of ourselves and internally relieved,” he smiled.
“Did they find the body in the same room the next day?”
Ram nodded. They both fell silent for a while, both thinking about Ram’s adventure the next year.
Ram looked at Prakhyaat with a knowing smile. “Come on,” he said, “Not here. I’ll take you to the exact room this time.”
They came back to the entrance hall where the stairs were and started climbing to the first floor. Ram led Prakhyaat to the end of the first floor towards the last room that faced the exit, and started the second story. “This time, we were a lot more confident. This time, we wanted to go inside the palace, at the least climb the stairs, and touch the front doors.”
“How would you get in? The gates would be closed.”
Ram beckoned Prakhyaat to the windows facing the exit in the hallway. They stood huddled in front of this tiny window oblivious to other tourists. “Look closely. Do you see a teeny pathway through the forest at the right?” At first, Prakhyaat could see only the forest, but then he saw it. Something that could hardly be called a pathway, just a line of clearing in the forest. It didn’t look used in a long time.
“There is a road from the town that leads to this path. Not a lot of people know this, but our friend Samanth did. He made the plans too. He had gone to the exit via this path before, but never during the Ceremony. We said okay, let’s do it.”
“How did you get in? The exit gates would also be locked.”
“Correct. The exit gates are always locked because as far as the town people know, there is nothing beyond it. There is a small crack in the compound in this area a few meters from the exit gate, with space enough for a man to crawl through and Samanth knew this. So again, on the night of the Ceremony, we snuck out of our homes and went to the palace with Samanth. It was a longer route, at least 2 kilometers more than the conventional route, but we hardly noticed it in our excitement. Once we reached the palace compound, Samanth found the crack and we crawled through, one by one, all six of us.
He motioned Prakhyaat to move forward and go into the last room. They went to the window of this room and Ram pointed down to a spot a few feet in front of the building. “We stood there, all our bravado stripped off of us as we stood there and just watched. No one was ready to step forward. Finally, Samanth said, ‘screw this, I’m going,’ and took a few steps towards the exit door and that’s when we heard a loud thud and a scream that made us forget how to move. It came from this very room and someone was thrown against the window and they slid down. The whole window was bloody.” Prakhyaat took a few steps back as if the window burned. Ram also stepped back, still smiling. “And how we ran,” we said, staring into the little almost non-existent passageway. “It was a struggle because everyone wanted to be the first to crawl out, but we somehow managed to get out and run home. I thought I would die running, but I didn’t stop.”
“All of us had a high fever for the next few days. We didn’t do it again, ever. We didn’t get caught, thankfully. My family would not let me step out of the house for the next 20 years if they knew.”
Prakhyaat gaped at him. “No wonder you don’t like coming here.” Ram laughed and walked out of the room.
Sun was almost setting when they neared Prakhyaat’s house. Prakhyaat did something he never thought he would, he invited Ram in.
Ram raised his hand to his forehead and acted like he was fainting. “Really? Me? How did I make the cut?”
Prakhyaat laughed and said, “Come on, I have a few beers in the fridge. I feel like we both need them today. But, promise me that you won’t freak out.”
Ram gasped as he entered Prakhyaat’s bedroom. The living room was normal, it had barely any furniture apart from two plastic chairs. His bedroom had a mattress spread on the floor, but that was the only normal thing there. The wall was covered in newspaper clippings of the Ceremony, of Arampura and the palace. They dated back from this year to ten years ago. They had everything — conspiracy theories, names of the people who died during the Ceremony, interviews. All that was missing was a red yarn connecting the clippings.
Ram spun around to Prakhyaat who had a beer bottle in each of his hands. “Are you a serial killer? Or a detective? Am I going to die here?”
Prakhyaat let out a big sigh. “I told you not to freak out.”
“How can one not freak out? I knew you were interested in the Ceremony, but this, I’m sorry to say, borders on obsession.”
“I know, I know it looks bad.” Prakhyaat sat down on his mattress and held out the beer to Ram. “But there’s a reason.”
“Now is a great time to tell it, because I might run out of here,” Ram said, still standing.
“I’m not going to kill you, sit down.”
“That’s exactly what a serial killer would say.”
Prakhyaat rolled his eyes so hard that Ram sat down laughing.
Prakhyaat opened his mouth, but words didn’t come out. He said, “You’ll laugh at me and tell Kailash and Chandra on Monday.”
Ram stopped laughing. “I won’t if you don’t want me to tell anyone. I won’t tell another soul, I promise.”
“I don’t trust you.”
Ram thought for a second and said, “Let me tell you an embarrassing story of mine, and you can leverage that information. If I ever tell anyone whatever you’re about to tell me now, then you can spread this information as far and wide as you want, deal?”
Prakhyaat nodded. “Deal.”
“Okay, here goes. When we were in high school, I had a huge crush on this girl in my class. All the boys knew this and would tease me about it. One day, we were talking about something in our boys’ WhatsApp group and simultaneously there was some chat going on in the class WhatsApp group and you can guess what happened next.”
“Oh no.”
“Yes. I mixed up the groups and sent a message something along the lines of, ‘Yes I like Ankita a lot, what are you going to do about it?’ in the class group, where Ankita was also there. The damn delete option wasn’t there then, and I died inside. 3 years, 3 years I was teased about it.”
“There’s no way,” Prakhyaat said between his giggles, “There’s no way that Kailash doesn’t know about this.”
“His parents moved to Arampura when he was in college. So, you’re privy to this information and have the power to destroy me. Your turn.”
Prakhyaat got his giggles under control and took a sip of his beer. “Okay. You know my name means famous, right? Do you know why my parents named me so? ” Ram frowned and beckoned him to go on.
“My brother is almost twelve years older than me, and I was a surprise baby. When my brother was eight, he rescued his friend from drowning in our city’s river and he got that national Bravery award.” Prakhyaat took another swig. “My parents wanted me to be a famous guy like my brother, hence the name. My brother was the classic over-achiever, you know, top of his class, good at sports. My brother is Prashant Sait. Ring any bells?”
Ram sat up straight. “Wait, Prashant Sait, IAS officer?”
Prakhyaat nodded as if his brother died.
Ram snapped his fingers. “Yes! Oh my God, you’re Prashant Sait’s brother. That’s so cool!”
Prakhyaat scoffed. “So cool, yes. Imagine living with someone like that. My parents never let me forget that I wasn’t living up to my name. And I wasn’t even failing or anything, I was just average, but when you compare that to my brother, that’s equal to a failure. My parents even joked that we should exchange our names because it was getting wasted on me,” he laughed bitterly.
“I’m sorry, man,” said Ram. “That must be a nightmare. But what does it have to do with the palace and the ceremony?”
Prakhyat clicked his tongue. “My name was never printed on a newspaper, never. When I got the offer to get transferred here, I thought,” he ran his fingers through his hair. “I thought if I could somehow crack this mystery and stop these killings from happening every year, maybe then I would be famous, and I could finally throw it in my parents’ faces. Stupid, I know.” he looked at Ram, fully expecting him to start making fun of him.
But Ram just looked concerned. “Although I don’t understand how you feel, I can imagine how bad it must be. I’m sorry your parents are such terrible people, but is it worth putting your life at risk? People have died trying to uncover the mystery of the Ceremony.”
Prakhyaat was silent for a long time, pondering if he should share his thoughts with Ram or not. Then he said slowly, “I don’t believe that there’s some diety that takes a human sacrifice. I think this is an inside job done by the Arampura heads.”
Ram leaned in. “What do you mean?”
“People here don’t like outsiders, because outsiders ask questions. The locals all believe in this diety and are fearful. They’re just happy that their family member wasn’t the sacrifice this year and move on. Every year, who is allowed to lock the gates? Who is allowed to open them and search for the body? Only the priest, the police, and the head of the oldest family in Arampura, that’s all. Why isn’t anyone else allowed?”
“Because it’s dangerous.”
“No, because it’s easier to keep a secret if it is shared between fewer people.”
“So you think they kill someone every year on the day of the Ceremony and act as if some entity killed them? That’s nuts. Why would they do that?”
“Because, Arampura is literally running because people are coming to visit the palace every year, because everyone believes that the entity inside it is very active. Haunted places get tourists that had people murdered, but active murders happening every year? That is a tourist honeypot. What do you think will happen if the murders stop happening? Tourists would still come, but the number would dwindle and maybe reduce to a few tourists every year. Don’t you think these people would try everything in their power for that to not happen?”
Ram was silent.
“I’m sorry, Ram, I shouldn’t have said that. Arampura is your home. All I said were just speculations, nothing concrete.”
Ram let out a low whistle. “I can’t say that you don’t make sense. But I wouldn’t believe it unless I saw it by myself.” He scratched his head and continued, “I mean, I know the priest very well, and he doesn’t seem like someone who could murder someone in cold blood every year.”
Prakhyaat shrugged.
“Also, don’t tell this to anyone else, even Chandra. People here don’t like outsiders talking bad about the Ceremony.”
Prakhyaat nodded. “I won’t,” he hesitated and then asked, “I want to go into the palace on this Ceremony day. I’ll film a video and try to see what is actually happening. Can you tell me the route to get into the exit gate that you showed me today?”
Ram smiled a sad smile. “Even if you uncover the secret and become famous, will you be really happy? For how long until your brother does something else and you’re back to square one? Think about it. I’ll see you Monday,” Ram patted Prakhyaat’s shoulder and left.
After their visit to the palace, Prakhyaat opened up a bit more to Ram. They chatted quite a bit on their daily walks back from the office. They carefully avoided talking about the palace or the Ceremony, even though it was present as another invisible person between them. Meanwhile, Arampura was getting ready for the next Ceremony day that was arriving in a month.
Two days before the Ceremony, as they walked back late evening, Ram asked Prakhyaat, “Do you still intend to go?”
Prakhyaat was looking at the red-coloured decorations being put up all over as a mark of protection and respect for the deity. The whole town was lit with festive lights and it would look like a red blob from far above.
“Huh? Yes, I do.”
Prakhyaat fully expected a barrage of protests from Ram, telling him that he would die and imploring him not to go, but Ram said, “I’ll come with you.”
Prakhyaat wasn’t sure he heard it right. “What did you say?”
“I said, I’ll come with you. I want to see too.”
“No, no, no. I can’t let you do that. What if something happens to you? I won’t be able to forgive myself. If you just told me the way — ”
“I’ll be fine. I’m a grown man, I can look after myself.”
“It’s not that — ”
“I don’t want to talk here. It’s not safe. Can we go to your home? We could go to ours, but my mother might hear us.”
Prakhyaat nodded and they they walked briskly to his house.
Once inside, Ram asked Prakhyaat to close all the windows and doors. They sat on the mattress facing each other and Ram started talking in a small voice. “I went to the palace last year.” Prakhyaat’s eyes widened and he opened his mouth when Ram said, “Let me finish, we can take questions later. I went there because… I guess I wanted to prove to my eight-year-old self that I was brave. That I became brave, after all these years.” He kept looking at his fidgeting fingers.
“But I still couldn’t do it. I crawled in, and climbed the steps to the exit gate and, that’s all I could do before I lost my nerve. I felt so humiliated. I know it doesn’t make any sense to prove to myself, but I just had to do it.” Prakhyaat understood how he felt perfectly.
Ram looked up at him. “If I go with you, I’ll be braver. I’ll be able to finally do it and go inside.”
“I’ll ask the same question you asked me,” said Prakhyaat. “Is it worth losing your life?”
Ram smiled. “If I feel that there is a slight chance of danger, I’ll leave you there and run away. The deity needs only one person anyway.”
“Thank you, that was very reassuring.” Both laughed and started planning.
On the night of the Ceremony, around 10 pm, Ram stood outside Prakhyaat’s house and called his phone. Prakhyaat slipped outside within 5 minutes. Ram motioned him to start walking and they continued walking in a fully deserted path for half an hour quietly. They knew that if someone saw them, they would try to make them go inside and be safe.
Ram looked around, and not even stray dogs were outside. But people could be watching from their windows. He whispered, “It’s a long path. We need to walk for another hour, try to be as quiet as possible. Keep walking a few paces behind me.”
They continued in silence. They turned their flashlights on once they were in the forest. Prakhyaat felt that he couldn’t have figured out the path if it wasn’t for Ram. There was barely space for one person, and branches and vines kept brushing them or sometimes hitting them in the face if they weren’t careful. It was pitch black, and Prakhyaat kept fighting the urge to look back to see if someone was behind him.
They finally reached the exit gate of the palace. The huge lock was guarding the exit gates. Ram looked at it for a few seconds and walked left. He bent down and after a few minutes of searching, found the crack. He pointed it to Prakhyaat and crawled in with relative ease. Prakhyaat went in after him, with some difficulty.
After they brushed off the dirt, Prakhyaat took the lead. They had decided beforehand that they would circle the palace once before going in to see if there were any lights lit in any of the rooms. If not, it would mean that nobody was in, and they could find a hiding spot.
They slowly went around, Prakhyaat looking up at the windows and Ram looking out for anyone who would come in. There was no light anywhere inside the palace and Prakhyaat felt immense relief.
They stood in front of the entrance door for quite some time, gathering up the courage to go in. Neither of them had said a word for a long time. Prakhyaat then took a huge breath and went in and started recording from his phone. He heard Ram enter behind him and let out a shudder.
They walked forward as the door slowly shut behind them. Prakhyaat couldn’t see anything beyond what his flashlight showed him. He turned to Ram, looking ghastly under the glare of the flashlight. They walked to their hiding place which was decided beforehand, a small space between the great hall and the stairs leading up to the first floor. It was a blind spot, they wouldn't be seen by anyone who entered through the entrance door.
They sat there, crouched, knees touching. Prakhyaat kept his phone angled so that it was pointing towards the entrance door. They waited for what seemed like hours, but his phone showed that it was only fifteen minutes. At that instant, the lights came on. The hall was filled with a soft yellow glow from the chandeliers. Prakhyaat looked at Ram in panic. The door wasn’t even open, who turned the lights on?
Ram stood up and walked to the center of the hall. Prakhyaat whispered, “What are you doing? Come back!”
“Who turned it on? There’s nobody here!” He kept looking at the front door.
“Ram, come back!”
“What’s happening?” Ram was clearly panicking. Prakhyaat came out, trying to hold Ram’s hand.
“If there’s no one here,” Ram’s voice was calm suddenly. “Then it must be one of us.” Prakhyaat stopped dead in his tracks. He felt goosebumps all over his body.
“What- what do you mean?”
“I mean, it definitely wasn’t you,” said Ram, turning. Prakhyaat stifled a shriek. Something was moving inside Ram’s face, something alive.
He took two steps back and almost stumbled over.
Ram moved forward, still smiling. “You’re a very interesting character, Prakhyaat. I’ve never met anyone like you. All this time, I’ve had to track down someone who wandered outside on the day of the Ceremony, probably drunk and had to take over their body. But you — you, my friend, fell right into my lap. I didn’t even have to try hard. It was so much fun being friends with you.”
Prakhyaat opened his mouth but couldn’t speak. He still couldn’t understand what was happening, only that it was very, very bad.
He finally found his voice, and croaked, “Take over their bodies?”
“Right, sorry. You don’t know. I need a new body every year. I’ve traveled far and wide before I ended up here a couple hundred years ago, and this town has been nothing but nice to me. They’ve given me this position of a deity and they worship me.” Ram put his arms up in the air. “They benefit from me, I benefit from them. Win-win.”
He put his hands down and looked at Prakhyaat who stood like he was paralysed. “Enough chit-chat. I promise that your name will come in the newspaper, when you officially die here in any of the rooms that I fancy, next year. I can make it pretty gory if you need more coverage. Until then, you’ll be a good host to me, deal?”
No one heard Prakhyaat’s screams as a very tall, flesh-coloured entity having a face with only a gaping mouth covered with suckers tore open Ram’s body in half as it came out of him and entered into Prakhyaat’s body through his mouth.
It awoke in Prakhyaat’s body after a while, examined his hands and feet, and was pleased. It looked at Ram’s torn-up body, smiled and walked towards the corner where they sat hiding a few hours ago. It grabbed Prakhyaat’s phone and walked out while deleting the video.
The next day, Kailash, Chandra and Prakhyaat stood together as Ram’s body was brought into his house to his wailing mother. Kailash asked Prakhyaat quietly, “Did you have any idea that he was planning to go to the palace yesterday?”
Prakhyaat shook his head. “Not a clue. He even warned me when I told my interest in the Ceremony. I guess you never fully know what’s going on inside a person’s mind.”
