666 When he looked out of the window of the train, the board read “Lumding”, Arnav got excited because he had reached his destination. His fellow co-passenger asked him that where will he head, to which he replied he will take a taxi and proceed towards his ancestral home in “Jatinga”. When the passenger heard Jatinga, he started sweating profusely and he tried to say something but the words were not coming out of his mouth. (Read full in caption) As he dropped his bag at the station, he stretched his hands for he was tired because of his journey and after a few minutes he came out of the station shouting Taxi-taxi, a few drivers came rushing towards him in hope that they will get a chance to drop him. He told them that he wants to go to Jatinga and when the drivers heard of this name, they said they won’t go over there at night. Arnav was baffled by hearing this and he said that he will pay thrice the amount they were charging but they still said no. Seeing no way out, he started walking but after 1 hour of walking, his feet grew tired and he was panting hard, but his destination was still far. He was happy when he saw a truck going on the road and he helplessly asked the driver for the lift and the driver obliged. Arnav hopped in and he gulped down water from his bottle for he was tired. The driver asked him where he was heading, to which he replied Jatinga and hearing the name, the driver applied sudden breaks for even he sounded scared and asked Arnav to get out of the truck. This was the last thing Arnav expected and he pleaded with the driver to drop him near his station and after constant pleading, the driver agreed. He felt relieved after hearing this and the driver dropped him near Jatinga and sped with his truck away. Arnav was baffled seeing the reaction of the driver and as he was walking towards his ancestral house, he looked at the moon and realized that today was the full moon. The stillness of the sky was making the September sky a bit chilly and as he reached near the gates of his ancestral house, the tears from his eyes started trickling for he went down the memory lane and remembered how his father used to carry the young Arnav in his arms and ran in the ground of their house. He was so engrossed in remembering the old memories that he got scared when he felt a hand on his shoulder and as he turned back, he saw a stranger looking at him coolly and asking him who was he and what was he doing here. Arnav introduced himself and asked the person who was he, to which the stranger replied that he was a villager who was going to his home. The villager asked the reason for the visit of Arnav to which he replied that he will be residing in his ancestral home, the villager panicked and asked him not to open the gates of the mansion for the devil who had been haunting the village was entrapped in it and if Arnav opened the gate, the devil would be released from his prison. Arnav paid no heed and started walking at a rapid pace towards the main door of the mansion. He didn’t believe in the words of the villager for he didn’t believe in such myths. He remembered that once he heard his parents talking about this devil and they were discussing to abandon this house and go far for the land on which the house was built was a graveyard and his ancestors purchased this land at a low cost for they wanted to build a mansion for their upcoming generations. As he reached the door, he saw that there was a huge lock on the door of the mansion and number 666 was scratched by nails of someone above the handles of the door and there was a message inscribed which read- “Death is only the beginning of the end”. (To be continued)
