Warlock — Chapter — The Captive Girl

The Raul estate in Mehrauli was plunged into darkness. The estate was spread to four acres; most of which was a wilderness with large and small red rocks protruding from beneath the surface, and uneven mounds and ditches, as the ground rose and fell abruptly. The unkempt and ghastly place — with wild bushes and trees that had grown up in an unplanned manner, showed the disdain or carelessness of the owner. The prominent places in the estate were a farmhouse — a building with a glass pyramid at the top; and secret cellars and caves beneath the ground. There was also a lake, remnants of a Circus, Gypsy ruins and the mini-jungle of wild kikar trees that adjoined a Shamsan (cremation ground) and a Kabristaan (graveyard).

During the absence of the owner, a pack of ferocious Rottweiler dogs routinely patrolled the estate. Bred and primed to kill, they were capable of challenging even a tiger and could tear to shreds any man that dared to enter the grounds.

Unaware of all these morbid realities, a beggar-woman and her three children entered the estate from the broken wall near the graveyard. Her daughter split up with her family and went way unknowingly in the direction of the distant farmhouse. Self-christened as Nuzhat, the beggar’s daughter walked away in the search for leftover food to feed the family.

She could soon make out the silhouette of a distant building plunged in darkness. There was something sinister about the building, something ominous and frightening that Nuzhat could sense even with her primitive animal brain. Forcing down her vomit, she kept walking until she reached the building.

She climbed down a flight of stairs that took her down to a second level of the basement. Unknown to Nuzhat, deep down in the farmhouse building; two levels beneath the ground was that maze of secret chambers, where the light of day never reached. She heard the clank of iron against the stone floor for a while and the wailing of a person.

The wailing turned into sobs and shouting, ‘Chood de mujhe; jane kuan nahi deta…kide padege tujhe, maa ke…” (Leave me, why don’t let me go, worms will eat your body, you mother***!” The outburst of the unknown female who used the choicest of expletives continued for 2–3 minutes before she started to shout again.

(Excerpt from the book Warlock)

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