by Hiya Debnath » Fri Jan 19, 2024 11:51 am
"I'm going to need chicken blood, salt, five candles, and a bottle of vodka", Gerald said.
"Vodka? For the spell?", I asked.
"No, that's just to make me feel better about ripping a hole in the universe", he replied. The cup of green tea shook as Gerald put it to his lips and drank.
"How long has it been?", he asked. "A year and a half", I replied. "It will take some effort, then", he said and fell silent. I got up and asked for his permission to leave, more for fear of him changing his mind, rather than to shut the awkward silence between us.
On the appointed day, I was there five minutes before time.The last slanting rays of the sun illumined the oak backdoor of his house, facing his backyard, our appointed meeting place. He appeared in the blackest of suits and a hat and sat opposite to me. "I brought everything", I said. He nervously cleaned the place around us and chanted a few indiscernible words. I watched him sprinkle water and handfuls of earth in a circle around us. "Sit down", he said, "and focus. It's the focus that is mandatory, to bring back the dead. And be quick with the questions. I cannot hold Arthur here for long."
The scentless candles flickered as a light finally appeared and took the shape of an outline. Silhoutteed against the light, stood Arthur, my dead brother-in-law, pale, discernible, but not real. Struck dumb with surprise, anticipation, and fear, I swallowed, then managed to ask, "How did you leave us?"
"The UATA, they killed me, a couple of gunshots straight through my head. It wasn't an accident", he said, "Tell Kate to be brave and take care of herself."
The struggle was visible on his face as the pain tore him between two worlds. "In the caves at Denisova, Bear Ro....... ", he added, and then his voice trailed away. In an instant, the illusion disappeared. I remembered the fateful morning of August 24, 2023, when Arthur had died. It was in a place in the Altai mountains, Siberia, where Arthur had taken my sister Kate for their long put off honeymoon. I had seen the place in all it's serene beauty in their backdrop when Kate had video-called me minutes before the call faltered after a tremendous sound. The next thing I heard about them was that Arthur was dead and that Kate was concussed and lying in a hospital. It was only a few days after the UATA, the Universal Advanced Technology Agency had rejected the papers of Arthur's new discovery of the immortal cell, isolated from a baby's umbilical cord and imbued with magic. The honeymoon itself was Kate's attempt to help her husband escape the frustration he felt after the repeated rejections of his industrious talent's success.
In the present, Kate still lay in a hospital in Russia, bedridden, still recovering from the coma. She was diagnosed with post-coma psychosis and the news channels kept showing repetitive stories about how her husband, Arthur, a brilliant scientist, had died in a mountain-climbing accident during their honeymoon, and how Kate had hurt her head, going into a coma. I had never been comfortable with the surprising attention the media appeared to give my poor sister Kate.The UATA had even offered money for her treatment.
"They hit me, they....." Kate kept saying lying on her hospital bed, while the nurses gave her medicines, assuring me that she was just going through a psychotic phase.
I decided that the place where Arthur died would give me the best answers. Honoring the suspicions in my mind, I also took Kate out of the hospital against medical advice, after facing some resistance from the authorities. I assured them that I was resigned to the fate of my poor sister.
On August 24th, 2024, the exact date of Kate's honeymoon the previous year, Gerald and I arrived with Kate on a wheelchair in front of the Denisova caves in the Altai Mountains. It was difficult, but with some help from Gerald, I had managed to bring Kate to this high-altitude place somehow. She always had mobile medical equipment and machinery attached to her. We hoped that visiting this place would bring back Kate's memories and she would be able to shed some light on the incident, and that would perhaps even help cure her. An unknown feeling of dread was a constant companion to me as Gerald and I took Kate into the caves between us. We waited and hoped but Kate remained silent about the day of the honeymoon.
A week passed, and we gave up. I allowed Kate to rest at the lodging we were staying in, and spent my days worrying and brainstorming. Surprisingly, Gerald kept wandering away to the caves on his own. I kept reminiscing how Arthur had tried to say something about the caves and how his features had twisted as if begging for time while he was being dragged back to his own realm, the realm of the dead. One evening, Gerald asked me to follow him because he had found something. I followed him to the caves and he asked me to wait. As the number of tourists thinned, we stayed on in the dwindling light. Gerald took me to a very dark corner of the cave. "This is the place", he spoke in that premonitory voice of his. "Are you relying only on intuition?", I asked, desperation and rationality in conflict inside my mind. "Sixth sense", Gerald replied. It almost felt like Arthur was communicating to me through him from somewhere in the fourth dimension, as we edged forward and stumbled upon a secret chamber. "It's here", Gerald said, " C'mon".
I decided to trust Gerald. Pressing a little discolored spot on the rock made it move aside. We discovered a lab full of papers and strange instruments. On the wall, in red letters, was the secret of Arthur's discovery. Just beneath it, was an inscription, "The beginning is the end.".
"This is it", Gerald said, "We can use this to stop the monsters". "Monsters?", I asked. " There's no time to explain", Gerald said. We also found a diary, and on the page dated August 17, the day Arthur's discovery had been rejected by the UATA ,was an entry. "They did not return my sample cell", the entry read. "I am afraid they will use the immortality for nefarious purposes, maybe to create a monster. I did not let them in on the rest of my secret. I suspected they would do this and I made sure that they don't know how to create more immortal cells. They have only one, my sample cell, to create a monster from. An immortal monster. However, the beginning is also the end." It made sense to me. So that means that Arthur also knew how to destroy an immortal being born of his newly discovered immortal cell. "Yes", Gerald replied, as if reading my mind, "And now I know, too. Arthur tried to stop the UATA from creating an immortal monster from his sample cell, and that's why they had to kill him and shut your sister up. They've searched these caves and found nothing and I am pretty sure that we are being monitored, which means that they will be here anytime, and Kate is in danger. Get her here as fast as you can, and stay here. This is the only safe place", was all Gerald told me, all in one breath. The next thing I witnessed was Gerald somehow operating all the strange instruments that belonged to Arthur, while I dragged Kate to the secret chamber. I was puzzled like a child exposed to something very complicated. But the urgency on Gerald's face and my trust in him stopped me from asking him further questions. I wondered if I was dreaming.
The best I could do was to stay quiet and keep Kate quiet in the secret chamber and watch Gerald at work. Gerald forbade us to go out. In the midst of everything, I couldn't help but marvel at Arthur for choosing his honeymoon spot to hide his discovery. After all, who would suspect someone of hiding secrets during their honeymoon? But it also appeared that there had to be some reason for them to kill Arthur while he was on his honeymoon. Theories formed in my head and I assumed that the UATA wanted us to find Arthur's secret lab, because they couldn't on their own. Gerald worked on Arthur's secret for about 2 hours, but it appeared that he was too late. Loud explosions could be heard outside. "They've been faster", Arthur mouthed, "The immortal monster has been released. And of course they will attack us first, but we will have to destroy the secret."
"Save the secret, you mean", I tried to say but trailed off, distracted by the next set of events. I could hear huge booms and an earthquake shook the cave. The instruments in the secret chamber were a sight to watch, some blowing up, some emitting sparks, and some simply shaking.
Suddenly, a large part of the wall blasted outwards and fell off. I ducked with Kate, screaming "Gerald". At the same time, Gerald uttered a loud cry like a maniac, "I did it. I made the gun". Gerald held a water gun filled with a slimy green liquid in his hand. The next thing I saw was a claw and then something that looked like a cyborg version of a giant lizard peeped into the cave. Gerald shielded me and Kate asking us to retreat. I wondered why he wouldn't just shoot. I made myself smaller and smaller and moved backwards, pulling Kate along with me. The creature dragged it's giant body through Arthur's secret lab destroying everything. "Fools", Gerald screamed, "The secret's gone now". The creature shot fire out of it's ears and nostrils burning up all of Arthur's lab along with his secrets. All Gerald did was asking me to keep retreating with Kate as far as I could and hide if possible, while he kept taking backward steps with the gun in his hand. He was still shielding us with his body and holding the gun. I shoved Kate to the side and moved away following Gerald's advice. The creature finally lifted it's claws and lunged at Gerald. Gerald jumped off
the cliff in response and I screamed. However, the monster followed suit after Gerald and attempted to jump off the cliff and land on Gerald, and in the process exposed its navel. Gerald shot his liquid from the gun right into the monster's navel, killing it, and the next thing I knew was that Gerald was dead, crushed under the weight of the monster's body and the monster was dead, too. The UATA were the next on the scene, their disappointed faces contemplating the destroyed secrets in the chamber, their anger and disbelief at the destruction of their monster evident on their faces. "Take them", one of them said, pointing at me and Kate. I shielded Kate with my body but turned around in utter shock when Kate jumped off the cliff to her death. The UATA officials rushed at me, their only hope of knowing the last shred of information about Arthur or his secrets. All I did was give them a jubilant smile followed by a maniacal laughter and jumped right off the cliff after my sister.
"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light." - Albus Dumbledore.