The vile vortices twelve are areas distributed around the globe that are alleged to have the same qualities as claimed for Bermuda triangle. These form the vertices of an icosahedron. Five of them are on a latitude near tropic of cancer including the devil’s triangle or the Bermuda triangle, five of them near tropic of Capricorn and one each at either of the poles.
‘She’s the most beautiful girl I have ever seen and I instantly fell in love with her’, I told my friends. Mike said, ‘She is virtuous, beautiful, well-educated and the list never ends. It’s very imperative that you have fallen in love with her. But what quality should she see in you to reciprocate your love?’
‘Hmm… my heart which is brimming with her love…’
‘Sam… man….’ He said even as he came close to me, ‘Sam….’ and he had tears in his eyes.
‘… Heart wrenching….’ He said even as he made the gestures with his hand and the others burst laughing. I flung the beer tin onto him. ‘Have I ever told u that you are a rogue, Mike’, I continued. ‘Have I ever told you that you are just like me, dearest pal’ he replied and I ran behind him into the house. The other friends followed us.
‘Do sleep soon, you should be robbing her of her peace by following her from tomorrow… right…’ he said. ‘You dog…’ I barked… I mean, I shouted hitting him with the pillow. And I lay down on the bed looking at the ceiling.
‘Man, I love her so much…’ I said.
‘118….’, he said. ‘What?’, I looked at him when he said ,’This is the 118th time you are repeating the same thing…’
‘Huh… what will you understand about love… look at those stars… and look at her face, I mean the moon. Aren’t the starts singing in her praise…’ I said. ‘I don’t see anything other than the rotating fan and the ceiling…’ he said with a wide grin on his face. ‘Phew…’ I thought and I closed my eyes.
It’s around 12 ‘O clock in night when I heard few voices.
‘Sam… wake up… wake up… Sam… Sam…’, even as I tried to close my ears ignoring them.
The next morning, I woke up with a jerk when Mike was holding my hand. ‘Mike, did you hear any voices in the dark?’ I asked him. Mike’s face suddenly turned blank as if he were frightened. ‘Yes… I couldn’t sleep properly for a while and when I heard the marble tile beneath the bed we slept being moved slowly. I looked beneath the bed when I saw a hand, half rotten push the marble tile aside and emerge out from below. It slowly came and stood beside the bed even as I pretended to be asleep and all of sudden it came close to me and the rotting body slowly lay itself along me…’
‘And then, what happened..’ I was inquisitive.
‘Then.. then… today morning I saw you lying on me….’ And he started to laugh.
‘Man, this Mike is a big joker…’ I told myself.
‘And Camilla, this is Mike about whom I have been saying’, I introduced Mike to Camilla, on the day of my wedding. ‘If the bridegroom can dedicate some time to me, I can go on with the wedding’ the church priest said. ‘Sam is so talkative that we, others are seldom given any chance to speak’, Mike said.
And then me and my dream princess Camilla started to walk towards the priest with both our clasped hands.
‘In the name of God the couple holding each other's right hand take the oath of life-long loyalty to each other’ the priest solemnized.
And we exchanged our rings when the priest said, ‘You may kiss the bride’ even as I proceeded towards Camilla and locker her lips with mine. As I closed my eyes, I suddenly heard the voices again. ‘Sam…. Sam…. We are waiting…. Sam….’ and I suddenly opened my eyes pushing her off.
Everyone in the church was perplexed and I apologized for my behavior and we started to walk away from the church.
Ever since I married Camilla, every night I used to hear those voices. I would wake up all of a sudden in the night much to the discontent of my wife. Slowly I lost interest in my love life, and I started to lose interest in her. I consulted a psychiatrist on her advice.
‘You may be suffering with oneirophobia or the fear of dreams. Perhaps a change in the environment will get you back to normal’, he said and prescribed few medicines.
‘Camilla darling, we are moving out of Hyderabad on a very long holiday’, I said even as she jumped onto me and hugged me. ‘Where are the tickets, where are we going’ she inquired like a baby. ‘We are moving to Aruku valley tomorrow and we are going by road’ I said and she was so damn happy when she locked her lips with mine. Romanticism was in the air for a while with the atmosphere in here getting hot.
I closed my eyes gripping her tightly and close to me when I heard the same voices again.
‘Sam… Sam…’
And I pushed her onto the ground shouting, ‘what do you want from me, what have I done to you, who is this first of all….’ And falling to the ground on my knees and hiding my face behind my palms I started to cry. Camilla came slowly from behind and put her hand on my shoulder, ‘Don’t worry Sam, you will be fine soon. Perhaps you need a change in the environment.’ And I nodded in affirmation, taking her close to me by laying my hands over her waist and kissed on her forehead.
‘Vroom….’ My Scorpio left the house leaving a trail of dust behind which slowly settled down. Within an hour we were already cruising on the highway.
The sun slowly started to rise in the east beyond the hills with a tinge of orangeness at the horizon even as few birds fluttered beyond us in the direction of the orange sun. A cold wind lashed across my face when I felt a hand clutching me. ‘Sam… Sam…again I heard the voices…’ when the loud blare of honking of an incoming truck brought me back to my senses when I found my Scorpio on a head on collision track with the truck. Pulling the steering wheel to the left, the MUV swerved to the left in the nick of time preventing the head on impact and thus saving us.
‘Sam… what is wrong with you…’ Camilla asked me clutching my hand. ‘No, nothing….’ I said. ‘Please don’t think about those voices…. You will be fine…’ she assured me and I nodded.
We drove for almost two hundred miles before I was totally exhausted. ‘I need to rest for a while’ I told her handing the wheel to her and I slept for a while on the non-driver’s seat. I had no idea for how long I slept before I suddenly woke up to a jerk. Camilla stopped the Scorpio with a jerk. And I looked at her with my eyes opening slowly, still half asleep.
The half of the face which I was looking at was rotten, in fact rotting with insects coming out of the eye sockets and I looked at her hand which was rotten too. I suddenly started to feel a kind of pungent smell when I realized that it was that of a rotting carcass and I shouted in fright when she looked at me.
‘Sam… Sam…’ I heard the voices again, but this time, it’s Camilla who woke me up. And I looked at her moving my hands over her hands and face. It was all fine. Did I have a nightmare again? I was confused.
‘What happened?’ she asked, to which I replied, ‘nothing. What’s wrong with the traffic?’
‘Seems that there’s an accident on the highway and so the traffic has come to a standstill. We can take a route along this way’ she said, showing me a muddy route perpendicular to the highway. ‘We can reach a parallel road and then move across the road for a distance of about 40 Km when we’ll join the highway once again’, she continued and I nodded.
‘Hey, just a minute, you have never been to this place before and yet you were talking about the routes as if you know this place very well’, I asked angrily. She didn’t answer. I asked the same question once again. She suddenly turned to my side and grinned, but there was no answer.
And she maneuvered the MUV towards the country road and started to drive along. The sun dawned beyond the mountains and she continued to drive till it was dark. Other than the luminosity from the headlights of my vehicle not a single source of light was present on this dark stretch of the road.
And suddenly my vehicle started to jerk before coming to a complete halt.
‘What’s wrong’ I turned to her. ‘The engine’s over heated I guess, it’s not responding properly’ she said and asked me to look into it. I opened the door and walked to the front asking her to pull the bonnet latch and I opened the bonnet. ‘Yes, the cars’ over heated, where’s the water’ I shouted from behind the hood.
‘It’s in the rear’ she replied when I walked towards the rear and opened the door. What I saw gave me the scare of my life and I fell prone on my back and started to crawl back in fright still lying on my hands and my buttocks kissing the ground.
‘What happened, Sam?’ Camilla shouted even as she opened the door. From the rear door a dark silhouette slowly emerged after putting its feet onto the ground and its upper half hidden behind the door. The pants were tattered and it whispered ‘Sam… Sam… I have come for you… Sam…’ and I started to run away in fright before I heard a voice calling out my name.
I heard that voice somewhere before, I thought and I looked back. ‘What the hell are you doing inside my car, Mike…?’ I shouted at him walking towards him angrily. ‘You will pay for this’ I said fisting my hand and punched it on his abdomen. He wriggled under pain for a while before Camilla came from my behind and prevented me from hurting him more.
‘So, both of you resorted to this dirty trick on me’, I shouted at them in full fury. There was silence for a long time before Camilla came close to me, ‘I can explain’ even as I was reluctant, she continued, ‘I asked Mike to accompany us, cos’ you weren’t well. If something happens to you in between I can’t alone handle you…’
Wiping a tear off her face, I looked towards Mike. ‘Why the hell are your pants tattered, that scared the shit out of me?’ He replied, ‘latest fashion’ and my face turned red in anger. ‘Latest what… I will see that you repay for this, Mike’ even as we proceeded to walk to the car and resumed our journey.
It was 10 ‘O clock at night when Mike suggested that we should rest tonight at a motel nearby. We found two rooms, one for me and my wife and the other for Mike. ‘We’ll start tomorrow morning’ I said even as Mike wished us ‘Good night’ before retiring to his room.
It was perhaps in many nights that I had slept without much difficulty. It was around 1 ‘O clock at night when I was awakened by a sound from the outside when I reached to the window and looked around. The whole place was deserted except for a few dried leaves that were blown away by a slight gust of wind. I reached for a glass of water and then returned to the window looking out.
The clouds silently moved under the moon and the trees swayed often to the occasional wind from across the vast plain lands. As I was about to return to sleep, a silhouette caught my attention. I saw a man moving across the road and he turned back to look at the motel. In the dimly lit night, I still managed to see his face. It was almost rotten and his eyes were blank devoid of the pupils. And he smiled at me, with slime dripping down his canines which were also big. I slowly rushed to the door to wake Mike. I reached his room only to find that the door was already open and he isn’t there in the room. I immediately reached to my room to find Camilla also missing. I started to shout and I fell down on my knees hiding my face behind the palms. Suddenly I felt a hand fall on my shoulder when I squirmed in fright looking behind.
‘Sam, where have you gone, me and Mike are worried’ Camilla said as Mike emerged from her behind. ‘No where….’, I said in a low tone and got back to my bed to lay asleep.
‘Sam, we are in one of the vile vortices twelve which pass through India below the tropic of cancer, and perhaps that’s the reason for your restlessness. Highly sensitive people are more prone to such delusions…’ even before Mike could complete I turned my back to him.
‘Something is happening and I don’t know what… First of all I need some peace and good sleep before I can solve what is happening around me…’ I thought and I slept.
The next morning I woke up again with a jerk. ‘Was it a bad dream or ….’ And I rushed towards Mike’s room. He’s no where around. I woke up Camilla and explained what I’ve seen the previous night and continued, ‘Mike is the man whom I saw at night. That tattered pants is a clear evidence’
‘Mike is missing right now…’
‘Let’s wait for him till today evening and then we’ll lodge a complaint that he’s missing if he doesn’t return’, she said even as she stripped down her clothes and slipped into a towel, moving into the bathroom.
I opened my pack of cigarettes even as I walked across the room restlessly. After a few minutes, the shower sound stopped and she emerged from the bathroom with the towel so low that I could see her bust line. I closed onto her and pushed her against the wall moving my hands across her body. But my excitement dint last for a long time. I felt something rough when I looked down and I saw her peeling off her skin and her flesh rot with a bad stink and I pushed her off onto the bed.
‘Now, what’s wrong with you again’, she was freaked out and changed into her usual attire.
It was almost dark in the evening and we waited for a long time for Mike. We were sure that he’s not gonna turn up and we decided to lodge a complaint.
‘The nearest police station is 50 miles away and that too you have to drive along the poor country roads to reach that place. It would be better if you could report the same at the police headquarters of this district 200 miles away from here’
‘We’ll do that’, I said even as Camilla looked at me and grinned. She knew I was frightened to take the country road. And we checked out of the room and reached to the Scorpio.
‘Camilla, I prefer to drive’, I said snatching the keys from her and reaching to the driver’s seat. I turned on the ignition and reversed the vehicle before moving along. We needed to go for another 30 miles before reaching the highway once again.
After driving for more than an hour, I still could see no signs of the highway. ‘Hey, are you sure that we would reach the highway in a few miles like what you said today morning?’ I asked.
She suddenly turned to my side with her eyes wide open and paused for a while. ‘NO’ she said. ‘Man, you don’t talk to me like that. Already I am not able to understand what’s happening to me here’
She smiled and moved her body towards me and leaned her head against my shoulder. ‘It will be a problem when I am shifting gears’ I told her. ‘I don’t mind… I love you…’ she said and I suddenly jumped in fright when a loud blare made me look towards the road. It was a truck missing our car by a few inches and he was honking.
‘Phew, that was close’ I thought, ‘nevertheless we reached the highway’ and I pushed in the CD playing some music.
After driving for another hour, I looked at my watch to check the time. 12 O’ clock. ‘God… ‘ I thought when I heard a bursting sound and my car swerved to the left. ‘Oh shit, not here, not now..’ I thought
‘What happened’, asked Camilla. ‘We are running on a flat tyre’, I replied. Turning off the headlights to save the battery, I got down from my vehicle and removed the spare tyre and rolled it across to the front. The whole place was pitch black and so I placed a torch across and started to unbolt the nuts from the wheel.
Camilla alighted down the vehicle and started to stray across. ‘No Camilla, don’t go into the dark’ I said and suddenly I heard the voices again. This time they were very lucidly clear. And they were not whispering my name, but they were calling out ‘Camilla… Camilla… come closer…’
And I gripped the hydraulic jack in my hand and went closer to Camilla. ‘What are you gonna do?’ she looked at me with an air of apprehensiveness and I said ‘protecting you’ even as I closed onto her and grabbed her by her hand. ‘Let’s get out from here…’ I said.
‘Sam… leave her… Camilla come along….’ And the voices were even clearer this time as if they were very close to us. I looked around in the dark. I couldn’t see a thing beyond a few feet and I turned in all directions with the jack still in my hand.
‘Camilla’, I shouted, ‘Close your ears and don’t heed to the voices and stay behind’ but Camilla was in a state of trance.
‘No you come along with me’, Camilla gripped my hand and started to pull me into the cover of darkness. The voices became even more clearer and I first tried to drag her back, but she’s too strong for that and so I tried to loosen her grip and freed myself pushing her away and reached to the car. And immediately reached to the dashboard switching on the lights, and I couldn’t hear the voices any more.
I stood there looking for Camilla for around half an hour when the lights slowly started to fade out with the battery being discharged at an alarming rate and the voices called out my name again.
Still holding the jack in my hand, I started to run away from the place till I was exhausted. I ran for approximately 2 Km before I fell to the ground on my knees crying out loud and shouting, ‘Please save me god…’
‘Sam… there is no escape… this is the call of darkness… and you have to give in to it…’ I heard the voices call again. And I closed my ears with my fingers.
Suddenly I felt a hand fall on my shoulder and I looked around in fright.
‘Thank God, it’s you Mike… where were you… what’s happening here… where’s Camilla…’ even before I could finish questioning him, Camilla walked from behind Mike and whispered, ‘you have taken an oath of lifelong loyalty to me… come along…’ and her skin started to peel off exposing her rotting flesh. I turned to Mike and he was also rotting. I tried to get onto my feet and push along when I felt my feet could no longer sustain the weight of my body and I looked down only to find that I also started to rot.
The next morning police have launched a massive manhunt to find three missing persons and a TV reporter was saying this news, ‘The disappearances in this part of the country still continues with three more people disappearing last night and skeptics attribute this to the vile vortices twelve….'
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