The relic

When the hounds bay for blood, when the vampire bats squawk for life, when clouds engulf the crescent and when the stars align in an inverted pentagram, the creature of the dark will rise to life - the relic.

Recently we moved into a new house. And that’s when we brought home our new pup, Mike. The retriever pup was so active and friskily naughty. As days passed by, I found a gradual decline in its activity. ‘Growing pups are normally very active,’ a friend of mine suggested me to consult a vet.

“Nothing’s wrong with Mike, atleast physically. Don’t leave it alone all the time,” was the vet’s suggestion.

Plagued by the thoughts that the pup’s unwell, I couldn’t sleep a wink the following night. I was tossing and turning on the bed. Suddenly the lights blanked out. A thunderous lightening made me worry about Mike.

In the dark milieu, I managed to reach the window. It was raining heavily outside. I tried to look out for my pup. It wasn’t in its kennel. I was worried. I looked around and was about to go outdoors when something caught my eye.

In a lightning jolt, I saw a kinda projection out of the lawn infront of my house. In another jolt, I saw my pup trying to pull that thing. Perhaps a pipe or a piece of wood, I thought as I focused the torch and tried to get a better look. What I saw frightened me beyond all means.

It looked like a bone. Yes, it’s a human hand with the palm wide open. Of a recently buried corpse?

And I rushed to the outdoors; I wanted to confirm the same before I disturb my parents. My hands were trembling as I pulled down the latch and opened the door. I wasn’t worried about me being drenched. My primary concern was the human hand, the image that I couldn’t take off my mind.

“Mike… Mike…” I hollered when the pup looked in my direction. In a flash of lightning I saw its sharp canines dripping some slimy liquid. I wasn’t very sure if it was blood but before I could reach to any conclusion, I heard a growl which sent a chill down my spine. In the next instant, I saw it jump towards me at a gallop.

Shell shocked at the unexpected outcome of these events, I stood still when my pup whimpered as it dropped something at my feet. The bone? No, a book. The book’s soaked completely, it looked a little old with a tattered hard bound leather cover.

Having my dog leashed, I walked back to my bedroom and opened the book when I found a letter. Under the dim light from the torch, I unfolded the letter and started to read.

‘Centuries ago, a diabolic ghoul robbed the graves and ate the corpses of human beings. A priest cast a spell on the ghoul thus making it lifeless and the ghoul’s laid to rest once and for ever. Legend talks of a relic containing the spell that binds the ghoul.

In the early years of this millennium, on his quest for fossils, Paleontologist Mark Heines finds the so called relic with a hand clutching onto it. The hand was in such a preserved condition that Mark basing on the hairs spoke of the race of the human to which it belonged.

Nobody knows what happened to the hand, but a few years later, Heines was found dead, hanging to the ceiling, and with one of his hand, amputated. His severed hand was never recovered though.

Many are of the opinion that the ghoul’s back with a vengeance and it kills the one in possession of the relic. And the hand of whom will guard the relic forever. This is a vicious cycle’

I folded the letter and then started to read the relic. True, I dint believe in ghosts. They are just a figment of human imagination. As I flipped page after page much to the discontentment of my palpitating heart, I began to see visions. Visions of a goat inside an inverted pentagram called sigil of Baphomet, a ring of fire that almost engulfed me when I pushed aside the relic in fright, pushing myself to another corner of the room.

I buried my face into my knees seeing some impending horror when I looked out of the window. It was still raining incessantly. And in one strike of a thunderbolt, I saw the entire milieu, the sky and the clouds turning blood red.

Dogs were howling at a far off place. I approached the window and looked out. I saw a few bats cluttering at the place where my pup dug out the relic.

When hounds bay for blood, when the vampire bats squawk for life, when clouds engulf the crescent and when the stars align in an inverted pentagram, the creature of the dark will rise to life - I remembered a line from the relic.

And I felt a sudden drop in the temperature. A cold wave sent a chill down my spine. Sometimes, you have this feeling that someone’s watching you over. And tonight, I felt it. It’s more than just a normal human being.

I can feel the malice, the coldness of this diabolic being. In a wink, I was lying on my bed. The chill that cuts through your skin, the icy state when you are frozen and paralyzed when you know you are not alone, that’s the most frightening part.

For a while, I wasn’t able to fathom what’s happening. When something flowing touched my body, I regained my senses. It was warm and all over the bed.

I touched it with my hand. ‘Damn, its blood,’ I screamed and tried to push myself away from the bed. A stinging pain in the left part of my body prevented me from doing so. I looked beyond my shoulder and to my dismay found my hand amputated. I pressurized my palm on the open wound to arrest the flow of blood.

And I looked around. In the dim light, far in the corner lay the severed portion of my hand on the relic.... My hand now becomes the guardian of the relic? and I cried loudly in pain before I lost consciousness.

I don’t know for how long I lay in that position. But the next morning I woke up trembling. I looked around for the relic.

It was lying on my bed with my hand still on it. But my hand wasn’t severed. Was it my imagination? I saw things so close to reality... And I pulled the relic close to my body.

It indeed had the bite marks, probably inflicted by my pup when it was digging it up y’ night. And I saw the face of the relic. This was more frightening than all the things that happened over the course of the night. It read, ‘Domain level certification’.......