Chapter 1: The first day of Marlinian Calendar
17th Oct 2091, Gregorian calendar. 01-01-0000 The Merlinian calendar.
Kolkata, India.
The day was an auspicious one. It was the day of my marriage. The schedule was hectic for both me and my wife, but everything went well other than a strong gust of wind followed by an earthquake in the middle of the marriage ceremony. Late at night, we retired at our flower decorated room. We were in a relationship for more than five years so we were already over the phase where we need to have sex on the first night. But contradictory of our decision, the moment we entered the room she charged at me.
I am part of the local parkour team, it will be hard to sweep me off my foot. But she did it. In a moment she was no me, kissing my nape before I could respond I felt excruciating pain on my shoulder. Even if it was love a painful cry escaped my throat. I pushed her way but her face scared the shit out of me.
The left side of the face had turned into stone, the eyes were milky white, blood was dripping from her mouth. Her hair started to fall off her head as I pushed her away. She was too strong, trying to bite me without rest. My instinct overtook my body as I put both my leg between us and kick her away. She was thrown from the bed and crashed into the wall. It was lucky that the wound wasn't deep.
"Mayuri what are you doing?" I shouted. But it was loud bang outside the house that diverted my attention from Mayuri. Mayuri or whatever it is didn't miss the chance. With a growl, it pounced towards me. I rolled off the bed. But Mayuri's weight was too much and she crashed from the first floor to the ground floor along with the bed.
I looked through the hole only to see an unknown beast on her four, with the body made of stones it was trying to jump up through the hole. If it was not for the torn up white grown I would have never suspected that was the one whom I love.
'Did she turned into a beast?' I don't know it was too much for me or not, but I couldn't understand the situation I was in nor I was feeling any emotion. But it was one of the boons also the curse I have. No matter how dire the situation is I am always calm. What surprised me more that Mayuri or the beast whatever it was, was not sane.
Otherwise, it would have taken the stairs. I looked outside the window only to found the hell that was developing there. Mayuri wasn't the only one nor she was the only type. More than one had caught fire, some even turned liquid and of course, there are some who looked exactly like Mayumi. 'What is happening here?' I screamed in my head.
"Ahhh."Another cry caught my attention. It seemed like the wind was too violent around the man. More wounds appeared on the body of crying one before silence fell.
'Wind, fire, water, and earth. Is this a game? This was like the novels sister read. What about other? Is my family all right?' I took out the phone and called uncle and aunt one by one. They must have reached the home by now, but nobody answered the call. I called my sister, rather cousin next.
"Hello, brother? Are you ok?"
I sighed in relief. 'Thank god she is safe.' "I am fine what about you?"
"I am at the uni. Are you with mother and father? I couldn't get them on phone. Please tell me they are safe." Her voice started to crack. I could understand she was holding herself back.
"Don't worry they are fine." It was a spontaneous lie, "Stay at the uni I will be there soon. Don't leave your room, don't open the door. Hide, I will be there as soon as possible."
"No brother don't come…" Them phone escaped my clutch as Mayuri stone beast lunged at me with full speed, crashed through the window and dropped from the first floor to the street. Lucky for me that the roadside hedges were able to cut my fall.
"Uggh" But that wasn't enough to stop me from coughing up some blood. The beast isn't that dumb. But that wasn't time for me to praise the beast. The beast headbutted me and broke my nose with ease. It was intended to repeat it but my only workable hand was in the way. When I tried to push her away unbelievable thing happened. The rocks on her face started to fall off, her light brown skin started to recover. At the contact of my hand, the left side of her face recovered along with her left eye that recovered its pupil. It wasn't just her face her emotion too. Looking at my bloodied face she broke into tears. All her effort of getting some words out of her throat was in vain.
"Kahss Maae." That was not something understandable but the effort made her bleed from her nose. She closed her eyes on me.
"Even after beating me half dead you are still shy." I kissed her. That was the best kiss of my life. I could feel the energy was spreading throughout my body from her lips. I don't remember how long I had remained like that but when I opened my eyes she turned into stone again. But not the beast but a stone statue. I was preparing myself for the attack but that never came. Her eyes were still close. I don't know whether I was paranoid or something but I felt that she was blushing, was expecting the maiden's first kiss, but she didn't move.
All of sudden it became painful to breathe, it was harder to look at the face of the stone statue, my breaths became ragged. Tears started to fall as I closed my eyes.
"Let it be just a nightmare. Let me wake up again and kiss her, let me see her once more and hold her in my arms…" I didn't remember what I was talking about at that moment neither how long I did that but when my sense returned to me the tears at the side of my face had already dried up. I took a deep breath and caressed her stone cold face once more but it crumbled. Mayuri crumbled on me like a sand castle.
'It's not the time to lie down and lose more of them.' With a resolute mind, I sat back up, out of the sand coffin. I entered the house again went to the second floor to look for the phone. But it might have been crushed under her foot. I searched little more to find Mayuri's phone and dialled for Aria.
"Sister Mayumi, where is my brother? My call got disconnected, Is brother with you? Is he okay." Her voice sounded hoarse, there was multiple missed call on the cell from her. She must be worried.
"I am ok" I didn't know when but even my voice was heavy.
"Sister…"She was quick-witted. A small sign was enough for her to understand the situation. She broke into tears.
"Calm down. It's not the time." I shouted. "Where are you? At the lab or the dorm?"
"Lab." She was trying her best to control her.
"Fourth floor, right wing?"
"Yes."
"I will be there within a few hours. Don't let anybody in."
"Okay."
"I am going to cut the call."
"Brother…" The voice was painful to hear.
"Don't worry, I will be ok. Don't worry about anything just eat something and keep yourself hydrated."
"Huh" Hearing light nod of obedience I cut the call. Time is essence right now. I opened the wardrobe and put on the safety gears. If it was simple parkour I wouldn't have put anything on. But the time is different now. I put on the knee guard, elbow guard and the other that I didn't touch in last 5 or 6 years. I even put on the helmet. Before coming out of the house after putting the snickers.
The distance between her uni and my house was about ten kilometres. I run in the marathon, do trekking, rock climbing along with parkour, but I never did any combat sports. I was not sure about my offence but when it comes to my legs I am more confident to get the job done. On top of that, I don't have any way to combat those nature freaks. All I could do is hide and run.
But God wasn't on my side, to begin with. The moment I put my leg out of the house, disaster stuck. An earthquake occurred. It could surpass the scale of 7 or 8. It continued for a whole two minutes. If I a moment slower I would have been buried under the rubbles of my house.
But what happened next was more devastating. The road cracked right in front of my eyes and one part of it went up almost 8 meters. In the few moments of the earthquake, the whole topography in front of my eyes changed. But it posses little to no obstacle for. Within a few moves, I reached the top of the road. I didn't notice till now but the bite wound at the shoulder, also my broken arm and nose were all fixed up. Before I could be happy about it a bizarre creature charged at me.
It was an ox for sure but now the skull and the curved horn it was burning in green flame. It had a black body with fiery green cracks all over it. I dodged the charge at the last moment and the ox fell on the other side of the road. But the troubles weren't over yet. Sothithing dit my ankle. A scream escaped my throat and that was a wrong move. Before I get myself out of its jaw all the other freaks came running towards me.
The one bitting my leg wasn't that heavy, I jumped off the road again. The freaks came to the edge but couldn't find me anywhere. I was pushing my body along the steps to hide from their view.
It might have been a cat but, now one could say it is a ball of ice. A thin layer of frost appeared on my ankle. My feet is my only weapon and I couldn't lose it. As I hit its head it let my ankle go but its ice fur stood as the spikes. It came again but with a kick, it went flying.
I inspected the wound and found there was none but my ankle was different. Both of my malleoli had turned into brown crystals. I checked my other leg and it was the same.
"Am I turning into a freak too?" That was my extreme fear right now. But there was nothing I could do about it. I had to hurry, I had to rescue her before I lose my sanity.
10 km is not a small distance and on the top of that, I had to move with caution. Several times I had to take long detour even in some cases I have to wait before those freaks moved. The biggest obstacle that was standing in my way right then was a hanging bridge that was over the river Ganga. There were other bridges here and If I had time I would have taken other bridges but time was the thing I was lacking most. And the reason for my hesitation was right in front of me.
The type of bridge that got most effective in an earthquake is a hanging one. Right now even a bike might not be able to pass through the bridge. Most of it had already fallen in the river Ganga and at the middle, only a few skeletons of the proud bridge remained. The only good thing was if one is steady enough he could pass the bridge easily.
Rather than taking straightway that was infested with freaks and burning cars and other debris I climbed down by the side of the bridge. Thousands of time I had used this bridge and I know that the path was used to maintain the bridge. The good thing was there were no freaks here but the bad thing was I had moved while hanging down from the railing. It took almost an hour to cross the bridge. The uni could be seen from the other side of the bridge. There was not even a kilometre away from it.
"Brother" I felt the wind whispered in my ears. I looked around but found nothing, not even a freak was nearby. "Brother, this way" A chill ran through my spine. I took care of her every need from the age of six, there was no way in hell I could hear it wrong. A fear enveloped my heart.
'Could she be turned into a wind freak?' I looked around and there was still nobody. I moved into the shadow, took out the phone and dialled her number.
"Brother move from there." She screamed through the phone and my body moved on my own. The pain enveloped me. I looked down to find I was bleeding from my belly.
"Listen to the wind."
"Where are you now?"
"Just do it. I am at the dorm." She was shouting, "Just listen to the...JUMP." My body moved on its own. In the middle of the jump, I could see shadow spikes were coming out of my own shadow. I looked at the cell and the call was off.
"Go to the right. Run." With the wind whispering in my ears, I ran like crazy.
"Jump" ."On the left", "duck", "roll to left", "step back" the orders continued for quite a while. Soon I didn't even know where I am. But the wind continued to lead. It was hard but somehow but I was able to escape the chase of the shadow mice. The wind didn't take me through the front gate. I had to around and climb the wall over 10 feet high before entering the uni premises. The situation inside was surprising but it was different from outside.
'It is one of the top institutes of the nation after all.' Rather than hiding in fear they were actually fighting those freaks without hesitation. Their movement was organised, though most of them were not expert, the experienced one was helping others to proceed without problem. I want to talk to them but the wind stopped me. Without anyone noticing I slipped out. Even before I could open the door, it opened and a girl of small stature jumped into my arms.
"Brother I am scared."
"Don't worry there is nothing to afraid of as long as Rex is with you." I took her inside and closed the door.
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