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EPISODE 59

Raji and his helpers arrived at the farm exactly twenty minutes after he had received the instructions from Joseph.  He dispatched two of his helpers into the house to retrieve the ceremonial knife, and the rest of them into the barn while he himself stayed outside to make an international call on his mobile.

********

Inside the house Rapui and Harranji located the room where the fire still quietly smouldered away.
  “Where did he say it was?”  Harranji asked for the third time.
  “Somewhere under that pile of rubbish that is smoking – somewhere in the middle I think he said”
  “I don’t like it in here, it smells evil.   What is all that stuff?   It smells horrible.  Like sick pig’s droppings.”
  “Harranji, you are like an old woman.  It is only rubbish, not pooh, pooh.”
  “And why is it burning?  People do not burn their rubbish inside.  Not even the English.”
   “Vagrants, you silly fool.  Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves.  Perhaps nobody lives here.  Who knows … who cares?”
  “Well, I still don’t like it.”
  “Nobody is wanting you to like it, Harranji.  All we want you to do is get the knife so that we can leave this village and go back to the city with some money in our wallets … so get moving you silly, senile old woman.  We don’t have all day!”
  “What in the name of the angels was that?”  Harranji suddenly screamed in fright.
  But before Rapui could make comment, he too heard a strange hissing, plopping sound that came from the ashes … and then small sparks erupted from some embers as if they were momentarily disturbed.
  “What was that?”  Harranji asked again, his voice, this time, shaking as he spoke.
  “It was nothing.  You are imagining things.”  Rapui retorted, ignoring the sound he too had heard.
  Another hissing, soft plopping sound landed somewhere inside the room, though this time it sounded softer, and further away from the embers that Rapui was encouraging Harranji to sift through for the knife.  But to Harrinji’s ears the sound, regardless of where it was originating, it was still an unnerving and unwelcome intrusion to his already nervous and frayed disposition
  “No … .” Harranji objected, “it is something.  You must have heard that.  What is it?  Why is the carpet still burning?  I tell you, this place is evil.  We must go.  We will tell Raji that it wasn’t there.  The Englishmen … they must have already found it and lied to him.  Come, let us go.”  Harranji screamed in a loud, unhinged way as the fear his mind was creating began to overwhelm him.  Without another word spoken he began to move towards the hall that led to the front door leaving a bewildered and angry Rapui in his wake.
  “Come back, Harranji.  Use this.”  Rapui said as he tried to hand a wooden handled, metal pronged rake to the petrified man,“Raji will be wondering where we are and what we are doing.  And when he sees you, and that you have the courage of a new born baby gnat – then you will see evil at its worst as Raji places a dozen curses on you that will last you to eternity and beyond.   Now start raking through that muck and find the knife.”
  But his verbal chastising of his friend had no effect on him other than have Harranji momentarily stop in his movement and half turn around to face him.
  “No!” Harranji spat out, “It it is too dangerous.  It smells evil in here.  I am not going anywhere near it.”
  “Must I do everything myself?  Look out you incompetent little weasel.”  Rapui yelled in disgust and turned to face the glowing circle, “I will reveal to the world what a stupid, cowardly thing you are.”
  Rapui, in point of fact, was equally unnerved by the entire situation they faced, but at the moment he was full of anger at his friend’s abhorrent display of cowardice; determined to embarrass his friend into displaying courage by facing his demons instead of running from them.  Spurred on by his newly found resolve Rapui proceeded to stomp his way straight into the circle, vigorously attacking the pile of unknown material that lay on the top of the pile in front of him as he moved.  ‘He would show Harranji. He would make him return and help out.’ Rapui thought as he slashed his way through the huge glowing pile.  Scraps of rubbish quickly began to pile up on the floor behind him as he ploughed his way through the pile of burning embers at a rate of knots.  But Rapui’s efforts were to prove a complete waste of time and energy.  
  Rapui had raked but six massive strokes through the embers when the first bolt hit him so hard that it lifted him into the air before smashing him against the far wall.  The force of his collision was so hard he bounced forward, somehow landing, albeit with precarious support from his unsteady legs, in the middle of the glowing circle.  But the next burst knocked him sideways with so much savagery that when he hit the ground his body was laying on safe ground, however his feet resided within the outer circle of still burning embers.  Somehow, miraculously, he managed to drag himself off the embers and get himself back up on his feet.
  “What happened?” Harranji cried as he rushed back to Rapui’s aid.
   “I don’t know,” Rapui answered, as he picked himself up, “Look, I am burning up!”  He exclaimed disbelievingly as he began brushing at his shirt.
  Harranji could not believe his eyes as Rapui continued to knock small red cinders off his smoking shirt.
  “How did that happen?”  Harranji asked in such a quiet, fear filled , tone that it stopped Rapui in his tracks.  And as he looked at his friend he could see Harranji’s eyes were so wide in fear and confusion Rapui became frightened that his friends eyes were about to pop out of their sockets and fall to the floor.  But as he stared at his friend his composure softened, he regretted being so severe towards him and saw a way to calm him down.
  Rapui closed his eyes for a moment, shook his head, opened his eyes again, then pointed towards an open window.  “The breeze,” he laughed, “the wind must have come through the window and blown some of the embers up when I fell.”
  But his attempts to a find a peaceful conclusion to their unnecessary spat was never meant to succeed.  Certainly not in the fear-induced mood that Harranji had placed himself in. 
  “No, you didn’t fall, you were pushed.”  Harranji insisted, “And you were pushed into the wind, not away from it.  That is why you fell over.  What about the streak of light?  That was not the breeze.”
  “What streak of light?”  Rapui asked in bewilderment.  “I saw no light.”  Rapui looked at the open window.  “It was just the breeze blowing the curtains and making the light play tricks on your stupid eyes.”
  Harranji shook his head.  “It was a sign of evil, I tell you, it was the devil itself.  We must get out of here.  Now!”
  “Will you please stop your whining, you coward.  You are acting like a beetle-brain.” Rapui chastised his companion, but Harranji was not about to change his tune.
  “Don’t go back in there.  Something evil awaits you.  Look at the circle. See how it glows.  It is a warning.  It is waiting for you; for your soul.”
  “What is the matter with you?” Rapui admonished as he walked back to the position that he had vacated just prior to his sudden and unceremonious fall, “I would rather face your mysterious invisible evil for the entire day than tell Raji that we have failed him because I got a little soot on my shirt.  See, nothing has harmed me.”  But no sooner had Rapui laughed, than smoke began coming out of the ceiling.  The cloud, varying in colour from green, through red to grey, grew quickly in size, and within its denseness a face began to appear.
  “Infidels.”  The voice said in a deep booming voice.  Soon I will have no need to attend these accursed party games.  I won’t need the help of spineless, weak bladdered, humans to allow me entry to this market place.  I will do the calling and I will do the destroying.  Your world has never felt the likes of me, but soon you will.  You will feel my wrath, and you will feel my power.  Soon, very soon, the gate will be open, and I will be there, in your world.  I have planned this for eternity and now it is about to be.  It is written in your destiny … and it is written in mine!”   Rangor’s voice rose louder and louder with each word until it roared like a raging torrent.  And, as it screamed out its dire message to the world in general, the thunderbolts tore through the air – smashing into Rapui’s body and melting it as if it were but a block of butter.  Harder and harder they hit – faster and faster, coming so quickly it was impossible for the human eye to distinguish between the previous and the following bolts – until suddenly, what was left of Rapui burst into a huge ball of flames… then disappeared forever into oblivion via a wisp of smoke.
  Harranji screamed in absolute terror, his feet frozen to the floor.
  “Do you fools imagine that my power is restricted to your puny circle?” Rangor’s voice rasped.
  Fear gripped Harranji as he had never known it, and it gave him the motivation to run like the wind, but his right foot had travelled no more than three feet in distance, one single step forward, when the floorboards between him and the door exploded.   Carpet, timber and wooden splinters spearing in all directions, the sharper ones embedding themselves into various parts of the wall; several smaller pieces found their way into Harranji’s arms, legs and chest; the pain almost unbearable, but fear had paralysed his vocal cords and no sound came out of his silenced throat,  The tone in Rangor’s voice again froze him to the spot, and it was then that Harranji saw the glowing red ruby at his feet and he realised now what that sound was that he had heard earlier … and it was now that he knew his minutes on the planet where extremely limited.  But who had put it there, he wondered?
  “You imbecilic human, do you think that you can escape me?   My powers on this pitiful planet are increasing by the day.  In less than one of your days I shall be in your world.  One day!  Already I can move outside the circle.  Witness my power!”  Harranji looked up at the creature, its evil face leering down on him.  Again he tried to run, but suddenly a circle of razor sharp bolts of lightning were hurled in his direction, surrounding him.  Their flames danced in a frenzied movement around him, circling tighter and tighter, till they were but inches from his reddening, sweating face.
  Then, unexpectedly, the circle moved away.  On the first turn it withdrew about a foot.  On the second swirl it backed off two feet – then one last violent swirl and it had moved three feet away from him where it remained, rotating in the one spot.
  Harranji stood transfixed, his functions too frozen to move.  He found himself hardly able to breathe as the gyrating flames abruptly speared up into the air, merging themselves into a single bright glowing ball that hovered above his head…and then, after several seconds, it rose higher, until it almost touched the ceiling.
  Harranji’s tortured body – constantly being stung by the sweat freely flowing out of his shaking body and running across the endless array of burns and cuts on his arms, legs and face – screamed in silent agony.  His brain was fast becoming paralysed by the fear of what this hideous monster was going to do next and he prayed for release from this soulless creature as hard as he could.
  Trying courageously to muster up enough encouragement to motivate his legs into movement was proving useless, as his bones continued to turn to gel.   The Punjaniti’s laughter echoed through the empty room, its callous tones reverberating off the walls and tearing at Harranji’s heart with such intensity he felt that its strings were perilously close to snapping…and above his head the orb continued to hover, occasionally spitting down a small bolt of power that would burn away at his exposed flesh.
  Harranji’s silenced, excruciating, screams of agony fell on the deafness of the empty room.  His eyes rolling from the excruciating pain felt with every singular cut.  His mind coming near to its complete loss of sanity and his body on the verge of losing consciousness as the streaking bolts intensified in their barrage.
  Then, mercifully, Rangor became weary of his plaything, releasing the ball of flame that floated high above Harranji’s tormented head down on him with such ferocity that Harranji was nothing but ashes within a millisecond of impact.