Family Short Story – FOUND ‘ED’
Photo credit: jdurham from morguefile.com
A Village: 1st day
A day at a not so famous hilly village in Ladakh, India. This village was really different from other places in the world. The people were so extraordinary in an unimaginable way. The names of the people were like, A, B, AB and much more like that, f**king weird. I, in my life had never ever heard such names. These people didn’t have a single word in their name but had as many alphabets as they could add. But one thing was that the people were very friendly with each other. This was the best place I ever stayed in. I was sixty and had no family. I just kept shifting myself from place to place. And this was my last shift because I was finally retired from all my jobs.
At night, it used to be bone-shuddering cold outside. After supper, me and some of my friends would gather up at a place and take a stroll in the woods.
The Night:
I finished the food, and called my friends CBD and GHJ. They had the most extraordinary names but were very good people. In the conversation,
“hey, CBD, wassup, comming for the walk, right?”
“definitely, yuss.”
“Call GHJ and others, we are getting a bit late.”
“ohk.”
But that walk resulted into something extraordinary. We found a small boy child in the bushes. He was crying at the top of his voice. The thing that moved me was that his body was complete red , his eyes were like of some different creature and finally when I stared at his mouth, I gasped,
“what the hell.” I said
“What happened, what did you see?” Everyone gathered around.
I was in complete silence. Everyone was shouting at me, asking something. After some time I finally managed to break my silence and said, “he is a vampire, we have found a child-vampire,” and thereby ended my sentence.
“What the….. What are you saying?” someone asked from behind.
He had only four teeth in his mouth, and it resembled a vampire. All my friends were very much scared about what to do with this child. He was a vampire but something was in him that caught me. He was crying like a human child. Then what is this? I was in a state of complete fear. Nobody was ready to take that child to the village. According to them they had already been through such kind of creatures in their life and had a bad experience with them. But I finally decided and said
“I will take this child with me.”
“Are you mad?” someone asked.
“No, I mean, look…. look at this child, it resembles to a human child, his cries, can’t you understand. He is a human child. Don’t fear, I am gonna take care of all of this,” I said.
And I finally took that child home. This child was someone different and also extraordinary so we named him ED. Finally, first meaningful name in the village.
ED:
In his childhood he was totally dependent on us. Initially, it was a bit difficult to feed him , he neither ate anything nor drank a single drop of milk. There were only two things that he took, one was water and the other was blood. So, we gave him blood of some animals, birds that we kill for our food. And he was really a vampire and a good one. At the age of four, he shifted himself and started to live in other house and started doing all his killings himself. That was very great, at that age a human child can’t even talk properly and look at him, he was at some other level.
7 years later:
Same night, same plans, same gathering, ED was now 11, and we used to take him with us for the evening walks. He became very helpful for us at the time of catching the birds, or killing the animals. That night, we saw different type of footsteps in the middle of jungle. We were all scared.
“Ghost, ghost, I told you this jungle is haunted, it will kill us all.” GHJ screamed, as he was frightened.
“Shut up and stop watching those horror movies, those are all junk. If it is big, then we have the biggest, ED.” I replied
“Let me sleep in the jungle tonight, I will catch the thing who is frightening the whole village.” ED said as he couldn’t tolerate someone hurting the villagers.
“No, it is not safe here. It is just some animal. You can catch him tomorrow.”I replied
“Hmm.” ED agreed.
“Ok, I think we should head back to our homes. So, good night everybody”
And we returned to our respective homes. In bed, I thought about ED, his eyes were frightening when he was unhappy about that creature, I was worried about his temper and was a bit frightened that he would end up doing something wrong.
Next day:
A shocking news arrived at my doorstep the following morning.
Someone knocked my door in the morning at about 7 am. And I asked
“Who is it ?” As I was confused.
“I am GHJ.”
“Who?”
“Tera baap , saale, GHJ.”
“Oh, so tell what made you come to my house and disturb me so early in the morning?” I asked
“U know what, people found a dead girl, in the house.” he said
“Sharks, are you kidding me?’’ I asked, shocked.
“No I am not kidding, and the bad news is that, she was killed by a vampire and people are accusing ED for the act. They have arrested him and have locked him up in an underground barrack.”
“They have such a thing.” I asked about the barracks.
“Of course.”
“This is trouble, a big trouble.”
“What to do now?”
“I don’t know.”
Barracks:
ED was very much confused and disturbed about the condition of the village. He was sitting inside the jail. For some time, he was sitting at the corner and then he finally stood up, and was in a full fight mood. No one knew what happened to him that time. His face went red, he was tough and broke all the jail railings to run away to the jungle. Everyone was in a big shade of fear and confusion. He was running towards the jungle searching for the person who really killed the girl and came back at night to his house empty handed. But while entering his house his eyes caught something different happening in the village. Everyone had gathered at someplace and had torches in their hands.
“These people have gone mad. I know I have done some foolish kind of thing and this gathering is definitely for me. So, it is better not to enter the house.” ED thought to himself.
After that he stood at the door of his house, watching the people, when someone from the crowd shouted loudly
“There it is. It is running from that direction, run, we have to catch it.”
ED was irked, “What the ….I am here, then who is this new personality in the village, I have to find it. Hmm.”
A Girly surprise:
After watching the people going after something in vain, ED decided to find the thing. He somehow escaped from the place and went into the jungle. He knew that he was quite fast than the others and also powerful. That gave him the first sight of the newly born creature in the village. She was a girl vampire. She was fighting the villagers and punched a couple of people and ran away. ED was watching her from the bushes. He was in love with this girl. As she was the only vampire girl in his life. He was very happy to see her. After her escape from the sight, he chased her and caught her in no time.
“So fast you are. Who are you?” she asked
He remained still, staring at her while holding her body in his arms.
“Hey, are you alive. What’s wrong with you?”
“Shhhh. You talk too much…. You know what , you are the most beautiful girl that I have seen in my entire life.”
“Are you mad…… leave me, I want to go find my people and go back to my place.”
“People…. all people like us?”
“What like us, what are you.”
“Hi I am vampire ED.”
“What, are you a vampire? You must be kidding.”
“No, am not, see this.” He showed his vampire teeth.
“Oh, sh*t, so you were not kidding. But I haven’t seen a vampire of your kind, you must be of a different breed. Then why are you staying here, come with me, I’ll take you to the Goslers, the Vampire-Land.”
“I wish I could, but these are my people. They want me and have done a lot for me. I cannot leave them.” ED said and left the place.
“I’ll wait for you, by the way I am Amber.” She said while he was going back home and ended the conversation.
An attempt:
While he was going back home, ED started thinking about the world of vampires and the world of his people, where do they live? Talking to himself, he was very much confused about what to choose. Also his brain was giving him some attacks and his stomach was very much aching as he was hungry for two days. Finally he reached home and literally started beating his head against the wall. He knew that if someone knows that he let go the thing that killed a girl in the village, they will start treating him like a real Vampire. He was very much upset about what he had done. Then he finally decided to kill himself, as he wasn’t loyal to his people. He was just about to do that when someone came from outside and stopped him.
“Stop, what are going to do.” It was me. I had faith in him.
“I am not allowed to live, I am not a good person at all. I let go the thing that killed the village girl.”ED sobbed, as he explained his mistakes.
“I know all that bull sh*t. Some of us were observing you from the bushes in the jungle. Listen, son it is not your fault, it is what a person does when he sees a person of his kind for the first time in life.”I said.
“Then, what do I do now, I don’t have right to live with them now.”
“You should go with her to the Vampire land, leave the rest to me .”
ED stared at me and finally ran away with tears in his eyes.
“I will miss you.” He shouted from far way.
“Same here, hmm” I replied with twinkling eyes.
I told each and every person about ED and managed to make a good impression of him. The village remained the same, but the people changed after ED. With ED people were fearless and after that day a different air of fear started flowing in the village. But it was quite a good place to spend the last days of your life.
The last meet:
ED met Amber and they two returned to their land. In the middle of the journey Amber asked,
“Do you know your parents, do you know where they are.”
“No, my friend. You know why I was here for such a long time.”
“Why?”
“Cause I was searching for my parents since childhood, but I wasn’t able to find them. According to the people I was found in the bushes, that means that my parents are somewhere nearby, or were there.”
“It is sad hearing that. But, you went back to your place, then what made you come with me.”
“A friend, he told me to run away from there. I was about to kill myself, and he stopped me from doing that.”
“Wait wait wait, is he a human being.” she asked
“Yes he is.”
“But only Vampires know how to kill themselves. How did he know the fact.”
ED stopped and started thinking something. He ran back towards the village and took Amber with him this time.
He finally arrived at my doorsteps.
‘Knock knock.’
“Screw you GHJ, you know what time it is. I am sleeping , let me sleep.”
‘Knock knock’, a bit louder this time.
“Do anything I’ll not open that door.”
‘Knock knock.’ Yet louder.
“Tumhari behen ka yaar, sone bhi nahi dete… oh god see what’s happening.”I finally stood up from bed. While I was going to the door, I was amazed to see ED.
“ED, you, come in.”
“Dad.”
“What did you just say?”
“I know that you are my dad, I love you dad. Tell me how was I born and who is my mother.”
“If you really want to know that, then listen, the day I found you wasn’t my first visit to the place. This became my favorite place when I visited there for my holidays. That time I met your mom. We stayed together in a nearby place and were making love. One day I came to know that she was a vampire, when I saw her killing a girl in the village and sucking her blood. I quietly left. Next time after my retirement, just 9 to 10 months after that I fully shifted to the village and found you. You had the same face as her. At first sight I knew that you were my child and took you to my home, and I just knew one thing about your mother that these people caught her killing someone when she was pregnant and she escaped.”
“Thanks, for telling me all this, it was great living here Dad. Now I have to go she must be waiting for me. Bye.”
And he left the place never to return back.
__END__
by
Sachin Bhat
-edited by Anuraag
