Storytelling, Week 9, An Explaination

Shiva

By:Salu1001

Sorrow

“I believe you said, 'We are not real', Right? Guards, rip this creature’s soul into one-hundred and eight equal pieces. Then, toss him into the pit!” A loud voice chuckled in the darkness.

“Please, I don't understand”, the man screamed in a pitch foreign to a man’s voice.

Two enormous flaming eyes appeared in the darkness. Flames burst through the floors. The heat encircled the doomed man on all sides. “Please, I don't understand”, mocked the eyes in a voice sounding like a children mocking.

The man screamed,” Ahhhh”!

Flaming eyes laughing, “Yes, that’s a first here. We've never heard that.” 

Smoke escaping between their teeth, fire dogs emerge in the flames on all sides of him.

“Am I making you nervous? Yes, do explain yourself”, said the voice. 
The eyes closed, extinguishing the flames surrounding the crying man.

Then silent darkness surrounded him.

A Life Worth Living

I worked for Mr. Ratnani for the last two years. He was a lot easier to deal with than others in the life. I wondered, how he got into the business. The karma from his previous life must be catching up to him. Broad-shouldered with a strong jaw, he looked the part. There was something about the troubled eyes behind his sharp wit. He was hiding something behind those eyes. He was the syndicate’s defense attorney. Of course, they were guilty, but he was paid very well. He offered his scruples on an altar that read " Vritra " at the bottom.

My job is driving and Security. An easy assignment, until I met her. Yeah, his daughter was something else. In contrast to her father, she belonged in the crime underworld. A petite beautiful woman with dark hair, dark eyes, and a dark soul. She seemed like the kind of lady that a man would like to get know. I knew better though. I heard all the stories about her insatiable desire to kill. I wanted her to like me. She was heading places in the syndicate, but didn’t know my name. She never looked at me, not once in two years. She looked away when she spoke to me. Distracted, like I wasn’t there. Softly, while looking out the window, she would give me my assignments.

I played small parts in her dramas, but never got her attention. Until the day I brought her the recording. She had me keeping an eye on a couple egg heads from the university. Looking at these guys, you could just tell, neither knew what it was like to fight for what was theirs. I saw them standing on the corner. Waiting for a Cab. I thought I was lucky.

Approaching them in the cab, one of them whistled at me, “Hey Cabbie “.

They were too tied up, talking about religion, to say anything important. Talking about the “Mahabharata”. I remember hoping they would talk about whatever had MataJii interested. I could not understand what they were talking about. I turned on my phone’s recorder. Just in case they say something important. We arrived at the destination.  I was afraid to tell her I had learned nothing. I had almost developed a good alibi when the phone rang.

A soft aloof voice asked, “What are they doing?”

“I got nothing… They kept talking about Krishna...”

She interrupted loudly, “Tell me what they said”! She was breathing heavily on the line.

“I have a recording of…”

She screamed, “Bring it to me, now”, and hung up!

Eyebrows raised and mouth wide open, I put down the phone. “Whatever, it’s not my fault. What was I supposed to do?”, I thought.

She was waiting at the curb. “Great, here we go”, rolling my eyes.

She started listening to the phone. Suddenly, with her ear against the phone, she pointed her beautiful cold eyes at me. A smile overtook her.

 “It’s good?”, smiling back.

“Yes, good work”, she tossed the money filled envelope to me.

Feeling better, I wondered how to use this chance to talk to her.

As she turned, I said, “Why do you care about that religious crap anyways”? Eyes wide with eyebrows scrunched, she pulled a set of prayer beads from her blue jeans pocket. She rubbed them one at a time. I immediately regretted my words.

With trance like sound, she said,”Om shri Prithvi Raskshakaaya Namah, she. (One who is protector of the earth)”.

Her astonished angry face transformed into a cheerful smile. “Sure you want to know? Too much knowledge is a curse”, she cautioned.

“Well yeah, if you don’t mind…or if that is ok with…. if you think it’s appropriate, I mean”, I stuttered.

“Did you know that Vishnu operates using the power to protect? This power is called Vish.”

“Well yes, I grew up hindu and….”.

“Om Shri Kartum Shakti Dhaarnaaya Namah, (The one who bears the power of performance). The opposing force used by Shiva known as Shiv”?

She was close, I smelled her perfume. “Om Shri Munistutaaya Namah, (the one who is praised by sages and seers). Vish and Shiv are two sides of the same coin”.

I felt the temperature of her cool hand touch my face. She leaned in to kiss me. Then whispered in my ear like a lover, Om Shri Mukta Sanchaarakaaya Namah. (the one who wanders freely from place to place).

Confused and disoriented, I fell down. I couldn’t breathe. My chest, was like my lungs could not fill with air. Blood everywhere, I see her stuffing a short pointy dagger back into the sleeve of her blouse. I felt light headed.

She knelt to me saying, “I am become time to end the world, set on my course to destroy the universe”.

Swift Judgment

“I woke up here. Is that you Vishnu? I thought it was just a story.”

The eyes returned laughing, “To the Pit”!

Author's note: I had the Krishna Key in mind. This book is awesome if you have an interest in learning about the Hindu religion in an exciting way. I am about 5 hours from the end of this book using audio books to adjust for the accents and pronunciations. It adds a wonderful level of detail. The idea was to retell the story from the driver in a particular scene that took place between the villain of this story and one of her minions. She was saying prayers in her head in the story but I thought it might sound creepy is she was chanting them to her soon to be victim. This added a little crazy to an already scary villain.

I like writing about the supernatural, so wanted to allude to the God he was talking to. I would like to bring this story into my big story if I can.

Bibliography:

The Krishna Key

By: Ashwin Sanghi