Chapter 1-
His POV:
Much has changed since the last few months... everything isn't the same anymore. And the change was quick, too quick, perhaps. But given the situation, people had to do something. It all started when shadowmorphs started to come into our state, as this phenomenon wasn't discovered or happened anywhere in the whole of India, let alone the world. Only our state, West Bengal, was affected by this. There were attacks, bizarre supernatural incidents all around West Bengal. Lives were lost, people were traumatized, and daily life became greatly hampered. But humans always find a way to survive, resume everything, and go on with their lives. While many people fled to other states, many were not ready to give up the place where they were born, and many were simply unable to do so due to various reasons.
I didn't explain anything about shadowmorphs, did I? Really much isn't known about them. They are the creatures that invade our realm, and no one yet knows where they come from. They vary in size greatly. Some are towering giants at over 50 feet tall, and some are really small, sometimes as small as mice. Their appearances vary vastly as well, but one thing they all have in common, is that they are all solid pitch black in colour, with a black something like a smoke or fog constantly emitting from their body which surrounds them. And all of possess sky blue biolights... Bioluminescent patches, stripes, or dots over their bodies. Their feeding habits are similar to animals of our world. Some are carnivorous while some would gobble up anything edible in their sight. They only emerge after dark, during the day, no one knows where they stay or hide. We had to learn how to coexist with these shadowmorphs, but some of them are just too harmful to live with. They must be taken down by any means necessary. Although our weapons don't do any major harm to them, it takes a huge amount of bullets to put them down, as they are very durable. But it seems that they are afraid of bright light and have a strong aversion to it. But lights aren't enough for protection, as many of them are slowly becoming resistant to it, and some reports are coming through that some shadowmorphs are attacking people even though there was light. But of course, they haven't built immunity to sunlight yet. Otherwise, we'd be truly doomed.
To prevent any interaction with the shadowmorphs, our society had to go through a whole lot of changes. Everything we do now is during the daytime. After sunset, everyone returns to their homes with all the necessary items so that they won't need to come out at night. Now, every household, apartment complexes and all buildings have a light grid surrounding them, which stays on all night to prevent shadowmorphs from getting closer. Still, scientists are working on something which can actually hurt and kill these shadowmorphs pretty fast or repel them, because, after all, we can't always rely on bright light and our usual weapons to protect us, and as I've said before, a few of them are slowly becoming resistant to light. Sometimes, the current state of our society reminds me of the time when, in the dawn of human civilizations, humans would cease their activities and go to rest after sunset. But our state has flourished in many ways now that we have a common enemy, and survival is our goal. The state government has focused on building better infrastructure, giving better protection and security against the shadowmorphs, and now we are using eco friendly energy as well to have access to more energy which is very helpful in keeping those light greeds lit up all night, and of course, that's just a small part of it, since eco friendly energy can be used in many other ways. Almost every house has solar panels now. The change in the higher education system was drastic as well. Schools remained the same since they operate only in the daytime. But colleges and universities now have dormitories for each department for students to stay, since many students come from far away and if often gets late for them to get home while traveling in train. I stay in the zoology dormitory, and now our 2nd year of the honors course has just started. We stay on the second floor, and of course, it's a mixed dormitory, but boys have their rooms at the left sides, and girls have theirs on the right side. In the center of each floor, there's the common lounge where everyone can meet up and chat. The ground floor has labs, storage room, dining court, kitchen, etc. Like all dormitories, our dormitory has strict rules. Every student must get inside within 6 pm. And no one can go out before it's 5 am. It has a bunch of other rules as well, but I'll mention them later.
It was 11:39 pm, I was in my room, sitting on my bed. Not alone, Neha was sitting before me on the bed. She was sobbing quietly, eyes shut, tears rolling down her cheeks, and she held my hand tightly.We are good friends. When she came to my room at 11 pm, closed the door and came to sit before me, didn't say a word for a whole minute... I was worried. After asking her a few times, she suddenly broke into tears, covered her face with her hands, and started weeping. I didn't ask her anything, because I knew she wouldn't talk right away, she needs to calm down a bit, and her crying might get some sorrow out of her system and finally she'd open up to me. And I was right. After a while, she stopped crying. She wiped her tears and looked into my eyes, and started talking. It was her boyfriend. He cheated on her. And his affair with the other girl was going on for almost 7 months. He even badmouthed Neha to the other girl. He said that she wasn't good enough in bed, always sloppy with foreplay and everything else, and he never really enjoyed getting physically intimate with her. Upon discovering all these from her friend Rakhi, Neha was devastated. She didn't know what to do. She didn't even talk to her boyfriend after this. She was in her room, trying to bottle up all these emotions inside her, but finally, she couldn't. It was too much for her. She was breaking, and she needed some relief. She needed someone to talk to and that someone happens to be me.
"He doesn't deserve you, you know."I said softly, -"now that I see, he never even loved you that much. Honestly, I've never seen such a cheap guy who'd cheat on his girlfriend just because she's not doing well with physical intimacy. I know you're probably still thinking about him, and it's not easy to let it go... But you'll come through it. You need some time and support."
"I tried... To give him everything, and still..."Neha quietly wiped her tears once more, "... I wasn't good enough for him." -"It's him who's not good enough for you."I looked into her eyes, "with this kind of mentality, he's not good for anyone. He'll figure that out sooner or later. But it hurts me to see you fuzz over an asshole like him."
"I loved him... I really did. It stings so much, you know."she was squeezing my hand tightly inside her palm. "I know, and he threw it away like it was nothing."I put my other hand on her shoulder, "Don't be hard on yourself, you were honest, you loved him, gave him what he asked for. And yet, he passed on everything. You don't need to worry about that scum. He'll realise soon what he has done." Neha shook her head quietly. She stood up on her knees and leaned towards me. It was quite unexpected, as she leaned towards me and placed her head on my shoulder while still holding on to my hand. I knew she needed a hug. My hand went up as I quietly placed my hand on her back, giving her light pats. We were silent now, hugging each other, and I could hear her muffled sobbing sounds again as I felt the shoulder part of my shirt slowly getting wet. I didn't say anything, I just ran my fingers through her hair. After a few minutes, she was quiet. I let her stay like that for a few more minutes. "Hey, are you asleep?"I whispered. "No..."She answered back, "Just let me stay like this. You're warm." "Should I draw the blanket over us?"I asked, "it's getting pretty chilly outside. It's February, after all." "Yes, please..."Neha hugged me tightly as she answered, now coming down a bit to rest her head on my chest. I reached out for my blanket & pulled up on both of us. I looked out of my window & saw a faint light coming in. As I ran my fingers through her hair, I thought ,"This girl literally hides all emotions from everyone but becomes a baby in front of me. I am lucky to get a friend who can think to open up in front of me like this. Ah, this room doesn't feel empty tonight like other days."
From outside, a cold breeze came in & she shivered a little bit before hugging me tightly & hiding her face in my chest. I giggled as it tickled me. I looked at her innocent face. "She has suffered a lot these days." I wiped away the last teardrop, kissed her head, and hugged her tightly. We then drifted to sleep.
My sleep was interrupted by the tone of my alarm. I opened my eyes reluctantly, and I tried to make sense of the surroundings. Yes, just as I thought, the first thing I saw upon opening my eyes was Neha, still sleeping attached to me like a baby. She looked so innocent and calm, and her mouth was open. She was drooling on my shirt, which was wet on that portion. Quickly, I grabbed my mobile by reaching out my hand beside the pillow and turning off the alarm, making sure I didn't wake her up. But it was too late for that. I saw her lifting her head slowly and rubbing her eyes, and soon she opened them, our eyes met.
"Hey..., her voice was sleepy, "morning already?" "I guess so."I moved the strands of hairs from her face gently with my fingers, "I guess you slept well,you were drooling on my shirt. "
"Yeah, my bad."She smiled as I tossed the last hair strand aside, "why morning came so fast? I wanted to sleep for a few more hours. "
"I'd like that too, but it's already morning now, and everyone will wake up soon within an hour." I looked at my mobile, it was 5:30 am, "so, now return to your room, freshen up & we'll meet up again at dining hall a few hours later and then we'll talk." "Yeah, I should get going now & today I am not going to the gym. Please inform our instructor. " She sat up on the bed, adjusted her hair and clothing, took my handkerchief to wipe tear stains on her face properly, and handed it back to me. "Ok then, bye for now..."She smiled and gave me another quick hug tightly & ran to her room, number - 11. As soon as she left, I moved into the adjacent bathroom to get fresh. I'm gonna get a little late for gym today, I thought, so, better hurry up. As usual, the gym was full today. I quickly moved to a little less crowded portion of the place to start my warm-up exercises. It was already past 6 am. Better get my exercises done within an hour, I thought, because I hadn't read anything last night and today we have a short surprise exam on ecology.
Chapter 2-
Although I have pretty much everything covered up on ecology, still extra preparation never hurts. "You're late."
I turned my head around and saw Arindam. He had his gym outfit on with a t shirt and shorts, and he was carrying 2 of 10 kilo dumbbells in each hand. Yeah, very much like him. He always gets here first at the gym before everyone.
"Yeah, yeah, I know."I answered, " I was having a little difficulty sleeping last night. So what's up?"
"What's up?! I messaged you like 10 times last night.", He said in a complaining tone. "Yeah, I didn't call since I thought you could be studying for today's test. You didn't see my messages?"
"Oh, umm... Not really, sorry about that."I chuckled nervously."Eh, no big deal, I'll tell you now anyway."He put the dumbbells back on the shelf as he was done with them. "Ok, let's hit the fly next. We'll do 3 sets one after another, respectively, while you can tell me about what you messaged me last night."I headed to that machine with him, "sounds good?"-"Done bro."He gave me a thumbs up.
"So, let's hear it."
"Alright, so, here's the thing. My mom called last night and told me there's been another shadowmorph attack on the nearby areas to my house. I was very much worried, although she said she was fine, and only going out in the daytime when it's absolutely necessary. But still, you know I can't stop worrying."
"I understand, so, then what?"
"Right, so... The attack happened on the field a few kilometres away from my house, on two people who were still out there after evening, they were drunk."
"That field with a lot of tall grass? Yeah, no wonder it's a perfect place for the predators."
"I know, right? But, here's the main thing. This shadowmorph was able to kill one of them. The other guy was able to flee the scene. He was drunk, so the police didn't take his words seriously. When he said that the shadowmorph was laughing eerily & it took down his friend, no one believed him. Because shadowmorphs so far haven't shown the sign of significant intelligence, they are like other animals who act on their instincts. But what if he was right? What if this thing is really different from others?"
"So, come to the point, what do you want to do about it?"
"Well, I was thinking, what if we go to that place of attack and look for clues? Maybe we'd find something."
"Us, going to that place? To get killed & fed by them? Seriously?"
"Look, Nir, I know this seems very dangerous, but I'm really worried about my mother. If this thing really is very intelligent and dangerous, I'd tell her to move her to a relative's place and stay there until this shadowmorph is dealt with. Otherwise, if that guy was drunk and said some nonsense, it's not much to worry about. My mom can take care of herself if it's only a common aggressive shadowmorph."
"Ok, I understand that, but the police are currently looking into the matter, I guess."
"Police have their hands filled with many other cases. They won't look properly into this case, mostly because a drunk man said some nonsense about it. They'd tend to ignore it. We need to look into the matter ourselves."
"Ok, I get it, but still, it is extremely dangerous."
"Look, I'd do it anyway, you know that."
"Yeah, of course. And you also know that I won't let you do it alone so I'm coming with you anyway."
"Fantastic! That's what I wanted to hear from you..."
"You're a menace, you know that...?"
After gym, I took a bath and headed towards the dining hall. Many students were there, both from our batch and from our senior and junior batch, as well. I took a few toasted breads, two boiled eggs, and a good amount of curry from the counter and walked to the nearest empty chair. I sat down, placed the plate on the table, and started eating. The gym definitely works up your hunger, so I ate a good amount, as breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I was gazing around the hall while eating, and I saw Neha came in time. I waved at her & she sat next to me, filling up her plate. I asked her casually-"How have you been? You haven't talked to me since the last two days before. " She replied in a low tone -"I am good. What about you?"
"I am also doing good. How is your boyfriend doing? Haven't seen him for a month." I looked at her & saw her pale face. She was almost on the verge of crying. At that moment, I saw Malini enter with her plate waving at us. She sat beside me & gave me a "what" expression. I immediately gestured with my eyes towards Neha & and Malini, understood me, my best friend & life saver. To lighten up the mood Malini asked- "What are you two lovebirds chirping about?" -"Please, that ain't funny anymore."I replied with a poker face look -" but I saw you two deep in conversation with each other."
"We were talking about today's test."Neha tried to cover up. "Yeah, right..."I gave a weird smile. "So, are you ready for the exam?"
"Well, I've revised most of the topics, so I guess I'll do fine."Malini answered. "I see."I shook my head. "What about you, Neha?"
"Umm, I wasn't able to read much last night, I was in a bad mood."Neha was fidgeting with her spoon as well, "I guess I won't be able to do very well today."
"I see, but don't worry."Malini put her hand over my shoulder -"you see, Mr. Toothless here, just sit beside him on the test, and he'll show you everything!" -"Really? That name again?"I scoffed. "You call him what?"Neha frowned. "Oh, it's nothing."I answered. "Anyway, both of you, do your best today."
-"Thanks Malini, I'd try my best."Neha said. As Malini got up to wash her plate, I followed her to talk in private. "What's up with Neha? Why is she looking so pale?" -"Well, her boyfriend cheated on her for the past 3 months, without any regret & also badmouthed about her at the back. She at last broke up with him but is really sad & broken now. She was with me yesterday the entire night, " Malini replied coldly while cleaning her plate. "I would suggest you not to talk about her relationship & be by her side because she also trusts you a lot, more than me."
The exam was good, better than I expected. I answered almost everything, except one question. I could have answered that probably, I remember reading that part but couldn't remember properly during the exam. Arindamwas waiting for me outside the classroom.
"So, how was the exam?"He asked me. "It was good, I guess."I said.
"What about you?"
"Meh, it was ok."He shrugged, -"now, let's pack up and get out of the campus. Remember, we have to come back before 4:30 pm at least."On it, I'll go to my room and pack the necessary stuff. You do the same and meet me at the campus gate."I replied to him as I headed to my room. It was 1 pm. It took us about 12 minutes roughly to pack up our stuff, and then we were at the campus entrance. A ten cell battery torch, magnifying glass, ruler scales, a water bottle, necessary snacks, masks, and an empty, medium-sized plastic box if we needed to take samples. The torch was for scaring off any shadowmorphs or the certain aggressor shadowmorph we're going to investigate in that area. Although shadowmorphs don't show up during the daytime, still, we can still never be too cautious. And the masks were for saving ourselves from the foul smell, since we thought there would be that kind of smell where a murder has happened. "I brought my DSLR camera with me."Arindam enthusiastically said while showing me his camera. "We do have cameras on our phones."I was rechecking all the items in my bag, "but yeah, if you want perfect resolution, why not?"
"Yeah, I know."He said, "and look, remember our routine. Reach that spot by 1:30 pm. Investigate the spot for 2 hours, up to 3:30 pm. And then abandon operation and retreat immediately. Hopefully we'll be here by 4 pm."
"Are you sure we won't have any trouble with local police while investigating that area? questioned, "After all, it's a murder spot."
"They moved the body and cleared the area. According to police, there were only two drunkards who got attacked, and one got killed. No one bothers much with them anyway. The spot is clear. At least, that's what I know from my mom. The neighbors were gossiping about it. So, I think we'll be fine."Arindam replied. "Ok, but if we see any police still around the area, we're not doing it.
We'd have to be very careful and we shouldn't mess with the police at any cost. reasoned with him. We took an auto rickshaw to get by that area. After that, we had to walk for almost 14 minutes to get to that spot. Yeah, Arindamwas right. They cleared the area, and no police were nearby. Now, we had to search for the exact spot where it happened. We didn't have to search for long. After entering the tall grassy area and wandering around for a few minutes, a foul smell hit our noses. It was awful and obviously coming from something rotten! We were correct, and soon, we took out our masks and put them on. It was coming from forward. "Arindam, be on your guard." I took out the torch, lit it up at any moment, "I know shadowmorphs don't come out at day, but whatever..."I quietly said. "Yeah, on it."Arindamwhispered back. Slowly, we took out our torches and treated onwards on light foot. My heart was racing, I felt like a shadowmorph could pounce on us from any direction at any given moment and rip us into shreds. I looked at Arindam. He was looking nervous as well. Slowly with steady footsteps, we moved onwards, moving the grasses aside with our hands. And soon, we came into a clearing, where the ground was still soaked with dried blackish red blood, with evident signs of struggle and massacre on the trampled grasses. But what else we saw shocked us even more!
It was Vikash da. Yes, our department's janitor, who's always on duty, helping out anyone who asks for help. He was crouched up on the ground, taking some sticky black gooey stuff out of the grass with a narrow glass rod and putting it in a test tube. A wooden box is lying beside him on the grass with its lid open, which contains a few more test tubes. Upon discovering him at such an unlikely place, we were utterly shocked and froze at our place, just as well as he looked at us as he heard our footsteps as we came into the clearing. For a few seconds, none of us said anything.
"I guess I owe you guys an explanation..."The first words came out of his mouth.
"We didn't know anything about this. Like, wow... This is something else."Arindam put his cup down as he finished his tea. "Yeah, you're telling us all these now? I mean, I do understand that there's a certain amount of secrecy and stuff about these jobs, but holy shit... This makes me question everyone's true identity."I said as I took a sip from my cup. "I can assure you that I'm the only one here and in the college with a secret job. Though I can feel some kind of strong energy around our campus but till date couldn't locate it & I am one hundred percent sure it's among the students in our department", Vikash da chuckled as he looked amusingly at our bewildered expressions & we both looked at each other. We were sitting in a nearby tea shop, Vikash da ordered three cups for all of us. What he has told us so far, that is something extraordinary. This isn't the first time when the shadowmorphs started rising. There was another uprising of shadowmorphs in 1969. But it was for such a short period, and only a handful of shadowmorphs showed up that time. It was covered up by an agency, and the very few people who knew about it eventually forgot. Vikash da is one of the best agents of that agency, which monitors the activities of the shadowmorphs and keeps them subdued if one ever shows up. But this time, they are showing up in such a frightening number, the agency is unable to restrain them, and they have eventually taken over the night time. As I've said before, no one goes out at night time now. The agency took heavy damage while trying to combat the shadowmorphs, but they are still trying their best to handle the situation. The agency is called PIER 69, which is full of paranormal investigation and ethical research, and it was situated in 1969, after shadowmorphs started showing up.
But as I've said, that time, it was very few shadowmorphs, and afterward, few shadowmorphs would show up each year, so it wasn't difficult to handle them and cover up the incidents. But now, the millions of shadowmorphs have taken over our state, and PIER 69 is officially powerless to stop all of them. But still, they are trying. Vikash da was assigned to our area of this state to subdue any shadowmorph activity. And what we saw him doing today... He was collecting samples for the agency to analyse the type of activities and threat levels of the new shadowmorph.
"So, how much does your job pay?"Arindam asked. "Well, that's a secret.", Vikash da raised his eyebrows, "be grateful that I told you this much, only because I'm like a close friend to you two, and you two have helped me a lot in the department. And, you don't need to worry about this matter anymore, PIER will do their best after looking into the matter."
"Well, that's a relief to know."I said, "but I wish we could have known more about this job of yours. Or maybe even better, what if we could join you? You said that your agency took some heavy damage in the events of shadowmorph uprising. So, you guys need more people to work with you, right? Can we apply for this?"
"Absolutely not!"Vikash da shook both his hands, "This is a very dangerous job, and you guys are still kids. You should never be into this kind of business. You should focus on your studies. Anyway, you two should get going now. I'll have to go to the headquarters to deliver the samples. And tell no one about this. I hope I can trust you with keeping this job of mine a secret."
So... Yeah. That happened. Vikash da is absolutely reluctant about letting us in his agency or telling us more about it. But I was really hoping to know more, and better yet, to work with them. Yes, shadowmorphs are threats, but they are pretty interesting as creatures. Oh well, at least someone is trying to take care of this problem, I thought. We returned to college by time. Me and Arindam went to our separate rooms. Our exams were over today. So, most of the students were out in the common hall, gossiping and doing whatever they wanted. Soumo called me and Arindamto watch a cricket match with him, and we went after having dinner. I returned to my room at 11:30 after the match was over. I made my bed and lied down. I couldn't help but think about the matter once again. Does the agency know where the shadowmorphs come from? What exactly are they? And what do they do to counter them? I kept thinking... For a long time. I was running multiple possible scenarios and explanations through my mind, but nothing really gave me a satisfactory answer. I had no idea how much time had passed. Suddenly, the chain of my thoughts was cut off by the ringtone of my mobile. I was startled. I sat up and looked at the screen. It was Neha.
"Hey, you awake?"
Yeah, I am."
"Umm, great. Can I come over?... But if you are sleepy then I won't, I don't want to disturb you."
- "No no, of course not, you won't be disturbing me or anything. Come over."
"Thanks. I'll be there in a minute."After a while, there was a faint knock at the door. I quickly moved and opened it. Yes, it was her. She was wearing a loose sleeveless purple top and her white pajamas. "Hey..."She smiled, "I'm here to disturb you." -"By all means, do disturb me."I smiled back as I moved away and turned on the light, allowing her to get inside. "Oh, umm, turn off the lights. We don't really need them."Neha asked. "Ok, if you say so."I did as she said and got on the bed. She followed me and sat beside me. "So, how are you feeling today?"I asked her, keeping my hand on her shoulder. "A lot better, thanks to you."She smiled at me, putting her hand on my shoulder, "Thanks for being such a good friend."
"Ow...umm, thanks, I guess." I replied as I flinched a little in pain. "Hey, what's the matter?"She moved her hand from my shoulder with a look of concern on her face.
"Do you have an injury?" "Not an injury exactly, a sprain."I answered, "In the morning while I was at the gym, some idiot almost hit me on my shoulder while doing sidewise dumbbell rowing.
She got up and reached the switchboard and flipped on the light. She took the lotion and faced me. "Alright, now take off your shirt."Neha asked, "so I can apply this properly."Wait, do I have to?"I stuttered, "I mean, can't you just slide your hand inside and apply it?"
"Ow...umm, thanks, I guess." I replied as I flinched a little in pain. "Hey, what's the matter?"She moved her hand from my shoulder with a look of concern on her face.
"Do you have an injury?" "Not an injury exactly, a sprain."I answered, "In the morning while I was at the gym, some idiot almost hit me on my shoulder while doing sidewise dumbbell rowing.
She got up and reached the switchboard and flipped on the light. She took the lotion and faced me. "Alright, now take off your shirt."Neha asked, "so I can apply this properly."Wait, do I have to?"I stuttered, "I mean, can't you just slide your hand inside and apply it?"
"I need to see the area to apply it properly. So, no buts, take your shirt off now."She demanded. Oh well, I have no other option but to comply with her orders. Although I was feeling a bit awkward to go shirtless in front of her, I knew I had nothing to worry about. I have a nice figure as I've been attending the gym for more than 7 months, so my muscles and abs are quite well developed. As I looked at her after taking off my shirt, I noticed her checking me out with her eyebrows raised. "Well damn..."She gave me a teasing smile, "I know you go to the gym, but you're quite the eye candy, aren't you?"
"Well, if you're done with checking up on my body, please proceed with the lotion,'' I teased back. "You've changed a lot from the first year, you know."She came behind me, took a few drops of lotion on her palm, and started to massage that area I showed her, "and I like how you changed." "Mmm... That's better."I let out a sigh of comfort as I felt her soft and delicate fingers on my shoulder, rubbing that area lightly. "Please keep going." I was enjoying her massage, her fingers rubbed and circled the area on my shoulder while keeping the consistency of pressure... I felt the pain decrease a bit after a few minutes. It was a wonderful feeling, I wish I could feel it forever.