The Death Note

Demons live to sin. Demons sin to live. 

   Dr Shyam was the first to notice the corpse of his patient hanging from the hospital room's fan. He was on his usual night rounds. It had been around a week since his patient had regained consciousness. For the last six years or so, he had taken extra care of Ajay Sawant, the comatose body lying in room number 7 of their small yet efficient facility.
   His room was in the isolated wing of the hospital as this case was very strange and hence also very important. He was shocked when he looked into the grief-stricken eyes of Ajay. His body was pale and lifeless, there were marks on his arms. On the bed was a note written by the deceased man. Shyam opened it and started reading.

~

   Time flies, they say. It did for me. Six years ago I was found unconscious on a river bank near Lanja. I was taken to the hospital and doctors found out I was in coma. A week ago I woke up, since then my body feels numb and heavy; a throbbing pain is felt in my throat, I can't speak.

   The doctors ask me what had happened all those years ago, they ask me if I remember anything, I say no. But I do remember every single excruciating detail.

  It was just a usual day, I had newly joined as the personal assistant of the Tehsildar. After finishing my daily duties, I proceeded to go home. It was late, the sky was darker than always as it was a moonless night. Very few vehicles were seen on the highway. My house was in a small village right outside Lanja. It was quite some distance so I used to take my motorcycle to work. A river ran parallel to the highway which connected my village to the taluka office. As I was a new resident in that place, I always wondered why the river side was fenced with wire.

  After I asked a few of my neighbours, I got to know that the river was inauspicious for the local community. There were quite some stories of people never coming back from the water. The villagers told me to stay away from that place. In the morning, the river used to flow with a high force ; in the afternoon, the level used to go down. At night, it used to stay completely still and the trees surrounding the river bank used to turn their branches outward, opposite to the stream. Although I never believed in all this, I thought it was a fear imbibed in the people to keep them away from the raging water of the river. A part of the river divided into a lake which was near my village. It was said that many deaths had occurred in that water, hence nobody used it for any chores or even to irrigate their fields nearby.

  As I was nearing my journey home, I realized the branches of the trees around the lake were facing outwards. Even the lights in that zone were very dim. I stopped to look at the miraculous sight that was on the other side of the road. Konkan really was beautiful. As far as I could see, the river side had a similar view. Another odd thing was that, I couldn't hear the rippling water of the flowing river which I had heard just this morning while going to work. After realising it was getting late, I was about to start my motorcycle when an old man caught my sight. He was coming from the area which had an opening in the river's fence. Thinking he may need help, I crossed the road and asked him if he wanted me to take him home. He refused, instead he went on and on about the mysterious river. "Don't go there, you won't get anything but pain" He pointed towards the river. I nodded and stood there in the cold breeze of the airy night.
  Just when I was about to leave, I heard a voice yelling for help. Startled I looked around, the old man was gone. The voice was coming from the river. It got louder as I walked ahead and saw a grassy patch that led to the river bed below. Surprisingly the water was not moving, it was so stagnant and quiet that even the smallest noise made a reverberating sound. I listened again to the voice and a body came afloat in the water just some distance farther ahead of me. I could see the small frame of a boy, his head facing the sky. Without giving it another thought, I removed my shoes and entered into the water to save the poor kid. As I swam to the other end, where the boy was now floating, I called out to him but there was no reply. He kept staring at the sky, the water was cool on my skin and I started to shiver. When I got close to him, I called him out again, still no reply. Hope ran up my nerves when I saw him stirring in the water. Quickly I put one hand on him to pull him out of there, but he didn't budge. I tried again and again, still his body didn't move an inch. His face turned behind, the head twisted and rotated to face me. Two glowing white eyes stared back at me and I screamed in horror.
  In a hollow and raspy voice, he said, "You shouldn't be here." Reflexively, I flinched and took my hand off his shoulder, right then something tugged me down into the chilling water and I drowned.  

  It was a strange and dark place. There was no light, no sound, no feeling, only an infinite silence. My body felt weightless,  flashes of memories started filling my mind. In the pitch darkness, I felt my body getting pulled down. When I opened my eyes, I saw water all around me. I held onto my breath for some time till my lungs reached their threshold and then I let go. Water entered through my nostrils and mouth, my ears endured a staggering pain. In this, I felt a hand holding onto my leg, it was softer and cooler than the water around engulfing me. As I tried to escape, I saw a vision beside me, it's head facing the other side. I struggled to get away, to breathe but the vision's hold was stronger than my struggling body. Finally, I gave it a sharp push and it faced me. I saw a blurred visage, my pupils dilated as I got a clearer version of what I was seeing. It had a pale face, with complete white eyes and sunken features. It came near my face and that was the last thing I remember.

~

  After reading the letter, a chill went down the doctor's spine. He ran to the door and called out to the nurse's reception which was far away from the room. Nobody was stationed there at the moment. All the nurses were out on their night rounds. He went back into the room and called the police from his cellphone. The dispatcher was about to speak when the lights went out, the door behind him shut close and his call was disconnected. The only light that came was from his phone attached to his ear. He switched on the flashlight and frantically dashed towards the door, it was jammed. After trying for a couple more minutes, he gave up. He tried calling the nurse's reception from the phone attached to the wall besides the door but there was no network.
 His heart starting pounding loudly, unable to understand his current situation, he flashed his phone light around the room in a desperate attempt to search for something that could help. As the light illuminated the ceiling, the doctor looked up, only to find that the body of his patient was gone.