tales of Suchita

Guarding the gates of hell
Are two asuras
If you can appease one
You have to fight the other.
Only the light of the new moon
Can appease both.
On such a night,
They will reveal their secret.
Are you ready?

Alicia smiled as she read the poem. She had memorized it when she had been a child and now, finally, she was here, in a small market settlement of Mattancherry, ready to find a scroll that would tell her the location of her long lost sister.

She looked at her companions – a friend she had made on the journey, a guide who had brought her here and a shadow that had been her companion since she had started this quest.

She looked back at the two mammoth figures in front of her and waited for the moonlight to shine on one of them. There was a thundering crack and the seemingly blank wall cracked in two to reveal a thin cavity.

A sigh went up as Alicia pushed the walls aside. The musty smell hit her like a ton of bricks and she took a step back, coughing and sneezing. Her companions stood stoically, not one moving to help her. Once the opening was big enough, she removed a torch from her pebble bag and shone it inside.

There was a staircase. It looked dusty but sturdy. Her guide had told her though everyone knew of the asuras and the story, no one paid any attention to it. That was the problem with modernization. Two hundred years ago, you couldn’t have been able to stop the children from trying all sorts of tactics to get that secret. These days, all that they cared about was love and Algebra.

Alicia started to climb, her companions close behind her. It was a winding staircase that could have been treacherous had her feet actually been touching the ground. She glided up, hope budding like a new flower that her curse would be lifted and her three uncaring companions would be replaced by a loving sister.

But as soon as Alicia stepped on to the second landing, the lights went out and a hand grabbed her into the all-consuming darkness.

For seven dark days and eight bright nights, she fought her way out of the darkness – her only guide the sound of her sister calling out to her. When she finally emerged, she was laying in her bed.

Gasping awake, she opened her eyes, and there she was, her sister, in the flesh. She went to hug her and realized she was no longer a ghost, her companions had left her and she was back in her world – the world that made sense.

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Written for the prompt given by Asha Seth. Read more here about Finish the story collaboration.