Shynil

During my career as an amateur researcher of the paranormal I came across various types of manifestations. However, I have never written about a type that I have come across a few times. It may have a name but at least I am not aware of it. So I have named it as "Shynil" simply because of it's extreme aversion to get detected

The type represents evil all right and often makes an appearance as an ordinary person performing some minor innocent act. The damage it can cause is mostly minor. But sometimes it's actions simply do not make sense. Perhaps it is used by the higher level of evil to fix something that has gone wrong in the wider scheme of things or it simply operates on its own and enjoys causing a few deaths.

One example I can narrate to explain "Shynil". There is a large book store in city connected with an equally big music/video chain. When I went there for purchasing some books, elevator had a board "work in progress". I started to climb the stairs and near the 3rd floor I spotted a person meddling with the open lift. The aura of evil was so faint that had I not gone near him out of sheer curiosity, I would not even had spotted it. When I asked him who he was, he drew out the company card and stamped visit card for maintenance window. But by then I had realized the danger. I kept my hand on it's shoulder. Instead of shoulder bone I could feel a soft jelly like vibrating material underneath. Before I could move, he had almost galloped through the stairs in a quite different way than the humans do. I called the maintenance. They said they had received a complaint but had not sent anyone to fix it yet. So what this creature was up to is anybody's guess...

There have been other instances where I have come across "Shynil" but I will turn back to my main narration. During this incident I had almost given up possibility of any supernatural involvement.

My friend Vinod runs a technical training institute which undertakes corporate trainings in areas related to test automation. Competition is a challenge and Vinod is known to think of various avenues to keep his costs competitive. We are good friends but as our careers progressed, meetings/calls started to reduce. Last I had spoken to him was easily a year back.

One day Vinod's subject came up by sheer coincidence. For lunch, I happened to be sitting on the same table as Aziz who works for the training department of my organization. He mentioned scarcity of trainers for a certain test tool. I asked him about Vinod's institute. To my surprise Aziz said they were out of business for quite sometime. I called Vinod's cell in the evening. It kept ringing. While returning back I went to his institute only to find it locked. I decided to visit his home over the weekend.

What I came across was a big shock. His father and mother both who had grand plans for his marriage looked crushed. Vinod himself was lying in his room, had lost more than 30-35 lb and he was looking almost like a skeleton. He recognized me and smiled a weak smile. I offered him some coconut water. He took a few sips, tried to get up but could not, and then went to sleep in a minute. I then spoke with his parents to get the whole story.

Around 6 months back Vinod came home with burning fever. They took him to the family doctor who gave antibiotics course, Vinod was better after it and was back to the institute, took couple of corporate courses in Pune himself. But one day, once more he was down with the fever. He had to be hospitalized for a week. Without Vinod's enterprise and zeal the institute had started to slip. Against his parent's advice Vinod went back to work, and back he was down with a fever.

This time the bout was serious. There was whole range of tests, hospitalizations but no improvement was seen. Around 2 months had lapsed. Vinod paid off the staff and decided to close the institute for a while rather than losing the reputation completely. After that he went to his office once when he felt slightly better to collect his stuff and came back burning with fever. Surprisingly none of the tests showed anything wrong. Every diagnosis showed him to be in perfect health but the fever remained, draining him out day by day.

What hurt me most was the sense of defeat in Vinod's face. But I could think of nothing except some unknown viral. It was only when we were saying good-bye, his mother dragged me by my sleeve near her and said neither Vinod nor his father would believe in these things but she was convinced that someone was putting evil spells on him. She begged me to help her. I was not sure if in this case I could be of any help. But I asked for the institute keys...

I had no clue what to do so tried to check if any inauspicious object was hidden anywhere in Vinod's office and couple of classrooms. Everything was clean. Vinod's laptop was in a laptop bag. Out of curiosity I called his home for the administrator password. This was the last thing he had used before leaving his office for the last time. I really had no hopes. But before accepting the defeat I decided to take the laptop home and take a look.

I logged in as administrator as Vinod use to do and searched the drives for files for typical words that are used in "chants" designed to make humans ill. There was nothing. As a final try I clicked on the CD drive. There was a DVD which was recorded in one of the institute classrooms. Though I did not understand the subject technically, I grasped the concept of recording after speaking with Vinod.

It was not always affordable to travel at various locations to conduct the same course. For customers it costs too much and for Vinod also it was hectic. So the arrangement was, Vinod will conduct an open course with discount in his institute, shoot it and after editing will send the DVD back to the customers for a one time payment. It can then be uploaded as an online training site or shipped to the other locations.

By this time I had given up hope of finding something using my analytical skills so I completed my Sadhana and with full concentration begged to get some direction. Surprisingly my inner conscious pointed me toward the laptop bag. I went through all the drawers found numerous boarding passes, train tickets, forgotten entry passes of various IT companies, a note book that was blank. I was about keep everything back, cursing my instinct when I found a small receipt. It was from the professional training recorder who had shot the latest DVDs. It contained part 1 and 2 of the training, first one was 90 minutes and the other one was 90 minutes 30 seconds.

I started the laptop and started the first part. It was 90 minutes exactly. I then looked at the second part which was to my surprise only 88 minutes. I called Vinod's home. His father asked him and confirmed that he had not edited anything. In fact this was the DVD he was editing when he had felt feverish and had to rush home. I knew I was on to something now.

The mystery existed somewhere in the second part. So the next night I decided to go through the 2nd part again and again. It was a painful exercise. Around 2.30 minutes part was cut somewhere without even Vinod knowing. Why and by whom was the question.

I went through the part-2 twice but could not find anything out of context. During the 3rd and 4th time I was familiar with the contents so I could relate to the flow. How Vinod was teaching, what he was covering, how students were asking questions and Vinod's way of clearing doubts. The camera was always focusing Vinod and the whiteboard or moved towards the student who had asked the question... When the camera moved towards that particular student, few others sitting around him/her were visible. In such cases the camera moved between Vinod and the student until the query was resolved. So there was a pattern to this training. My hopes rose because now I was in familiar territory. If a pattern is broken I will get my answer. But still it was not easy.

I ran the first part for 2 minutes and as expected it covered the entire class room. It was simple room which could accommodate 50 odd students with desktops and around 45 were occupied. I jumped ahead and moved to the first tea break session and could see 47 students So the couple had come in late. But it not was difficult to tell who they were and I remembered their faces just in case I need to recall later.

I went back to the second part and started it again and I hit what I was looking for on 22nd Minute. A student had asked a question about whether the tool will run on certain version of one of the popular UNIX flavors. The answer had to be yes. Even I could understand that. But immediately after this question, the camera was focused back on Vinod who was saying "Yes". But he was looking doubtful and hesitant. What was more strange is the direction where he was answering was back side of the right wing and the UNIX question had come the from left side. So there was something wrong here for sure. First of all I could find no reason why Vinod would hesitate to answer such a simple question and why would he look on the other side? So he was answering a completely different question for sure and this is what accounted for 2 + minutes cut.

I then switched back to the first part post break and focused on the right back wing waiting for any questions that was coming from that direction. And the luck was with me. In 2-3 minute a student asked something. But my eyes spotted the chap next to him. He had come late, there was something weird about him, his looks, his dress, his body, his posture were normal but his eyes were not. They were looking straight but without an ounce of interest or boredom. In fact they were vacant as if they were staring in completely different zone and nothing was getting registered.

"Shynil" somewhere the word exploded in my mind, So it had penetrated this class without blinking an eye and was least bothered about what was going on. Now I was more or less convinced that this apparition had asked that second question in the 2nd part or perhaps echoed what it's masters had told it to say.

It was not capable of showing expressions and as it's basic tenancy he had aversion for detection. So after the training was over, using his limited powers he somehow wiped out the 2 + minutes as logically as he could but later realized he may still get detected. By the time the DVD was out of it's power zone and Vinod's office held a large collection of images of various deities which Shynil would not dare to enter.

So he was trying to stop Vinod using the only technique he knew. To slowly move him towards death. The thing was not powerful enough to kill on the spot but knew how to make best use of limited powers it had got. I knew this category not to very be cruel but selfish. Once it's purpose is achieved it will stop harming. And that was avoiding any possibility of detection. I knew I will never come to know why he had asked that question or who told him to ask it or what was the final plan. But I was not bothered. I wanted to save my friend.

I wanted to get to the bottom of this though and looking at Vinod's current state there was only one way. I took his mother in confidence and visited him early next day. He was paler and the fever still raged at 103. I softly turned him to my side and put him under very light hypnosis.

I slowly took him back to the day of the training and moved ahead I asked about the operating system question. As expected he waved is hand and said it was a rather foolish question. Of course it will work. I then held my breath and asked the next question very softly. "What happened then Vinod?".

There was a very tense moment. Vinod was a normal human being. But everyone has an instinct stored from thousands of year of history of enemy that attacks the soul and can drag it into darkness for ever. Layers of generations of safety has buried it deep but at least a very feeble alert is generated and Vinod must have felt it too. I softly tapped his forehead and waited. He said "There was him in the corner, had not seen him, he asked "The software still cannot cater to a certain condition. I have written an open source plug in. Can I distribute to all if you give me the email ids"."I was uneasy don't know why but I said yes and moved on".

Mild hypnosis results in a deep sleep. I knew he was safe and I knew what to do. But at the same time I was curious about something. I kept the DVD with me the whole day. Towards the noon I was feverish but it did not worry me. The focus had shifted from Vinod to me and it was exactly what I wanted. Just before the twilight I drove towards a secluded place out of the city near the river. I reached an old unused cemetery. No, I did not want to make things more mysterious but desperately wanted to check something.

Then alone in the fading light I pulled the DVD out. I then put few drops of very auspicious oil on to it and immediately had an expected reaction. Something dropped off the near by tree. Almost few feet away from me. One look at each other was sufficient. It was a dim existence and did not differentiate me from Vinod in terms of strength. The location suited his powers.

Darkness and cemetery. So perhaps it became overconfident. I could feel the fever surging. I could have fought that too but I have been taught not to take up the battles that are not necessary. I pulled out a matchbox and burned the DVD. This too must have been a shock to that existence. But it's work was done. There was no proof. It was safe now. It slowly retreated and disappeared.

I do not want to describe it. These existences even in their original form do not have a structure that can be described. It went it's way and I went mine. I was smiling. It will dawn upon it after sometime that a human being had seen it in it's original form. The agony and humiliation it will suffer after that will be the revenge for what Vinod suffered. But it won't attack me. The jolt of the holy oil and complete lack of fear in me must have penetrated even it's slow brain not to try anything else. And I was happy to have become one of the few on this earth who managed to see "Shynil" in it's real form.

Needless to say with the DVD out of the way, Vinod recovered very fast. While he gained strength I once thought of going to his office and find out name and other details of the "Student". But I knew everything would be in order but fake. There was not much point. I got on with my life.