The Leather Belt

I must admit that my friend Vishal had made more progress than me in the certain techniques of meditation that make you extremely sensitive to you surrounding and helps you to spot any abnormal activity in the close vicinity. This is a required quality for anyone who wants to have certain experiences related to occult. A few people have it in them and others can only make an attempt to build. The below experience was not really a success for me and neither does it do any credit to me as an achievement in this field, but this was a very clear experience so thought would share this with everyone.

Vishal was a very simple soul. Not very bright but sincere and that helped him to sharpen his senses much more than me. He worked for a library and travelled there on his ancient moped at around 11. 30 in the morning. This was in one of the most densely populated cities, in Maharashtra, India... His library was very near to a very crowded road, which had reputation of traffic jams in the morning.

Vishal would travel for miles on this road and then turn to the right to reach his library. Once he met me on the weekend, he complained about very uneasy sensation and fear that he used to feel at time when turning off the crowded road. He said he never felt anything when he returned home. As I said he just like me practices some kind of "meditations" and perhaps has more keen sense for the paranormal. But this time I thought this to be his imagination. This shows how prejudiced we can be. I never thought that anything could be wrong on one of the most crowded streets in the broad daylight. I was wrong.

Vishal continued to complain whenever we met and finally said he would rather be taking another route. This time I decided to check out with him. The only time I could have done that was on the weekends so we tried the same route on Saturday on my scooter. We tried the same turn quite a few times but Vishal did not feel anything and neither did I.

On Sunday we did the same thing and after a second round I was almost ready to give up and go home. But just when we had turned for the second time, Vishal clutched my sleeve and told me to stop. One look at him and I realized that something was definitely wrong. He was afraid and something was there that was hitting his senses.

We parked the scooter in a nearby lane and walked towards the corner of the road. It was around 12. 00 noon and it was very hot. The temperature must have been 40c at least. Walking bareheaded on the road was painful. Still the street was full of people who were shopping and because of the summer holidays and Sunday there was lot of crowd.

There were few shops round the street corner. Most of them sold various artificial leather artefacts including trouser belts, which were the main merchandise. By this time Vishal was very uneasy but had calmed down a little. We had no clue as to what we were looking for. We stood near the corner for a while, went into one shop aimlessly and then had tea in the nearby tea stall.

Vishal is not capable of thinking logically and he could not analyze his fear. Neither could he spot where the source was. I was feeling nothing and was feeling very foolish standing in the hot afternoon on the market road without any definite thread to follow. But internally I was convinced that Vishal has sensed something and my curiosity had woken up.

We decided to give it one more try on Wednesday when I could afford to reach my office late. If nothing happened then we decided to give a last try on next Sunday. But it did not come to that.

On Wednesday we suddenly came across what was wrong. This time Vishal sensed the fear in our first visit itself. We got down and started looking carefully around. All of a sudden Vishal pointed to one of the smaller shops in which there was only a single customer looking at a leather belt. Vishal recognized the customer as one of the library members who had not returned his book at the time of stock verification. Vishal may be a simple soul but he is a dedicated employee and rushed in to speak to the person. He entered the shop and exclaimed quite loudly that "Mr. Rathore, why haven't I seen you for a month now. Weren't you supposed to return all your books before last week for verification?" The customer turned back and looked blankly at Vishal. That moment I realized what was wrong. All my senses that had left me came back in a rush. I felt the same fear that Vishal had felt. My hands were cold and there was very uneasy sensation inside me. There was nothing wrong in the attire or the looks of the person. He was dressed normally and was of medium height and build. But his eyes were vacant and there was a certain look in his eyes. I could relate to that later on.

I had a dog. As the dogs do he used to bark and pretend to attack the people he did not know and used to enjoy when they were afraid. He would wag his tail and jump with joy when someone he knew well came to the house. But once in a while he used to come across a newcomer who had a dog of his own and paid no heed or attention to his mock attacks. At that time he used to look at me like that. "I have come across a situation I do not know how to handle?"

The man was looking exactly like that. He murmured something and then simply walked away. This time Vishal could sense nothing. He was just angry about the carelessness of the member. At the same time inside me I was sure that what walked away was most probably not a living thing. Whatever that was, was doing things mechanically and when challenged did not know what to do. I dragged Vishal away to a nearby teashop and we sat there. I was numb with fear and realized that I was feeling feverish. Vishal understood nothing. I still managed to tell him to go to the library, find out the residential contact number for Mr. Rathore and call him. What happened next was beyond imagination.

Things moved very fast. Vishal who was a very zealous librarian found out the telephone number from the membership card and called. He was told that Mr. Jaideep Rathore had met an accidental death just a month ago and his wife did not want to discuss anything regarding the books. Tactless mention of seeing someone like Rathore on the main road did add fuel to the fire and the receiver was slammed down.

Now this required some tact and skill and I was definitely better than Vishal in this. The next day I called the same number. But started with a message of condolences from the chairman of the library (which I did not have really), praised Mr. Rathore as an ideal member and his contribution to the suggestion log. A word of praise more here and there and his wife opened up. She told me the story.

Rathore had purchased a rather costly belt worth around 900 Rupees. He paid some advance and said he will collect it by making full payment the next day. He was walking back to the bus stop when was hit by a dumper turning with full speed. He died on the spot.

I was stunned to hear this. Not that this was not expected but this is something that was happening in broad daylight and in front of hundreds of other people who were shopping. No one noticed it. It also shows how naive we are when we presume safety in the crowd and daytime. What happened next was a series of failures for me.

First of all I was not sure on how to deal with this and what would the implications would be. One thing was sure, something was coming back to claim the belt that was very close to Rathore's heart or may be that was on his mind when he died. What was coming was not very bright but had powers of its own. If one was sensitive enough to identify it then it was capable of instilling numbing fear that cannot be compared with anything else.

This time I did not take Vishal with me. Apart from uneasy fear on turn he had given no other indications of feeling anything. I waited outside the shop and tried to check from where Mr. Rathore was appearing. I failed. He did come but I could not figure out from which direction he came. Its not that he appeared from somewhere all of a sudden, he walked in a very normal sort of way. But some sort of cloud was there on my on vision and thinking which made it impossible for me to track him. Same thing happened when he left.

I walked a few steps but somehow missed him. I must admit that he did not try to dodge me. In fact I don't think I even existed for him. But I lost him simply.

When I went inside the shop, the usual shopkeeper was not there. His son was operating the shop. When asked about his father the boy said that his father is hospitalized due to hypertension. Perhaps because the shop was not doing well for the last few days and there were hardly any customers. I tried to buy the belt which Rathore was trying to buy but the boy refused saying that some advance was paid today. By this time, I had started to feel very feverish again.

In the evening the temperature was very bad and I had to go and see the doctor. Next morning I was still burning but decided to make one final attempt.

I went to the shop again. Sure enough Rathore turned up. One thing I noticed, no one else was entering the shop. There were few customers in other shops but this one people looked at, glanced at the showcases and walked ahead. Human beings have natural protection system built in which perhaps takes the form of certain type of reluctance to enter into the situation, which will confront them with something that does not exist from this world...

This time I entered the shop and while the bargain about the belt and the shopkeeper was going on, I listened attentively. Mr. Rathore was indeed very good in haggling. Surprisingly the shopkeeper did not remember the previous day's incidents and was treating Rathore as if he was a new customer. Finally Rathore gave some cash as advance and left. I stopped him and asked if I can pay the remaining money. Rathore can perhaps return when he comes to the library. I was a friend of the librarian. Rathore looked at me. Just for a brief second the blank look disappeared and I perhaps saw what was inside it. It gave me a very cruel and nasty look. Just for a fraction of second. The outward form of Rathore was not capable of doing anything other than purchasing the belt. Something else that came with him was extremely powerful and cruel. I could sense that but it had no form as such. It had certain animal like powers I guess. Perhaps it was also capable of keeping people away or confusing there minds. The look disappeared in a fraction of second, Rathore murmured something about belt and walked out.

Once again I traced and once again I failed. I gave up after that because that night I could not sleep because of the fever. Also I had started to get heavy feeling somewhere in my chest. I decided not to follow this up. Whatever it was may be dumb but it had powers of its own. Human beings were not encouraged to contact it and it was not advisable also. The shop and its owner were the victims but that was because they were part of the role-play.

To conclude I kept away and told Vishal to do the same. Once my contact stopped the fever started to disappear. I was normal in the next two days. After that day I avoided going to the street. When finally I could muster some courage after a year or so and went there, there was no leather shop. I could see a ready-made garment shop there. I guessed what must have happened but still asked the new shop owner. He sympathized about old owner who seemed to have died in a hospital few months back and whose son himself barely survived after a gall bladder problem and an operation that was very tricky.

He told me that the previous owner was not a very good salesman and it is surprising that he made losses on the street where you can sell almost anything at profit, that too after running the business successfully for several years.

I had nothing to say. I don't think Rathore was coming there anymore.

To this date I have always thought there were two entities that were visiting this shop. One was what was remaining of soulless Rathore, repeating the same routine over and over again and something else that came with him, which was not good. Something that was very cleverly using the body to hide. It was not capable of understanding how humans behaved but had cunning knack of ensuring that its existence is sheltered as much as possible and was quite capable of complete destruction of souls and bodies it came in contact with.