I splashed water on his face and shook him by his shoulder.

"Riddick, Riddick..."

He groaned and I sat beside him.

It wasn't a starry night, the clouds were persistent on not letting the stars peep at the Earth. There were soft cool breezes due to the past rain. I could hear the sound of crickets even if I was on the third floor of the building. Owls were n't common in the place where I lived but it must have been because that building was in some forest that I could hear the hoots.

I had tied down Riddick to a pillar before I splashed water onto his face. He wriggled uncomfortably as he tried to open his eyes with another groan.

"What happened?" He asked in a husky voice.

"Shush, don't make too much of noise, he might come back"

"Who?" His eyes weren't yet properly opened.

"Kaalan," I whispered.

His eyes shot open at the answer and he turned his head towards me. His blue eyes were as wide as plates and he started taking sharp breaths. He struggled hard to get out of the rope but it wasn't the first time that I tied someone on Kaalan's instruction, there was no way he was going to escape.

I turned towards him and kept my hand on his shoulder. He shrugged it off harshly and screamed loudly, he didn't know that there wasn't anyone to help him but me.

"Please do not disturb him, he is downstairs!"

"Keerthy, don't you get it, Kaalan doesn't exis-"

"exist. I thought you were different. I thought you could understand me but," I sighed and stood up. I walked towards the edge of the floor, there were no walls. I looked far away though I couldn't see anything clear, it was a sea of trees. I directed my flashlight towards the ground to see him. He smiled eerily at me and I gulped.

I did not turn back but took a step backwards and gazed at the starless sky.

"My parents knew that he existed when they were alive. My bedridden grandfather told that he was an evil spirit. None can care and know a person more than his own parents, isn't it?" I turned back to see Riddick's eyes looking sympathetically at me. I did not want anyone's sympathy. I was a strong independent girl.

I glared at him.

"My parents took me to swamees but Kaalan did not leave me. Then they heard about some people who got rid of jinns, they thought that Kaalan was a jinn and took me to them. Then they thought that it was a spirit and a Christian cross could help me so they took me there but Kaalan was not yet ready to leave me. He mocked me and laughed at me, each time my parents left the places without any results.

These people who were supposed to get rid of Kalan used to keep chanting things. I was terrified by other people who came for help there, they looked terrible. Some of them kept screaming at everything around, some others kept silent and then there were people who kept smiling and laughing at everything around. It was like I was taken to asylums. The only features that kept reminding me that those weren't was that there weren't any doctors or medicines or other medical facilities, there were supernatural humans, blessed powders and rooms filled with screams.

At times they bet me, other times they locked me in rooms with a lot of writings and no matter how much I screamed none came except Kaalan. There were times they abused me sexually too but my parents never believed me and they told that it was 'the thing' inside me. My screams were swallowed by the silence of the locked rooms and my tears were dried by the darkness that adorned the rooms. A little by little, I consumed my words and my silence became my only companion.

Trust me, Riddick, Kaalan is definitely better than them.

Not all of them abused me, some of them asked my parents to take me to psychiatrists and said that I needed medical attention. My parents left those Christian fathers, swamis and Ustads with scorn evident on their face. These people kept contacting my parents since they thought that my parents were torturing me by making me go through it. There was even a time when some of them were ready to contact officials for my wellbeing but I stopped them.

Parents know the best, don't they , Riddick?"

Riddick did not say a word. Neither did he nod or show any sign that he agreed with me. He sat motionless, only his breathing letting me know that he was still alive. I continued my story as another breeze embraced us.

" It was not only my parent's belief in the supernatural that stopped them from taking me to doctors. They were afraid that taking me to hospitals would taint my personality and later affect our family's social status and marriage proposals.

I am definitely thankful to them for not seeing me as a mentally challenged person because I am not. Kaalan is real I can see, hear and touch him, so why the confusion?

Kaalan isn't a good person, you see. He hurts me, verbally as well as physically and he keeps saying that he would hurt people I love. He asked me to do many things but I did not do all of them, I used to say 'No', a lot.

But it was only until my parents died. The police said that it was a mere car accident but Kaalan himself confessed to me that he had a part in their murder. Since then, I never said a 'No' to him. I was afraid, Riddick, I am afraid.

I was taken to an orphanage and my grandfather was taken to an old age home. I was thirteen back then. The children at the orphanage were good to me. They did not know about Kaalan and I was happy to see their eyes with no traces of sympathy. However, day by day, I grew lonelier with Kaalan's frequent visits. I never told them the reason when I did not play, study or eat with them.

Onam was a celebration that my family, as well as our neighbours, celebrated well. We used to wear new clothes in the morning, take part in making the floral pattern, help mothers in making Sadya, visit all the houses in neighbourhood ...those were the beautiful days. However, my 14th Onam was a disaster. I did not know what to do or how to celebrate, it was simply plain. That day too Kaalan came to visit me, at night.

He laughed at me and kicked in my stomach with his lanky legs, he bit me and lashed me with a rope. There weren't any bruises, luckily.

A year passed in the snap of a finger and another Onam came. This time too Kaalan came but he did not hurt me. He wanted me to go out with him at night. I was reluctant initially but then he pointed at Savithri, another girl in my orphanage, sleeping on the next bed. I did not want to lose her.

I went with him."

"And that was the first time you killed someone?"

"No, that was the first time I saw someone being killed and wrote Kaalan's name on the dead body with Mehandi"