— THE MARK THAT BLEEDS
Arjun ran, harder. The ground was wet slippery due to which fell on mud all over his clothes. He somehow managed to get up again started running away from the horror he just saw.
The crematorium gates slammed behind him as he burst into the rain-soaked street. His beath came out in sharp, broken gasps, but no matter how fast he ran, he could still feel it—
Something watching and coming near him. There was no other gate exit this place gaurds by tall wall. He looked around, a thought hit him, he took one rock size of cricket ball and weight too and thrown hard aim the person behind him. The dead zombie like person fell on ground holding his face by both his hand where it hurts.
The streetlights flickered. One by one, they died, plunging the road into a tunnel of darkness. It felt like even moon got scared and hide behind the curtain of clouds.
Arjun stumbled and fell onto his knees begging for letting him go home back and seeking for forgiveness for something he did unknowingly!
His palm burned although was wet.
The symbol carved into his skin—black, jagged, unnatural—began to bleed.
"Get it off… get it off…" he muttered, clawing at his hand.
The blood didn't just drip but It crawled to wrist then till elbow and fall down on ground.
The dark liquid slithered across his skin, forming new lines, deeper patterns—like a language that hated being read.
A whisper rose from the mark itself.
"You crossed the threshold."
Arjun screamed and slammed his fist into the asphalt.
The voice laughed.Not mocking butpleased.The rain stopped mid-fall. Drops hung frozen in the air around him like suspended glass.
Footsteps echoed behind him. Tap tap...Slow. Bare. Wet.
Arjun turned.A woman stood beneath a dead streetlight.
She wore a hospital nurse's uniform, soaked in old blood. Her neck bent at an impossible angle, her eyes stitched shut with black thread,yet she smiled.
"You can see us now."
Arjun tried to speak. No sound came out of his throat.
The nurse raised her hand and pointed at his bleeding palm.
"Marked by the Unanswered."
She came closer to him, lean moved her head over his shoulder, and said in his ear softly," so you are that " She tried catch him to and give a tight hug but Arjun backed off warily. As soon as he did this she was to fall suddenly losing her balance, but he caught her.
At his touch all her scars of wounds on face disappeared. She said touching her face with her hand and look at her image in water down on ground, "I want to thank you and give you something.."
Before she could complete her speech..
The air cracked.
A force slammed into the nurse, crushing her into the road like a broken doll. The frozen rain shattered and time snapped back into motion.A scream escaped her lips!"Ahhhh!No..ouch."
Ghastly!Arjun collapsed, coughing. Fuck!Who is doing this, why don't appear infront.A man stood where the nurse had been.
Tall. Lean. Dressed in ash-colored robes etched with warding scars. His eyes were dull—not lifeless, but emptied, as if something had been carved out of them long ago.
"You shouldn't have survived the summoning," the man said calmly.
"Who… who are you?" Arjun gasped.
The man knelt, studying the mark with visible unease.
"I'm with the people who clean up mistakes like you," he replied.
"Listen carefully. The gods didn't go silent on their own."
Arjun's heart pounded.
"They were locked away," the man continued. "And that mark on your hand? It's not calling them."
He paused."It's calling what replaced them."
The ground beneath them trembled.
From the end of the street, shadows began to stand up—peeling themselves off walls, cars, and corpses long forgotten.
The man stood quickly, drawing a blade carved with screaming symbols.
"Run," he ordered."Run before it answers."
From up top of a building something vast looked down.
And this time..It spoke Arjun's name. Arjun. Arjun?!