Anish suddenly felt a jolt of pain all over his body, which snapped him out of unconsciousness state.
It was a small room. Three people, other than Anish, were there. He wondered whether any of them were connected to the murder of the body. Seeing their behaviour, he relaxed a bit.
There was a doll on the side of the bed which had some hair wrapped around it and was ripped in many places.
Among the three of them, two were female. They were tall but a bit shorter than the man there. Their faces had no smoothness to them. They were wearing what seemed like a long piece of cloth wrapped around their waist, and a shirt-like thing on top. The man was wearing knee-length pants and a thin shawl on his upper body.
The man beside Anish said, "... injured..."
"What language are they speaking?" Anish thought.
Again the man said, "... injured..."
Anish, only understanding the word injured, slowly nodded. In that moment, everyone in the room stared at Anish in confusion.
"What is this place?" Anish asked.
Hearing that, the person who had been talking earlier looked at the others and shook his head. They talked among themselves.
"If I don't understand this language, how did I understand them talking about killing this body? Were they speaking a language I know?" Anish thought to himself.
The man came with a container. Inside it was some grain and something mashed together — the colour was greyish-white. He gestured at Anish to eat, putting his hand to his mouth, then held the container out to Anish.
"Are they trying to tell me to eat?"
Anish shook his head, trying to say no.
"Should I just leave? Well, it's awkward..."
Before leaving, Anish pointed at the doll. The ripped doll moved a little.
The people in the room were startled seeing that as well.
Did it just move? What?
Not staying here. Nope.
One of them tried to give the doll to Anish. Anish shook his head and waved his hand, saying no.
Then one of the females came forward and pointed at Anish's neck, then at the neck of the doll. It was ripped at the exact same place where he was injured.
"Black Magic? Voodoo? So it moved because it's a magic doll? And are those my hair then? Or this body's?"
Anish stood up abruptly, pointed at himself, then pointed at the door.
With some hesitation, they let Anish leave.
At the door, he looked back at those people and left the room.
The house was in a small market. It had a weird rotten smell mixed with something fragrant. A man to the right of the house was selling some kind of clothing item, but Anish didn't recognise what it was used for. The man looked at Anish without any expression. Across the road stood a larger building. Everything else was small stall-style on the ground. Almost every person was tall, like the people inside.
"Voodoo... voodoo...? They didn't seem like bad people though."
Anish saw a group of people heading towards the east.
"...Feast... eat... school..." the people in the group were discussing.
"School? Will there be anyone I can talk to? Great, there should be atleast a library, right?
...
I don't know this language. How am I understanding parts of it?"
Anish decided to follow them, hoping he could ask someone something or find some clues at the library. While following, he noticed a place with bloodstains and recognised it as where he had collapsed.
"So I wasn't too far from people, huh."
After walking for a while, he heard a voice from far away but didn't pay much attention.
"Viriya!!"
"Oi, Viriya!!..."
After a while, the person came up behind him and tapped on Anish's back.
The man was even taller than the rest of the people Anish had seen, almost like an alien. His face was a little roundish. His hair was braided in many parts and tied together at the back like a ponytail. He was wearing a kurta-type shirt with the sleeves rolled up over the elbows. Over the kurta, a long, sleeveless trench coat-type garment. His left hand had a burn mark from the wrist to the elbow. He was also wearing layered pants — or a dhoti — which was fluffy until below the knee, where it was tightly bound to the rest of both legs. His shoes were simple boots. In his hand, he held one or two pieces of cloth from that shop.
"Viriya."
"Who?
Me, Viriya?
The name of this body is Viriya?
And who is this? Is he somehow...
Ahhh..What do I say." Anish thought internally.
The person kept saying something to Anish, but he couldn't understand most of it. Many thoughts ran through Anish's mind, but he kept looking at the person blankly.
"I don't understand anything," Anish mumbled.
...
"I am not Viriya. I heard someone talking about killing her, and I woke up in her body."
Even though Anish knew the person in front of him might be the killer, looking at him, he noticed no obvious deception — or maybe he simply wasn't capable of reading faces. Still, he told him, hoping some kind of resolution would come of it.
___
The night before, Makriva and Viriya had settled into a one-bedroom room. They had come from Nanadayaka that morning to attend the Festival of Meeting Past Ones at Dibbanandassa Alankata Upavanam. Upavana was a school.
"Should I come with you?" Makriva asked.
"Ha! Ha! I am such a baby, come with me.
Now let me go," Viriya said, rolling her eyes at Makriva.
"I mean... if you are gone then I could be alone again with mom and dad, like old, old times..." Makriva teased Viriya.
Hearing this, Viriya started to playfully hit Makriva while Makriva tried to save himself.
"Remember, remember, you are way stronger than me. I am just a tiny, tiny human," Makriva said to Viriya.
"Well, you are human because you are adopted," Viriya replied.
"No need to throw that in my face," Makriva said, standing still.
"Well, I am sorry, but you started it," Viriya said defensively.
"I started it? Never mind, don't answer. But seriously, no need for me to come?" Makriva asked again.
"Nah, just come tomorrow, maybe a bit earlier than usual," Viriya said as she left the room.
After Viriya left, Makriva ate his dinner and went to sleep. In the morning, after waking up early, he cleaned himself and left for Upavana without eating anything.
On the way, he stopped at a shop and bought a pendant for Viriya and two caps for both of them.
After walking for a while, Makriva noticed Viriya heading to Upavana with a group of people.
"Now?
Shouldn't she be there already?"
"Viriya!!"
"Oi, Viriya!!..."
"When did she become deaf?
Are those ripped?"
After noticing Viriya couldn't hear him, he stopped calling after her and ran to tap her on the back.
"Viriya."
Viriya looked back at him as though she didn't know who Makriva was. She just looked at his face with a blank expression.
"Why are you here, shouldn't you be there already?
And why are your clothes ripped and blood-soaked?"
...
"Did you get into a fight?
Say something, what happened?"
".... ....." Viriya mumbled.
"What? What are you saying?
When did you learn a new language?"
After a few moments of silence, Makriva said, "Say something?"
Viriya stood there, then pointed at herself, shook her head and hands, then said "Viriya." She repeated this again and again.
"What? Do you mean you are not Viriya?
What happened to you?"
". .. ... Viriya . ..... .... ... .... ..... .... ... ... . .... .. .. ... ...."
Viriya said to him.
"What are you saying? You are not..."
"Why can't she understand anything, and what language is she speaking?"
"Should I bring her to Maam Khanti? But she is busy these days. Should I do something myself?"
"Come, Viriya," Makriva said.
Makriva had forgotten that Viriya couldn't understand him. Remembering that, he took Viriya's hand and almost dragged her towards Upavana.
Upavana was inside the woods, the main buildings situated on higher ground. Makriva slowed his pace while going up with Viriya. He had been here before and knew the general layout. In the middle was an octagonal water body, from which stairs went upward in every direction with empty space beyond. Right after that were eight buildings, one on each side of the water body, and after those buildings, empty space again.
After reaching, he asked a teacher if any empty rooms were available. The teacher showed him one. Makriva brought Viriya there. After thinking what to do he started playing a harmonica. Hearing it, Anish felt sluggish and slowly fell asleep.
Makriva left the room and noticed a person sitting outside was asleep, so he went and shook them awake.
Makriva headed towards the cooking area to look for Udaya Khanti. From outside, all that was visible was something mechanical stirring the food, and some people frying things manually.
"Hey, sorry to interrupt, but could you tell me where Maam Khanti is?" Makriva asked the first person he saw there.
"Maam Khanti? She is in there, see?" the person said.
"Can I go in? Or maybe call her out here?" Makriva asked.
"Ah, sure. Maam! Maam Khanti, this man is looking for you."
"Who? Oh, Makra? Did you all arrive late? Vira didn't come yesterday?" Udaya Khanti asked.
"About that — she left yesterday to come here, but this morning I found her heading here in a weird state. Her clothes were ripped, she was disoriented, not understanding Thamaily, and speaking in a strange language," Makriva said all in a single breath.
"I see, where is she now?"
"I asked Himasha sir for an empty room. She is sleeping in that room," Makriva replied.
"Good thing she is sleeping. Hmm... okay, so if you still want to help out now, you can. I can send someone to stay with her in that room, or you can stay there yourself. Things will be less chaotic around evening and I can check on her then," Udaya Khanti said with a slight smile.
"Okay," Makriva said and headed to Viriya's room.
"By the way, I'm letting you off today. If you don't lend a hand tomorrow, you will hear from me," Udaya Khanti playfully threatened.
"Yeah, sure, sure, whatever," Makriva said with a sarcastic smile.
On the way to the room, Makriva couldn't stop thinking about what was wrong.
"I shouldn't have said those things. Was that like a curse? I mean, it shouldn't be, right?" Makriva kept blaming himself for not going with Viriya.
He tried to remember exactly what he had seen that morning.
"Her clothes were ripped in many places — what happened to them? Some parts were soaked in blood. Was she in a fight? But she wasn't injured.
She did have some deeper scars. Were those new? But they were healed. Who could have healed her...
And her hand — the bangle. She didn't have the bangle. She just got it a little while ago. Is that why she's this disoriented? Should I tell Maam about that now?"
He decided to tell her in the evening when she would be free.