A man wearing formal wear was coming home from the office late at night. He was already late getting home. The cool night breeze hit his face, making him shiver from the cold, but he kept his eyes open, navigating the road on his bike.
"I really got late today. Fuck the boss. He always does this to me," he sighed. "My wife is going to scold me again tonight for coming home late."
He took a turn onto a particularly empty road. On its right side was an open ground, and on the other side was a lane of houses.
His eyes landed on a man wearing only a loincloth, who gestured for him to stop.
"Thanks, brother. You're a lifesaver. I'm in trouble. Can you give me a cigarette or some tobacco?"
Mukesh, the man riding the bike, stared at him for a second.
"Don't you feel cold in those clothes? That's barely even clothing."
The man in the loincloth just laughed.
Mukesh got irritated. A slight frown appeared on his face.
"Did I make a joke? You stopped me for a cigarette in the middle of the night, and I'm already late."
Mukesh placed a cigarette into the man's palm.
The man lifted the cigarette with a strange grace that made Mukesh uncomfortable. He watched as the man lit it and took a deep puff, as if he had been starving for it.
Mukesh's ears twitched as he heard the sound of bones twisting.
He looked down, and his face turned pale.
The man's feet literally turned backward.
He looked back at the man, whose eyes had started glowing red.
Mukesh fell off his bike. His legs trembled so badly that he couldn't even stand. He crawled backward.
"Who... who... are you?"
The man didn't answer. He was lost in taking another puff of the cigarette, his eyes half-lidded. He slowly rolled his neck.
He threw the cigarette aside.
His body started becoming larger. His beard and hair grew long. His skin turned ash-black while his eyes glowed red.
Mukesh couldn't even find his voice to scream. His eyes remained fixed on the scene unfolding before him.
He muttered only one word.
"Khavis..."
Khavis looked at Mukesh and stepped into his personal space with his backward feet. In a deep voice that rumbled through his chest, he spoke.
"Manav... wrestle."
Just two words.
He lifted Mukesh to his feet and started wrestling with him.
"AHHHHHHH!"
Mukesh screamed as he got bodied by the ten-foot giant demon, who slammed him from one side to the other.
Despite his appearance, Khavis moved like an expert wrestler.
Mukesh was unable to do anything except scream in pain.
He tried to cover his face as Khavis slammed him onto the road again, but that caused his fingers to break.
"AGHHH... MY FINGERS! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME? LET ME GO!"
He tried to punch Khavis in the face, but Khavis didn't let him go.
He lifted Mukesh and squeezed him so tightly in his embrace that Mukesh vomited everything he had eaten.
Khavis let him go, grabbed him by the leg, and ran around, dragging Mukesh along the road.
Khavis looked like he was enjoying it.
At the end, he lifted Mukesh and, with all his might, delivered a spinebuster.
Khavis stood up and looked at Mukesh, whose clothes were torn and soaked in blood.
He lay dead on the road, blood flowing from his head, eyes, nose, and ears.
The next day, the police arrived at the scene. It had happened in Amrut Nagar, where Vikram lived.
A crowd gathered around Mukesh's dead body as it was loaded into an ambulance. Chandra was also present. He had witnessed the battle between Vikram, King, and Sadhna at the hospital, so he believed Mukesh's death wasn't a simple case.
"How did he die?" he asked the man standing beside him.
"Don't know, but it looks like some sort of gang attacked him. It's weird, though. No one heard any noise."
Police officers started clearing the area as reporters arrived.
"Go home. There's nothing to see here," one officer said to the group of reporters.
A reporter pushed a microphone toward him.
"What do you have to say about this death? Do you think it's the work of a gang, or did someone kill him to take revenge?"
The constable prevented them from getting too close to the crime scene.
"Look, we've sent the body for a forensic examination. Until then, we can't say much."
He turned away from the reporters.
He returned to the local police station and grabbed a cup of chai from a small stall nearby.
"Ram Ram... the whole day is going to be a headache."
His fellow constable looked at him.
"You look tense. What happened?"
He looked back at him.
"The dead body I witnessed..."
He sighed, sounding exhausted.
"It was too brutal."
He then went back inside the station.
News channels began covering the incident.
Vikram, sitting in his room, watched the news on his phone.
"They blurred the whole body. They're saying it was the work of a gang, but no one heard any noise. Residents are claiming this."
Power looked at the screen thoughtfully.
"Interesting. No one heard a sound, yet he was killed this brutally... Maybe another Awakened user like Sadhna, but this one looks dangerous."
She looked at Vikram.
"You need to stop him."
Vikram exhaled heavily.
"Knew it. You were going to say that."
He stood up, wore his tracksuit over a white T-shirt, and left the house for the location.
Meanwhile, Chandra was still there with nothing special to do. He stood with a group of boys making their own theories.
"I'm telling you, Fisherman Anna did this. He's spreading his influence across the entire underworld."
Chandra quietly distanced himself from their ridiculous speculation.
Vikram and Power arrived at the scene.
As soon as Power stepped onto the road, she felt a gentle push against her.
She looked at Vikram.
"Yes, I felt it too," Vikram said.
Both of them became serious.
Today she was wearing a normal dress, nothing fancy, but she still looked fabulous.
Every guy's eyes darted toward her.
"Hey, look at her."
Another chimed in.
"She looks like she walked straight out of a movie."
Power didn't even glance at them.
She looked at the chalk outline the police had made where Mukesh's body had been found. The area was off-limits. Constables weren't allowing anyone to come near while the forensic team searched for evidence.
Power noticed a cigarette sealed inside an evidence pouch.
"I think I know who did this."
Vikram looked at her.
"Who?"
Power glanced over her shoulder.
"Let's get off this road first."
Chandra noticed Vikram and started following them.
After following them for ten minutes, Vikram disappeared. Only Power was walking.
She suddenly stopped and turned around with a smirk.
"You're not that good at following people."
Vikram placed a hand on Chandra's shoulder from behind.
"Got you. Why are you following us?"
Chandra was stunned.
He looked at Vikram.
"He just moved so fast and appeared behind me like it was nothing."
"So it really wasn't a dream. You have some kind of powers."
Vikram simply shrugged.
"I don't think you had anything to do with that murder."
"No, but that girl said she might know who did it."
Both of them looked at Power.
She sighed.
"Fine, I'll tell you. I think a Khavis possesses this road."
Vikram and Chandra looked at her in confusion.
"Khavis?"
They spoke in unison.
"A Khavis is a spirit created when a warrior or fighter dies a violent death," Power explained.
Chandra replied,
"Yeah, I heard a rumor that Fisherman Anna's men killed a wrestler who lived nearby a few days ago and took one of his organs."
Power clapped her hands as if the puzzle had been solved.
"Then it's one hundred percent the work of a Khavis. It targets people who travel alone at night. It asks them for anything related to tobacco. If the person gives it what it wants, it reveals its true form and starts wrestling with them until sunrise."
Vikram folded his arms across his chest.
"So that man died in a wrestling match. We need to do something about this Khavis."
Chandra looked at him.
"I have an idea, even if it sounds insane."
Vikram narrowed his eyes.
"Why are you so eager to help?"
Chandra answered smoothly,
"I live near this place. If the Khavis continues to terrorize this area, it'll eventually affect me too. So I need to get rid of it."
Power smirked.
"Pragmatic. I like that. So what's the plan? Are we using you as bait? Because, you know, the Khavis won't appear if there's more than one person."
Chandra looked at her.
"Fine. Tonight I'll walk down that road alone. You two stay on standby, ready to finish it once it appears."
As Vikram and Power headed home, Vikram kept thinking about Chandra.
"That guy... do you think he's an Awakened user? Because if not, then why is he risking his life?"
Power thought for a moment.
"Human nature is so complex. He said he wants to get rid of the Khavis before it becomes a problem for him... such a paranoid person."