Present Day, Ladakh, India
Embraced by the darkness, Jason sat at the high window as the third day of the week crept to
be the fourth. His weight rested on the muddy wall. The mist, indifferent to time, kept on rolling. Jason mildly hoped to witness that pure moment when the snow would begin to fill the enormous landscape in front of him on that moonless night. Earlier in the evening, the heaven gave him some hope by shedding a few flakes but then nothing more. The looming snowfall was tempting him with its own sweet time.
The room was illuminated by a single lantern resting near his study desk. Surrounded by a
glass case, the flame flickered steadily. On most nights, Jason admired the dim reflection of objects in the room on the semi brick wall. Tonight was one of those nights. He lowered the flame further. Without the sliver of light, the window only reflected what was beyond. He had a clear view of the night beyond the panes. If only, he could see how his life was going to change, just as clearly as he was able to see the valley beneath his shadow. If only.
Moments like these were far and few in Jason’s life. His life was split into two parts. The first
part was the nightmares and the second was what happened after that - The analysis, the postmortem.
But it wasn’t always like this. Jason was once a happy kid. He had a normal life like other
children of his age. But then one night it all changed. His life changed.
Adrian Cage - Jason’s father was a Pastor in Niranam St. Mary’s Orthodox Syrian Church in
Kerala, India. A devout Malayali Christian. He was married to Yasmina Demello. When they both didn’t even know what marriage meant to them, at that tender age when they both had just begun to understand the amazing gifts of life, their parents decided to get them hitched. Yasmina first left and then rejoined and then finally completed her studies to be a nurse in a local eye care center.
Time and tide wait for none but for those two as if time had no meaning. They were both in so much love with each other that they when the doctor told them that Yasmina could not get pregnant, Adrian considered it nothing more than a speed bump in their happy life. Even God couldn’t resist rewarding them with a gift when it saw that the couple was not disappointed but was rejuvenated to support each other to the fullest.
In the blood train massacre of 1982 in which everyone was found dead barring one newborn.
The child was found in the deserted train by the police. The other passengers in that train were found to be dead, their brains missing. Adrian and Yasmina adopted the child four months later despite reservation from their respective families. The child was born out of a paranormal carnage and it only meant one thing for them, the child was cursed.
For Adrian and Yasmina, it meant only one thing that if the newborn had survived that bloodbath then God himself has blessed that child. They named him Jason meaning Healer - the Lord of salvation in Greek and Hebrew mythology.
The neighborhood wasn’t convinced and it wasn't ready to be convinced either. The schools
denied entry to Jason so he was primarily home schooled. But at the age of twelve, one school was persuaded to take him in but within two days Jason was back at home continuing with his home education.
What happened in the school in those two days was something no one wanted to talk about.
Jason was an outcast by birth. He didn’t know why only he survived and others died but he
had no one who could answer that for him.
With only his father and mother to talk to, Jason turned towards books in his solitude. He read all Vedas, Shashtra, Indian, Egyptian, Hebrew and Mesopotamian mythology and sacrosanct scriptures. As if in that house only two people lived and Jason was a shadow who only surfaced in the darkness, when others can’t see him, can’t judge him.
As soon as he got a chance, Jason left for John Hopkins University to study medicine on a scholarship. It was better for him and for everyone else too. His relatives who had never spoken to him came to meet his parents on Jason’s last day in India. Maybe showing their happiness that the reason for their grief is finally going far-far away.
But in 2005, tragedy struck on that fateful night. Jason’s parents were killed in 2005 under
mysterious circumstances in their home. Jason immediately took a flight back home. The burial was done in the crematorium ground of the Niranam St. Mary’s Orthodox Syrian Church where Adrian was the Pastor.
Everything went out normally except nothing was. The post mortem report indicated that
Adrian's death was caused because his body was found without any internal organs. The body was clean with no incision or surgery marks on the body. While Yasmina’s post-mortem report indicated that death was due to the presence of multiple organs in her body. Her body was found with two hearts, four lungs, two brains and so on. The extra organs identified were of Adrian Cage’s body. No incision or surgery marks on her body.
Local Police marked the case as unsolved and closed without any further inquiry. It was not a
case of natural death but no one wanted to dig further. Jason was handed over those reports and he left for the USA. Now he had no one to come back for.
Six months later, Jason had to leave John Hopkins. The reason - He could not sleep. His
nightmares were not letting him.
That night in the Monastery of Phugtal Ghompa, Jason was more a guest and less a monk.
Looking at his veins and the cut marks reminiscing him of all the instances when he decided to take his own life but failed spectacularly. Thinking about his life and how he had scrapped over the last decade, bit by bit, second by second. Since his parent died and these visions started, he had vast swathes of time at his disposal but no sleep. Jason understood that time takes a lot of time to reveal its true intent. He was waiting that how it would unravel for him.
The monastery overlooked the Lingti Tsarap River and a massive canyon. A rope bridge
swung at a distance over the river. Jason thought of reaching out and walking on that bridge when the snow would fall. But neither the snow arrived nor the perfect moment just like Lisa who always remained like a mirage in his life akin to that perfect moment. Lisa Trede, The only girl he ever loved and who was now the wife of a US Senator. Another unfulfilled dream of his.
He sat in that small room situated on a sheer cliff face in Ladakh, lonely and directionless.
Five months back he found this monastery and since then he had not gone anywhere else. The fact was he had nowhere to go. Nowhere to go where he could hide from his nightmares.
The monastery rested on a foundation of twigs and mud at a height of over 3,800 meters. The
honeycombed structure was home to some sixty monks who stayed, prayed, read and served in those small composites.
That night the primeval forests that wrapped the rising slopes were themselves cloaked in
darkness. From the third-floor window, Jason could see only part of the deep front yard and the blacktop lane that cleaved it. Four small lantern posts converged light in round pale pools.
His room was in the north-west wing of the abbey. The ground floor featured prayer rooms.
Monk rooms occupied the higher and the highest floors. As he watched in anticipation of the storm, a ray of white light drifted across the yard through the lantern light.
The monastery had only one creature that wasn’t a monk or a guest.
An outsized cat. Larger than an average homely one yet sharper for any walking piece of
meat. A mannish feline. Entirely white who moved with the grace of fog. Jason named him Don but never called him aloud and never in front of anyone else.
The reason for this, he gave to himself was something like staying as discreetly as one could
and because Don was his only companion since childhood who hadn’t left him till now.
The real reason was that Jason was the only one who could see Don.
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Akay Brothers are the authors of the Jason Cage Series.
Check Out the Book
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