Valley of Death Read online

  CONTENTS

  Reviews of Warlock

  LIST OF CONTENTS

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Volume 3

  Title Page

  Volume 4

  Reviews of Warlock

  “An intriguing read! Interesting, informative and believable.”

  - Deccan Chroncile

  “Warlock traces the roots of Indian Tantrik activities.

  – The Asian Age

  “Every description makes one cringe page after page!

  – Mumbai Mirror

  “It is indeed hard to believe that ‘Warlock’ could possibly be the debut full length novel of an Indian author...it is so slick & smooth that it takes most authors over half a dozen books behind them to reach that level that Vickram E. Diwan has touched in his maiden effort. A truly edge of the seat crime-thriller laced deeply in Witchcraft & Tantric ritual that will simply give goosebumps to the readers.”

  – Dalip Shandil

  “Mr. Vickram E. Diwan is one of the finest writers we have today. His book ‘Warlock’ is a masterpiece.

  – Anuj Arjun (IIT Roorkie)

  “As the story gets unveiled incident by incident, chills of fear will be definitely felt by the readers. An interesting and thrilling narration is found which definitely makes the book a page-turner.”

  – Swapna Peri

  "Vickram E Diwan is successful in creating a mysterious world of Warlock and masterfully engaged his readers throughout the struggle of Payal in evil "Circus".”

  – Jitender Nath

  “A novel which revolves around Glamour and Sorcery, coupled with ambitions & treachery. Vickram's book is nothing less than a fast paced thriller that would keep you on the edge of your seats.”

  – Sarath Babu

  “A horror story that points out how little we know about ourselves.”

  – Kavita Singh

  “The story is spun in a manner similar to that of a movie, quite fast to move on with the story.”

  – Bhavya

  “Warlock by Vickram E Diwan is a fantasy/ horror mixed genre book. It has a supernatural element to it and the way some rituals are described, they will make you cringe.”

  – Akansha Mishra

  Vickram E. Diwan

  Warlock, valley of death (Fiction)

  © 2019 Vickram E. Diwan

  SPB Book no - 64

  First Edition: June 2019

  Cover Design: Shahnawaz Khan

  Editor: Dr. Runjhun Saxena

  Inner Text Setting: Nishant Parashar

  All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author or publisher

  Published by-

  Literati books

  (a subsidiary of Sooraj Pocket Books)

  Thane, Maharashtra

  Facebook- facebook.com/literatibooks

  Email ID: [email protected] & [email protected]

  www.soorajbooks.com

  Our books are available at:

  soorajbooks.com, Amazon.in, Kindle, and other online stores.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Dedicated with great devotion to Srinathji for his blessings.

  LIST OF CONTENTS

  REVIEWS OF WARLOCK

  TITLE PAGE

  DEDICATION

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  VOLUME 3: THE OCCULT WAR

  Chapter 1: THE INVOCATION

  Chapter 2: THE STORY THUS FAR

  Chapter 3: THE VIPER

  Chapter 4: THE WAR OF TANTRIKS

  Chapter 5: THE BLESSING & HAUNTING

  Chapter 6: THE STRIKE & REVIVAL

  VOLUME 4: THE EVIL SEASON

  Chapter 7: THE FRIGHT

  Chapter 8: THE DARKNESS OF THE SOUL

  Chapter 9: THE END GAME

  Chapter 10: THE EVIL LIVES ON

  Chapter 11: THE SPRING

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Dear readers,

  There are various people who have contributed to my journey as a writer and who have made it possible for me to share this book with you.

  Toronto

  Gina Caraffanti is like a Godmother. She gave me first break and published my short stories in her publication’s anthologies. She is also my lucky charm and her constant support and encouragement isone my strengths.

  Timothy Watson always encouraged me and advised me to never stop believing.

  Orange County, California

  Alan Nayes is a bestselling author and a dear friend; his critiquing and comments helped make the book better.

  Mumbai

  Anadi Subhanand is an author, publisher and mentor extraordinary. His trust in my abilities as an author helped me publish this book. He is the man who turned my lifelong dream into a reality and I will always be grateful to him for that.

  Dr. Runjhun Saxena is an accomplished author, qualified dentist and a guide. Her expert editing helped give the book its final shape.

  Amit Khan is a bestselling Author, screenplay writer and Director. His guidance, encouragement and support were the corner stone of my journey to the publication of this book.

  Delhi

  Aditya Vats is like a brother; he encouraged me and guided me throughout the publication of this book. A mere ‘Thank you’ will be insufficient to acknowledge his contribution.

  Hyderabad

  Mithlesh Gupta is an accomplished writer, editor, musician, actor, mimic and a dear friend. His constant ‘pep-talk’ and insights helped me during the gloomiest of my writing days.

  Bareilly

  Shahnawaz Khan made superb cover of the book and help capture the soul of the book. It was he who helped shape my thoughts and words and achieve an artistic beauty.

  Last but not the least I want to thank my parents for the lessons of struggle and never giving up in life that they taught me. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the constant support and belief of my better half Shweta, who believed in me when no one else did, and who was my only companion in my long & lonely years of struggle and obscurity.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Dear readers,

  I have accumulated unprecedented and wholly unexpected praise, affection and brickbats with the first book of the Warlock series. My personal & author Facebook, Instagram and Good Reads accounts and pages have been inundated with requests from readers and fans who want to connect with me. And as I share the second novel of the Warlock series with you, I want to mention a few people who have become an inseparable part of my journey as an author.

  Senior authors Parshuram Sharmaji and Abid Rizviji (Meerut) gave me fatherly affection and encouraged me with their blessings and freely shared their life experiences with me. Jitender Nath (Kurushetra) of ‘The Black Sparrow Musings’, Dalip Shandil (Delhi) of ‘Chhayankan Features & Model-Artiste Promoters’, Sarath Babu (Chennai) of ‘sarathbabu.in’, Kavitha Singh (M.P.) of ‘Kaffeinated Konversations’, Ankit Kunwar (Delhi) of ‘Pustak Samiksha’, Shashank Pandey (Patna) from ‘wondersbookblog’, Vikas Nainawal (Gurugram) of ‘Duibaat’, Aparna SA (Trivandrum), Ritesh, Hemant Singh and Ritesh Raj (Giridh), Rohit Bhatia (Jhumri Telaiya) and Minarva Priyadarshini (Bhubaneswar), Rohit Omar (Delhi), Hasan Almas (Delhi) and Devraj Chauchanji (Delhi) encouraged me with their rich praises for the book. I am also grateful to Suhail Mathur and Sanjiv Mathur
of ‘The BookBakers’, Sidharth Jain of ‘The Story Ink’ for their support.

  Tim Paxton (California) – an accomplished writer and curator of all things Horror and Editor and publisher of internationally acclaimed magazine ‘Monster’ honoured me by buying and praising my book. India’s premier paranormal investigators - Dr. Ujjal Gupta and Devraj Sanyal (Kolkata) of the Detectives of Supernatural (team DOS) found the book useful in their paranormal research work and recommended it for reading to their group. The most unusual and touching request, however, came from my sister Nikita and her husband Gaurav, who wanted me to name characters in my next book after them. It is indeed flattering for an author, who is only a couple of stories and one novel old.

  Akanksha Mishra and Bhavya thought that the book was only a one-time-read at best. However, what neither of them nor any other reader said was that the book was boring and unreadable – which is the fate of most fiction books these days.

  Last, but not least, I would like to assure you my readers that there are many new books and stories that I plan to share with you in the coming months and years...Warlock in only the beginning, only the first step of a long-long journey…as is beautifully expressed in one of my favourite Chinese proverbs: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

  Do connect with me on social media (Facebook/Instagram/Good Reads/Twitter) or email me your feedback. I do not live in an ivory tower or write just to please my own self. Your feedback – Good, Bad, Ugly is like oxygen for me and will help me improve as an author and write the stories that will dazzle you and lit up your imagination, keep you snuggled and warm in cold and dark nights.

  Vickam E. Diwan

  New Delhi, May 2019

  Email: [email protected]

  Facebook: https://bit.ly/2QzILoB

  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorvickramediwan/

  Twitter: @ vickramediwan

  Pin Interest: https://in.pinterest.com/vickramediwan/

  Amazon Author page: https://amzn.to/2OFDz4v

  Good Reads Author page: https://bit.ly/2Rxiqby

  Do not be deceived; God is not mocked,

  For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

  Galatians 6.7

  First, Moloch, horrid King, besmeared with blood

  Of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears;

  Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud,

  Their children’s cries unheard that passed through fire

  To his grim idol.

  Paradise Lost – Milton

  Volume 3

  THE OCCULT WAR

  Warlock – Valley of Death

  CHAPTER 1: THE INVOCATION

  The grass-covered ground near the farmhouse in Raul estate was lit by the powerful searchlights. Their light was also reflected in the small artificial lake; which was surrounded by trees in a semi-circle. Rudolf Schönherr was rowing a canoe; he stopped when he reached the middle of the lake that was darker as compared to its edges. Though he could have easily bought a modern boat with a diesel engine, Rudolf Schönherr preferred the quietness of the rowing canoe. He had put on the haunting music ‘I Bleed for You’ of his favourite composer Peter Gundry on the ‘smart-speaker’ that was kept beside him.

  Rudolf Schönherr was a tall, lean man with a broad forehead, a receding hairline, and piercing blue eyes. He had a Roman nose, square jaw, powerful biceps and long fingers. He spoke with a nasal voice and had a charismatic personality. A globetrotter, he kept a busy appointment-book, with performances at global dance competitions, world tours of top singers, and Bollywood shows throughout the year.

  The boat had been turned into a dinner table; a wooden board had been put in the middle, covered by a tablecloth. On it was casseroles with a variety of dishes, bottles of liquor, plates, bowls, glasses, tissues, everything. Rudolf Schönherr had invited his girlfriend Leena for a ‘lake-dinner’ and she was in the bungalow, changing into a swimsuit, while he had bought the boat in the middle. He was wearing a swimming costume that revealed his athletic body that women and female demons swooned and lusted over.

  “Harry!” Come here!” He ordered.

  “Greetings Master!” Said the ghost of Harry, as he materialized on the canoe in the middle of the lake, sitting on the other side of the ‘dinner-table’ from Rudolf Schönherr.

  “I have only a few minutes before Leena comes along; so be quick with your report.”

  “All preparations are complete for your invocation tomorrow. So that you can try and revive your powers, to deal effectively with Bharoo and your other enemies. But master! Do you think it will work?”

  “I will try to revive my occult powers by Bhadra Kali Saavri Sadhan – a powerful and Tamsik tantrik kriya. It shall take three, five days at most for me to complete the sadhna that shall make the Goddess Bhadra Kali appear and grant me my wish.”

  “Isn’t the Saavri manner of mastering an occult power also much more dangerous, even if it gets quick results and reduces the time needed for invocation and completion?” asked Harry after a pause.

  “The reaction and the result of using the Saavri method come quickly, the mantra or hymns used also appear odd and senseless, but it’s very effective. It is like swearing at someone or daring him/her/it to come before you. The reaction of even ordinary people challenged or swear at in such a manner is intense; what to say of powerful occult powers? That is why the power, which appears as a result of the invocation of saavri mantra, is in a ferocious rage and if the tantrik gets fearful or fumbles, it eliminates him. The person that uses such a quick and dangerous manner of invocation has to be prepared to placate the great occult power as soon as it appears, else he loses his sanity or is killed,” Rudolf Schönherr explained.

  “Aren’t you afraid that it may backfire on you?” Harry asked.

  “I have long since conquered fear,” Rudolf Schönherr boasted. “Also I have been never shy to take risks; I love to live life dangerously,” he added in the manner of a person who had scant regard for his own life or that of others. After a while, he said, “Tonight I can wine, dine and enjoy a woman as much as I please. From tomorrow, I will become a celibate and abstain from alcohol, meat, drugs, smoking and everything considered profane. For the entire duration of the invocation, I’ll have to live the life of a monk; as my Guru taught me is essential, for the success of a tantrik invocation, even if it is for a Tamsik power. I have ordered all the materials that I shall need for invocation and they have been delivered here today. I have also taken a week of leave from my Institute and other related activities and have given strict instructions that I should not be disturbed.”

  “You may know Harry – being a tantrik yourself – that the tamsik nature of their invocation makes a sadhak extremely irritable and violent. There are plenty of problems and disturbances that manifest themselves during the period of invocation - to distract, discourage the invocation and throw the Tantrik off course. The last thing I need is distraction and disturbances of the workplace; for they will interrupt my invocation and such a sudden break may even endanger my life, as the occult power shall swoop on me and try to eliminate me in any moment of weakness.”

  “Rudolf! Rudolf!” A female voice called from a distance.

  Turning his head he saw Leena, who was coming towards the lake from the direction of the bungalow and was waving her hand at him. She was his personal cuckoo; his ‘find’, the so called ‘queen of soap operas’, who had been voted as the ‘sexiest woman alive’ by several man’s magazines and radio shows. She was a woman in her early thirties with a voluptuous body and unquenchable thirst for alcohol & sex.

  He waved back at her and said, “That will be all Harry, dismissed!”

  “How will I get there?” Leena shouted from the edge of the lake.

  “Swim!” Rudolf Schönherr shouted as he jumped into the water of the lake from the boat, which was imbalanced momentarily.

  He swam like an experienced swimmer and was soon joined by Leena, who to
ok a few dips in the water, which made her hair wet and stick with her scalp. Away from the arc lights, glitz, glamour, heavy makeup and acting, she was a charming and regular young girl. Dazzled by the glamorous images beamed at them, not many people realized that television and movie actors were also ordinary people like them; with similar desires, wants, hunger, hopes, mood swings, fears, jealousies and insecurities of life.

  Rudolf Schönherr, however, could relate easily to someone like Leena, since he himself was no stranger to fame, public adulation and success. For him, she was an ordinary young girl, not some ‘star’ that could unsettle him. Besides they had also started their struggle together and went back a long way and their relationship had survived despite numerous fights, bitching and mutual infidelities, because on some level they both felt that they needed each other. Or perhaps they considered it prudent to stick with the known Devil, instead of an unknown God.

  The water of the lake was pleasantly cold and they both swam expertly; they even had a mock race from the edge of the lake to the canoe and vice-versa. Every time that he tried to catch Leena, she would escape out of his hold like a slippery fish. The sight of her wet skimpy bikini that was stuck to her youthful body made hot blood rush into Rudolf’s temple, as he ogled at her rounded bottom, on which her wet blue bikini was pasted, with lustful eyes. Taking the support of the boat with their elbows, while the rest of their bodies were in the water, they shared a hot and passionate kiss, before Leena threw him back and laughing naughtily swam away. Rudolf Schönherr followed her purposefully and soon caught up with her, to repeat the act.

  After swimming and enjoying themselves naughtily, they went to the canoe standing in the middle of the lake; Rudolf Schönherr climbed first and helped Leena mount it. They both wiped the water off their bodies with towels, after which Rudolf Schönherr lit up two thick candles, put in the middle of the ‘table’.