The Gravedigger of Qadim

AUTHOR BIO:

‘The Gravedigger of Qadim’ is Rohit’s sophomore novel, following the gritty slice-of-life contemporary fiction novel ‘Escape for Love’. He continues to be married to his work, a cinema aficionado, and a lover of strong coffee. In addition to his creative pursuits, Rohit is a corporate governance professional and a qualified member of the esteemed Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI).

BLURB:

In the serene mountain village of Qadim, Khalid Mansour, once a talented perfumer, becomes a tormented gravedigger after the tragic death of his beloved wife, Zainab. Bound by grief, Khalid finds solace among the graves until an ancient and malevolent talisman alters his life’s course and threatens Qadim’s very existence.

Brace yourself for an immersive journey where adventure, fantasy, and spine-chilling supernatural horror go hand in hand. Take a trip back in time to Qadim, where the lines between normal and paranormal, natural and supernatural, mundane and mystical become blurred. Let your imagination soar and enjoy the immersive and atmospheric experience this book offers.

EXCERPT:

It wasn’t until he was safely within the confines of his home that his nerves began to settle. With a deep sigh, he realized that he had been holding his breath for a long time. As he felt his muscles slowly uncoil, hunger pangs assaulted him, and he knew he needed sustenance to quell the nagging ache in his belly. With a sense of purpose, he made his way to the kitchen, ready to prepare himself a simple yet satisfying meal.

Khalid surveyed the ingredients he had at his disposal, his mind racing to concoct a satisfying meal. He settled on a hearty stew and set to work, dicing onions, garlic, and tomatoes before adding them to a pot brimming with tender lamb chunks. With a deft hand, he sprinkled in a medley of aromatic spices, including cumin, coriander, and cinnamon, and let the mixture simmer to perfection. As the stew bubbled away, he tended to a pot of barley, allowing the grains to slowly swell and absorb the flavorful broth. To complete the meal, he tossed together a crisp salad of fresh cucumbers and verdant parsley. The tantalizing aroma of the stew wafted through the air, making his mouth water with anticipation. He ladled a generous portion of the stew atop the steaming barley, finishing the dish with a flourish of fragrant parsley. Finally, he savored the fruits of his labor with a deep sense of satisfaction.

After enjoying the last few bites of his meal, Khalid let out a contented sigh. He tidied up the kitchen before making his way to the bedroom. He felt his eyelids grow unbearably heavy as he crawled under the covers and sank into the softness of his bed linens. His mind was free from worries, and his body was relaxed from the satisfying meal. The gentle hum of the night sounds provided a soothing lullaby as Khalid drifted off into peaceful slumber almost immediately. The moon cast a soft, silvery light upon his resting form and a cool breeze rustled the curtains as he sank deeper into sleep, his breathing slowing to a steady rhythm. The world outside faded away as he surrendered himself to the embrace of a restful night’s sleep.

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In the witching hour of the night, Khalid was violently torn from his slumber by a jarring crash that emanated from the kitchen. His heart pounded with terror, and his mind spun with fear as he sprang upright in bed. Disoriented and confused, he stumbled out of bed, his feet carrying him unsteadily toward the source of the commotion. Dismay washed over him as he witnessed the scene before him: the pot of stew he had meticulously prepared now lay shattered into a thousand pieces, its delectable contents a sticky mess on the earthen floor. He was struck with confusion and wondered about the cause of this disruptive event.

Khalid struck a match and lit a single, flickering candle that cast creepy shadows across the kitchen. Slowly and methodically, he examined every inch of the kitchen and found that the shattered pot and its contents were the only things out of place. His grip tightened on the meat cleaver he had grabbed from the kitchen counter as he tiptoed from room to room, checking for any sign of an intruder. Beads of perspiration dripped from his brow onto the earthen floor, and on a couple of occasions, the meat cleaver threatened to slip from his sweaty palm.

It felt like an eternity before he reached the last room and confirmed that he was alone in the house. Just as he turned to leave, a quick movement of his shadow caught his peripheral vision, twitching unnaturally in the stillness of the room. It was a fleeting yet incongruous aberration in the stillness of the room, and for a moment, he felt like his shadow was about to strike him with its own shadowy meat cleaver. Khalid quickly spun around to face his silhouette, but the moment he did, it appeared entirely ordinary, without any eerie or abnormal characteristics. He stared at his faceless counterpart for a few moments before dismissing the whole thing as a trick of the light, and he slowly made his way back to the kitchen, his senses still on high alert.

With a heavy heart, Khalid set to work cleaning up the mess, grabbing a broom to sweep the shattered pieces of the pot into a corner. The scent of the stew still hung in the air, teasing him with memories of what had been. As he wiped the remnants of the stew from the floor, he speculated about what could have caused the crash in the kitchen. Had a rat knocked over the pot? But there were no footprints to be seen whatsoever.

Perhaps I was careless, he thought.

Suddenly, the sound of bare feet scampering toward the bedroom made Khalid’s blood run cold. He quickly turned around, trying to grab the meat cleaver, but it slipped from his sweaty palm and clattered to the floor. Horrified at his clumsy mistake, Khalid’s heart raced as he stared at the doorway to the kitchen with bated breath. The silence was nerve-wracking, and the seconds stretched on endlessly. It then dawned on him that whoever had scampered to his bedroom was playing a twisted game of hide and seek. He quietly picked up the knife and got to his feet.

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I’m going to get you this time, he thought as he clenched the cleaver and tiptoed to the doorway. But as he approached the threshold of the kitchen, an overwhelming sense of dread engulfed him. It was as if the air itself had become thick and suffocating.

Something compelled him to look behind him, and what he saw made his stomach drop. The potsherds he had swept to the corner of the kitchen were no longer there. Instead, they were floating in the center of the room, suspended in mid-air. Khalid’s eyes widened in terror as he watched the fragments of pottery crumble to a cloud of fine dust and gradually descend to the earthen floor like a macabre snowfall. 

Khalid woke up with a start at the crack of dawn gasping for breath as his heart pounded like a hammer against his chest. For a few minutes, he was disoriented, his mind struggling to separate the remnants of a nightmare from reality. Slowly, he gathered his bearings, and with unsteady limbs, he pushed himself out of bed and onto his feet.

His mind raced with questions, each more terrifying than the last as he lurched toward the kitchen hoping to find some semblance of normalcy. Relief flooded over him as he saw the pot of stew still resting on the stove where he had left it the night before.

So it was just a nightmare, he thought as he intuitively approached the pot and lifted the lid, expecting to take in a whiff of the stew. But to his horror, the pot was empty, not even a drop of broth remaining. He reached out and touched the surface of the pot, as if hoping to find some hidden cache of stew that he might have missed. But the pot was cold to the touch, and he could feel the emptiness within it.

“Ya Allah, what is going on here?” Khalid mumbled, bewildered by the inexplicable events. His body suddenly gave out, and before he knew it, he collapsed onto the kitchen floor, blacking out from the profuse consternation and unfathomable bafflement.