BEAST

It was the first day of my posting as a forest officer in the jungles of Ratourgarh.

I was admiring the jungle from my cabin and breathing easy

when I got the news

that the dead body of a villager

who used to work for the Forest Department was found in the jungle

and people are gathering there.

As soon as I got the news, I took out my gypsy

and reached straight to the location.

The condition of the dead body was such, that someone had opened him up and placed him in front.

Some people were saying that the poor guy became the leopard's prey

and some were making up stories about a leopard man.

I looked closely at the scars, and in my experience, they were like those of a leopard.

But something was different that I was unable to understand.

If the leopard killed him, then why did he leave him here?

Because Leopards are those hunters of the jungle who grab their prey

and climb up to the branches of any tree and then peacefully feast.

I was thinking all this when a villager said,

"Oh brother, one more got hunted. I think this Leopard man will take everyone's life"

Listening to him, I said,

"Stop making these nonsense stories you people, and what is a Leopard man?"

"What is it? That I will tell you, sir. Leopard Man, who is neither human nor leopard.

Means the torso was of humans and its head and limbs were like those of a leopard."

Hearing him, I got furious and said,

"What nonsense are you talking about don't simply create a rumor

I understand everything behind the story of this Leopard man surely something else is cooking."

"Yes sir

after all we are village illiterates what we say will only sound nonsense.

But it is also true that Leopard Man only killed many officers before. "

What he said was true.

For many years officers in this post of Ratourgarh have been getting killed

and everyone's bodies have been found in this way, all opened up.

Anyways,

I was sent here so that the disease of Leopard Man could end.

That's why I chased away the crowd of villagers

and sent the body for a postmortem.

Along with that, I assured the family of the deceased that I would help them get compensation from the government.

After everyone left, I stayed there for a while

and stood near the car, thinking about something when my assistant said,

"Sir let's go. They say it is not safe to stay in the jungle for too long"

Hearing him, I laughed and said,

" I am a forest officer

and if we only get scared, then who will save these poor animals from the greedy animals.

Anyway, you stay here I will just take a round ahead and come back."

As I moved away from that place,

it started drizzling but not the kind to get wet.

I spread both of my hands and looked at the sky peeking over this dense forest.

The raindrops had just touched me when I heard the grunting sound of a leopard.

Then the weather also flipped and black clouds started spreading, and it was dark everywhere.

That is why, for my safety, I grabbed my pistol

and while loading it, I looked at the same direction and followed the sound.

I had just gone a bit ahead when I sensed some movement in the bushes.

Before I could do anything, I saw a leopard slowly coming towards me from the bushes.

I started moving back out of fear.

Then the leopard roared loudly and kept moving around me while looking at me.

The only option to get rid of the leopard was my pistol.

That is why I fired in the air

and, hearing the sound, the leopard ran away and vanished into the jungle, and I felt relieved.

But I sensed that there was still someone around me.

Then, as I saw behind, some human figure was running away in the bushes.

Before I could run towards it my assistant called me from behind.

"What happened, sir? I heard a gunshot. "

"Nothing, it was just a leopard, it ran away. Let's go.

" As I said this my assistant also started walking behind me.

Then we took the cars from there and went straight to the office.

It was so hectic that I wanted to go straight to my rest house

and my assistant also said

"Sir, all this will keep happening here come i will show you your rest house."

I also agreed and said

"Ok and get all the files related to Leopard Man. I need to solve this puzzle soon.

After all who is this cannibal spreading the fear of leopards."

Saying this, I sat in the car with my assistant with some files.

He started the car and drove towards the rest house.

The weather was still like a cold morning

as if the morning was trying to happen but the sun was not ready to come out.

We reached the rest house.

My assistant kept my luggage inside, along with the files.

Then I came and sat in the drawing room and looking at the files, asked him,

"What is the story of this leopard man according to you?"

It's a curse sir, a curse! Curse of the tribals.

Sir, don't mind, but the concept of forest officer is fairly new.

But it is the tribals

who have been protecting the jungles for centuries who were chased away from their own home.

Not only chased out but their entire lineage was slaughtered

and they cursed with this leopard man."

Hearing him, I turned the pages of the file and said

"But according to the reports it was not tribals

but a bunch of rebels who used to loot the people around here and they even had weapons."

Hearing me speak about reports he laughed and said

"Reports are not only made, but they are also created.

In these few pages, the forest officer of that period has hidden one of his dark secrets.

It was about that time when the forest officer, for his own profit,...

He was speaking when I withdrew my attention from him and said,

"Who is peeking from the door come inside."

When I said that,

peeking from the door, two beautiful deer-like eyes with a beautiful and curvy body came and stood before me.

From her clothes, she appeared to be from the countryside

and had covered her entire body with a single piece of saree.

But looking at her melodious eyes, marks on her chin

and her lips appeared as if god had crafted her with great leisure.

I was drowning in her attractiveness, but getting myself away from all that, I said

"Who is she?"

"It's Leela, sir! She has been taking care of every forest officer here for the last 10 years.

Okay, sir, I'll go now.

If you want anything, Leela is here all the time at your service. "

After saying this, my colleague left the resthouse without completing the story.

Then

as soon as he left, I signaled Leela to leave

and sat on the sofa reading the files.

In between, I did not know when my eyes shut.

When I opened my eyes, I looked at the clock.

It was 12 o'clock at night

and there was food on the table.

Probably watching me sleep, Leela had just left food on the table.

I was about to eat when some strange sound

started coming from behind the resthouse,

so I got up and moved towards that side.

As soon as I opened the back door, the sound became clear,

which was coming from the forest, so I burned the torch there

and moved in the same direction.

As soon as I went deep inside the forest,

I found that

someone is hiding behind the cover of a big tree, but when I came near, I saw no one there,

The bats hanging above that tree by the light of my torch took off in such a way that I was shocked from the inside.

My heart, thinking of the story of the leopard man was getting scared

but I don't know which mystery my mind was trying to solve.

Now that sound also stopped.

Then I sensed someone in the bushes.

As I turned around to look

someone attacked my back in such a way that it felt

as if some sharp nails had snatched away half kilo of flesh from my body.

With this attack, I fell straight to the ground.

I was about to get up once again when I was again attacked from above the trees,

but this time I swung the torch in such a way that the fire hit its claws and it got injured and ran away.

But due to all this my torch extinguished completely

and me still being in the jungle was like inviting death.

So I somehow reached the rest house from there.

When I reached, I saw the mark on my back,

it was exactly like the one on the dead body found in the jungle

who, according to people, was killed by the leopard man.

But why is leopard man killing only those related to the forest department?

I quickly took out the file from where the story of Leopard Man began

and to know the story of the other side, I called my assistant.

Then Leela came in with hot water and turmeric paste.

She also had wounds on her hands. I asked but she said she got burned while cooking.

She cleaned my wound with warm water and started applying turmeric paste.

Meanwhile, my assistant walked in "Sir, what happened sir?"

"Nothing your leopard man had attacked.

Leela, you go I will call you later.

" As soon as Leela left, I signaled my assistant to take a seat and asked,

"Leela is the same girl who survived among the tribals but was not found by anyone, right?"

Hearing me, my assistant started sweating

and started stammering while saying,

"Yes that is Leela.

She was 14 years old at the time and I knew these monsters would kill her too, like the rest.

I could save her so I saved her.

The poor girl saw everyone die in front of her own eyes

and went into such trauma that she never spoke till today.

But sir, how do you know this? "

On his question, I smiled and said, " She is in no trauma.

Thing is that when I was attacked in the jungle then I also attacked with the fire torch

which hit it in the hands and according to what I saw, I can say that those were not real claws

and there were also broken bracelets which she wears.

When I came back I saw her hands were also burned, and she didn't have that bracelet either.

There was only the wound,

and how did she know that I was injured when I never said anything to her and

she brought medicine for me.

It must be Leela

who is taking revenge of her rebelious people by becoming the leopard man

or spreading fear of the leopard man and doing some other stuff in the jungle. "

I was saying this

when Leela, wearing leopard-like claws in her hands, leaped towards me saying

" Not rebels, they were my people whom your officers killed by cheating.

I am the rebel who has been killing you people to take my revenge. "

In between our scuffles, she said all this to me.

I somehow gained control of her

and removed the claws from her hands, threw them away

and made her sit there showing my pistol.

Then I told my assistant,

"What is she saying? What does she mean?

After I asked, my assistant told me the 10-year-old story

where her entire tribal family was killed.

Once upon a time

one of the tribesmen came away from the jungle to the rest house

where the kids of the forest officer were playing

but as soon as the kids saw the tribal person

they started crying out of fear.

The tribal man tried to calm them down

but the forest officer thought that he was harming his kids

so he beat him up and chased him away.

That same evening the forest officer met his businessman friend at a party.

He told him all this to him

and said that he wanted to kill all the tribals.

His friend said,

"I will come to your office tomorrow and tell you a plan

that even though the snake will die and the stick will not break."

He came to the office and said

that the tribal lands were full of diamonds worth millions and billions.

But as the tribals are there, they can't get the land.

Therefore, the forest officer should declare these rebel gangs and kill them.

They both could have profited from that, and they did.

Those innocent people were killed, and only Leela survived.

She couldn't kill the forest officer then as she was young,

but after him, whoever came as the forest officer,

she kept killing them becoming the leopard man,

hoping that the same forest officer would return who killed her family,

but he never came.

Now how could I tell them both

that how could that forest officer come back

because after leaving this place he and his whole family died in a car accident.

Perhaps he deserved it for the sins he had committed.

When I explained all this to Leela,

she started crying and screaming

that she couldn't avenge her people with her own hands

Hearing her tragic story,

I also felt sad for her.

So, I did not file any report against her

because what she has gone through we can't even imagine.

But I also explained to her that the feeling of revenge only brings destruction.

To bring change, revolution is needed.

So, with the help of me and my assistant,

she took the legal way to avenge her people

and the businessman was punished.

Even though it was after 10 years,

the guilty person was caught

and the fear of the The leopard man

was gone from people's minds as no more incidents took place after that.

Now this entire tribal village is a national treasure,

where the last heir of the tribals, Leela,

informs the people coming there about her community.