Good bye John

Father Sebastian walked towards the door. He opened it and looked back at her for one last time. She was not moving. And there was no sign of life. He closed the door and walked away thinking that one of his problems was solved.

A while passed, Priya was still lying on the bed. She slowly opened her eyes. She looked around to make sure there was no one. The cat was still there, he was watching her. She exhaled like she was exhausted. She closed her eyes and stood there for a moment. Then she started speaking,

"Yeah… you were right John. Father Sebastian tried to kill her. She was asleep. Thank God I reached in time. I possessed her before he tried to kill her. Oh don't worry, she's fine. Still sleeping I think, but I'm not sure. No, I'll manage it. You just finish your job and get back after that. Okay bye."

That was the moment which revealed that the person who stood there was Natasha in Priya's body. The cat jumped out of the window and walked away. Natasha sat on the bed and waited for the return of John.

John was worried about Priya and Natasha. But the place where he headed was more important so he tried to focus on that. He traveled a long way and then took a turn to the right. The Path completely went through the forest. It looked like no one in the past days ever went through that way. John didn't reduce his speed and headed somewhere that way.

In the end of traveling a few hours, he reached a lake. He stopped the vehicle and stepped out of it. He walked towards a big tree beside the lake and there was a small house made of wooden plank. There was someone sitting under the big tree. John reached close to him, it was a man who looked like an ape. He was sitting under there like he's meditating. He asked without opening his eyes,

"June… It's been a long time. You have grown. What brings you here child?"

The ape man talked to him like he knew John. John sat in front of the guy and said,

- "I seek guidance master."

The ape man opened his eyes. He said,

"June… I have told you before, didn't i? You can only ask to be my apprentice when you realize who you are. Now do you even know your true self?"

John nodded like he didn't know. He refused to let go that easily. He said,

"I'm just a child master compared to the greatness of someone like you. You're the wisest man I've ever seen. That is why I came here even after the seniors forbade me to meet you. I know you won't teach me anything that easily. But I'm not going to give up this time. I'm not going to move till you give me a chance."

The ape man looked at John and saw his determination. He started thinking. After a while he said,

"June… I'm giving you a chance as you asked. You have to go to the middle of the jungle. There you will see a golden deer. You have to capture it and bring it back to me dead or alive. But be warned my child. It's not an easy task. You will face great danger in the jungle. There are poisonous snakes visus animals and traps set by nature itself. even if you get passed through, the guardian of the jungle will meet you in the middle of the jungle and he will kill you. It's a suicide mission if you think about it. And my suggestion is not to go inside there."

John started thinking. He stood up and said,

"I'm going."

The ape man smiled and said,

"That's a good idea. Just go back to the church and find another way."

John looked at him and said,

"I said I'm going to the jungle to retrieve the golden deer."

Still the ape man smiled. John knelt in front of the ape man and the ape man put his hand on John's head and blessed him.

He warned John,

"If you get into the jungle, do not go to the spotlights you see in the darkest parts."

John nodded in agreement and decided to go there. John walked right towards his vehicle. But before he entered it he felt like it's wiser to go there by foot. He took his bag from the vehicle and walked towards the jungle.

John went deep inside. He realized that the deeper he went the darker it gets. On the way he saw a brighter place. He walked towards it. Suddenly John remembered the ape man's words. So he avoided the spotlight.

John walked forward. He felt like something was guiding him towards his goal. He also felt something bad was about to happen.

John increased his speed and he felt he's getting closer at the same time it's moving away. On the way he saw a place. It was brighter than the other places but it didn't look like a spotlight. Still he wanted to avoid it. It's not like he's afraid of dying but he believed he had a lot to do before he could say goodbye to the world.

John looked around. There was no other way to move forward but to go through the place with a wider light. The ground was completely in sand which also made him suspicious. All other places were covered in leaves or grass.

After waiting there for a while he decided to go through it. Slowly he walked through it. He was careful in every step but he felt the danger coming towards him. Slowly he started feeling that the ground was pulling him inside. He realized it's a quick sand field and tried to run. Which made the sand pull him more faster.

John realized that moving too much will only increase the speed of the quicksand. So he stopped moving. But that wasn't enough. He was sinking but slowly.

He searched for a way to get a grip but nothing was helping him. The sand made it to the top of his chest. He closed his eyes.

Suddenly John realized something was touching him. He opened his eyes and saw a tree root which looked like a rope was on top of him. He also saw a monkey standing on top of a tree branch and acting crazy. John realized it's trying to tell him to grab it and pull it. He grabbed hold on to it and used his maximum strength to pull him back to the surface.

Slowly John came out of the sand he pulled the roots till he completely came out of the sand area. He looked at the quicksand and realized that this is the trap the master was talking about. He felt relieved and looked at the monkey that helped him. He thanked the monkey and it started jumping on the tree branch and laughing.

John continued his quest. Within minutes he reached a place which looked like heaven. It felt calm and quiet. He saw a lot of flowers and they are giving the air an amazing smell. John took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

He slowly opened his eyes and saw a deer that was eating grass and standing in the middle of the flowers in the spotlight. He felt something different about the deer because it was yellow in color.

Suddenly John found out that this is the golden deer that the master asked him to capture. John quickly hid himself in the grass and approached it slowly. John didn't know how to capture it so he opened the back pack and pulled out a rope.

He got almost near it and he put his leg inside the spotlight. Suddenly he felt a tremor. It was like something was charging towards the place he was standing. He looked back and saw a big dark bull was coming straight at him. He was so close to the deer but seeing the bull coming his way he ran.

John moved out of the way and the deer was standing in the way of the bull. But John saw that the bull passed through the deer. He thought it's a hallucination or just a projection. The forest is playing tricks with him. He stood there like it's not real and the bull got ready to attack him again. The bull charged towards him but he stood there with confidence that it wouldn't touch him.

The bull came close and John saw the same monkey from before standing on a tree branch right opposite to him and it was trying to tell him to move out of the way. John suddenly realized that but it was too late. The bull hit him and he was thrown away. He hit his head on the ground and started bleeding.

John got up and the pain on his head was too much. He used his hands to cover his head for a second and then he opened his backpack and tried to reach for the holy water. The bull quickly attacked him again and the holy water bottle shattered. He too fell down and hit hard.

That pain unconsciously activated his powers and he exploded with a high energy. The energy created a blast wave strong enough to blow away the bull. That time the deer also got hit by his powers and it fell down. The bull started turning into a shadow and that shadow went to the deer.

The guardian was actually the shadow of the golden deer. It got defeated by the powers of John so John took it back to the ape man. John avoided all the spotlights and reached back at the ape man.

John gave it to him and asked him to accept John as an apprentice. But before that ape man could say something, John collapsed. He had already lost too much blood.

The ape man checked him and realized that he's already dead…