1. Bar fight

The evening rolled in and the darkness followed. A young boy in his early twenties carrying a guitar with him entered the bar. He approached the counter slowly, put the guitar down and occupied a stool. The bartender checked him out from the corner of his eyes while making a drink for another customer. The boy, although was 21, with his strong built, sharp eyes, neatly trimmed dense beard and the man bun appeared much older to him.

"Welcome to 'The Paradise'", he said as he stood before him.

"Fancy name. Too gloomy to be paradise though."

"We cannot presume whether Paradise is gloomy or lively unless we experience it." The bartender smiled. "And the people who experience it are not alive to share their stories."

"Fair point "

"So, what do you want?"

"Your finest nectar."

"Lucky you because we do have a drink called 'Nectar'."

"Really? What does it have?"

"Vodka, Gin, and some orange juice."

"Perfect. Nectar it is."

As he came back with the drink, the young man asked, "Not many people around it seems. How's buisness?"

"As you can see, not very pleasant."

The young man looked around and found only two other men in the entire bar, who were pretty wasted. One of them was even snoring.

"Not much tourists around?"

"At this time of the year? No. Not to mention the travel ban they have imposed because of all the incidents. Who would want to come to a demon infested town?"

"The rakshashas." He replied. "I have heard stories. But that didn't stop me."

"You do seem to be an outsider." The bartender said. "Where are you from?"

"North. The capital area. I arrived here today."

"And your luggages?" he said eying the guitar.

"Just this," he patted the guitar beside him which the bartender was still staring at suspiciously. "Me and my friend Vidyudabhi."

"Vidyudabhi," murmured the bartender. "Quite a name it is. Are you enjoying the nectar?"

"Yes, it is heavenly." He said taking another sip.

Then he suddenly lowered his voice and asked, "So, have you ever faced any problem with these so called 'rakshasha's?"

"I have seen one, yes. But it didn't cause any trouble to me."

"A local was telling me that the incidents are in rise lately. Aren't you afraid of them? Don't you feel unsafe outside your home?"

The bartender produced a smile, which he realised was only to hide his pain.

"The fear won't feed my stomach, young man. I also have a family to take care of."

"I heard two girls and a boy went missing last week. Pretty terrible, isn't it?"

The bartender's face hardened. "Yes, it is. I also have kids and these incidents make me worried a lot. But what can we do? We can't leave this terrible place. Everything that belongs to us is here."

"You should leave. You said you have kids and you need to worry about their safety too. Why live here in constant fear that the demons might take you or your kids away one day and if that happens, nothing will be left for you. Before it's too late, you need to go away."

"You are right. Maybe I should leave. I don't have much savings, but it's a risk I must take to avoid the bigger risk here."

"You know, I have just one question for you, and please answer honestly, ok?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Those scratch marks, on the floor," he said pointing at the markings on the wooden floor behind the bar, "Are they made by any Rakshasha? Looks like claw marks. I mean, did your bar ever get attacked by one of those demons?"

The bartender looked at it uneasily.

"I don't know, they are there for a long time."

"Really?" he said, pretending to be surprised. "Looks pretty fresh to me."

The bartender let out a smile this time. "With all the questions you are asking, I can only assume that you are one of those hunters sent for a mission. But unfortunately, your mission has already failed. That drink I just gave you contains my saliva and no human can tolerate the poison secreted from a rakshasha's body."

"You do know about the hunters but what you don't is the fact that before going for any mission we take a shot of antidote. So this cocktail of poison that you have served me is nothing more harmless than an alcoholic drink."

The bartender's face changed from delighted to furious. He growled like a mad dog and transformed into the body of a full-fledged Rakshasha. He grew in size reaching six and a half feet in height, grew a pair of horns. His clothes tore apart revealing a muscular hairy body with a greenish complexion. His eyes were blood red, his mouth displaying fangs. His fingernails were replaced by extremely sharp claws.

He bumped his chest and let out a roar that vibrated across the room. One of the drunkards got hold of the situation and dashed towards the door. The other one, who was snoring a moment ago, woke up and thought he was still inside a dream. It took a few moments for him to realize what was actually going on.

The young man slowly rose from his seat, turned around, and said in a firm tone, "Get out. NOW!"

The man got up and stormed out as if he was just waiting for his command.

"So," the young man said, facing the rakshsha in front of him, "now that we have the entire place to ourselves, we can have a little game of our own without being interrupted."

"Of course, we will. But the result is pretty obvious: you are going to be destroyed."

"Well, no need to predict the outcome even before the match has started," said the young man, while he produced the guitar from its covering, "But I would say it's 60-40. No, 70-30, in my favor."

"So, what's your plan? Are you going to sing me a lullaby to sleep and then kill me or perhaps your music is so horrendous that it would force me to kill myself?" The rakshasha roared in laughter.

"I am afraid, it's neither of them." He kept his left foot on the stool's leg rest, and balanced the guitar on his thigh. He played with the strings and said, "Time for a big reveal, are you ready?"

The guitar made a click sound as he pushed a secret button placed at its bottom and opened the upper part like a lid of a box. And from the inside, he produced the thing the rakshsha had least expected- an axe.

"Tadaa!" he exclaimed. "Now for my next trick, I will be making you disappear.... from this world."

The rakshasha was scared at the sight of the axe. But soon the sense of fright faded and replaced with uncontrollable anger.

"I am going to eat you....alive," he roared and pounced at him.

"Oh, I have heard that one before," replied the man dodging the attack. He tried to return a quick attack with his axe but was too late.

The rakshasha tried to him charged him again but he dodged it easily, like the last time.

"Be careful big guy, I am wearing a very expensive leather jacket and I would be hella mad if something were to happen to it."

The monster made the same futile attempts a few more times until he got the man cornered.

"I got you!" he growled and charged at him.

With his swift reflex, he ducked and slid through between his legs. The rakshasha being unable to stop his momentum collided with the wall and got his horns dug into it in the process.

As the demon groaned and struggled to get his horns out, the man swirled his axe and announced, "Perfect Opportunity!"

He ran at him in an attempt to hit his neck, but the rakshasha managed to throw a timely kick at him which caught him off guard. The man again came at him but this time the rakshasha had already freed his horns and was facing him. He swung his hands at his face which he had to duck to dodge but got kicked in the face the very next moment which he wasn't prepared for. Before he could recover from the blow, the demon landed a powerful punch which made him fly across the room. He struggled to get up when the demon came and picked him by his throat. He gasped for air and threw his legs around in panic.

"Look at you, you pity, pity thing. You are so weak, so fragile. You are nothing without that axe. So pitiful!"

He was being choked by the rakshsha's strong grip around his neck even though he managed to say, "Did I mention the blades attached to my shoes?"

He swung his right leg making a deep cut across his face and damaging the left eye in the process. The rakshasha roared in pain as he covered his face. Black colored blood oozed out of the wound.

The man dropped to the ground as the rakshasha released him. He rubbed his neck and coughed.

The rakshasha, although blinded partially, had become more furious and came at him swinging his arms to hurt him with his claws. The man was quick to dodge his attacks, sacrificing a part of his leather jacket in the process.

The man hardened his face, his eyes became serious as he examined the part of the jacket that got damaged.

"You shouldn't have done that. I told you not to."

He calmly picked up the axe from where it was lying and made a quick dash at him which took the rakshahsa by surprise. He had reached close enough before the demon could react, and swung his axe with all his might.

"It's a very expensive jacket!" screamed the man as the right arm of the rakshasha came apart with a fountain of blood originating from the wound. With a swift action, he went for the left leg and detached it from the knee.

The demon bellowed in pain and anguish as he struggled on the floor. The floor soon became soaked in black, gooey blood.

The man put his leg on his chest and pushed him down to the floor. While swirling the axe with his right hand, he declared, "Now, time to send you where you belong to- the hell!"

The axe came down decapitating the struggling body.

As the body went silent, he focused on the floor where he had noticed the claw marks earlier.

"This must be the way to the basement where he is hiding the children," he told himself while examining the spot. After some fiddling, he managed to take out a few wooden planks off the floor.

"Bingo!" he said as a stairway was revealed. He went downstairs and found two kids, a boy, and a girl, lying unconscious.

He pressed a button of the Bluetooth earpiece he had inside his right ear and said, "Hello Vinod. Madhav reporting."

"Yes, Madhav. What's the status?"

"Packages have been retrieved and secured with me."

"The victims have been rescued and secured with you," said the disappointed voice on the other side. "They are children, not packages for god's sake!"

"Po-tay-to, Po-tah-to." he replied bluntly. "By the way, you owe me a jacket."

"What?"

"The bastard scratched my leather jacket. You know how expensive these things are."

"Are you being serious right now?"

"Hey, you are the one who said any expense incurred during or due to an official mission will be reimbursed."

"Medical expenses, Madhav! I have told this before when you demanded to get a refund for alcohol consumption."

"Well, my jacket is hurt. You should cover his medical expenses."

"You are unbelievable!"

"I'll take that as a compliment. Anyway, I will update you later once the mission is completed. Bye."

'Bye, arsehole!"

He splashed water on the children's faces and helped them to get back consciousness. They woke up soon and were dazed for some time before they could realize where they were and what happened to them.

"Where did the demon go?" asked the boy, his voice quivering.

"He is dead. I killed him."

"You did?"

"Yes. You can come upstairs with me and confirm the dead body."

It did not appear very convincing to them so he reassured, "It's fine now, I promise."

Then the kids came and held his hands.

The man brought them upstairs and showed them the demon.

"See, it's dead. They are not going to hurt you."

The girl walked closer to the corpse and looked carefully. It seemed so scary when he captured them to eat them alive, but now it was not scary anymore.

And suddenly, the decapitated body made a jerking motion and tried to reach for the kid with his remaining hand.

The kid screamed in horror and ran behind the man. The boy who was standing apart also did the same.

The man held his breath and watched till the body went motionless forever.

"It scared the hell out of me," he murmured.

Then he stretched his arms and said, "Rough day at work. I deserve some rewards, don't you think?"

He went behind the bar and said, "Look at all these bottles. All for free!"

The kids observed him in silence from the distance.

'Whiskey?" he asked as he poured one for himself.

"My teacher said drinking alcohol is a sin. It makes you a bad person," said the girl.

"Yes, my dad drinks a lot and he comes back home drunk and beat us and our mother."

He made a sound through his nose and said, "Listen just because your dad is an arsehole doesn't make drinking a bad thing, okay? You should not stigmatize something because one bad person made it appear worse."

He took sips from his whiskey glass and groaned in pleasure.

"I am hungry." said the boy.

"I am scared. I want to go home." said the girl.

"I also need to pee," said the boy.

"Arghh, this is why I hate kids." He then searched inside the cabinets and found some packets of chips, biscuits, nuts which he threw at them and said, "Now eat these quietly and let me drink in peace."

They instantly tore the packets apart and stuffed there mouths with more food than they could hold.

For some moments, there was only the chomping sound until the boy said, "You look scary."

"Yes, you look creepy and weird."

"Wow, very gratifying words for the man who just saved your arses from a fucking monster. What else does a man got to do to get appreciated!" said Madhav.

"How did you get those scars?" asked the girl.

"These?" he said pointing at the big one on his right cheek. "These are from the battles I fought against the monsters to save pathetic people like you. And still, I am the one being called a weirdo!"

'Thank you, old man."

"Yes thank you."

He got offended and said, "Hey, I am only twenty-three, okay? I just look old."

"Can we call you Black-man then?" said the girl pointing out his all-black attire.

"Just call me Madhav."

He took the last sip off his glass, put the glass down on the counter, and got up.

"Come on. We gotta leave before we run into any more trouble. And also I am getting sick of you two."

"You killed him with that?" said the boy pointing at the axe Madhav just picked up from the floor.

"Yes. This is Vidyudabhi. We are an amazing team. We have killed countless rakshashas together. She has never failed me so far."

The kids listened to him in awe and slight fear.

He put the axe back inside the guitar, covered it up and hung it around his shoulder. Then he brought out his smart phone from the trousers pocket and clicked a picture of the dead body. He messaged the photo to Vinod and put the phone back in the pocket.

"Let's go to your home. Your parents must be worried sick."

"Will you be holding our hands?"

"No way I am going to do that," he retorted. "But here's a piece of advice for you two, next time your dad tries to beat you, hit him in the balls. It will teach him a lesson. And don't tell anyone that I taught you this."

The kids giggled in unison. He briefly looked at the kids and walked ahead. The kids followed him shortly after.