NOVEL WEB Chapter 14: Chapter 14 — Trial by Hunger
Location: Ashtashram, Kolkata
Date: October 1, 2029
Time: 10:16 AM
Food was running out again.
The water tank was nearly dry.
The rice sack had worms.
The solar panel stopped working.
Even Khushi had stopped drawing.
The shelter had grown — 29 people now.
Too many mouths.
Not enough hope.
And every day, the sky looked darker.
Yash stared at the ration list.
They had three options left:
Starve slowly.
Risk sending someone out.
Watch people break.
No gods spoke this time.
No ash whispered advice.
This was human choice.
"Let me go," Rishav said.
The cook.
He wasn't strong.
He wasn't a fighter.
But he remembered old Kolkata better than most.
"I know which buildings still have water. Maybe some dried goods."
"I'll take a sack. I won't be long."
Yash didn't want to agree.
But he had no better plan.
He placed his hand on Rishav's shoulder —
and let a small trail of ash curl into the man's wrist.
A protection mark.
It would burn if something unnatural came close.
"You have six hours," Yash said.
"After that… I come looking."
Time passed slowly.
People waited.
Some prayed.
Some stared at the door.
Some just sat in silence, refusing to hope.
Khushi asked once:
"Is he dead?"
Yash didn't answer.
Hour five.
The ash on Yash's wrist flared.
Something was near Rishav.
Alive. Moving. Watching.
Yash stood immediately.
But before he could step out—
The door creaked.
And Rishav stumbled in.
Covered in cuts.
Shaking.
But alive.
Behind him: a rusted shopping cart with two jugs of water, a sack of dal, and something else—
A small statue of a goddess.
It was Durga, cracked and muddy, pulled from the ruins of an old home.
Rishav dropped to the floor.
"I saw something out there," he whispered.
"Not monster. Not human."
"It watched me… and left."
Yash saw the burn on Rishav's wrist.
The ash had activated.
The thing had sensed it — and backed away.
That meant one thing:
Even the darkness had started to fear the Vira mark.
Later, as people ate warm dal after weeks of nothing…
Khushi placed a blanket over Rishav and whispered:
"You're braver than any warrior."
And outside the shelter, above the broken gate…
someone tied the cracked Durga idol.
A symbol.
Not of worship.
Of will.