The Feud

There was once a village in Kahawatta called Panawenna in which lived two communities calledNindawatha and Koswatta. In these two communities there lived two very powerful “gurunnanses”orshamans named Weerasekara and Karolis respectively. These two had grown up together in the nearbycommunities and their similar occupations had led them to become good friends. This friendshiphowever, was tested when they had a difference of oinion on a land matter

In order to avenge the wrong that he thought had been done against him, Weerasekara plotted to punishhis new nemesis. One night when the moon was at its peak, Weerasekara sneaked into a graveyard.There, he dug up the corpse of a recently deceased 13 year old boy.Using his ability to contact the dead,he cast a powerful spell on the corpse and summoned the spirit of the dead child. This spirit even thoughit has returned to its body did not behave as it used to. This particular spirit did not behave as though itwere the spirit of a child. But of an evil entity.

Necromancy is a form of magic where a powerful shaman can communicate with the deceased – eitherby summoning their spirit as an apparition or raising them bodily. It is said that a spirit when woken inthis unnatural method, is under the control of the person who awoke it. It does not eat. It does not sleep. Itis merely a form of energy bonded by dark magic to perform whatever tasks, may it be good or evil, thatthe master commands. And in this case, the spirit was inquestionably risen in order to commit evil. It wascommanded to kill the enemy of its master.

In the dead of the night, on the other side of the village, Karolis woke with a start. A strange feeling hadcome over him. A feeling that warned him of impending danger. He didn’t know what it was, but heknew something bad and unwelcome as about to happen. He quickly collected his ritualistic items andbegan to beckon his own supporting spirits. He was then  able to see, via the power vested in him, that hisold friend had woken the dead and had commanded this corpse to destroy him. To his dismay, he foundthat the power binding the dead spirit to its master was too powerful for him to break and that the onlyway for him to survive is to bind the spirit and its walking corpse on to something else.

In his mind’s eye he saw the corpse of the dead boy walking past fields and forests and towards hisvillage. Without losing a moment he casted his charms and began the ritual which allowed him to limitthe effects of the corpse to a certain desolated plot of land which was situated in the village. Essentially,the spell had only limited the corpse to wander in this particular deserted plot of land and did not allow itto step out of it. Had it’s target stepped onto this plot of land, the corpse would destroy it. But since it hadbeen bound within the plot of land and it could not reach it’s target, it would forever roam around it untilit got the chance to commit the deed.

Karolis knew what would happen to him had he stepped in to that plot of land, so he stayed well awayfrom it. Before long, he decided that living in the village may bring him more harm from his formerfriend and he moved away without wanting to provoke Weerasekara. Soon after people began to noticewhat looked like a decaying body of a small child scuttling about in this plot of land which was markedoff by the well at the edge of it. The walking corpse was never too clear enough to be identified, and ran

off when people looked at it, and the villagers were quite afraid of this unnamed entity. It frightenedthem that they did not know exactly what it was or how it came to be. The corpse did not essentially doanything to those who saw it but the decaying sight of it was what scared the villagers. They avoidedgoing past that land.

Days became months and months became years. It had been many years since the sighting of the walking dead boy had been last seen by the those passing by and the decedents of the villagers eventually forgot about it.Until that plot of land was bought in a land auction by a man named Perera.

(to be continued......)

Decades passed. The feud and the persons that bought about the existence of the corpse were no longer living in the village. The villagers had barely forgotten the horror that lay within the borders of the vacantplot. The decaying corpse of the dead 14 year old boy still lay among the bushes and the shrubs of the land waiting for his victim to appear….

It is said that those who had the misfortune to glimpse this creature had never been the same again. The eyes were the worst. They were like the eyes of the dead itself, not blind, but staring unfocussed and unseeing in no specific direction. It was vacant. As if there was nothing behind it. The area in and around the vacant plot became yet more unnerving for those who passed it. No animals were seen in this plot ofland and a well in the land dried up full of dead crows…

A man from the city, Perera was however reluctant to believe the stories by the villagers. He had justbought the land for an unbelievably low price and considered it a jackpot. He considered the story to berumors by the ignorant villagers. He continued with the construction of his single roomed house in this plot. He was not a frequent inhabitant of this house but on the occasions he did stay in it, he could nothelp feel anxious. He was of the feeling that someone was watching him. He did not wish to say it toanyone and cause unnecessary panic. Beyond that, he was a very self-said man. He was not about to fallfor the “rumors” and was sure it was a prank by the village youngsters to frighten him. One night he hearda very distinctive noise of someone or something treading on dried leaves and went out to investigate.

Unfortunately, for him, this had been his last night awake. The villagers found his body, the next day,near the well where it was apparent that he had bled to death. It seemed as though his head had beenknocked against the side of the well, resulting in his death. Further investigation by the villagers drew apicture in their minds that a struggle had taken place just before the accident. Small bloodied foot printswere seen on the ground walking away from the scene. The villagers theory was that the man had seen thecorpse and struggled with it, but had evidently lost.

The hysteria died down after a while as with most hysterias. Years later, a married couple moved into this house and continued to live in it despite the queer feeling of unease. The couple too began tofeel worried and their worries were shared with the villagers. The husband’s fate too ended in a similarmanner near a pile of rubble. He had gone out to investigate a small figure rustling among the bushes andhad seen the corpse. In the dim light, he had not seen distinct features of the boy and had called out to it.The man who had had a weak heart, after glancing at the body, perished with a heart attack. The wife who had waited for her husband to return, peeped out the window and seeing him lying down, screamed for help.

***

The two shamans or kattadiyas involved, had been practicing a form of necromancy where a dead form is given the appearance of life. A pilluwa is considered to be the dried up corpse of a child kept by sorcerers to get things done by them. Powerful sorceress are able to control this dead body to get good or evil deeds done. The pilluwa in this story has not been seen or heard about after the two “strange incidents”.