Jennifer had
to make a quick decision. She realized that she would be wasting time if she
had to call the others and inform them. Right now, every second was important.
A second wasted could endanger the child’s life.
She raced up
the stairs next to the mark, although on reaching up, she realized she would
have to be quiet and calm. One wrong move and she would lose out on rescuing
the child.
“THINK!
THINK! Be calm and Think!” she chided herself.
Slowly but
deftly, Jennifer made her way through a small passage. She needed light to
guide her. Just as her hands reached the inside of her pockets to pull out her
phone, a small voice inside her head reminded her it would be a risky move. If
there was somebody around, they would be suspicious if they got to see the
light.
Jennifer
decided against using the light from her phone to guide her. “There has got to
be some way around here. Be calm and think.” she kept whispering to herself
while making her way through the passage. She was afraid, no doubt, but she
knew if she let her fear take over, she would never get to finding and saving
Roohi’s life. “Just when I need a lighter, I can never find one!” she mentally
made a note of how she needed to stop sharing her things with people.
Unaware of
what lay ahead of her and afraid for Roohi and herself, Jennifer trudged on.
She kept letting her hands graze the walls of the passage just in case she
would come across a door in the wall. “Movies. They just ruin one’s
imagination!”, she thought to herself. Jennifer stopped midway after the
conversations with herself were interrupted by a noise ahead of her. Without
thinking twice, Jennifer rushed forward, not letting go of the wall. She felt
herself falling, and she put her hands ahead of her to soften her fall. She
stood up, and realized she had felt something on the wall just before she fell.
Slowly, she began sweeping around the wall with both the hands.
She suddenly
felt an object touch her hands. Blinded by the darkness around her, Jennifer
felt like someone who had lost their spectacles and was busy hunting for it.She
closed her eyes and tried to feel the object. “A TRIANGLE! GOOD GIRL ROOHI!”
she heaved a huge sigh of relief. She could feel her heartbeat slow down from
the pace it was running at earlier.
“She has got
to be here.” Just as Jennifer was moving forward, her hands touched on another
object buried inside the wall. Excited, Jennifer doubled back, and began
touching the wall again. Her hands found a door handle. “WHAT THE….How did I
miss this?” She struggled to get the door opened. She was exhausted. With
whatever energy she had, she pushed hard at the door. She stumbled into what
seemed like a prayer room. From the dim light hanging on the wall, Jennifer saw
Cyrus. His body lay still on the floor. She rushed to his side. She could hear him breathing heavily. She
looked around. Her eyes straining themselves in the dim light, looking for
Roohi. Besides Jennifer and Cyrus, there was nobody else in the room.
*****
Sudheeran
Varma was following Jennifer. She was acting too smart and he didn't like it
when women did that. She wasn’t following his directions at all. Instead she
had given his men another set of instructions. He silently followed her as her
shadow. The moment he realised that she had found Cyrus, he ran out and called
out to everyone.
Shekhar was
stunned and his eyes were full of rage. He was about to kick Cyrus when
Jennifer stopped him and pushed him away. “No. Don't! Don't harm him.”
“I knew it!
She is also with him.” Shekhar turned angrily towards a visibly distraught
Tara.
“He is not
the culprit Shekhar!” Jennifer said.
“I trusted
you Jennifer. I trusted u. Why would you
do this to our family?” said Tara as she
held her tears back.
Inspector
Ravi and his team reach the hidden prayer room. He walked in and ordered his
team to take Cyrus away.
“I’m sorry,
but did I just hear you call her Jennifer? Isn’t her name JayaLakshmi?”
Sudheeran questioned Tara while his gaze was fixed on Jennifer.
“No. She’s
Jennifer. Jennifer Joseph. She didn’t want to get…” Tara stopped midway looking
at Jennifer with tears threatening to flow from her eyes.
“Please Tara. Don’t. They will ruin everything. We will never be able to find
Roohi.”
“ENOUGH
Jennifer. Enough. We trusted you with our daughter and you have repayed us in
the harshest way ever. She didn’t want to get caught for snooping around the
temple premises Mr. Varma. That is why she changed her name to Jayalakshmi when
she was being questioned.” Tara continued.
“What? YOU
LIED TO US?” Sudheeran’s anger reflected from his voice.
“Stop this. Jennifer, where is our daughter?” Shekhar interjected.
“I don’t
know. We need to find her. Fast! Mr. Varma. I’ll answer your questions but
first-”
“Ms. Jaya… Ms. Joseph. We can’t let you
go so easily. Inspector Ravi, please take her in for questioning as well. We
now definitely have reason to believe that she has been involved in this from
the very beginning.”
“I am not
lying. Please. Please believe me! Tara, I had Roohi with me before as well. I
could have taken her away then too. Please Tara. Shekhar trust me. Roohi does
mean a lot to me too.”
“Ms. Joseph.
You will have to come with us right now. Given the situation at hand, Mr. Varma
is right. You are now equally a suspect in this case as much as Mr. Cyrus.”
While Cyrus
was being taken away, Jennifer snaps. She yells at him and then realizes he
isn’t in a proper state of mind to answer her. Everybody gathered in the room
surround him and begin questioning him. Weak and tired, Cyrus keeps mumbling
Roohi’s name.
“Where is Roohi? Where is my daughter? You took her didn’t you?” screamed an
angered Shekhar.
“The passage... save Roohi... Devi's idol... the chamber... passage...”
*****
Meanwhile,
the man held a sack over his shoulder and walked rapidly through the woods.
Suddenly, he
tripped on something and fell.
“Aaaaaaaaaargh!”
“Sorry,
sorry, sorry! Are you hurt?”
A kind man helped
him get up. “What were you thinking?” He was angry and in a hurry.
“I was taking a nap below the...” before the latter could answer, the man
walked away without waiting for an explanation.
He doubled
his speed. He had to reach soon. But the weight on his shoulder was unbearable.
He tripped again.
“Sorry!
Sorry! Did I hurt you?” The same old kind man! The man holding the sack looked
bewildered. Not saying a word, he walked away.
Am I in some kind of a trauma? Is my mind
playing weird tricks with me. Maybe they were different people.
He turned
back to look at the man.
WHAM! He hit
hard on something.
'Oh! You
must be very sorry! Right?' said a soft voice. It was the same kind man. But
his voice sounded scary.
The man with
the sack stood aghast. His features swiftly changed from bewilderment to
hatred, “Who are you? What do you want? Have you been following me?”,as the
words left his mouth, he produced a knife from somewhere.
With a swift
move his hand had marked a visible deep wound on his stalker.
“Bhranthan! (Madman)”
The madman
brandished his stalk and before his opponent saw it coming, the madman had
given a painful blow to his hand wielding the knife.
The madman was chanting something softly.
“Jatatavee”
With each blow and movement, he chanted a word.
“gala
jwalapravaha”
The knife flew in an arc and fell onto the forest floor.
“pavitha sthale”
The sack had fallen down and the man tried to dive for his knife.
“Galae..valambya
lambitaam”
Another blow to his shoulders with the stalk.
“bhujanga tunga malikaam”
He swirled his stick and moved closer to the man.
The man tried to get up.
“Damad damad damad”
Two blows on his back.
“damanninaadava
ddamarvayam”
He waited for the man’s turn while
hitting his stalk on the ground.
The madman’s eyes were blazing. His volume was increasing. His breathing
was loud.
The enemy had fallen. He couldn’t get up.
The madman reduced his voice as he calmed down,
“Chakara chandatandavam
tanotu naha shivaha shivam.”
He towered over his enemy daring him to get up.
While the
fight ensued, Sudheeran Varma, two constables, as well as the two priests
reached the area.
They held
the now tired man. Sudheeran opened the sack he was carrying. The priests took
Roohi and the idol out of the sack. They hurriedly carried her with the idol
for some medication.
Sudheeran looked at the fallen man, “Who are you?“
He gasped for breath and looked him in the eye, not saying a word. Sudheeran looked at his face closer and
recognition dawned on him. “I know you. You….You are……..”
“Manu.
Right?” the madman finished Sudheeran’s sentence while laughing out loud.
Sudheeran
looked at the mad man and then diverts his gaze to the culprit, “The priest's
son!”
