#CelebrateBlogging Chapter 25

When Diamonds Danced

To read the previous chapter, visit Aashish's Blog

CHAPTER 25

Team Alphabet Soup

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!”

To read Chapter 26, head over to Finitha's blog here.

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