The Cursed Shell

1

(A/N   Please keep in mind that I had written this novel quite some years ago, so I cannot give a note of approval that it is free of syntactic and grammatical errors. I'd be religiously editing its chapters in order to keep the mistakes at minimum. Hope you'd like the story!:) )

Professor Christopher Frost, a linguist and Sanskrit scholar, was gazing out of the massive glass window in front of him. He was in his hometown, London. He had had the privilege to enjoy and learn cultures other than his own country's. Learning about Masonry, teachings of Buddha, knowing more about Bible, getting an incredible knowledge from Koran, Bhagvad Gita, Ramayana, Mahabharata and other sacred writings. But the story which intrigued him the most was the Samudra Manthan.

Samudra Manthan means 'churning the ocean'. The ocean was churned to get The Elixir of Immortality known as Amrit for the Devas. There was a terrific war between the Asuras (Demons) and the Devas (Gods) for the elixir. The Devas got the elixir and became immortal. The eternal pages of religious history know this; so do we.

Professor Frost turned his gaze towards a curved shiny marble stone kept inside a glass container on the table beside him. He picked the container up and focused on the shiny marble stone. The stone was in the shape of an irregular hollow cylinder and was given to him by his Sanskrit teacher before he had died. He had told him that this thing was very powerful. It should be kept away from evils. Frost promised him to keep the thing with him safely. He told his teacher that he would never let anyone know about it.

However, it happened many years ago, and Professor Frost's ideology was changed now. He decided to sell it to a museum in exchange of a good price.

Frost smiled, looking at the shiny stone. 'How can an ordinary marble stone apparently hold this much power?' he thought.

"Is Mr Frost in?" an English voice came from the door of his flat.

"Who's there?" Frost asked, still keeping an eye on the shiny piece of stone. His voice had become hoarse. Last time when he was in London, he was twenty three. But now when he had returned from his world tour, he was sixty six. Yes, he had been out of his own country for forty three years! He thought that he belonged to no country. For him, the whole world was his home. He spent his young ages learning about the thinkings and beliefs all around the world. Now, he had to do something for his own greed.....for money! He had even lied his own teacher for that.

"Sir, I'm from the National Museum. We have an appointment, remember?" the English voice replied.

Frost grinned. He knew that the time had come. He would sell the stone piece to the museum and he would get the elixir of greed in return........money! But he stopped and wondered for a moment. The appointment was of the following week. Why the hell did the man come so early?

'Who cares?' he thought. 'They might be in a hurry to get the masterpiece from me!'

Frost had told them that the stone piece was more than a thousand year old. He told them that the stone was a piece of a Conch Shell known as Shankha by the Hindus. The Shankha is still popularly used by the Hindus in prayers and rituals.

Frost thought that in return of the stone piece he would get a fine amount of money which would be enough to head for another world tour. This time he wished to visit Africa to understand their history. History is not limited. So he thought that he would gain knowledge of yet another ancient way of living. He knew that this would be his last tour across the world, as now he was old enough to live idle inside his home. He wanted to live rest of his life alone without any noise and disturbance. He just wanted to gain a last sip of knowledge and then it would be enough for him in this life.

Frost stood up and headed towards the door. He felt heavy as his pale, weak and thin body was wearing a thick layer of brown cloak to protect him from coldness.

He opened the door and froze in horror as he saw a gun in the hand of his visitor, which did not expect to see. Before Frost could gaze up at the face of the gun holder, a gunshot was heard.