The Cursed Shell

3

A sixteen year old boy was sitting alone in his classroom. Although it was recess, the boy was focused on something else rather than his lunch. He had spread that day's newspaper on the table in front of him. He had cut a headline from it.

Linguist & Harvard Professor Christopher Frost Found Dead

It wasn't the only headline he had cut. A few days ago he had cut another headline from a newspaper.

Sanskrit Scholar James Grunt Found Dead In His Bath-Tub

He had collected three other such headlines from earlier newspapers. Surprisingly, the boy found a link between all the headlines he had collected.

Brute Coyle, an orphan from a local orphanage, kept studying the headlines carefully. 

Fifteen years ago, he was found at the gate of the orphanage. He hardly seems to have any Indian origin in him. Brute is thin and white with a mop of dirty blonde hair on his head. He had tiny freckles all over his cheeks and more dusted on his nose. He was one of the most handsome teens in the orphanage. But he had no interest in dating. His interest only consisted of  history, symbols and ancient knowledge. He had been trying to break one of the most complex codes in the world, Kryptos, since last three years. Kryptos was created in 1990 in front of the CIA Headquarter in America by a well-known architect, Jim Sanborn. The sculpture was built more than 25 years ago, but not even one-fourth of it is deciphered yet. Kryptos contains no ancient symbol or any kind of unknown alphabet. It contains the English alphabets only, still it has been a headache for world's greatest cryptographers and symbologists.

Brute got to know about it after reading the novel 'The Lost Symbol' by Dan Brown. However, now his focus had turned towards a new case which he had just discovered a few days ago. Since last few days, several popular scholars of Sanskrit were dying. 'They are actually being murdered!' he used to think. He found a big clue to the case. He created a list of the scholars who died on a plain paper.

1. James Grunt

2. Manav Dutt

3. Manchester Fury

4. Karishma Shekhawat

5. Christopher Frost

Brute understood the case. All of the scholars who died were Sanskrit scholars and were taught by the same teacher. Brute's eyes widened and he added three more names in the list, names of those who were still breathing but were the students of the same teacher.

6. Luna Cluster

7. Todd Lamb

8. Annabelle Broom

"It means," Brute wondered aloud, "these people would die too!"

The list didn't contain the names of dead people only. Now the list consisted of the names of the students of a Sanskrit teacher.

"I've to inform someone about it", Brute said.

"How would you do that?" a feminine voice came above his head.

Brute gazed up and saw a fair girl with her jet black hair tied up in a neat pony tail. The girl called herself Krystene. Actually, it wasn't her name. Her name was classified! Not a living soul in the orphanage or the school knew her real name, except the staff of teachers. She never told her real name to anyone except Brute. Once she told him her name while he was busy in studying the Kryptos. Therefore, he didn't pay any attention to her and forgot her name even before he learned it. Krystene, or whatever her name was, had black eyes. She also had a very little freckles dusted over her cheeks.

The girl who called herself Krystene was interested in Brute from the day she saw him. That time, they were only five year old!

"Not of your business", Brute said and shifted a little away from her. He was used to her habit of putting her nose where it did not belong.

"C'mon," Krystene sat beside him. "I know that you don't have any phone if you're planning to post the fact on social media."

"Who said that I'm going to post it there?" Brute was barely paying any attention to her.

"Okay," Krystene paused. "If you're planning to phone someone, I don't think that our headmaster is going to allow you to use his landline."

Brute ignored her, still on the list created by him.

"But I can give you my cell–phone," she smiled, "if you agree to go on a date with me, next week!" she added cheerfully

"Forget it", Brute gave a short chuckle.

Brute is used to be asked for such things, and always, his answer is 'no'.

"Just think about it", Krystene said.

Brute thought for a moment. They both are walking towards a movie–theatre. Krystene is gripping Brute's hand tightly with her head on his shoulder. Brute can feel himself blushing pink in nervousness. Finally, he faints. This thought faded away as soon as it was formed. Anything he could say about this imagination was 'gross'!

"There's another thing I can do to help you," Krystene said. "I can give you a little money from my pocket–money."

"Your pocket–money?" Brute eyed her in shock.

"Yeah", Krystene told him.

"You saved money?" he asked. 'Where the hell did she get money?' he thought.

"Nah," Krystene laughed. "I stole them from a guy who stole my candies!"