The Cursed Shell

5

(A/N   Hello everyone, sorry for updating so late. I am a little busy nowadays as my school's annual examinations are going to start soon. Don't forget to vote if you like this story. You can also give suggestions in the comment sections. Hope you enjoy this chapter. :) )

Secret Agent Ritesh Dhawan was walking along the main–road after giving a birthday–treat to Crunchy.

"Maow?" Crunchy asked him.

"Yeah, we are going to the same place", the young detective told his brother cat.

Soon, it started raining. They were still walking, wet. Unlike other cats, Crunchy was not much afraid of water. But he was indeed afraid of lightning.

They walked until a massive gate blocked their way. Behind the massive gate, there stood a  huge  building with four floors. It had a massive dome at the middle and was surrounded by four towers like structures. It wasn't only a building, for the Indian agent, it was his childhood. It was Aryabhatta Orphanage.

The young detective still remembers how he ran away from the orphanage one day, unwillingly. In his whole life, he had hated only two people - his parents. The two people, who left him alone at the gate of the orphanage, were never forgiven by their own son. It was almost ten years from that day when two persons came to adopt him. Unlike his other orphaned friends, his biggest fear was being adopted. As he hated his birth parents, he wanted to live alone. He wanted to live orphaned. That evening, he ran away from the orphanage without letting anyone be aware of that.

He roamed across the city aimlessly for a few weeks. One day, he found a white furred kitten being assaulted by street–dogs. Although he was afraid of dogs too, he bravely rescued the cat from the pack of dogs. From that day, the kitten became his loyal brother. They both were alike. They didn't have any guardian. They didn't even know what their real name was. Although Ritesh knew his name, it was the name given by the orphanage. The name given by his sperm and egg donors was still to be revealed. As his real name has no link with the story, we wouldn't waste our time by discussing that.

He started having interest in small cases like 'how did that bug die?' or 'who stole her purse?' and so on. Many of the cases were perfectly solved by him and his white-furred brother, Crunchy. Soon the RAW got wind about the talented young man who could be a perfect spy for them. He was called to the RAW headquarters and was appointed to solve a few cases. He perfectly solved all the cases. This started his detective career and he earned a lot of money like this. Now he is one of the finest agents across the country, and his name is well known around the globe as well, by only secret service organisations though.

Now, when he was no more a child, he stood frowning in front of his childhood home. Although he was completely wet in rain, he could feel tears washing down his cheeks.

He woke up from his semi–consciousness when he felt that something pushed him a step or two ahead.

"I'm sorry," a fair skinned teen apologised for pushing him accidently. "I'm really sorry, I didn't see you."

"It's okay," the young agent said, trying to hide his tears. When he saw his face, he thought, 'What is this boy doing out in the rain?'

Brute Coyle too crossed his eye–brows and stared at the young man standing wet in front of him. 'What is this man doing out in the rain?'

After staring each other for a moment, Brute kept his new shiny iPhone back in his pocket and walked towards the orphanage.

The young agent stood for a while, and then decided to go back to his home. Suddenly, his gaze stuck at a green coloured pencil–box lying on the road , opened. He knew it was of the boy who accidently pushed him. But the boy was no more in his site.

He saw a folded piece of paper inside the box. He knew that it wasn't good to seak on things belonging to others. But that is the work of a spy, now is not it? Also the boy seemed pretty weird to the detective.

Agent Dhawan took the box along with him and went to stand under a nearby banyan tree in hope to escape some of the harsh weather. His curiosity got the best of him and led him to unfold the paper. It was a list. The agent's eyes widened in shock as the list he saw was not at all a stranger to him.

1. James Grunt

2. Manav Dutt

3. Manchester Fury

4. Karishma Shekhawat

5. Christopher Frost

6. Luna Cluster

7. Todd Lamb

8. Annabelle Broom

'Has Mrs Broom appointed any other detective for the case too?' he thought. 'I don't think that she would appoint a teen who's fourteen or fifteen for this .'

But it was possible too, as he was also appointed for his first case when he was only eleven.

He took out his android and switched it on. Suddenly, the old and frail voice of Broom vibrated from his phone. Dhawan immediately pressed the phone to his ear. "Oh, Mrs Broom I–" he stopped when he realised that it wasn't a phone–call, it was a voicemail. Broom's voice seemed horrified.

"Dhawan," she was hushing in horror, "the killer has broken into my house. I would be killed in any time by now. So I'm sending this voicemail to inform you that I was correct about the stones. I didn't tell you about that earlier as I thought I shouldn't have told you about the case as the stones were to be kept secretly by all the eight scholars including me. But this play has gone far beyond the walls of secrecy. The killer is behind the stones which, when combined, create a conch-shell called–" and then a gunshot was audible and then silence......

Dhawan stood frozen in horror with his phone stuck to his ear. The gunshot was still echoing in his ears. Annabelle Broom, was no more. Now it was clear that the killer was killing the students of the same teacher who taught Mrs Broom. But why? And what is its relation with the stones stated by Mrs Broom? Dhawan did not know. But he needed to know that to step ahead in the case.