Jade Amulet And The Leer Of Evil

Chapter six: an unexpected death

Aditya was on this bike, his way to home from his village josar. He always prefers the unconstructed road to avoid police although he had proper documents except for one or two, rather than that these roads were mostly free of traffic and only a little long from the main highway so Aditya’s though it’s better to drive freely instead of getting bothered in traffic. It takes almost half an hour on the bike. When he was a few miles away from his house suddenly, he remembered something which causes a sudden break. When his bike stopped, he thought to turn back because before reaching his house he had to go by the same highway, under which was the river. But he was so close to his house and the river is below 30 feet from the highway so there was nothing to fear about. But he was still feeling the dread. When he reached the highway, he tried to avoid to glance at the river but that didn’t work. he squinted at the river, and again he stopped his bike this time in the middle of the highway. He saw two police cars at the bank of the river, a white Scorpio and a jeep. There were some people also mustered around something. It was difficult to tell what they were looking at from this far. A senior officer came out of the Scorpio and his juniors cleared the way for him, they moved the peoples who were blocking the view which exposed a clear view for Aditya. Aditya’s heart came to his mouth when he saw a dead body there. He was already much frightened after listening to his brother and now he was feeling like he will pass out any minute, he was so scared, even breathing was seemed too difficult. He got even more scared when a stupid thought came to his mind, he thought the man blow, could be one of his friends, he remembered his friend was calling him yesterday, maybe they were calling him because they were in danger. Soon his regret overwhelmed his fear, He wanted to go down there and check but he could not go, then the police may arrest him. he pulled out his phone in hurry and called Rajveer, ball rang a long. Aditya’s heart kept pounding very hard until Rajveer picked up his phone and said hello. Aditya exhaled in relief ‘ohh thank god, you picked up. Are you guys okay, is Sidharth okay’ ‘yah' Rajveer said with a little laugh ‘what is going to happen to us' till now Aditya's eyes was on tears ‘nothing' he said in a weeping voice, Rajveer understand that ‘are you.. okay’ ‘yes’ he said while wiping his tears. Then he coughed trying to level his voice again ‘where are you, call Sidharth and come to my house I am on the way’ and he cut down the call before Rajveer could say anything. Yet when his friends were safe, he was still feeling bad about the poor guy. So far, he understood that the people who were standing down there, were fishermen, maybe family of the dead one. he didn't even have to think about it to figure out how he died. But the idea was even more frightening. He kickstarted his bike and went home. After reaching his home. Aditya washed his face, their friends reached there at the same time. He went for the door to receive his friends, towel in his hands, which made it clear to them that he was crying. It was afternoon. Now they were in Aditya's room in which there were a double bed, an almirah and a mirror nothing else except for a handmade extension board, mostly used for his mobile charging. His sister came with tea and the meeting starts ‘where have you been’ Sidharth asked. ‘we tried to call you many times' ‘village' Aditya replied ‘my brother called me' ‘couldn't you meet' Sidharth said ‘him one-day later' ‘we have to go there' Rajveer said ‘without you' Rajveer grinned ‘and guess what?’ ‘what’ Aditya asked. But without any excitement, his eyes were blood red because of lack of sleep and crying. Rajveer shook him by his shoulders in excitement ‘we found the key’. Sidharth was also smiling but Aditya slumped his face down. Rajveer and Sidharth exchanged a confused look. ‘hey, what happened’ Rajveer asked in sympathy. He knows that Aditya was crying before he called him but he had decided to not bring that up in front of Sidharth. On the other side, Aditya was confused, he wanted to tell their friends everything but he could not.
Let it happened his brother had told him. ‘I saw a dead body at the river when I was coming back’ Aditya frowned ‘there was police. I... I was so scared, I thought... I thought you guys…’  his voice cracked. ‘hey…, what have you been thinking man’ Rajveer whooped ‘special ones never dies, at least not so early’ Rajveer was very happy, he never saw him crying for anything, he was so glad that his friend care for him. ‘who was he’ Sidharth asked.
‘I don't know' Aditya replied ‘maybe some fisherman and keep it in mind from now on, no one will go there. that place is cursed’
‘no offence’ Rajveer replied, he took a sip of tea ‘so, there is more, right?’
‘I asked my brother’ Aditya said ‘about Sidharth’s dream’
‘the one who is a saint right?’ Rajveer remembered ‘what did he tell you?’
‘he’d advised to never go to that place’ Aditya replied. Rajveer and Sidharth were listening to him open-mouthed but he stopped after saying that.
‘that’s all’ Sidharth asked ‘so what about the temple. I mean we are still finding it, right?’. Aditya nodded gravely. Rajveer had noticed that his friend was hiding something, but he also knows that he is not going to tell them unless he wanted to tell.
‘relax, and we are fine’ Rajveer said ‘and you are looking tired. If you want, we can talk about it later’
‘no’ Aditya said quickly ‘I am fine. Tell me what’s you guys are thinking’
‘as we said we found the key’ Sidharth said ‘now..’
‘now we have to steal it’ Rajveer completed.
‘stealing from a museum’ Aditya said ‘that’s really a bad idea’
‘but we have no’ Rajveer said ‘other choices. That key is important if we wanted to find the temple, I think this is the reason why nobody has found it till now’
A moment of silence until Rajveer brock it. ‘what’s wrong buddy’ Rajveer said ‘I mean, you are not looking excited at all. it's a great lead man if the key is real, the temple also must be real'
‘no, I am, really.’ He managed a fake smile ‘let’s do it then’ he said it like please let’s not do this. But that was enough for the other two. Rajveer shot to his feet, Sidharth was also looking very excited.
‘so, we need a plan, and to make a plan’ Rajveer said ‘first, we have to visit the tomb again to find the safest way to sneak in and all other possible ways to get out if something went wrong’
Now Aditya started to understand what his brother meant by possession. His friends were behaving like children, he was also behaving same, before he met his brother but his thoughts were much clear now, his mind was fully in his control. The thing blocking his awareness had vanished, but that didn’t matter now. Now he had different reasons to complete this task.
‘we also need some equipment’ Rajveer continued ‘like rope, a rod etc.’
‘but first, we will steal the key' Sidharth added ‘then we wait for some days before going for the temple’
‘what’s the time’ Aditya asked then he checked himself in his phone ‘let’s go’ He stood. And went to pick his car’s key.
And after some time, they reached the tomb.
They brought the tickets and started to wander around. They visited the museum because Aditya wanted to see the key, then archaeological sites and well. After that, they were expecting to find the easiest way to reach the roof of the courtyard so they can reach directly to the museum’s door. Then they supposed to break the lock which they would replace with the same lock, after stealing the key, then returning through the same way without getting noticed. As for the C.C.T.V cameras Aditya planned to wear black clothes and to cover their faces too with a scarf or something. After roaming for about an hour, they found only one possible way to sneak in, in north, on the back side of the tomb, there was a huge square park and covering the park there was a series of ancient looking rooms, in the starting there was a ruin which is called “Harsh’s mound” there was about a half dozen of cave-like galleries and at the end of every cave was a room which looked more like a lock up. The walls of those galleries were like stairs at least they can be used as stairs. They can easily climb from there and reach the mound and after reaching there they could reach a place where one corner of the tomb was connected with a huge square dais. From there they could climb to the roof with help of each other and from the roof, reaching the museum was to say, a piece of cake. There were dozens of passages, ‘we can easily climb down from any of them’ Rajveer said but Aditya wanted to be specific on everything. He decided the passage, he took a picture of the lock so they can buy the same one. he also decided a place where they park their car, close and where it couldn't be noticed. They made a list of all necessary equipment, rope, three rods with multiple uses, knife (in the case they need to cut the rope). They were standing at the roof at that time, it was almost 5 pm. Sun was on their back, orange, changing the clouds in the same colour and about to set in some time. In front, they could see the door of the museum.
‘God, what the hell' Rajveer cursed ‘we are doing, this is insane. Rod, knives, we are not thieves’
‘Ohh, you understood,’ Aditya scolded ‘quite early. But don’t worry we are not going to hurt anyone’ Aditya was feeling well now. He was with his friends, he knows they can overcome anything together.
‘if not necessary’ Sidharth said, he was looking scared but also determined to do it. ‘well guys, I don’t think there would be any person at night. You know what people say about this place.’
‘it's haunted, maybe' Aditya shrugged
‘we will see, whether ghosts or people’ Rajveer said ‘but we are doing this’ he starches his hand, asking for approval. Sidharth put his hand in immediately, Aditya waited for one minute, gave a sideways smile then he put his hand.