An Eye For Vengeance

This story has been written by my classmate who asked me to put it here. Its a short crime story as she told me, i hope you all like it.

...
Night came in a rush of velvet purple black sky of 2018, and it was petrifying. A million stars in one burst, had been waiting too long, in the shadows of the obdurated sun. The orange evening had perished giving up its brief twilight stay. The robe of sunset slipped from the shoulders of Mumbai, ushering in the dark invardy sky. Georgina, James and me were standing on the street outside my house. We were discussing of why our parents, wouldn't allow us to visit my uncle who lives in a far away city in India. Was it because he had a vengeance or jealousy for us?

Georgina, who was the most interesting friend of my life, was actually dismayed. Her cropped, chestnut coloured hair and slim, athletic body often made people think she was a boy. On top of it, she usually wore jeans and a ragged t-shirt and was scowling with regards to our discussion. However, I was actually shocked to notice James and his unusual behavior, during our discussion. I thought he was jealous as I had been speaking previously. Nevertheless, my friends still wanted me to discuss of how we can meet my uncle as they knew him as a profound scientist. Yet, we were still curious to know why he was disowned by our family.

While discussing, my slant quivering teeth started my fear of unwanted surprises, especially on this dim-lit street. Further more, it was a one-way street without a soul roaming in the night. The fine hair on the back of my neck rose up in fear, and I broke into a cold sweat because I sensed something was disturbingly wrong. Suddenly out of the blue, a sly stranger approached James, I questioned him of was he, without any answer, all of a sudden, we were hit with a bamboo stick on the back of our heads and we fell unconscious.

When I woke up from my unconscious state, I was in an ancient temple, which stood on the edge of a lonely cliff which didn't resemble in my city! The walls of the temple were made of thick stone. On this winter night, the freezing winds made the stone cold and walls become damp. The old window panes were rattling absurdly, when the wind blew. Below the temple hearing the sea waves crash on the large grey boulders, with angry might and the sea gulls screech endlessly over the rough waves made me afraid. James and Georgina were still unconscious and I was really horrified, of how did I reach this devastating location!

I heard five sets of shuffling, hesitating footsteps, three different voices bawling unintelligibly in the distance and the hysterical sobs of a woman. There was no cooing of pigeons, nor the melodious songs of sparrows. I wondered, if these three people had bolted the bamboo sticks on our heads, previously!

I was trapped in an abandoned temple and my life flashed in front of my eyes. My blood was boiling. Sometimes I was feeling like out of sorts, suffocating and nauseated in this dilapidated temple.

It was time for us to escape before James, Georgina and me ended up like 'wailing women'. So, I whispered, "James wake up, Georgina wake up!" I began wriggling and within moments, my friends awoke.

Suddenly three men entered, so we pretended that we were still unconscious though my eyes were peeking, I glanced at the unforgivable sight of my uncle John Clearwater, strolling into the temple. He was the mastermind behind our kidnap!

I heard him saying to his goons, "I always desired to hurt my brother's sentiments. There is no better way than revenge! So, it's very easy to harm his child, as his child is the pride of his life."

While my uncle was discussing about his revenge, we were in a terrible shock. Slam! The door shut in anger. We noticed that they tied us with a time bomb. I understood why my parents didn't allow my friends and me to meet this deceitful man, because he and my father were at logger-heads in the family business.

Fortunately, we all knew how to escape from the disastrous time bomb because we were brilliant science students. Our teacher taught us that there were two to three wires that needed to be cut. Yet, tick-tock-tick-tock the sounds were threatening our lives. We had five minutes before a loud 'boom!'

So, I cut the yellow ochre wire, but no use. "Only two minutes left!" screamed James. Our last hope was to cut the ruby red wire. Finally, I breathed a sigh of relief and smiled as the tick-tock-tick-tock stopped and the bomb was diffused. Tears rolled down our cheeks, as our lives were saved. That's why my father says, "It's better to be in hell with wise men, than in heaven with a idiot! "

-Arpita Nirmal Rajpurohit