The Sunderban Mystery #wattys2016 #mystery #thriller

The Sunderban Mystery Part 6

"Call Jagan! Take them outside and get rid of them." Their leader said. He sounded a little frustrated.

I slowly rolled my eyes towards Soumak to see what he was feeling. He had the same intense look on his face.

The three of them went out of the room. And almost immediately, Soumak started to loosen up the ropes vigorously. I could feel the urgency. We had to do something immediately. This sudden change of the smugglers plan had made the time short. With in some time, his hands were loose, and the he immediately loosened his gagged mouth and then he started to loosen my rope. I could see his hands were badly bruised and blood was trickling from his hands. But this was not time to feel the pain.

"Quickly, we have to get out of here." Soumak whispered. "The robbers don't know about this temple."

I looked up to Soumak. Was he serious? He was more worried about being in the Temple rather than being worried over his impending death. As he loosened my knots, I could feel blood rushing into my palms again.

And just when I felt a glimmer of hope, our short term luck ran out. Our struggle with the bonds must have been heard by someone. Two men entered the room and they saw us standing there. In an instant, Soumak ran towards his right and I ran towards the left. This was probably the best way to tackle these two. Separate them and deal with them independently. We were no match for them physically. But we could move fast. I had no time see what Soumak was doing. But I had seen a stone from the corner of my eyes and I was hell bent on reaching it. I needed a weapon to handle this rogue. The man came after me with a roar. It was deafening. I was sure that someone could have heard him. But there was a nagging doubt that this roar was not by a man. But I did not have the time to worry about it now. As I reached for the stone the man had jumped on me and grabbed me by my waist. We both fell down on the hard ground. He then took a small knife out from his waist. And he brought it very close to my eyes. This was game over for me.

I had stopped struggling. He had got hold of my right hand. My left hand was still free and as I stretched a little I could feel the stone in my hand. I immediately grabbed the stone and swung it hard at the man. The man screamed and went down immediately. I swung another time to get loose from his grip and hit him hard again. Blood had started to come out of his head. He was bleeding profusely from his wound. Suddenly I heard a shout from my behind. The other man had got hold of Soumak and was holding him on knife edge. The stone dropped from my hands almost automatically. I didn't want Soumak hurt. In that dimly lit environment I could see that the man was huge compared to Soumak. Flashes of lightning lit the room and his face. It was one of the ugliest faces I had ever seen. The man was laughing loudly. He looked like a mad dog.

The other men must have had heard our struggle. I could hear footsteps coming towards our room. Two more men entered the room. They looked surprised by the recent development. I could see Soumak struggling in his captors hands. But now I was again captured and this time I could do nothing to help him.

We were both taken out of the temple and in the courtyard. It was still raining. The trees swung violently in the heavy winds. And accompanying them was thunder and lightning. It was one of the most violent storms I had seen. And being in the jungle and in the middle of such a situation was horrifying. The rain drops felt like bee sting on my skin.

The men then forced us and threw us down in the mud. Both of us went down like we were made of lead. A man came from behind us. He was muttering something. "These little insects are causing too much trouble to us." I heard him say. He had brought a big knife with him. It was serrated on its edges.

And with great force and anger he thrust the knife into Soumak's back. Soumak screamed so loudly, that even in the heavy rains, any one could have heard him from a distance away. I watched in horror. I was numb. I saw blood coming out of his back. The blood mixed with the rain water and the diluted blood then flowed away into the mud. I saw Soumak's face. I had never in my life had seen a person in so much pain. He was finding very difficult to breath and was gasping for air. But he couldn't breathe. He struggled for some time and then his head dropped in the ground and he didn't move. I watched in horror as he lay there motionless. Tear were rolling down my cheeks. This was soon to be my fate.