The Twins
It was time for a new day to set in. Our protagonist, Ankaj was rolling on his bed, struggling to get some sleep. It was not usual for him to stay awake at this hour of the day. Several fictious thoughts were haunting his mind. His heart was professing of a dreadful act which his brain could not accept and got into a conflict with his intuitions. So, he tried to sign the treaty of peace between them by gaining some sleep.
When sleep was about to take over him, the telephone rang. He walked up to the landline and heard a voice say, “It’s an emergency. You are expected to be in your chamber immediately, doctor”. The call hung up before Ankaj could speak anything, but by the voice he guessed, it could be SI Ranga. Realising the urgency, he quickly washed away the little sleep on his face and left to his workplace.
When he reached his chamber, he found the SI (who called him) along with two injured constables and his assistant Shimpo, waiting for his arrival. “Sorry for the disturbance doctor, but Shimpo told me that you are flying to London this evening and I felt there is no good psychiatrist than you for the case”, said Ranga.
“No that’s fine. Anytime for you. What’s the case?”
“An aggressive silent teenager, found near the dead bodies of his parents, not mourning but smiling. He is calm now but be careful he attacked our officers as well.”
Ankaj nodded his head and they all went into a secret chamber behind the patient observatory room (POR). Ankaj observed the kid for about ten minutes. He seemed to be a studious boy with round glasses and clear-cut profile. “Are you sure? Did he smile?”, inquired Ankaj.
“Yes”, the constables cried and Ankaj went into POR.
He drew a chair to the table, on the other side of which was the accused.
“So, you are Shoban. See, I know you are innocent and I can help you in escaping from the clutches of these bad uncles. But, but for that I need your co-operation. Let’s, let’s just be friends…hmm?”, proposed the doctor extending his hand but the boy didn’t seem to mind much. Throughout the session, he just looked down, straight on to the floor, turning his head slowly sideways and muttered something too faint to hear.
When Ankaj didn’t receive any validation, he withdrew his hand and looked into the suspects eyes, maintaining silence for three to four minutes. After that, he walked out of the room and told his assistant, “His mental condition does not seem to be stable. I hadn’t met a silent patient like him in my twenty years carrier. He will not open his mouth, that’s understood. We need to visit the crime spot for the answers. Prepare for that!”, Ankaj ordered.
“That’s ok sir, but… what’s this Yak… Yaksha? You noted it down in the file.”
“Well, that’s what he uttered the entire five minutes. And ha, call me once you all are ready. I will have a power nap until then.”
After recharging himself, Ankaj left for the boy’s village, along with the inspector and a constable. They left the officer in guard of the boy and Shimpo to monitor his actions.
After a drive of one hour, they entered the village. It was a typical Indian village which had a narrow soil pathway over which at most two bullock carts can pass by. The pathway was surrounded by farmlands, ponds and tall coconut trees on either side. After a few miles into the village, Ranga asked to stop immediately and got down. He examined his surroundings. Upon asking he stated, “Surely something is following us. I can sense it!”
“Oh man! It might have been a hallucination, probably due to improper sleep. Just relax…”, the psychiatrist suggested and they resumed their journey.
A few minutes later the four-wheeler stopped again. “Again! What now?”, grinned Ankaj. The road ahead was actually narrow, causing the vehicle to stop. They investigators had to walk the rest of the way, so they parked their jeep at one corner along with the other carts. After a walk of ten-fifteen minutes, they reached the suspect’s house. They went in and searched the entire house to gain some clues about the boy’s nature and also about ‘Yaksha’. It was a typical middle-class house, with a bedroom, a living room, a washroom, a kitchen and a worship area. But one thing was not normal. There was a room with a strong metal door. There were no means by which they could break in except that by unlocking the door by inserting the key in the socket of the door. They had searched the other parts of the house but could not make better than the previous search done by the police. So, they decided to adopted the tactics used by thieves to sneak into our homes. This could provide them with a different view into the case. A constable came forward with a hairpin and tried unlocking the strong metal door.
The phone rang at same time. It was Ankaj’s phone. As he swiped his right finger up and bought it near to ears, he heard a voice saying, “Sir, it’s not Yaksha, its Yakusa. It’s a video game, which I found in the evidence box”. An alarming sound fell into Ankaj’s ear. “What’s that?”, said he concerningly. “The boy escaped. I will look at the issue sir. Don’t worry!”, the voice said and the call hung up. Ankaj was concerned. He felt, it is necessary for him to be there at the chamber. He asked the men to keep trying and inform him what was there inside, while he took a leave as he walked to the jeep, a voice echoed in his ears, “Searching for something?”
As he turned towards the source of sound. It was a little kid sitting on a rock. “Two brothers, Ram and Laxman looked the same. When Ravan tried to snatch Laxman’s bow Ram killed him.”
Ankaj directed some light towards the boy to see his face but the boy ran away. He ignored the words of the anonymous and rushed to his workplace on his jeep. Through out the drive he felt that someone had an eye on him, but he could not find anyone. After an hour he reached his destination, asked Shimpo to get the game and entered into a half-constructed building searching for the boy.
He found the boy in one corner of the basement. He was about to reach out to the boy when his phone rang again. It was the inspector. “Sir, the boy has a brother, who exactly resembles him and we found some medical reports which say that the boy was mentally retarded.”
“What?”, exclaimed the doctor when the boy in front of him started laughing apparently. Then, suddenly something hard hit his head and he fell on to the ground. Before his eyes got closed, he saw two look-alike boys sitting in a corner with the video game in their hands. A voice echoed in his ears again, “Two brothers Shoban and Soham looked the same. When people try to snatch Shoban’s video game, Soham hit them hard to death.”
By: Ch. Tanishq
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