The Living Death

The city of Mahvehli always had a strangeness to it. It was situated in the state of Assam, which lay in the northeastern part of India. It also lay close to the Himalayas. The strangeness in that city stemmed from a line of temples that were made about 2500 years ago. The temples, which shall remain nameless to hinder any excursion to them, held objects of great value, both religious and monetary, to the Indian Federal Government. So for years the Government of India guarded the temples, especially the one that held the legendary book of Rathnaran, which looked like it was made in a factory of modern times. The book documented the arrival of Ma Kaali in an ancient crime and injustice ridden India. For the sake of this retelling, we shall name that temple " Maeri".

It was in the city of Mahvehli, that a man named Troy Doherty was staying, with his assistant Timothy Baker, in the summer of 1957. Troy was a professor of Psychology at the Princeton University and he wasn't in that city for a vacation. The temple Maeri was his destination but the object of his desire was not the book of Rathnaran, it was something far more mysterious and perhaps even sinister.

Doherty was an educated man. Even though his area of expertise was aviation, he had knowledge of many offhand and forbidden subjects, one of them happened to be the study of Hindu Mythology. One of his student , returning from a trip to India, gave him a gold coin as a gift. The student got it from one of the temple guards, who were often allowed such liberties. The gold was real and worth a lot but it was not the lust of the shiny objects that made Doherty come to Mahvehli. There were certain interesting carvings made on the coin, very old and ancient designs. Designs that Doherty knew about, for they had been described in a legend in one of the Hindu Mythology books.

The coins belonged to a king, a king who ruled over the entire Indian subcontinent. The nameless king had legendary wealth and power, and his thirst for knowledge was unprecedented. It was him who had the Rathnaran written. He also was a great sorcerer, who found a way to bring his dead soldiers back to life. There were speculations among learned quarters that the Rathnaran was a grimoire and those who were able to emulate the rituals described in the book, were able to summon Ma Kaali herself.

Professor Doherty, however, wasn't interested in the Rathnaran. He was interested in a more obscure object that was locked in one of the lower chambers of the temple, an object that gave life to its owner.

He never believed in magic but his wife was dying, and all the prayer that he made to god didn't seem to have any results. So as a desperate man, he started looking for things that could make his wife better again, even if that meant using the tools of hell. That's when the coin came to him, and upon seeing the nameless king's coin, his mind immediately went to that certain facet of the story, about this certain stone that gave life to its owner. The king lived a long life, outliving even his great grandchildren.

So there he was, Professor Troy Doherty, with his assistant Tim Baker, in the heart of Mahvehli, to steal the sorcerer's stone.

They were staying in a lodge, just off the highway 11 that went all the way to East Pakistan. It was a Friday. They were gonna go inside the temple that night. Doherty was nervous, his hands shaking when he was drinking tea. Tim, on the other hand, was as cool as ice. That's why he chose Tim. A formidable man, in that he is stronger than most smart people and smarter than most strong people. Tim had a dark past, he was in and out of jail as a kid but he changed. He became one of the most trustworthy man in the New Jersey, once he becomes your friend, he won't leave you even under gunfire.

Tim had to go out to make arrangements for the night's venture. That left the professor all alone in the room. After a couple of minutes of restlessness, he decided to smoke. He left smoking when he married but the situation had his nerves firing up, so he had to calm them down somehow. There wasn't any on him but Tim had a pack or two in his suitcase. Dragging it from under the bed, he noticed it was heavy. As he opened the suitcase, the contents came rushing out. It was cash. So much he had never seen together. He quickly started putting them back, while counting it too. As the last dollar went inside, the count came to 20,000 dollars. He was surprised. How did this much money come to Tim?

Upon further glance, however, he found out that it wasn't Tim's suitcase. His was a dirt brown colored, where as that one was a greyish black one. Doherty quickly surmised that the money might have belonged to the previous occupants of the room, who left just the previous day, as Doherty and Tim were entering the room. The money might have been a great help to him but his wisdom warned him. Men who have such money with them are dangerous, and if he tried to take the money with him, who knows who might get on his trail for that. So being wise, he left it untouched under the bed.

Tim came in, all cool and confident. The professor told him what he found. Tim was startled at first but then on hearing Doherty's reasoning, he calmed down again.

" I guess we just leave it as it is." said Tim, smiling.

Night came in, like a blanket to cover the crimes of the two American. A thunderstorm was raging outside, perfect for them as nobody would be outside. Also, in some ways, it added a theatrical element to their mission that night.

They walked down the wet road, still warm from the bright sunshine. The professor clutched his breast, to see if he had his small notebook there. It was a small black notebook with a hardcover, which Doherty always carried with him wherever he went. Educated folks like him always wrote about their days whenever they travelled.

At last they came to north side of the temple Maeri. It looked majestic, with flashes of light illuminating the entire night sky. So large was the temple that they felt it could have been build by the Giants.

There was a secret passageway, where the water flows through to the river. They had carefully tread on a thin ledge that was just above the flowing water. It was slippery, and on more than one occasion Doherty almost fell but the strong hands of Tim pulled him back.

It took them an hour to get to the chamber, where the Sorcerer's stone lay. The waterway led right underneath the door, through which they could find the object of their travel. They opened the metal bars and got up. No one was inside, as they had predicted. No one was allowed inside, all the guards were patrolling outside.

The two got in real easy. They could see the stone. Tim walked up to it and took it up his shirt. Even though there were other stuff in there, Doherty didn't take any, for he didn't believe in stealing. In the case of the stone, he had no choice but in those other things he had one.

The duo stealthily escaped, without any of the guards noticing anything amiss. They walked up the hill, intending to return back to the lodge. None of them said anything for a while, soaking in the eerie atmosphere of the stormy night.

Just as they reached the peak, from where the lodge was only 5 minutes away, Tim stopped. Doherty looked behind and saw Tim standing, with a grim look on his face.

" Sorry Professor. I didn't want this but you leave me no choice. You have seen my pile of money. If I am to take this stone, which I will, you will quickly put two and two together and gather that I sold out for 20,000 dollars. You would report me to the Indian authorities and they would spend every single dollar to get me and the stone."

" As you might have guessed by now, somebody paid me to do this. A rich man in Staten Island has given me that money you found to give him this very stone. He is a dying man but if he can live, he will make me a rich man. That 20,000 was just the beginning. I have to apologize again, Professor. Not only for having to kill you but also that your wife will die. Hope that you guys meet in heaven. Remember Professor.... It was just business, nothing personal." said Tim.

Doherty could have accepted his death but not of his wife. He lunged forward, which made both of them fall to the ground. They were trying to grasp the stone, which Tim finally got but in doing so he lost balance. With the stone in hand, he fell downwards, into a dark abyss.

Doherty returned to New Jersey, all hopes lost. His lovely wife would no longer be with him. She would be going to a better place, where there was no pain and suffering, and laughter and happiness was the rule of the land. He knew her Lord loved her, so heaven would be the place she would go.

Maybe her Lord did love her, that's why he didn't let Doherty come to Jersey with the stone. For the stone did give its owner life but it didn't relieve them of their pain. So if Doherty's wife was to have the stone, she would live a long life but her pain would make her wish she was dead. So in God's merciful way, he made her journey in this world less painful.

The same, however, couldn't be said of Tim. As he fell down the hill, he clutched the stone, hoping that would give him life instead of death and it did. It didn't take away the pain that he felt though. He laid in the ground, writhing in pain, but no relief ever came. He never thought he would be wishing for the angel of death to visit him but the angel of death would not be coming. A long time may pass in that desolate hill before anyone finds him..