The Chime Of The Bell- Chapter 6

(My narration)

The stylist had been missing since morning. We didn’t take any notice until it was afternoon. We had assumed she was somewhere around probably taking inspiration from nature and the ruins but when she didn’t return by lunchtime we grew anxious.

“I want my stylist”, demanded Farheen.

“I believe she will be back soon”, consoled the bodyguard. He pretended to be cool about it but the moisture around his forehead showed he wasn’t.

“Since when is she missing?”, asked Debaleena.

“I don’t know.” was the muddled reply.

“Wait. You were in the same room. You must have SOME idea when she left”, demanded Rileena.
Farheen thought for a while before replying “I was alone in the room”.

For the next three minutes, no one spoke. I ran the housing plan again in my mind. I had shared the room with Rileena. Sam slept in the room with Dishani. I went to their rooms in the morning to wake them up. There were only two sleeping bags in the rooms. The stylist didn’t sleep in Vaishali and Debaleena’s room either. So where did she sleep? I tried to remember what had happened last night. We were talking. Vaishali told some story and I remember the stylist was sitting right opposite to me. She listed with great interest. Then there was Sam who was talking. It was about the doctor and Farheen held her stylist tight. And then… Farheen was alone. Yes, that’s it. She went to the washroom. It is then we realized that after excusing herself to the washroom she never came back. The realization thing happened somewhat simultaneously in all of us. The stylist had been missing since the last night! Silence had prevailed over the room before Farheen’s voice dominated again. “I want my stylist. Go find her right now!” she ordered her bodyguard.

“It’s a big island. How can he find her all by himself?”, Debaleena asked adjusting her spectacles.
“You are right. Let us all search for her in teams”, Rileena proposed. Her voice sounded serious. She was no more the light-hearted woman cracking lame jokes; she was the shrewd businesswoman who immediately recognizes a crisis. We all could see the crisis in front. What choice did we have other than agreeing to her? The stylist had been missing for more than 12 hours then. I nodded gravely as different possibilities of what may have happened to her flashed in my mind. I did not like the way I was thinking but I couldn’t help it. Isn’t it the basic human nature? It is the fear of the unknown, the sense of danger.

After a few minutes of planning, we came out of the cottage with our bags and boots on and split into teams to search the island. According to the plan, Sam and I were to search the woods, Rileena and Dishani would go to the asylum, Vaishali and Debaleena would go to the hospital building and the bodyguard would look around the bell tower. Farheen and the cook would stay behind in the cottage, in case the stylist returns. I case of emergency we would use the radio to communicate. Each team had one radio. We would keep searching until one of the teams find her. Heaven help us if we don’t. We dared not to discuss that possibility. After passing each other an all-the-best, everything-will-be-alright smile we set forth on our own ways.

The entire island was covered in thick vegetation so technically the entire island is the woods. But of course, Sam and I are not searching the entire island.When Rileena said “You and Sampreeti will go to the woods”, her fingers pointed out of the enormous window. We walked briskly towards our destination with my mind still flooded with ill possibilities. Sam was quiet too.

The plague field was separated from the mainland by a small canal that divides the island into two halves. There is a small bridge that connects all the horrors of Poveglia together. We entered the region of death crossing the bridge. This part of the island is abundant in grape vines and plague pits.

The Plague fields, no matter how much I tried to keep away from this place I was here, walking over the ashes of some pained human beings. When I say walking over ashes I literally mean it. The soil was kind of sticky and powdery. In some places, it felt very soft like I could sink into it any moment. If one looks closely, one can spot white pieces popping out of the soil in some places. And if you have the eyes of an archeologist you would instantly recognize them as bones. Well, maybe you don’t need to be an archeologist to understand that. I realized one thing that human ash is great for the growth of plants because several species of it had grown over the place.

Sam and I walked at the same pace side by side calling out her name. Well, we didn’t know her name so we were just calling for the stylist. This part of the island isn’t very big. One could stand on one horizon and easily spot anyone on the other end. But there were some tall grasses and other trees blocking the view in some places. We separated in two different directions at a point. I walked towards the left when I thought I should warn her about something important. I looked over my shoulder while I kept walking.

“Sam be careful of ---Aaah”

Before I could complete my sentence my feet sank in and I fell into a pit. When I opened my eyes again there was only darkness. Oh no, there came light from the top, blinding light. I could see nothing in my surrounding. My head was hurting badly. The surface I had fallen on wasn’t smooth at all. It was so rough I could feel scratches and bruises all over my back. It was pretty difficult to move at first. I could hear Sam’s voice coming somewhere from the top.

“Jayeeta…? JAYEETA!”

I blinked my eyes several times to see what I could make out in the darkness and blinding light from above. The sharp contrast of lights made it very difficult to see. I narrowed my eyes to see the silhouette of Sam’s head peeping into the hole.

“Jayeeta are you alright? Please respond.”

I tried to get the hold of something, maybe a rock. It felt somewhat spherical. As I put some pressure on it to rise up from the floor, it crushed into pieces, a fragile material. I brought the broken piece I was still clinging to close to my eyes to understand what it was. What I found froze my blood. It was a human skull! In fact, if I looked around properly I was surrounded by human skeletons. I had fallen on a heap of skeletons. I had fallen into a plague pit!

I don’t clearly remember what happened next. Maybe I stood there staring at the skull for some time, traumatized. Maybe I had fainted. All I remember is Sam calling out my name repeatedly before it became dark again and all the noises in the world fainted away along with Sam’s voice.

Hi again. The story has just began, keep reading to know who I got out of the pit of the dead. Spoiler- it was not easy.

Next Chapter: https://wrytin.com/jayeetapaul/the-chime-of-the-bell-chapter-7-ju2uxi27