The Urban Chronicle ✔

20: Spidey Boy's Got Competition

It seemed like forever before the blindfold was removed from my eyes. I drank in my surroundings through narrowed eyes. I wasn’t in a dark, musty dungeon as I had half expected, instead I sat on the floor of a minimally furnished room on the top floor of the palace judging from the view outside the room’s tiny window. Besides me there was no one there except a scary looking ruffian who I assumed was posted so I wouldn’t escape. Surprisingly my hands and legs had been left untied. Obviously, they thought I was as capable of causing harm as a hamster. But back there I was hopelessly outnumbered and it was my first real encounter, a pretty difficult one at that, so you have got to cut me some slack. I can totally be a badass and save the day. Thank god, though I was in no mood to deal with dreadful rashes I always got when I touched jute. I pulled out the rag from my mouth and tried spitting out the terrible taste that refused to leave my tongue.
Without any notification, the King of Kalinga walked in, flanked by the prime minister and his army chief. I frowned. This scouting expedition had blown completely out of hand and I feared Neel and Mahindra were oblivious to my current situation. If I died today, it would be a painfully sorry end to my short life. A girl born in the 21st century and dying in something something BC! How miserable does that sound?!
I watched as the prime minister informed the king about everything that had happened in the last few minutes.
“It appears that a certain naughty little girl has stuck her dainty little nose in matters best left uncovered.” The king finally said. He took a deliberative pause and continued, “You certainly are no spy, but my prime minister here is quite certain that you’re one. Well, your regrettably poor self defense skills prove otherwise.”
A spark of hope filled me as I listened to the King’s words. Maybe he would even let me go. My face crumbled just as fast as it had lit up when the King said, “But you happen to know too much and I am certainly no fool to release you just like that. You will remain in our custody until the conquest is over.”
And with that he left. I sat there fuming at myself for having believed the façade of a noble king that he had put up in court earlier today. He was nothing but a double faced loser. It wouldn’t surprise me if somehow he happened to have a forked tongue. I’m not usually so gullible but today I let my guard down too fast.
The guard who had been watching me before checked me for weapons. He confiscated my dagger and also took away the pack of mints that had been in the back pocket of my jeans. He most probably presumed that they were poisonous pills or something. I pouted and silently mourned the loss of my favourite flavour of mints. A brand new pack if you were wondering. Ah well, shit happens; you have to learn to deal with it.
After he was sure that I had no weapon to plan an attack with, he left the room- locking the door securely before doing so. I lay down on my back on the hard uncarpeted floor, pondering over my impending doom.
I jumped with surprise as I felt something vibrate in the back pocket of my jeans. I patted my pockets in panic to see if the guard had placed something there while I was distracted. I pulled it out and realized that miraculously, the guard had left behind my mobile phone. I was so happy that I did a little dance routine. The events of the last one hour were quite a lot to take in; in all that I had completely forgotten that I still had my phone with me. The guard must have mistaken it for a bizarre piece of jewellery or something because of its shiny silver appearance and blunt edges. Whatever the reason, I was very grateful. I opened my notifications to see that Neel had spammed my messaging inbox. The first few were about their inability to find the tablet. I heaved out a sigh. The rest were about where I was. They went from small letters to all capitals as I scrolled through them. They were probably worried that they couldn’t find me anywhere and I wasn’t even answering my phone. Well, it wasn’t my fault that my phone had miraculously got switched off and on all by itself. A warm feeling spread through my body, it felt nice that someone cared. I’d presumed that Neel and Mahindra would be so preoccupied with finding the tablet that they would only realize I was missing tomorrow when it was time to leave.
I texted Neel back immediately, informing him about my current fix. Within seconds he called me and started bombarding me with questions- ‘Where are you being held?’, ‘Why the hell did they lock you up?’, ‘How can you be so dumb and get caught like that?’, ‘Didn’t you have the sense to use the self defense techniques you were taught?’, ‘Are you okay?’, ‘Did they hurt you?’
Gosh! He sounded like an overprotective mother bear. Nevertheless, I answered all his questions patiently. I’m sure I would have been the same if he had been captured.
“If I need to escape, I need to have some means of communication with you two. And if you keep asking me so many invalid questions, the battery is going to end up dead soon. I only have forty eight percent so I better use it wisely.” I said when I finally got exasperated with all the questions he kept asking me. What I urgently needed at the moment was a fool proof escape plan, not endless concern and pity.
“Fine!” he said pointedly, “I see that captivity seems to have had no effect on your usual snarky behavior.”
“What do you mean by usual behavior? I was pretty much preparing for a miserable life ahead until you texted. You gave me hope. But don’t expect me to say mushy things out of gratitude.” I replied.
“Right, bye. We don’t want your battery dead now, do we?” Neel said, obviously not in a mood to argue with me.
“Yup, bye.” I cut the call.
Hear the sound of the unlocking door, I immediately regained my composure. I quickly put my phone on silent mode and slipped it into my pocket again, before sitting down on the floor in a heap. I plastered a sad, worn out expression on my face. I watched the guard from the corner of my eye, as I pretended to stare away into oblivion. He eyed me suspiciously, but wordlessly placed a bowl of boiled rice on the floor before me and left, locking the door after him.
I scrunched up my nose at the sight of the bland looking rice placed in front of me. I rolled my eyes, but had a mouthful of it anyway. I was pretty hungry so I could eat just about anything. I had a little more before pushing the bowl away from me. The rice wasn’t the best dinner I’d had but something was better than nothing. Ok, I’ll worry about food later. The need of the hour was a plan to escape and some weapons. It was wishful thinking to expect Neel and Mahindra to come and rescue me. I didn’t want them to risk getting caught. I was a big girl and could handle my problems. Besides, they would have to endure the same fate as me if they were caught.
Looking around the room for possible weapons, I realized that the guard had left no stone unturned in making sure that there was nothing useful in the room. I shrugged disappointedly.
I had to feign dizziness, in order to compel the guard to leave the door open. After glancing outside, I decided that escaping through the door was a terrible option as there were three watchmen stationed outside the door and even if I magically found a way to elude them, I would have to run down three storeys to make it out of the palace. And to believe that I was capable of such a feat without being caught was optimistic and wishful thinking.
I waited rather impatiently for the guard to shut the door again. Now that I was convinced that dashing out of the room wasn’t possible, I needed the door to be closed so I could get back into action. I couldn’t even text Neel, because if the guard outside realized that the shiny rectangular object he had left behind was some sort of communicational device, he would take it away without hesitating. And I wasn’t ready to risk that. The door was closed soon enough and I sprang back into action. After about fifteen to twenty minutes, I decided that the window was the only option.
Oh no no…it isn’t what you’re most probably thinking. I’m not jumping down from the third storey of the palace. I am no Spiderman to pull off such a bold stunt. I will only climb down into the room below, on the second floor. And then maybe onto the first....and then finally the ground floor. I have absolutely no idea how I’m going to pull this off…..and did I mention that I’m extremely scared of heights?
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