Cursed Gold: A Mystery (Part One)
“The cursed hunger for gold”
On a foggy and quiet night, whispers can be heard easily. One girl shouted in excitement, “Come here, I found it, the tree is here.”
The other three came running towards her and a little frightened and trembling voice said, “Corpia, how you are enthusiastic in the middle of the night?”
Corpia smirked and replied, “Leo, please don’t ruin my excitement.”
Corpia’s elder brother Gemi distracted them by saying, “We are looking for a peepal tree as per the instructions.”
Corpia replied, “Brother, look properly.”
Another person who was staring all over the forest was Taurie.
Four were exploring in the gloomy frightening night.
Four of them were standing below the peepal tree. Corpia saw the old book which was found in the tomb of her ancestor.
Corpia says, “I think this is the exact spot we are looking for.”
Taurie looks into the book and says, “We should go to the opposite side.”
They all reach the front of a grave, and a deep female voice echoes in the woods. The four of them are startled and look around. They attempt to run but again the voice says, “You don’t need to run, I’m your ancestor whose body is trapped in this grave and my soul is in the peepal tree.”
Taurie asks, “How you can speak with us?”
Leo is scared and asks, “Are you a ghost?”
The woman laughs and says, “Soul sounds more acceptable.”
Gemi says, “Okay, the soul of my ancestor what do you want from us?”
Corpia glances through the book and says purposely, “There is nothing mentioned about you in this book my dear ancestor.”
Soul says, “Ooh, you found my diary, indeed Corpia you are clever.”
Taurie asks, “How you can be so sure that this is your book.”
Corpia is surprised and asks, “How do you know I’m Corpia?”
The woman’s Soul giggles and says, “I know everything my children, like why you are here and what you are looking for!”
The woman continues: “Can you see the name Aries on the diary? That’s me.”
Corpia shows the book to everyone the name is written and the painting of a woman with long black braided hair is at the back of the diary.
Corpia asks the soul, “If you know what we want then why don’t you help us?”
Gemi shouts, “Corpia don’t provoke anything unnecessarily, you don’t know who this woman is.”
The woman says, “I’ll tell you everything. I am Aries. One night, thugs attacked our village so my father and brother carried away seven gold pots filled with gems, jewels and coins. They ran into this forest and dug deep under the peepal tree. My father was reluctant to leave his fortune so he climbed up the tree. He ordered my brother to rescue us. When we returned he was nowhere to be found. Suddenly a voice called us it was our father.”
Corpia says, “Oh my god, then your father was below the ground. But how?”
The woman’s soul says, “Yes, that’s true, my father buried himself with his gold. We always came here to talk, we requested him to come outside but couldn’t find a way to bring him out.”
Gemi said, “That’s scary.”
Aries said, “I wanted my father out so I went to a priest.”
The priest said to me, “Your father is dead, you all are speaking to his soul.”
We were shocked, I asked, “Is there any way to bring my father back to life?”
The priest said, “Yes, but we need the sacrifice of another soul to bring him back to life.”
So I said to the priest, “I Aries am ready to sacrifice myself.”
The priest warned me, saying “If your father takes a single coin of gold out of the pot you will be trapped inside.”
I said, “Father you will be fine but don’t be greedy and don’t touch the gold.”
Father said, “Gold is not as important as you, Aries.”
My brother said, “I would do anything to bring you back, we will be together.”
The priest performed the ritual, removed my father’s body and buried me inside.
My brother asked the priest, “Now bring her to life, we must do that.”
The priest again chanted the mantra and said, “ I don’t know why , but I can’t attach her soul to her body, something must be wrong.”
My Brother grabbed Father’s pouch and found gemstones. He yelled in anger, “Father I don’t believe you did this to Aries.”
The priest said, “Don’t panic, we have another way, but it might take time. We can still bring Aries to life.”
Taurie said, “So the tales about seven gold pots are not a lie?”
The soul says, “The stories might be exaggerated with time but the gold lies beneath the ground, that is true.”
Corpia asked curiously, “Then how do we bring you and gold back?”
