The Phosphorous Stone

“Tautness was in the air, and it was at that moment that l felt something piercing through my skin and then slowly, gradually into my veins. As the liquid gushed through my arteries l could sense my body becoming weak and numb. Eventually after resisting all the pain l fell on the spot, unconscious.”

It was Friday night a renowned archaeologist Antonio Vogel was busy working on his next excavation, he was planning to find ‘The Phosphorous Stone’. This was no ordinary stone, it was a priceless jewel that kept the Earth stable and balanced, the rather peculiar thing about it was that, although it had such a crucial role in maintaining the Earth’s ecosystem no one in history had ever seen it and now, the entire world was counting upon Sir Antonio to unearth the heavenly jewel. On the other hand, Antonio was not quite comfortable with this idea as he knew that this won’t only cause disturbance to the planet but to the people living in it as well. Woefully, he was left with no choice.

During the exhumation the teenager got involved with some exceptionally unscrupulous people at the wrong time. The excavation was successful due to which the news spread pretty fast and, as soon as the bad guys heard about it, they coxed Antonio to hand the stone over to them, but Sir Vogel was smart, undeterred and firm on his decision as he was quite patriotic towards his work. He knew that this day would come and the bad guys would be after it so, he decided to hide the stone and leave some clues behind as he was not sure he would survive to reveal the exact spot where he had hidden the stone.

After trying various harsh ways of convincing Vogel, the bad guys had no option left but to kidnap and then torture him so that he would divulge the truth. They managed to kidnap him by injecting a liquid into his body which left him unconscious on the spot. After which they took him to a hideout where they almost tortured him to death. The teenager collapsed and fell unconscious as he was bleeding profusely due to the merciless behaviour of the torturers. On finding out what had happened to him, the torturers knew that they couldn’t procure any information from him now. The only problem this time was that they didn’t know what to do with Antonio, they could either just let him go, so that he could complain to the FBI and even reveal their secret hideout or, just kill him through which eventually the FBI would find traces and catch hold of the murders. Either or they would get caught so, they decided to wipe of his memory and replace it with some other memory which would make him a new person altogether.

The tortures hired a person who could wipe off Antonio’s memory and a reconstructive surgeon from their known contacts. The operation began, Antonio was just lying there unconscious and helpless not knowing who he would turn into, how would he survive or what would he see once he opens his eyes. The operation was successful. The tortures managed to hypnotize him through which, they fed new memory in his brain and then few minutes before he came back to his senses, they left him in a decent looking house.

Now Antonio had become a completely different person. His name had changed to Diego Parker, he was a 16-year-old collage going boy who had lost both his parents in a plane crash and had come to America for his future studies. He lived alone and did a part time job for his survival. Years and years had passed and Diego had made quite a few friends in collage, all of them used to have lunch together and often walk to school mutually. Many a times people used to tell Diego that he reminded them of someone however they didn’t remember who. Though the tortures had changed his appearance and his internal memory few of the personality traits of Antonio still remained with him. Diego kept getting flashbacks and nightmares related to his past but, he never took it seriously as he thought they were just ordinary fears and dreams.

Then one day while he was engrossed in doing his homework, he heard a knock at the door. There were two men in black standing at the door step and wanted to come in. As they made themselves comfortable on the couch Diego inquired about their arrival and they explained that they were the FBI who had recently found about his past and the people responsible for his current situation. Looking at Diego’s baffled face the men further explained that he was a completely different person named Antonio Vogel who was an archaeologist responsible for finding ‘The Phosphorous Stone’ and while doing that he got himself involved with some really bad people who not only wiped of his memory but also changed his physical self which is now Diego Parker. The men continued that the stone which was dug was no ordinary one, it was a priceless jewel that kept the Earth stable and balanced and now as it is removed from its place the earth has only 3 days until everything along with the planet disappears into thin air. On hearing this Diego just rested his head on the back of his chair being both astonished and relieved. Astonished because he had never imagined that everything which was going so perfectly till now would suddenly, with a group of words become all the more complicated and unfeasible. He was also relaxed as now finally everything makes sense, people pointing out his resemblance with someone, his flare in archaeology and the flashbacks which he kept getting of torches and a stone. The FBI said that as it was such a valuable jewel Antonio Vogel had decided to hide it from the bad guys, and from past all these years nearly everyone has been trying to find it but, none are successful. “We believe that if there is anyone out there who can crack this it is you, Sir.” justified one of the men. Diego gave it a thought and after sometime looked up and said, “When do we start?”

After which the police suggested that first he should head to Antonio Vogel’s house and see if they can find anything there. But Diego was hesitant to take three of his friends along with him, Fyodora, Samson and Jimin. So off went the ‘four’ musketeers to Diego’s other home. After reaching the abandoned house and seeing those torn curtains, broken glasses and spider webs Jimin exclaimed while biting his nails, “Is it just me or does this house really look like those creepy dwellings which they show in movies.” On this all of them answered together, “It is just you.” Jimin was taken aback at this answer but said nothing. On entering the house, the four friends searched every nook and corner but didn’t find anything, all they got was bunch of spiderwebs and some dirty looking broken things to which all of them just went eww and moved. Then abruptly while searching some of the drawers in the attic Diego found a black colour diary. After trying numerous ways of opening it Jimin sarcastically told Fyodora, “Aren’t you supposed to be the smart one?” To which Fyodora replied, “I am trying you smarty pants!” On the other hand, Diego just rolled his eyes at both of them which kept them quiet. There was a long period of awkward silence that followed until Samson noticed something, there was a small button located on the right side of the diary. All of them didn’t have that much time to argue upon whether pressing it is a good idea or not so they just decided to press it after all. Diego took the lead and as soon as he pushed the button a voice emerged from it saying, “What goes round comes back round, in waves it travels all around. But, remember similarity must be found.” After hearing this Jimin immediately said, “I don’t know a place called ‘Similarity’.” To which Fyodora replied, “It is not a place, it’s a riddle JIMIN!” And all Jimin could say was just an ‘oh’. Subsequently, Fyodora jumped up with excitement and said “Its sound! Don’t you all get it.” Then she slowly repeated the riddle again, ‘What goes round comes back round, in waves it travels all around.’ After which Diego and Fyodora said together, “And similarity is a similar sound!” Diego was beaming with excitement and said, “You are a genius Fyodora.” On which she just blushed. Jimin interrupted and said, “Hold on but whose similar voice do we have to find?” All of them just nodded their head in dismay and Samson said, “Let’s just carry on.” Jimin felt disheartened about this ignorant behaviour and said, “At least tell me whose voice.” Hearing this all screamed, “Antonio Vogel’s, that’s obvious Jimin!” But the thing all of them didn’t know was what to say so that the diary could recognize Diego’s voice. Fyodora suggested that he should just say ‘l am Antonio Vogel the archaeologist’ so listening to her advice Diego took a step forward and narrated the words, on which a huge rumbling sound and a strong gush of wind was caused, all of the friends held each other tightly while keeping their eyes closed. After everything settled down all of them opened their eyes and saw an open diary in front of them. They started jumping up and down on their accomplishment and bend down to see what was written in the diary. It said, “A matter that can take any form, looks sublime when calm, some people find it a charm.” Jimin exclaimed, “Come on, not another riddle.” All the others just gave out a ‘uhh’. “Great now we have to think for another century to find the answer.” said Jimin. “Its not that complicated you know. The answer is quite simple ‘Water’. It takes the shape of the container it gets poured in and does look quite beautiful when it is still.” Said Samson. Everyone just looked at him in astonishment with wide eyes. Upon seeing such a reaction Samson said, “What l watch a lot of spy movies.” To this all of them just chuckled. Fyodora apprised them that they still didn’t know where to find the next clue. All of them thought when Diego said that, “If Sir Antonio wrote these clues when he was in Alagaesia then the hints would be related to the places in this city and luckily for us there is only one river in Alagaesia ‘The Johto river.” After he ended his statement Jimin eagerly said, “What are we waiting for then, let’s go.” And everyone grabbed their suitcases and ran.”

On reaching The Johto river the four friends were looking for another hidden clue. After a long search, all of them were tired and were peacefully resting when Fyodora accidently pressed a button on one of the stones. She quickly leaped out of its way as she could sense it opening. As the simple and rough stone was turning into a super smooth and technological item the teens just stared at it in amazement. But this time there was no voice message in it but a note which read, “People often worship me, I can sometimes be deadly, all you have to do is find me.” After seeing this note Jimin went to Diego and said, “What is this with you and riddles, do like seeing these poor baffled faces, huh.” Diego replied, “Its not my fault my memory is washed away.” All of them just sat on the rocks thinking when Jimin again interrupted by saying, “I have to go to the altars with me parents today, ahh I will have to miss it.” “Wait you go to the ‘Fire Altars’ for worship?” interrogated Fyodora. “Yeah so, anything special about it?” replied Jimin. “No! But that’s the answer to our riddle.” Exclaimed Fyodora before she continued. “People worship fire and we all know that fire can get deadly when it spreads, right?” All of them agreed and then head off for the altars.

When they saw the massive place of the fire temple, they lost all hopes of finding another clue. But before they knew it Samson came running towards the group with a high tec electronical device in his hand. And everyone knew what that meant so, all of them gathered around and proudly said to themselves, “We have become good at this ‘Detective thing’.” There was again a paper which said, “The end is at the start.” Jimin had just opened his moth when everyone said, “Jimin resist the urge, we all know you want to say it.” Which kept him quiet. All of them wondered what did the clue mean by ‘the start’ when suddenly Diego sprung up and said, “The start is the place where Antonio first dug up ‘The Phosphorous Stone.” Fyodora added, “Sir Antonio was very smart he knew that people would check the nook and corner of the world but not the place from where it actually originated. And not only that he even kept the world safe by putting the stone in its rightful place.” All of them were just basking in his glory of Sir Antonio when Jimin reminded them that they should go tell the FBI about this the FBI must be worried sick.

As soon as they reached the office they narrated the whole story to the FBI. The FBI were certainly stunned not only that the stone had been found but also that their theory of the Earth disappearing was not true. They congratulated the teenagers anyway for being so brave and intellectual then, went to seal the place where the stone was kept before they went out to spread the good news. Fyodora said in a astonished tone that, “Guys didn’t you notice that as Antonio was an Archaeologist and was more closer to nature the clues were based on the four elements, whereas the fifth element was the stone itself.” Everyone was left astonished by this thought. All of them then went walking to their respective homes. While walking Jimin asked Diego that as he came to know his real name would he change it now to which Diego replied, “I like who l am now then who was l before that’s one good thing the tortures gave me.” To which all of them agreed. Before they said their goodbyes, Samson said, “We did miss collage today, you know.” Fyodora replied, “That’s okay we were on an important mission to save the world.” And all of them bursted out laughing.

-Trisha Munim