AN:

Hi guyz! I'm back only for a short period though. Btw this story is a birthday gift for Darknite0403 which was scheduled to be given 4 years ago. But due to my laziness I couldnt gave her. So after so many years I'm finally giving this to you and hoping you would like it. I know you have already left ff but if you have read this make sure you drop a review.

Hope you like it. Belated happy birthday an extremely sorry for such late gift :)

ABOMINABLE MURDERER~

Part I

Rajat's

Rajat's last solid memory was of letting Tarika into his house. She had been babbling excitedly about the things which she got to see on her foreign tour. She only stopped when she noticed the annoyed look on his face, as she took few steps towards him while continuing her babbling he noticed her horrified expression, her eyes focused on some point over his shoulder. He started to turn—

And that was the end of his concrete recollection.

He had a very faint memory of someone talking above him. Something about doing it all at once. He could have sworn he was moving somehow. And he thought he heard Vivek's name…

Whatever the case might be, his head was pounding, and it was a real struggle to open his eyes more than a crack for fear of the light. But when he managed this particular feat and looked around, he realized that something was very much amiss. Namely, he was sprawled on his back in the centre of a long hallway. Tasha was lying beside him, unmoving.

WAIT..TASHA? What was she doing here? Rajat stared at her with his wide eyes when something hit his mind,

"Where is Tarika?" If he remembers correctly she was with him until he fell into a deep slumber. But now she was not here and he had no idea where she was and how they were or how they had gotten there.

Sitting up proved to be a bit of a chore, but he managed and took a more in-depth glance at the unfamiliar surroundings. They were, indeed, in the middle of an expansive corridor. The ceiling above them was high and arched; it all was decorated very ornately, in a decidedly Western style, and had an extremely archaic feeling to it.

But that wasn't all. Something about the place seemed very…off. Odd. The air didn't feel right, or something. Rajat was having an extremely difficult time placing exactly why the hair on the back of his neck was standing up and a chill was running down his spine. He tried to write it off as being a shaky remnant of the realization that he had been kidnapped, but somehow it didn't seem like that could explain the entire feeling away.

Ever the pragmatist, he gave himself a shake and turned his attention to Tasha. He gave her shoulder a gentle shake. "tasha? Tasha, wake up!"

After a moment, her eyes fluttered open. "Ra..Rajat..Sir?" she murmured, wincing. Still, she sat up without his assistance and glanced around, one hand pressed to her forehead. "Why.. are we? What happen—…" Her eyes widened and she trailed off as she seemed to recall the answer to the question before she could finish asking it.

"We've been kidnapped," he said, standing and offering her a hand.

Outwardly, he remained as calm as possible. To panic now could potentially be suicide. But his well-trained mind was already racing with all the ways that this scenario was odd. There was no doubt that he and Tarika had been snatched from his home and after that Tasha was abducted from her home. But they should not have woken up as they did—free and unbound in the middle of a strange building. Most kidnapping victims were either killed outright, or imprisoned somewhere, weren't they? At least, that's how it seemed in the majority of kidnapping cases he was familiar with.

…for that matter, if the parties responsible were who he suspected, why hadn't they just been killed?

"Rajat Sir?"

Tasha was talking to him. Focus.

"Sorry…thinking." He gave himself a shake and started moving forward but still keeping a close eye on her.

"Come on, we have to find Tarika first and then let's see if we can find a way out of here."

"Wait..even Tarika is kidnapped?"

Rajat gave a slight nod.

He belatedly thought to check his pockets, and was unsurprised to find them empty. No matter, though. They just needed to find an exit…

Though this all seemed far too simple. He slowed his steps and inched a bit closer to the wall. And though he tried to push the thought aside, he couldn't help but find himself recalling a story he had read once, where a man fixated with hunting sought the ultimate prey, and only found it in the form of other human beings. For human beings were the only creatures capable of thinking at the same level as the hunter, making them much more challenging targets.

It was just another possibility to add to the short list that was forming in his mind. Were they to be hunted down like animals in this place? Was this some sort of cat and mouse game? Or was it an honest mistake—perhaps that they were the wrong targets—and they had been dumped here for lack of a better place, and they were going to be able to waltz right out of here?

Somehow, Rajat sincerely doubted that last possibility.

"Sir? Does this place feel weird to you?" Tasha murmured in an unconscious echo of his earlier thoughts. But she took it a step further, managing to put words to what he felt but couldn't quite put his finger on. "It's like the walls could just reach out and grab you. Or something's going to jump out at you from around the next corner…"

"That pretty much sums it up," Rajat agreed. "Stay close. We need to stay together." They were creeping along, keeping close to the wall. Both were looking around, every sense on fullest alert. This was strange, unfamiliar territory, and neither would be comfortable until they had found a way out.

Rajat couldn't stop replaying his last memories in his mind, over and over and over again. Being in the house, letting Tarika in, her expression just before everything went black…oh! A sudden thought struck him, and he glanced back over his shoulder. "Tasha?"

"Hmm?"

"Did you see the person who grabbed you?" he asked, a bit louder than he had meant to. But if she had seen the assailant that could mean a lot—it could confirm or destroy his personal suspicions, which could potentially, clear up his thoughts on the motive for whatever was going on.

Tasha opened her mouth to respond, but froze in her tracks and instead whispered, "Sir…listen…"

He immediately stopped and listened as well, and was startled to realize that he also heard something.

Voices.

Coming from up ahead, around the corner—in an intersecting corridor.

Instinctively, he pushed back against the wall. "Stay close," he whispered in the softest voice he could manage and still be heard. "I'll go first. If something goes wrong, start running and don't look back."

She looked infinitely pained at that, but swallowed hard and nodded.

Meanwhile, the voices up ahead had quieted as well. Perhaps they had been heard as well. All the more reason for caution, then. Slowly, they crept towards the corner, backs pressed against the wall, hands firmly entwined between them to make sure that they did not lose each other. Rajat hesitated, took a deep breath to steel his nerve, and leaned forward to peer around the corner and see who it was.

To his absolute amazement, Vivek stared back, standing in exactly the same pose and peeking around the corner with the exact same trepidation.

They stood like that for a good couple of seconds before both simultaneously let out a sigh of relief and slumped against the wall, the tension flooding away to be replaced by relief and a slight feeling of stupidity for getting so worked up.

Startled by Rajat's reaction, Tasha stepped from behind him, and nearly crashed into Tarika, who had been standing behind Vivek.

After a small chorus of various relieved and startled exclamations, they finally got down to some sort of business. "You were kidnapped too?" Rajat managed to grab the lead and steer the conversation away from the admittedly reasonable surprise and towards the situation at hand.

Vivek simply nodded as he began explaining the situation, " I was back from the gym and was heading to meet tasha for our dinner date" . Vivek explained, gesturing to Tasha as he mentioned her. "And then some lady knocked on my door."

"I thought she was a salesperson. I was going to tell her that I was quite busy but suddenly she started falling. As soon as I moved forward to help her, I remember feeling a sting on my neck and everything went blur after that." he rubbed at the side of his throat, remembering.

He then turned to face tasha to ask her how she landed up there. She explained that it was the same situation with her except she was approached by an old lady and after she started fainting tasha moved forward to help her and after that it all went blur.

"I don't get it, though," Tarika said thoughtfully. "They just let you see them like that?(pause)…that doesn't make any sense."

They all were interrupted by Tasha clearing her throat. "Here's a thought, —how about instead of standing around talking, we find a way out of here?" She wrapped her arms around herself and glanced about. "I really don't like it in here. It just feels weird."

Though Vivek privately agreed with both of her statements,it seemed that he just couldn't keep himself from making a comment. "Aww, is poor officer Tasha still afraid of the dark?" he snickered.

"WHAT!" she was mad, and rightfully so, most spectators would agree, and turned on her heel to start stalking away. "Fine! Stay trapped in here forever! See if I care!"

"Wait up! " Vivek snapped back on pure instinct, and chased after her as the familiar sound of an argument rang through the otherwise-silent house.

"Honestly, will those two never stop…both of you wait up" Rajat called, but the pair was merrily bickering their way ahead of them with no thought to the other two behind them. He sighed and quickened pace, rounding the corner. "We're going to have to catch up to them. They're not exactly thinking. Or paying attention."

He heard Tarika's voice and footsteps, a few meters behind him. "Rajat this pla—"

There was a soft hissing sound, and Tarika was cut-off in mid-sentence. Her footfalls went silent.

Rajat froze. Something did not feel right. "Tarika?" he called into the dark hallway.

There was no answer.

"Tarika? Where are you?" he tried again, and still got no reply. Growing more and more alarmed by the second, he started inching back towards the corridor from whence he had come. He knew Tarika had been right behind him up until he had gone around the corner. Where was she now? He took a deep breath, and peered around that corner.

It was empty. There was no one there.

Now completely alarmed, Rajat turned and ran after the pair. "Vivek! Tasha"

There were footsteps, and the two came sprinting into view. "What happened?" Vivek asked in between gasps for breath. He was glancing around, as though expecting there to be some visible problem or attacker or something of that nature. "Where's Tarika?"

"That's the problem!" Rajat said, his usual collected demeanour going right out the window. "Tarika's missing, I can't find her anywhere! She was right behind me until I came around this corner, and then I heard a weird hissing sound, and then she was gone!"

"That's impossible—Tasha!" Vivek said, his statement turning into a yelp as Tasha brushed past him. She was already moving towards the hallway in question. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Looking for Tarika! What else?" he snapped back, pausing at the spot where the two hallways intersected.

Tasha tried surveying the area around her as she spoke"we should find her before anything happens!"

"Don't go wandering off by yourself'" Vivek said, stalking towards her with Rajat sticking close, hot on his heels. "If you vanish, I'm not looking for you!"

Rajat knew that last part was a complete and total lie. If Tasha went missing, Vivek would tear the place apart to find her.

"We need to stick together. It looks like Tarika disappeared during that split second when we were in separate hallways. Maybe there's a door or something and someone grabbed her…or she tripped a switch?"

But a search of the walls and floor revealed nothing. Even Tasha inspected the ceiling while climbing on Vivek's shoulder, but she could find no sign of any trick or secret door that would account for Tarika's mysterious disappearance. There was, however, a window in the middle of the ceiling. She couldn't see anything through it except for more of the ceiling, but it was decidedly discomfiting.

With all three of them getting more and more nervous by the minute, they started tearing through the house, searching frantically for any sign of Tarika. They called her name, but got no answer. The house itself, meanwhile, seemed to grow more and more like a maze with every room they entered. There were doorways that led nowhere, windows that opened onto empty rooms, and one stairwell that nearly killed Vivek by going up to a wall; he managed to clock himself on the ceiling.

When they opened another door and found themselves in a library, they stopped for a moment and sat down to catch their breath. They kept moving around the room, pulling books from shelves with little care for their condition. When that failed, they moved to the desk and started rifling through the drawers and papers. What exactly they were searching for remained unclear, but it was obvious that nothing would escape their scrutiny as they searched for Tarika.

"Sir!" Vivek finally jumped in. "We need to calm down! Freaking out isn't going to help!" He did spare a moment to wonder exactly when he became the voice of reason in this ensemble, as that position was usually awarded (with honours) to Rajat.

"I'm not stopping until I find her!" Rajat barked, slamming one hand on the desk.

There was a click, and a section of the carpet suddenly depressed, as though hanging.

The two boys looked at each other for a moment, and then moved towards it as one person. Tasha who was inspecting the books joined them. They had to move a chair in order to get the carpet up, but in relatively short order they had pulled it aside to reveal an opening in the floor. It appeared to be some sort of trap door, and judging by what they could see through that opening, it led to a crawl space.

Before the other two could say anything, Rajat was already climbing down into the small area. "I'll check it out. I don't think it's that big, but…I feel like I should stay in sight." He didn't know why, but he had a feeling that if he was out of sight, it would constitute being alone…and that was very, very bad.

He was proven right: it was a very small space, hardly big enough for him to move in. But he did find something down there—a few something, rather. There was a small framed document or picture of some sort, face down on the dirt floor, and on top of it was what appeared to be some sort of old papers. He picked it up and looked at it. It was definitely a paper, one yellowed with age. And upon closer inspection, he saw what appeared to be writing on it.

"Sir? Did you find anything?" Tasha called from above.

"…actually, yes. I did." he said, gathering both of the items and clambering back out of the crawl space into the lit room above. He quickly spread his discoveries on the floor so the others could see them. The framed paper proved to be a portrait, apparently hand-painted, and slightly faded with age. There was a signature at the bottom that was too far gone to read (presumably the artist), and an engraving at the bottom of the frame that read one word: Urado.

"Well, that's…interesting," Vivek said, raising an eyebrow. He picked up the aged paper and studied it. "What the hell does this mean, exactly?" He squinted at the writing, as though trying to make sense of some great puzzle. "What do you think about that portrait?"

"No idea. It's very good. But who is this Urado? I assume that's this man's name. Definitely a strange name," Rajat commented, giving the picture a closer look. The man in the picture was very thin, and rather sickly-looking, but there was something about the expression on his face or the look in his sunken eyes that did not sit well with Rajat. And he couldn't help but think that in some indefinable way…the man reminded him of something. Something from very long ago. And that was not a good feeling at all.

"But Urado…why do I feel like I should know that name?"

Tasha was tapping her chin thoughtfully. "It does sound sort of familiar…"

Vivek, meanwhile, passed Rajat the aged paper. "what do you think about it"

Rajat obligingly took the paper and studied the writing on it. After a few minutes of thought, he realized why the writing didn't make any sense—this was old language probably mixture of old Sanskrit and symbolic languages. He remembered faintly about seeing something like this in the old books, the books he had seen a very long time ago when he was just a child, probably in his great grandmother's books which were in his family treasure and was treasured by every generation. He realized that it was the same language but he was not aware of it since he was more of a logical person this inscriptions never bothered him anyway. With that in mind, he tried rereading it, having to search his memory for meanings. But finally, he passed it back, his expression very grim. "I don't even have a slightest clue about it."

Tasha turned to look at the aged paper. She took that paper in her hand as she closely started inspecting it, analysing the words and symbols, she knew that she has seen this before. As she tried remembering it, her face broke into excitement as she finally recalled it but it quickly faded as her face turned to grim.

"It's a warning!" she said while eyeing her colleagues. "Saying to stay away! People who come here die. And Urado's name is on there—"she started to explain but was cut off when she noticed something.

"Look! (she pointed at the very corner of the plaque that bore Urado's name. There was a very tiny engraving there, barely legible.)

"What does it say?" Vivek squinted.

"Vlad," Rajat read.

"…Vlad? That does sound familiar" Vivek frowned.

"Urado. Vlad. What are even those…" Rajat remarked.

"The Impaler."

Both turned to look at Tasha in surprise.

…

AN : Do share your views about this :)