Adventures & Mysteries

Chapter 1

The five, Sam, Mac, Nick, Victoria and Rebecca had all come from England. They did not know each other, but it was a coincidence that all of their fathers were transferred to Dehradun, India. They all lived in the same building called Pacific Apartments.

Rebecca, who was the youngest was lying on the soft grass one day in the many lawns scattered across the building, desperately thinking about what she could do. “Oh God, I’m feeling tired and bored at the same time. It was silly of Dad to leave London and come here. I have left all my friends behind in London. The evenings will be so dull now”, she mused.

Suddenly she heard some singing and the sound of a vehicle approaching. Eager to investigate, Rebecca went out to see what was going on. She saw a girl, only a little older than her, who was cycling on the pavement around the garden.

Rebecca went up to the girl and asked, “Can I also sit on the bicycle”?

“You will fall off my bicycle and hurt yourself” said the girl with a bemused look on her face.

“Ok, no problem, can we be friends?” Rebecca probed further.

“Yes sure.. I will be glad to be your friend” said the girl.

The moment they decided to play, their mothers appeared.

“Oh", said Rebecca’s mother, “You have already made a friend! Well done, what’s her name?”

“Err, I have not asked her yet mommy”

“My name is Victoria” said the girl instantly, “But you can call me Vicki. What’s your name?”

“My name is ‘Rebecca, but my friends call me, Becki”.

“Well now that the two of you are friends, why don’t you play for a little bit longer.” said Rebecca’s mother. “I’ll come to pick you up at 19:30 and please don’t go outside the building complex.”

The girls were pleased. From that day onwards, both the girls, Becki and Vicki started playing together in the evenings.

Now Rebecca thought that Dehradun is as nice as London. She thought Vicki was so much fun, kindhearted, sweet, caring and beautiful. Victoria thought the same about her new friend Becki. They both studied in the same school, St. Joseph’s Academy and played together at recess as well. One day both the girls were lying on the grass in one of the gardens of their building and talking about their life in London, when they noticed that a boy was staring at both of them. He had curly dark brown hair and fair skin. He was dressed in a yellow shirt and blue denim shorts. He was thinking whether to talk to the girls and ask them to be his friend or not.

Finally, he mustered up enough courage and approached the girls. “My name is Mac, will you be my friends?” said the boy.

“Yes Sure, do you also live in this building Mac?" Inquired Vicki.

“Yes I do", replied Mac enthusiastically. “We live on the 7th floor. I have been seeing the two of you play together for the past few days.”

“I’m Vicki and this is Becki. So what should we play Mac?”

“We can play with a ball.” suggested Vicki. Mac quickly went to his house and got a nice bouncy football to play with. Since the girls were not very good at football, they decided to play catch-catch.

Later that evening, they all told their parents about their new friends. From that day onwards, the three were inseparable, as they also went to the same school. One day, Mac decided that all of them should go to the café.

“Our mothers can decide the café and figure out transport.” suggested Mac.

The girls liked the plan. Their mothers chose Café Coffee Day, which was on Rajpur Road, one of the most popular roads in all of Dehradun. The very next day, all of them went to the café, where the children had chocolate ice cream with cream. The café had a small play area for children. The three of them spent the next two hours playing a number of board games, while their mothers got to know each other a little better, while tucking into some sandwiches and coffee. Once the kids were done with the board games, they all decided to head back to Pacific Apartments.

As the lift doors opened, they saw two more children inside who appeared to be of the same age. There was an awkward silence as all the 5 children just stared at each other without saying a word. A few days later, there was a story telling competition at their school, which Vicki, Mac and Becki were very excited about. But first they had to clear the selection round, which was open to all children in the age group. All three had written their stories and were quietly confident. Vicki’s story was about ‘The Barbie and the Lion’, while Becki wrote about ‘True Friendship’. Mac’s story was about ‘The mouse and the crow’. The teachers who read the stories and selected the best ones for the story telling competition from amongst all the different classes were astonished by Vicki, Becki and Mac’s imaginative stories. All three good friends were selected, along with two more students.

On the day of the storytelling competition, the five selected students were all sitting on a bench waiting for their turn to arrive, when Vicki noticed that she had seen the two other selected children somewhere. Becki and Mac also thought, the two other children looked rather familiar.

As the three friends were talking amongst themselves, one of the boys, came over to Vicki and said “Excuse me, I think I have seen you somewhere.”

“Oh yes, we saw each other in the lift of Pacific Apartments a few days ago.” remembered Vicki.

The two spoke for a few minutes, even as Mac was in the middle of reciting his story to the audience. During the conversation, Vicki learned that the two boys, named Nick and Sam were also living in Pacific Apartments and their families had moved there only a week earlier. It wasn’t long before the group of three friends became five.

Chapter 2

There was only a week left for their winter vacation to begin. All five of them were excited as well as sad because they loved going to school. On the last day of school as all of them were heading back home in the school bus, Vicki told all the others that they should do something different and exciting in the holidays.

"It’s just a ten-day vacation, so we can’t do much.” suggested Nick.

“How about we think of a new and different activity for each day?" Said Becki with a smile across her face.

"On one of the days, we can have a drawing completion amongst ourselves, on another we can do some craft work.”

“And, we can dance, sing and play some sports as well.” butted in Mac in an excited tone.

“Splendid idea!” shouted Sam and all the children in the school bus looked at him, half scared and half surprised.

Mrs Bannerjee, the teacher who always sat in the front of the bus, stood up from her seat and went over to them. “Who shouted like that?” said Mrs Bannerjee angrily.

“I did.” replied Sam gloomily.

“Don’t you feel ashamed? You scared all the little nursery children when you shouted so loudly!”

“I’m sorry Mrs Bannerjee.” said Sam as the teacher began to make her way back to the front of the bus.

“It’s ok Sam, but you really shouldn’t shout in a bus like that.” explained Victoria.

“I just felt very excited at the thought of doing all of those different activities during our holidays.” said Sam.

“It will be so much fun!” said Nick, even as Becky nodded her head in agreement.

The next day, the five children met after lunch at Becki’s house. They had all brought their sketch books along with their favorite sets of colors. They all found a comfy corner in Becki’s small room and started drawing. Vicki was drawing a beautiful landscape with many trees and mountains. Some children were also playing on the swings in her painting. Mac was drawing a small dining room with a fruit basket laid on the table. The drawing had chairs and some decorations for the table. Nick was drawing a scene from church where the choir was singing carols. Becki was sketching a mother with a baby on her lap in a room laden with a baby’s clothes and milk. Sam was drawing a fantasy paradise land with a castle and a magic fountain.

When they finished their drawings, it was half past six. They still had half an hour left before going home, so they decided to plan for next day’s craft session at Vicki’s house. The next evening was a cloudy one, but it didn’t dampen anybody’s mood. All the five friends were looking forward to their craft session and had gathered as much craft material as possible. One by one they started arriving at Vicki’s house. After they had all had some refreshments, they started to go through their craft material. Origami was an early favorite with almost all of them and they created some very interesting designs.

As the day’s passed by, they kept doing something different each day and before they knew it, they only had one day left of their winter vacation.

“Guys, we should do something memorable on the last day.” suggested Mac.

“I agree with Mac, but what can we do?” said Vicki.

Sam who had been in deep thought suddenly sprang into life “I know, I know. We can all go to the Malsi Deer Park!”

“It’s on the outskirts of the city and home to many kinds of birds and animals.”

“Great idea Sam, I’m really looking forward to it now.” said Becki, looking very excited.

The day was sunny, but there was a cool breeze blowing, which made it pleasant to be outdoors. Their mothers had decided to drop them off at the Malsi Deer Park and go shopping to one of the many new malls in Dehradun. The five started with bird watching and Becki was the first to notice a Blue Throated Macaw. They saw many other kinds of birds, but the Blue Throated Macaw was the most fascinating. They even loved the cockatoo very much. Now it was time to see the many varieties of Deer that roam in the park and the kids had a great time watching them graze. The swings caught their attention next and before long all five were playing on the swings.

Walking around the park for most of the morning and playing on the swings had left them hungry, so it wasn’t a surprise when Nick suggested that they should all eat. They had all brought packed lunches from home and eagerly began digging into their bags for the food. There were biscuits, sandwiches, rolls, juice and as the kids started to tuck into their lunch, a troop of Monkey’s arrived. The largest monkey snatched Mac’s biscuit packet and ran away. The other’s felt sorry for Mac and decided to share some of their biscuits with him. But just as he started to eat again, another monkey came and snatched the biscuit packet. This time, Mac didn’t let go. This was enough for the others and they swung into action. They took some of their biscuits and threw them away. When the monkeys saw more biscuits lying further away, they left Mac and ran towards them. Tears swelled up in Mac’s eyes when he saw that the others had sacrificed their biscuits for him.

“I love you all my helpful friends. We are best friends from now.”

Chapter 3

One day, the five decided to go for a picnic near Haridwar on the banks of river Ganga. Vicki told the others what they should carry.

“Becki, you should get two large rugs. Sam and Nick, you should get some cutlery like plates, bowls and glasses. Mac and I will get the food.

“Right Vicki!” said everybody together in a determined tone.

The next Monday they all met at Vicki’s house at half past nine in the morning. Vicki quickly looked at everything they had brought. The rugs were neatly rolled and kept. The utensils were neatly wrapped in tissue paper and the food was kept in the baskets. They packed everything in two huge bags that Vicki’s mother had given them for the picnic. On this trip, the five kids didn’t take any adult with them. And as they set off from Vicki’s house all were very excited.

“This is going to be so much fun!” said Becki.

On their way to the picnic, Nick noticed that a lady was following them. The lady had mousy red hair and a sly smile. She had eyes which were black and did not look nice with her sun burnt skin. She was wearing a checked shirt and a short skirt. After a while, the strange looking lady caught up with the kids and started a conversation.

“Hello Children.”

“Mmm, Hello!” said Nick suspiciously.

“Where are all of you going on your own?” asked the lady.

“We are going to the banks of the river Ganga in Haridwar for a picnic”, replied Sam. “Oh, I’m also going in that direction, why don’t you come with me, I will drop you to your destination.” Suggested the lady politely.

“No Thank You” came the reply from Sam and Nick together as the others could sense the fear in their voice. They started walking a bit faster to leave the lady behind, but she kept following them.

“I have some chocolates for you children, would you like to have some?”

“No thank you." replied Vicki, with fear written large on her face. Now the horrified children started running as they could sense that the intentions of the lady were not good. They ran as fast as they could without turning back to even take a glance at the lady.

“Quick, hide in this bush, before the lady takes the turn.” suggested Nick.

They quickly hid in the bush, by the side of the pavement, hoping for the lady to pass them by. They even held their breath as she approached the bush, so she wouldn’t be able to detect them. Realising that the children were nowhere to be seen, the lady decided to wait under the shelter of a nearby tree. An hour or so passed and the children were now beginning to feel hungry, while hiding in the bushes.

“I think we should eat our lunch.” said Becki as she was feeling really hungry now.

“No!” said Vicki, “The scary lady will see us if we make any noise while eating. Our best chance is to stay hidden in these bushes until she leaves.”

The five decided to wait it out. As the minutes and the hours ticked by, they all began to get a little restless. But Becki reassured everyone with a smile and said

“I have a plan. We will somehow have to try and get back home through a different route, maybe we will have to go through the forest area.”

“Through the forest area,” gulped Mac.

“Yes, through the forest area.” explained Becki.

"I have some small pebbles in my pocket that I was planning to play with on the banks of the Ganga River. We can drop these pebbles as we go from here through the forest area. In case we can’t find our way home or we get lost, we can use the pebbles to come back here.”

“Good Idea, Becki”.

“Let’s start, what are we waiting for?” said Sam.

They kept on dropping the pebbles as they walked through the forest area. Suddenly Vicki asked everyone to stop and listen to the strange sound she could hear. It was a sort of hissing sound.

“What can that be?” asked Sam

“Look over there.” said Becki, pointing to a large snake. The snake had a long red tongue and had dark and light green stripes all over its body. It was moving in a zig-zag manner.

“Run, run, run!” shouted Sam and they all started running back the way they came. Using the pebbles, they found their way back to the bushes where they had been hiding not too long ago. The scary lady was nowhere to be seen, but the kids didn’t want to take a chance, so they stayed hidden in the bushes. While waiting in the bushes, Mac and Sam heard some footsteps approaching.

Mac decided to get a closer look at who it was and to his relief, he saw a familiar face and shouted “Ma’am”.

Sam then decided to look out of the bushes and he also burst into joy and started to push his way out of the bushes.

He then turned back to the others and said, “I can see our English teacher from school, Mrs Anandita. She will help us get back home.”

One by one all five came out of the bushes and met Mrs Anandita on the side of the road who was taken by surprise as the five kids emerged.

“Sam, Mac, Nick, Victoria and Rebecca! What are all of you doing here?"

Asked their teacher with astonishment. “Ma’am, we were going for a picnic to the banks of the river Ganga in Haridwar, when a scary lady started following us. She even offered us chocolates and asked us to go with her, but we all ran from her and hid here in the bushes.”

Mrs Anandita listened attentively as the children narrated their tale. “Don’t worry, I can drop you to Haridwar as I’m also heading that way. My car is parked on the other side of the road. Come with me, but cross the road carefully children.”

“Yes ma’am, said everybody cheerfully. In the forty-minute car ride to the banks of the Ganga river, all of them were rather quiet.

“Here you are children, time for you to get down now and enjoy yourselves.”

The five thanked their teacher and mad their way to the river bank to find a spot to sit. Becki was starving by now and asked everyone to quickly arrange the food. There was plenty of food to choose from between the garlic bread, the roasted potatoes, feta cheese or the cucumber, tomatoes and cheese sandwiches. Becki arranged the platter neatly and all began munching in delight. They had chocolate for desert, to give them energy for the return journey home.

After food, the five decided to play along the banks of the Ganga river for a while before heading back home.

“Listen everybody”, said Sam, “Today was a real adventure wasn’t it?”

“Oh yes it was, I was really scared when that lady was following us, but in the end it all worked out well” said Vicki.

“That’s right, “I had a lot of fun today” exclaimed Mac.

“Me too” said Nick excitedly.

“And I have a suggestion guys.”

“Why don’t we call ourselves ‘The Daredevils? “Oh yes!” said Mac with a big smile on his face.

“Ok then, from today onwards, we will call ourselves ‘The Daredevils."

So this was the first adventure of the Daredevils. Now do you want to go on another adventure with them? Then read on.

Chapter 4

“It’s been a couple of weeks since we had any adventure” said Sam.

There was dead silence.

“Yes” said Becki suddenly.

“But I know what to do! We can make an adventure.”

“How will we make an adventure?” asked the puzzled Vicki.

“We can go to those hills over there.” As she pointed to some hills nearby.

“Now what are those hills called, ah yes Mussoori. We can go to the Mussoori hills.” exclaimed Becki.

“Good thinking Becki." said Vicki proud of her best friend.

“We can go to Mussoori for the day and take a packed lunch with us and have it in a park. We can also visit many places there are have a lot of fun.”

“Everything is settled then! We can go on Friday. Is everybody ok with the plan?” asked Mac.

The others responded with a loud yes as they all decided to head home for the day.

It was a bright Friday morning, without any clouds in the sky. Just the kind of the day for the ‘Daredevils to have a lot of fun. Everybody was ready and had decided to meet downstairs at 10am. Their parents hadn’t booked a cab for them as the children had insisted on walking to Mussoori.

They had carefully packed their lunch, which included, Sandwiches, boiled eggs and some chips into their back packs. After a quick good-bye to the parents, the five set off on the trek to Mussoori. The sun was now shining brightly, but because of the trees on either side of path, the kids were sheltered.

Suddenly, in the middle of their excursion, Vicki said “Hey guys, do you know there are a few haunted houses near Mussoori. I thought, if we could go to one of them, it would be very interesting and exciting.”

“Oh yes Vicki, I would love to do that. Maybe we will meet ghosts and witches.”

“Don’t be silly Becki.” said Nick with a slightly annoyed expression on his face. But before he could say anything else, Sam interrupted and said

“I think it would be fun. We should definitely go to see at least one haunted house and see what we find there.”

After a quick lunch break along the way, they reached Mussoori around quarter to three.

“Now to the haunted house!” shouted Mac and everybody raised their hands and shouted “Yes”.

They asked a passer-by for directions to the house.

“Turn right, followed by a left turn, again left and then straight.” informed the kind man.

Mac thanked him and the five started walking according to the directions the man gave them. Soon they were standing in front of a gate.

“Oh, so this is the haunted house. It looks spooky from the outside, I wonder if it’s just as spooky from the inside” said Becki.

They opened the door and it made a long creaking sound. A shiver ran through their bodies as they slowly stepped inside and suddenly, the door behind them closed.

“Must be the wind”, said Vicki in a frightened voice.

They all moved along slowly in a group, looking around cautiously in all directions.

“Look isn’t that a wire.” asked Mac.

Everybody looked at it closely. “Vicky, aren’t those clothes? And look a long gun. I think this is not a safe place.” Exclaimed Sam.

“Who’s that?” shouted a frightened voice.

The children held their breath. They were scared to death and their hearts started beating very fast. They suddenly heard a whispering noise and saw three gigantic figures appearing from the other side of the house. Then they saw three men. Two of them had long black beards till their chest. One had blue eyes. They wore uniforms and were carrying guns with them. The Children became very scared as they saw these scary men approaching. They wanted to run, but couldn’t as their legs were shaking.

“Who are these men? Are they Ghosts?” asked Becki.

“No, they are not ghosts, maybe they are terrorists," suggested Mac.

“Look at their clothes and the guns that they are carrying.” suggested Nick.

“They are definitely terrorists. They must be hiding from the police in this haunted house.”

“Quickly Iqbal, capture these children, they shouldn’t get away.” Shouted one of the men with the long beard to his companion. Within seconds, the 3 scary men had surrounded the children, with their guns pointing at them.

“Who are you and what are you doing here”? asked the man with the blue eyes rudely.

“We have come from Dehradun to explore Mussoori.” Said Vicki as she gathered the courage to reply back.

“We also wanted to see a haunted house and someone along the way told us that this was a haunted house, so we came here, hoping to have some fun.” explained Vicki.

The three men spoke among themselves for a few minutes, glancing at the children every few seconds. After a discussion, one of them men with a beard, came up to the children and instructed them to leave the house and not to tell anyone about them. Relieved, the children walked slowly and cheerfully out of the gate. After they were a good way away from the house, they rushed towards the police station and did not even wait in the waiting room despite people telling them. They walked straight into the room of the inspector, who at first looked angry, that five children had barged into his room.

But then he saw their worried faces and knew something was quite wrong. “My name is inspector Raj children. What has happened? Why do you all look so worried?”

“Inspector we had gone to see a haunted house and have some fun there, but instead we met three scary men in the haunted house." Explained Vicki.

“All three of them were wearing similar uniform and carrying big guns.”

We think they are all terrorists.” Suggested Nic.

“They thought we were just harmless children, so they let us go, but they warned us not to tell anyone about them.” informed Nick.

“But as soon as we were far away from the house, we came straight here.” continued Sam.

The children took inspector Raj and some more men to the haunted house. Once they reached, the house, Inspector Raj told the children to leave as it could get dangerous.

“We’ll handle it from here children.” The children started walking away as the policemen went inside.

“Well, I was scared to death, when we met those terrorists. They looked really frightening” said Nick.

“Yes Nick, all of us were scared”, said Vicki. “Becki, I’m sure this is not what you had in mind when you suggested that we should make an adventure, but this worked out rather well don’t you think?” suggested Sam with a giggle.

That made everybody laugh. “Let’s have something to eat, I’m feeling hungry again after all that excitement.” advised Mac. “Mac it’s fifteen minutes past five, so no wonder you are feeling hungry. We should all eat something” said Becki.

The five went to a nearby park, called ‘Company Park’. Nick and Mac spread the rug, while Becki and Vicki unpacked some of the food they had brought with them. They all then sat down and started eating ravenously. They didn’t speak a word amongst themselves as they finished their food rather quickly.

“Anyone wants to go for a walk or should we head home now”? Enquired Vicki.

“I vote for a walk.” said Mac and so did the others. They had a nice lovely walk as they admired the flowers that were blooming inside ‘Company Park.

As the sun began to set, the children decided to make their way home.

“This was also an adventure.” said Becki as they approached their building. “Yes for sure!” chipped in Vicki. “I hope we continue to have adventures like this one. I don’t ever want our Daredevils group to end.”

Chapter 5

“Night walks are so lovely.” said Becki.

“Sure, they are Becki”, replied Nick.

The Daredevils had all had their dinner and were longing to go for a walk at night. Their parents were scared that it would not be safe for them, but the children promised that they would only walk around Pacific Apartments, so they agreed to let them go.

“Now listen everybody, we can only go a little bit further, otherwise we will be too far from our building and break our promise to our parents. So everyone, please listen to me and let’s head back towards Pacific Apartments.” Said Vicki.

“Right commander”, said Mac, saluting Vicki in the process. That made everybody laugh a lot.

As they were walking back, they suddenly saw an old lady walking with great difficulty. “I think we should help her.” said Sam to the others.

“We will all go.” said Vicki.

As they approached the lady, Vicki asked the old lady, if they could help her. Suddenly, the old lady’s teeth grew long and pointed, her hair turned black from white, her nails grew longer, her eye turned red and her body became wrinkled. She was not an old lady, but a deadly witch. The five were horrified and froze with fear. The witch started muttering a spell. There was no time to waste! The children ran as fast as they could, but it was too late. The witch had finished her spell and then something happened. Sam, Mac, Nick and Becki stopped running on their own. They couldn’t move. They didn’t know what to do. All types of thoughts were coming into their minds now. The witch came closer and closer to the four and started muttering another spell. Vicky who somehow escaped the witches’ spell, used her prudence and started making a lot of noise to distract her. Vicky was now shouting at the top her voice to ensure the witch couldn’t concentrate on her spell. And this distraction seemed to be working. The witch was beginning to get frustrated, as she couldn’t concentrate on her spell and before long, it broke. The four who couldn’t move, realized, they were free. They ran towards Vicki as fast as they could, who was still making a lot of noise to keep the witch distracted. They finally reached Pacific Apartments after a lot of panting and puffing. They got inside the building and took a sigh of relief.

“Oohhh that was close..” said Vicki. “That witch was really frightening." said Sam. “I was scared to death… I will… I will..”

“It’s all right, it’s all right Mac, don’t worry now." said Vicki as Mac struggled to find the words.

“We are safe for now, but I don’t think that witch will leave us alone so easily, we need to be careful Vicki.” Suggested Sam.

And Sam was right. They all needed to be careful of the witch, because she wanted the power of the healthiest and most intelligent children in India. The witch was from a far-away Kingdom, called Trimbolu, hidden in the Himalayas. Her name was Marissa and she had come to a town like Dehradun to capture some children. Once upon a time, Marissa was the favorite of the witch queen of Trimbolu. She was also her most trusted aide. But her friend and fellow witch, Calissa was jealous of her closeness to the queen. Calissa devised a plan to steal the witch queen’s precious jewels and hide them in Marissa’s room and put the blame on her. During the night, Calissa transformed herself into Marissa with the help of a spell and stole the queen’s jewels when everyone was asleep. The next morning, when the queen found her jewels missing, she summoned all of her guards and told them to search every house in the kingdom. During the search of Marissa’s house, the guards found the jewels. The queen was very angry when she found out about this and banished Marissa from the kingdom. The evil Calissa then took Marissa’s place as the queen’s aide and even mocked Marissa when she was banished. This convinced Marissa that her friend had done all of this. She was not only heartbroken, but also very angry and she vowed to come back to Trimbolu with more magical powers and defeat Carissa. This was the reason that Marissa the witch wanted healthy and intelligent children like the Daredevils. Children have a lot of energy and purity of heart and she wanted to take all their energy and become stronger than Calissa.

After her failed attempt, Marissa the witch was looking for another opportunity to capture the children and that opportunity came, when a few days later, she saw all five of them playing in one of the gardens of Pacific Apartments.

The children had not told their parents about their encounter with the witch a few days earlier as they were worried that their parents wouldn’t let them go outside to play, if they found out. During one evening after school, all of them met in the gardens inside Pacific Apartments to play.

“Let’s play ‘dog pick the bone’" suggested Becki.

“That sounds like fun Becki, we can use my bottle.” replied Nick.

They moved to one of the bigger gardens in the apartment complex and put the bottle in the middle and started making teams. But quickly they realized that they needed one more person as the game needs equal children in both the teams and they were only five. To help solve the problem, they made Vicki the referee as she had the most experience of playing the game. One team was made up of Becki and Nick, while the other was Mac and Sam.

Marissa the witch was watching the kids, hidden in one of the trees across the road from Pacific Apartments and all she was thinking about was, how to capture the children and take their power. She needed to use a powerful spell, so she looked inside her spell bag and started going through the spell portions. First, she looked at a green portion that could make you as tall as a banyan tree. There was another portion that could turn you extremely thin. There were small bottles of blue and yellow portions in her spell bag as well. But Marissa the witch didn’t go for any of them. Instead she decided to pick a portion that had no color at all. The portion contained the colorless spell. She took the portion out of her spell bag and drank it all in one go. Within seconds, the portion started to work and she became invisible.

Now Marissa the witch headed towards the children, who were playing ‘dog pick the bone’ inside Pacific Apartments. Nick’s team had ten points and Sam’s team had picked up nine points. It was a very interesting and competitive game. Just as Becki and Mac were about to start their turn, the witch arrived undetected inside the garden of Pacific apartments where the kids were playing. She observed them for a few more minutes, waiting for the right opportunity to pounce. Suddenly Becki felt someone touch her shoulder. It was Marissa the witch and she started to pull Becki towards her. In the meantime, Vicki was counting down for the next round of the game.

“Five, four, three, two, one and starrrrr… … "

“Stop, Stop guys, interrupted Becki.

Just in time for the witch to not grab her properly. “I just felt that somebody touched me on the shoulder and tried to pull me in the other direction.”

“What? Are you sure Becki? Asked Mac.

“Yes, absolutely Mac, I definitely felt someone trying to grab me.”

“I think you are right Becki. There is something strange in the air. Maybe that witch has come back and is trying to capture us again?" Suggested Vicki.

“But why can’t we see her? Enquired Sam.

“Maybe she is using some sort of magic spell and has turned invisible. I have an idea guys, but you will have to quickly come to my house.” said Nick in an excited tone.

They all followed Nick to his house. Once inside his room, Nick started searching for something inside his toys closet. He started throwing his toys out as he searched for something without even pausing for breath.

“What are you looking for Nick?” asked Becki. “I’m looking for my special digital 3D coloured glasses Becki. They have different settings and can help me see things in different light conditions.”

“Oh wow, so do you think you will be able to see the witch with the glasses?” Asked Sam.

“I don’t know Sam, but it’s worth a try.” Said Nick.

After a few minutes, Nick found the glasses he was looking for. Without a moment’s notice the five were in the lift and heading down to the garden, where the witch was waiting for them in her invisible state.

As soon as Nick and the others walked into the garden, Nick put his special glasses on and started adjusting the settings. Marissa the witch couldn’t understand what was happening, when suddenly she saw Nick jump up with joy and point at her.

“I can see her, I can see her.” Surprised that she had been detected, the witch flew back to her cave in the Mohunt hills without capturing the children. Once inside the cave, Marissa the witch started meditating and praying to the witch gods for more power. She prayed for three days nonstop. On the third day, she felt strong enough to go after the children again. She once again drank the invisible portion and got on her broom to fly to Pacific Apartments.

The children had assembled inside the Pacific Apartments complex to play again. Mac wanted to play hide and seek.

“Oh yes, let’s play!” said Becki, who always voted for hide and seek as it was her favorite game.

“Yes, yes.” said Sam and Nick, who also loved it.

But Vicki was against the idea. “Absolutely not.” said Vicky.

“It is a dangerous game. Sometimes in a bid to stay hidden, children find dangerous places to hide, where others can’t find them.

“Oh Vicki, do not be so dramatic. It’s just a game.” said Becki.

“Oh please Vicky.” said the others in a sad tone.

“All right, but please be careful.”

Within no time, they had started playing hide and seek. It was now Vicki’s turn to seek the others, so she started counting from 50 to 1, with her eyes closed, while the others looked for hiding places.

“Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, One. I’m coming to find all of you.” shouted Vicki.

Mac was hiding behind one of the cars in the parking lot. Sam was hiding behind a few bushes in one of the gardens of the apartment complex. Nick hid inside the building guard’s booth, while Becki found a place behind the Banyan tree. But what Becki didn’t know was that Marissa the witch was sitting high up in one of the branches of the Banyan tree, watching all the children. Becki it seems had come to the witch on her own. Marissa then thought that she will kidnap just Becki and when the other children come looking for her, she will capture them as well. Even as Becki was hiding behind the Banyan Tree, the witch came from behind her and smothered Becki’s mouth. She took out a big blue bottle from her spell bag. It had green liquid inside it and the label said ‘Deep Sleep 19H) Marissa opened the bottle and quickly took her hand away from Becki’s mouth. Before Becki could scream, she poured the green liquid down Becki’s throat and no sooner had the liquid reached Becki’s stomach, that she fell asleep, a deep sleep. The witch stuffed the empty bottle in her pocked, but not properly. She picked up the sleeping Becki and balanced her on her magical broom. But as soon as she started flying with Becki on the broom, the empty portion bottle fell out of her pocket and fell near the Banyan tree from where Becki had been captured.

Meanwhile, Vicki was searching for the others. She first found Sam in the bushes. An ant had crawled on his hand and as he tried to shoo the ant away, he gave up his position and Vicki found him. Next was Nick. The clever Vicki saw him inside the building guard’s cabin and since the cabin was made up on glass on one side, everything inside was visible, so it was easy for Vicki to find him. And the last to be found was Mac. Now the four of them started searching for Becki, but they couldn’t find her.

“Becki must have hidden in a very good place.” said Mac admiringly.

“Yes, she has.” agreed Sam.

“Are you worried Vicki?” Asked Nick, looking at her pale face.

“Of course I am. We have all searched the entire building complex and there is no sign of her. I had warned all of you that this is a dangerous game, but none of you listened to me. I just hope she hasn’t been captured by the witch?" Suggested Vicki in a scared tone.

“Becki, Becki, the game is over, you can come out now.” shouted the others at the top of their voices as they continued to look for her.

They searched for her everywhere, but Becki was nowhere to be found. Now they began to get really worried and decided to go to Vicki’s house. They rang the doorbell and as soon as Vicki’s mom opened the door, she could tell from the look on the faces of the children that something was wrong.

“What’s the matter Vicki? Children, why are you all looking so glum?”

“Mother, Becki has been kidnapped by an evil witch.”

The children told Vicki’s mother everything. She also became really worried after listening to the children and decided to call the other mothers to her house and inform them about what had happened. When they all arrived, Vicki’s mother told them what had happened. Becki’s mother was truly horrified and started crying.

They all then went down to search for clues, hoping to find something that might help them to find Becki. While searching under the Banyan tree, Vicki and Mac found the spell portion bottle, which had fallen from the pocket of Marissa the witch. Some green liquid had also fallen out of the bottle. Vicki and Mac also noticed some broken glass. Vicki quickly put two and two together and understood what had happened.

“It’s the witch.” Vicki told Mac.

“Becki must have come to this tree to hide during the game and the witch must have captured her when she was here alone.”

“Oh why did I let you play hide and seek, when I knew that it was a dangerous game.” Sighed Vicki.

They quickly went to over to the other mothers and showed them the bottle.

Meanwhile, Becki was kept tied up in the witch’s cave, which was deep in the Mohunt mountains. Becki had fainted after being kidnapped. She woke up to the horrible sight of a big rat scurrying across the cave. Becki got scared at the sight of the rat, but even more scared when she saw where she was. The whole cave was dirty and smelling really bad. Dust was in the air, the floor was cold and it was very dark because there were no windows or hole other than the opening to the cave. Becki slowly rose to her feet and spread out her hands to find her way around the cave. She suddenly slipped and fell down on something. She landed on a soft and fluffy surface, but she couldn’t quite see what it was as it was still dark. She got up again and started to walk towards a faint light that was coming up through the floor. As she got closer, she let out a scream and fell into a hole. The hole led to another compartment inside the cave, where she saw another person, who was bald, his skin colour was blue, his eyes were green and his face’s shape was that of an egg. Soon it dawned on Becki that this strange creature was not human, but an alien. Becki was now beginning to feel sick. She was tired and was also running a fever. All this happened because the strange creature touched Becki. Before long, Becki fainted, but all the while, she kept saying the names of her four friends.

“Vicki, Mac, Sam, Nick save me… Vicki, Mac, Sam, Nick save me… Vicki, Mac, Sam, Nick save me…" She was dangerously ill.

The alien kept Becki in the cave and tied her up.

While over at Pacific Apartments, Vicki, her friends and the other parents were discussing the matter over and over again. They had decided to go to the best magician in Dehradun. If this had been a normal kidnapper, then they would have gone to the police, but they were dealing with a dangerous witch.

“I think we should go to a magician”, suggested Vicki’s mom.

“Yeah, you are right," approved Sam’s father.

“Mom, let us search on the internet to find the best magician in Dehradun” said Nick. “That’s a good idea son, please go and get my laptop.”

On nick’s mother’s laptop, they found a magician named Noora. They got all the information about him and decided to go and meet him. As they headed to the address given on the magician’s website, Becki’s mother was still crying bitterly. The others were consoling her. Becki’s father was also feeling sick with sorrow. He hugged his wife and promised that nothing would happen to their lovely daughter Becki. After an hour’s drive, they reached the magician’s office. The kids told Noora the magician everything and he listened to them carefully.

“Children who is good at drawing?” asked Noora. Vicki instantly raised her hand as she was the best artist amongst all the five friends.

“Child, can you please draw me a picture of the witch, as you have seen her before?”

“Of course” said Vicki. Within no time, Vicki had drawn the portrait of the witch.

As soon as the magician saw the portrait, he jumped up and shouted “Marissa!!! This is Marissa, one of my biggest enemies. She was once the aide of the witch queen of Trimbolu, but when she stole the queen’s precious jewels, she was thrown out of the kingdom. Since then she has been troubling many people and that’s how she has become my enemy as well. She lives in a cave in the Mohunt mountains, filled with some strange creatures."

“We should all go there and save Becki quickly then.” suggested Sam’s mother.

“Yes, you shall save her. I will send all of you there in the night using my magic spells and then you can rescue Becki.”

As night approached, all of them got ready to face the witch in her own lair. All of them headed back to the office of the magician as he had asked them to come at the stroke of midnight. As soon as they knocked on his door, they all vanished. Noora the magician had done his trick. He had transferred them to the witch’s cave. The children and the parents walked quietly as they entered the mouth of the cave. They tip-toed inside and realized it was quite dark. But Vicki’s eyes were drawn to a bright twinkling object in one corner of the cave. As she got closer to it she realized that it was the witch’s wand, with a shiny pearl at the top. Vicki picked it up and headed further into the cave to find Becki. The others followed behind, while some of the parents stayed at the mouth of the cave to warn the others, in case someone tried enter from the outside.

As Vicki entered further into the cave, she saw some light coming from the floor.

“Look Sam, can you see that light? I think there is something down there.”

“Yes, you are right Vicki. But we need to be careful. The witch could be down there and we must proceed cautiously.”

The four slowly approached the light coming from the floor and as Vicki bent down to get a better look, she saw Marissa the witch. She also saw a strange looking creature standing next to her. And then as her eyes searched some more, she saw Becki, tied up to a pole. Without thinking about her safety, Vicki jumped into the hole and pointed Marissa’s wand at her. The three boys, Mac, Sam and Nick all jumped in and attacked the strange looking creature. As soon as the wand was pointed at the witch, a laser light came out and entered the body of the witch. The entire room turned very bright and within seconds, the witch had turned to dust.

Upon hearing all the commotion, all the parents ran inside to the hole in the cave floor and saw that the children were safe. As soon as the witch vanished into dust, the other creature also tuned to dust. Only the Daredevils were now left standing in the cave. Becki’s parents quickly ran over to her and picked her up in their arms. The parents of the other children also joined them and everyone began hugging each other. At that moment, they heard a rumbling sound and the very next moment, they all found themselves sitting in the living room of Becki’s house in Pacific Apartments. The magician had transported them all back safely after Becki had been rescued. They all wished Becki and left her alone to rest as she was still feeling weak and unwell.

The other four slept really well that night, safe in the knowledge that their friend had returned home safe and sound. The next day, all five met downstairs after school and gave each other a big hug.

“The Daredevils are back together again!” screamed Mac. “Oh yes, and we will continue to have many more adventures," exclaimed Sam.

“This was the best adventure so far.” said Becki, with a sheepish smile on her face, only for Vicki to look at first with a frown, which instantly turned into a smile.

“Yes Becki, this was our finest adventure and we will have many more adventures together because I have never met anybody else as adventurous as all of you."

THE END.