Beyond Great Darkness

Chapter 5 -Truce 'n' Traps!

Same Day, Singhania Mansion

Ponky and Daksh are looking for Bani. They find her in one of the many balconies of the mansion contemplating something and they approach her.

Ponky- "Bani bhabhi, Bani bhabhi...you have to help us with this prank.... It will be so much fun."

Bani immediately stepped away from them as if their mere touch was repugnant, "Stay away...don't touch me...and how dare you call me Bhabhi."

Daksh- "What do you mean that we don't call you 'bhabhi'? What else should we call you?"

Ponky- "And if we call you by any other name, Veer bhai will have our heads."

Bani- "Don't do this drama of innocence in front of me. I know your truth and you are safe till now only because of Veeranshu but not for long. You will get your dues soon." Her eyes turn red of her snake form, as if daring them to contradict her.

Pankaj-aka-ponky being the youngest in the family and thus the most sheltered, immediately backs away in fright looking at the snake eyes and remembering exactly who her sister-in-law was, but Daksh held his ground. "What have we done that you are this furious at us?"

Bani- "Accha so you want to hear your crimes by my mouth only, fine than. Remember my friend Noor?"

Both the brothers look at each other as if asking the other if they recollected this 'Noor' person.

Bani- "So you don't even recollect the person you killed? And that too on her wedding day? How insensitive can you be?"

Wedding? The last wedding that they both attended— other than their Veer bhai's wedding—was.........

Oh.........

Noor.....

That Noor........ It looked as if somebody had just switched on a light in a dark room.

Daksh and Ponky- "We didn't kill her, bhabhi."

Even Bani's skin was now projecting her anger as it started showing her scales, "DON'T LIE TO ME!!! Pankaj, you and Monil confessed it when you thought no one was listening to you. I heard it with my own ears."

Ponky- "How will we confess to something that we have never done? When did you hear us?"

Bani- "It was the day after Navratri celebrations at the house....."

Flashback

Monil-"I am afraid of this Bani yaar. Don't know when she will come to bite us."

Ponky- "You are in more danger. Especially after what you did with her best friend."

Monil- "We were in this together. It was your idea to begin with and if she was alive that even you would have had fun with her."

Ponky- "I had just suggested to harass her a little bit, rest everything was your own decision. But she was hot....I think she must be roaming around as ghost now." They both laugh.

Nobody noticed a fourth person hiding nearby and listening to this conversation

Flashback ends.

Ponky- "No bhabhi. I don't remember saying anything like this. Nothing like that had happened on that day."

Bani- "Then what had happened?"

Ponky- "We had taken Noor away from the wedding mandap and into the forest. And I confess that we harassed her also a little bit. It is wrong and we are guilty of it. But then Veer bhai had come and told us to stop it. He even scolded us for such behaviour and said it was okay to flirt with women only if they were also willing and this was wrong and also ordered us to drop her safely at her house."