Nature's Comeback

43- Finding Twins

Gyaan was baffled by the claims of villagers. Monsters from the river, what the hell were they spewing about? He tried to rack his brain for all the possibilities that would mean a monster being born from water.

"Are they talking about some scary aquatic animal?" He mumbled to himself.

"Shit!" Aakash cursed when he realized that Gyaan could be in trouble. He pulled Gyaan's hand and urgently took him away from the crowd.

"Woah! What's wrong?" Gyaan shouted, startled by Aakash's suddenness.

Pulling to a stop when he thought there was a huge distance between them, Aakash warned Gyaan, "Do not tell them about your powers at all. They are too superstitious. Who knows what they will do to you if they find out about the healing powers. They wouldn't think of you as a blessing like we did."

"Where did this even come from? We were talking about some monster of a river. I really don't understand the connection between that topic and your warning," Gyaan said, running his hand through his hair as confusion and frustration engulfed him.

"The topics are connected, trust me."

"But how?"

"Because the monsters they are talking about were like you. They had powers. Those people are so drowned in superstitions that they threw away the small children claiming that monsters had taken over their body.

"Infact, your Grandpa was the one who saved those kids from dying on the streets."

Cursing himself wasn't enough in this situation. It didn't take a second for him to understand who these kids were. With what right did I call myself intelligent?! I may be book smart but I don't have even an ounce of intelligence. Everything was in front of me yet I couldn't join the dots. What an Idiot!

Here, Gyaan was berating himself while on the other hand, Rewa understood what was happening.

"Dammit!"

"What's wrong Rewa?" Reyansh asked his daughter with concern.

"Think about what has been spoken till now- 1) Monster born out of a river, 2) Monster taking over innocent children—"

"Yeah, so what?" Sarah interrupted Rewa, being annoyed by her way of dragging things.

"Let me finish," Rewa glared at Sarah, "Third and most important point," she put an emphasis while challenging Sarah to disrupt her, "Ahana found the statue from that village familiar."

"No," Sameera whispered in a pained voice, as she got what Rewa was trying to convey. "The twins did tell us about being thrown out after being called monsters."

"Wh...where are they?" Kriti stuttered upon not finding the twins standing there with them.

Everyone was frightened as they tried to look around them for the twins.

"They were with us until now, weren't they?" Reyansh asked with worry.

"Tell me," he urged in a slightly loud tone when he didn't get any answer from his team.

"I don't remember," Payal answered and a series of , "We too," followed.

"Sameera, what about you? You were sitting with Neer, so they must have been near you while coming here," Sarika asked with hopeful eyes.

"We came out of the bus together. But then there was so much crowd so I don't really remember if we walked together till here or not..."

"Let's go and search for them," Reyansh said. It wasn't an order but everyone still followed his words.

"What about Gyaan?" Kriti questioned as he was still somewhere in the crowd.

"Leave him, he can come back on his own. Finding Ahana and Neer is our top most priority right now," Tej said, while gesturing to her to move backwards towards their bus.

Kriti did start walking but she was shocked out of her mind, not by the answer but because of the person who said it. Tej and Gyaan had become really close in her eyes. So leaving him so easily wasn't something she expected out of Tej.

"We aren't leaving him in the middle of nowhere. This place is his home. He will be safe here. We can always come back for him after finding the twins. If we lose them right now, we will lose them forever," Tej answered her unasked question, already having an inkling of how Kriti's mind ran.

Cupping his hand near his mouth, Avan shouted, "Didi, Bhaiya," hoping they were somewhere in the crowd and would respond.

Taking his lead, others started shouting for them too. "Ahana."

Villagers who were ignoring these newcomers until now grew tense when they heard Ahana's name.

"Someone else can have the same name," whispers of assurance passed through the villagers but as soon as Neer's name came out, everyone's heart started pounding.

One name could have been a coincidence. But hearing both the names together made it absolute that the dreaded twins were nearby.

"Should we ask them?" The lady who had stopped Gyaan at first asked nervously, all her strength and confidence draining in one second.

"No, we should just leave. If those twins are here after so many years then it means only one thing- They are here for revenge."

"We should be prepared."

The word spread among the villagers, making them rush towards their homes. The fear of getting away from the twins made them blind. They didn't even care if they toppled over each other. Many people fell down, but instead of helping them, other villagers ran over them.

"Quickly get hold of kids," Reyansh shouted as he tried to move the researchers to a side, so as to not get trampled over by these crazy bulls.

The researchers worked quickly, yet they all weren't successful. Sarika took a hit on her knees and fell down. Before anyone could walk over her mother, Sarah moved to cover her mother fully by her body, grunting as she felt the weight of everyone walking all over her.

Tejas too wasn't able to go to the side, but fortunately he hadn't fallen. He tried moving towards the researchers but as the public kept running in the opposite direction, he was always pushed back. He was about to give up when a hand pulled him over. He couldn't see who it was but the person helped him to walk in between the crowd. Instead of going against the flow of crowd like Tejas was trying, the person holding him walked with the crowd while effectively managing to not let both of them fall.

After a while, as the crowd went towards the left turn, the person pulled him towards the right. Tejas breathed out huge puffs of air after finally being alone, away from the horde. He finally looked up to see who saved him, and there she was, his saviour who was gasping for air right now.

"Thank you," Tejas said out of gratitude. He didn't think that after the huge fight with his brother, Kriti would do this for him.

"Are you okay?" She asked in return, while ruffling his hair, knowing that the kid must be overwhelmed.

"I am, all thanks to you." Tejas' response made both of them smile.

"Well since we are already here, let's go and check whether the twins are in the bus," Kriti suggested after calming down her breathing.

Tejas nodded as they went near the bus. He stood there with his fingers crossed while Kriti went up to check. His hopes died down when she returned with a saddened face.

"We lost them," Kriti whispered with regret.

It had taken so many efforts and so many hurdles for them to finally agree. If only they had connected the dots sooner, if only they didn't think of making a stop at Gyaan's village...There were too many if's but only one outcome. The twins wouldn't have left them.

The journey of technology and nature was stumped even before it could properly start.