AISHA: The Cursed Name

Chapter -35 Keep It Within

Keep It Within

Bani was looking out of the window of her room, watching the early morning street which was empty. She failed to sleep the whole night and sat on the windowsill looking at the dark sky. She had witnessed the slow disappearance of the gloomy night and the easy morning occurring from the horizon spreading across the sky.

The street she had grown up in was looking unknown. She wasn't used to those roads and those houses made with colourful walls and lights and fans. She was not used to the bustles of vehicles and of things too humanly to be digested by her. The circular motion of the fan hanging down her ceiling made her feel dizzy but she couldn't switch it off, it was warm enough for her to fail to bear the heat. Moreover, she was an Agani Mayavi, with more warmth and fire within her. Although she had stayed there for more than a couple of weeks yet she hadn't gotten familiar with such things.

However, the biggest reason that was not allowing her to relax was a feeling of something being wrong around her. She had some intense sense of mishappening. She had been telling herself again and again that things were fine but her heart was battling back.

"B-A-N-I!"

She heard her mother's call from downstairs. She quickly stepped out of the blank bubble of thoughts and walked down when she noticed someone sitting in the hall. Her father stood up and said,
"You remember Aditya? Aisha's father! He is here and seeks to talk to you ."

'Shit! I knew something wrong was about to happen. This man... this time I know he is Mayavi. This time, I know he is not just any human friend of my father. This time I know his truth, all of it. These winds always tell me that something is fishy. How should I face him? Aisha has been lying to him over these months and I know it. How will I manage to keep the truth away from him?'

She stood petrified on the last stair, her eyes gaping across the porous curtains looking at the back of his head. She was building up things within when her father called out,
"Bani? Why are you standing there? Come here, meet him!"

Very slowly she walked across the dining room and peeped into the hall removing the curtains. Her father smiled when Aditya looked back at her with a broad smile on his face.
"Bani! How nice to see you. This time... Things are a bit different but I hope our feelings aren't. Come here, child... Sit with us."

He invited her to sit next to him and she forcefully wore a smile on her face and sat beside him. She was afraid of slipping anything about Aisha and her condition at Maya Lok. This fear was a lot bigger than any of her past fears of by chance speaking about Maya Lok in front of a human however only she never knew he wasn't one. She never wanted to do something that could hurt Aisha's emotions. His emotions! Their relationship!

"I always ask you the same thing to only hear a lie... but now we can be honest. So how's the year going? Your studies and all?"
Aditya asked her in a calm and gentle voice. His expression was calm and he was sure about his daughter being happy there; though he had no clue. Bani shrugged and nodded her head saying,
"Well... It's going amazing. No more hiding... yeah! You're too like us. However, the course and all is a bit too much but... Yeah! It's nice to learn all that. Mostly Medical and Herbs and all that."

"Great to hear that. Learning about our world is a thing of pride. And... Herbs were once my favourite too. Everything over there is so good and different from here. I was amazed when they started adopting a few schooling techniques and changed the education system during my early years. It was about forty years ago! And definitely, you people might be so grateful for that uniform. Earlier we had that Gurukul system and life of a Brahman. Children living like saints, but that too had its own benefits and also fun facts."