What was that?
Is that...?
Bondita knew what it was.
Chimes of anklets.
She couldn't see anyone but she could hear the faint sound of anklets chiming in the hallway right outside the door.
Who could it be?
Bondita couldn't help but wonder.
She had heard about people taking refuge in such abandoned mansions. Could it be, that someone other than her was present here?
The chimes were fading. No, they were moving away. Downstairs.
Unknowingly clutching the sindoor dani close to her chest, Bondita also moved downstairs, following the steps she could only hear.
Standing on the last stair, she looked around.
No one.
There was no one in sight.
No. There has to be someone. She still could hear the chiming.
"Is there anyone around?" Bondita called out into the dark.
She didn't receive a response. Instead, the chimes stopped.
No.
No, it did not stop.
It got replaced.
Giggles.
Soft giggles, almost inaudible, replaced the chiming of anklets. A woman's giggles.
Bondita moved more into the hall as the giggles became louder, soon taking the form of laughter. An oddly familiar laughter. She looked around, trying to locate the source but failed. It felt like the laughter had consumed the old mansion. In the dead of night, the Roy Chowdhury haveli had come to life.
Bondita had also heard that such abandoned mansions served as a home to not only refugees but also to those not meant to be seen nor heard.
"Who are you?" Bondita questioned, panic evident in her loud tone.
In reply came nothing. The laughter long gone. The chiming of anklets could no longer be heard. An eerie silence had yet again taken over the centuries old Rajbari.
A minute passed and Bondita stood rooted at her place.She didn't blink.She didn't breath.
And then she yelled.
She yelled as the answer to her question was whispered into her ear.
It was only a whisper; a whisper as soft as the touch of wind and yet it shook her soul. Because she knew who it came from.
"You."
It was her. It was she herself that whispered into her ear.
She could not possibly be wrong in recognising her own voice and her own laughter that accompanied the chiming of anklets; turning deafening now as Bondita attempted to run out of the abandoned Rajbari of the long gone Zamindars.
YOU ARE READING
~Anidita~ of Love and Desire
FanfictionOpen for requests! This book consists of OS/TS/SS mainly focusing on Anidita- a fictional couple from the show Barrister Babu. Viewers are requested to read at their own risk as the book contains mature content. Anybody uncomfortable with mature the...
