Nandini

Revelation

Days passed and nandini was getting more habitual of the surrounding she was living in. Those daily taunts and insults which were more like sweet venom didn't use to bother her anymore. She accepted her faith and her destiny and she had to, it's not like she had any other option other than that.

After that incident in the kitchen not much happened to her, and all that horror was somehow forgotten by her as she had more horrific things to deal with. She didn't use to bother herself with the taunts of her in-laws but she was having a deep impact from the behaviour of her husband. He used to make her sick in the stomach, she couldn't stand his site as he used to treat her like she was a machine which can do all his chores without complain. To her relief Pralat had to go out of town for some business purposes for a week and she can at least have the night to her herself without being tortured by her insensitive husband. She was counting the days as to when he would leave, and the day came.

"Nandini did you pack all my stuff properly?" pralat asked.

Nandini nodded immediately as she didn't want to upset him before leaving not due to any hint of love but due to fear as she knew Pralat was kind of a guy who would make sure to make her life hell even if he is not around.

Pralat held her closer forcefully, she started panicking and he almost whispered, "you sure about packing my stuff properly as you know even if you did a tiny mistake then I'm not gonna spare you" by saying this he instantly pushed her away and she struggled to regain balance. But she sighed as this nightmare was going on a pause button for few days.

So pralat left and there was still some time for the dinner, so she went into the kitchen and started preparing for it and that was when Nitya(she was house help) joined her and started helping her.

Nitya... what are you doing here, Nandini almost whispered. She further added, "if anyone will see you helping me in the kitchen then it's a disaster, you know they all want me to personally prepare their food".

Hearing this Nitya chuckled and said "Bahu do you really think they want you to prepare their food because they like the way you cook or they consider you special, if you think so then I pity you". Nandini became all defensive and said " Nitya they are my family and you can't talk about them in this manner". Ignoring to what nandini said nitya further said," Trust me you are no family to them, just another young girl to whom they can torture to death like they did to your husbands first wife". And saying this nitya moved out of the sight. Nandini consoled herself that these house help just love gossiping and she shouldn't pay attention to all these things. After everyone had their dinner Nandini sorted everything out and went to her room. She slowly took off all the jewellery she has been wearing the entire day as it was pretty exhausting to wear so much of gold and then work in this humid atmosphere of Bengal. She was very happy this night as she can have peaceful sleep after ages. She turned off the lamp and went to sleep.

Rajkumari..... Rajkumari... Rajkumari mt jaiye (Princess please don't go). AAAAAAAAAA, everyone is screaming there is chaos everywhere no one can see anything, people are running shouting, screams, very loud scream.

Nandini forcefully opened her eyes and realized it was just a bad dream, indeed a very bad dream. She looked at herself, she was sweating so much that her entire dress was wet because of it. She looked everywhere there was no one in the room. She sighed in relief and thought to herself that it was just a bad dream and she has nothing to worry about. She peeped into the water jug but it was empty which was strange because as far as she remembers, she brought the jug full of water and since there is no one in the room, how can it be empty but she thought that may be bindiya (her sister in law) would have exchanged her water jug with the Nandini's jug. She opened the door of her room and it made such a loud sound that she got scared if her mother in law would have heard then she is going to come for Nandini for spoiling her sleep.

She stepped out of her room and she got chills down her spine as palace was really creepy at night, it was all dark no candle was lit, and that made her wonder that why is no candle burning as she used to lit each and every candle at every night so that if someone wakes up in the middle they don't find any trouble on their way, it was weird but she went for the kitchen anyway.

As she was walking her anklets were making the jiggling sound and there were moments when she was scared due to her own anklets. She managed to find a matchstick and lit the nearest lamp. She looked around, it was all dark and walking down this path was difficult than before. Earlier everything was in dark including her but now she felt like she was standing under a spotlight, all eyes towards her, like she is the centre of attention and people are staring her . She gulped down her fear and started moving forward. As she was moving forward she felt like someone was standing behind her back, she could feel the presence of someone. She wasn't brave enough to turn, so she didn't and just when she stepped a foot forward she felt like she couldn't move any further as something or someone was stopping her. Nandini was left with no choice than to turn back and look. She turned back but there was no one around, it was all empty with Nandini being the only living person present there. She had sigh of relief and thought that how naïve she can be sometimes and was laughing at her foolishness when she heard someone saying "Rajkumari" (princess) she turned immediately in the the direction of the voice and saw a middle age woman beautifully adorned with gold jewellery from top to bottom wearing gold necklaces to gold anklets. The huge a of gold jewellery was making her weirdly visible in that dark surrounding. "who are you?" Nandini said stumbling on her words by barely able to form a sentence.