Nandini

Sneaking

Let's go bahu, it's worthless to stand infront of this room we have more to clean, said nitya.

They went away from that room and the rest of the day went just fine. It was night again and nandini was alone in her room like the previous night except the fact she wasn't as excited as she was a night before. It was justified as her journey in this palace wasn't quite normal ever since she came here.

But Nandini decided that she needs to find out the root behind everything that was happening there. So she waited for everyone to fall asleep and then she will look in to the matter.

In the 20th century people used to sleep early as they didn't have much to do. So after dinner everyone went to their rooms and so did Nandini after clearing the dinner table and turning off all the lamps. But she didn't put off the lamp which was just outside her room. She went inside and finally waited for everyone to sleep and after waiting for almost an hour she thought of it to be the perfect opportunity to find out the truth. She took the lamp in her one hand and stepped her one foot outside the room and the entire corridor was filled with the sound of her jingling anklet. She panicked, because she will get in trouble if her anklets would make such a loud sound. Thus she took them off and her hands was shaking while doing so as she was always told that a married woman is not supposed to take off her anklets as it contains great significance. Nandini thought to herself that if she is going to take them off then she should better return before anyone sees her without them or her in laws won't let her get away with it.

She stepped out again and this time in much quite manner. She didn't know what secret was waiting for her there or what she was getting herself into but she needed to find out.

She went to that room the once she came across while she was with nitya and she remembered that nitya told her that room has been closed since decades and no one actually know what is inside.

Nandini didn't think it through, she didn't know how she was going to open that door but she was sure about one thing that there has to be something inside that room which could answer all her questions. She was lost in her own thoughts when suddenly there was a loud creaking sound, she looked around and she realized the sound was coming from that room, that old rusty door was opening slowly. It was strange, a door which has been closed for decades was finally opening itself without any key without any harness, it seemed like Nandini herself was the key. It seemed like that door was waiting for so many decades for Nandini, that one day she would come and it will open.

Nandini was still clueless and she wasn't able to process all this quite well. She was standing outside that room like a statue just looking at it.

Suddenly Nandini was hit by a huge wave of cold breeze, she backed a little but just to move forward.

She entered, it was a massive room and there was a possibility that this could be the biggest room in the entire palace. As she moved forward the door behind her closed automatically It was huge and beautiful despite of being covered in a thick sheet of dust and webs. Nandini was both surprised and shocked and she was trying to scan the entire room with her bare eyes but she wasn't able to.

The room was decorated with glass streamers at every possible interval, there were huge paintings on the wall, most of them were covered with dust, there was a king size bed at the bed of the room and it was so beautiful the entire wood of the bed was carved and that was making it look spectacular. There was dust everywhere but Nandini was finding her way in between them and she reached at the end of the room. There was a huge painting kept on the floor and It was covered with dust but without any concrete reason she felt a sort of attraction towards that painting which was more like a curiosity. She took a corner of her veil and started wiping of the dust from that painting for it to become visible.

After a while the dust was off from it and the face was visible to her it had the same face, the very same face of that weird lady whom Nandini saw in the hallway last night.

"But this door hasn't opened for so long how can it have her painting", Nandini was mumbling to herself.

She was talking to herself when suddenly her eyes went at the bottom of the painting, something was written there.

She bent a little to have a closer look and it read " Maharani(Queen) Patralekha devi, reign 1790-1850".

Nandini was shocked.

She was whispering to herself as if consoling herself that this can't be true, she saw this lady last night, this can't be her. She was consoling herself with any possible explanations she could give to herself.

When suddenly she heard a scribbling sound from behind and when she turned to look, to her horror there was something scribbled on the wall. She felt numb as she was the only living person in that room so who could possibly scribble something on the wall. The words weren't visible enough for her to read because of the darkness around so she moved forward and brought her lamp close to the wall. She tried to look closely and something was written there in blood.

It read " You were supposed to die last time but you were able to escape you fate but not anymore. You've to die and you will die".