The Haunted Fortress of Bhangarh: Book 1

67. Scary silence

The trip had been decided beforehand, but Rudra couldn't believe it would be his last time visiting his maternal grandmother. Now that he knew he was adopted, he was forced to look back and reminisce about his childhood. Be it his maternal or paternal grandparents, they provided him with so much love, warmth, and care that had he not discovered the dossier atop his father's desk, he would've never known about the hard truth. He couldn't comprehend why the entire family was so welcoming towards a baby they knew nothing about, the child who wasn't their blood, but that was what made his childhood so damn worth remembering till his last breath. The attention and adoration he received was unprecedented, and he couldn't wait to bask in the glory of his grandma's affection.

Shweta's mother lived with her son, daughter-in-law, and grandson. Now that Nidhi was already there, studying for the final exams, keeping herself safe from the lady in red, Shweta and Rudra wished to meet her as well as the rest of the family. Avinash couldn't go owing to work-related commitments, but the mother-son duo embarked on the car ride on a cold December morning, hoping to stay in Shimla for five days.

The journey was fun-filled as Shweta and Rudra renewed their strong bond by gossiping about the neighbors, her students, her colleagues, his friends, and his social life. Though she was asking incessant questions about Shravani which made his blood boil from time to time, he was able to respond to them without batting his lashes and maintaining his calm.

It took them nine hours to reach the quaint hill station, but the breathtaking views of the snowcapped mountains at a distance, and the thrill of the winding roads and hairpin bends were so worth it. It was well past lunchtime when they arrived at the two-storied edifice outside the city limits, perched atop a particularly desolate hill where the access road was an inclined gradient that was solely used by the Trivedis—Shweta's maternal family. The wooden cottage had a thatched roof on the second floor while massive windows and doors fashioned out of glass were present on every wall. A little garden was perceptible in the front yard while the backyard was at the edge of the hill from where the deep gorge was visible below and the faint outline of mountains was discernible at a distance.

Rudra's maternal uncle—Gautam Trivedi—was the owner of vast tracts of land that had numerous apple orchards to generate revenue while his wife, Dhvani, had her own business of organic beauty products. Rudra's maternal cousin, Shlok, was still in high school—the same class as Nidhi, and he was also studying long hours to clear his board exams with a decent percentage. But the loveliest and the most benevolent was his grandmother, Shalini. The affable and affectionate smile with which the octogenarian welcomed him after seeing him on her front porch prompted him to draw the elderly woman into a warm embrace.

Dhvani and Gautam were also over the moon as Shweta and Rudra were visiting them after a gap of two years, and hence the amount of preparations made for their stay was unprecedented. Shalini had cooked so many dishes that Rudra was getting confused regarding which dish to consume first and which one to leave for last.

But even after he was sated with lunch and dessert, he was waiting to see Nidhi and Shlok. Apparently, the two of them had been up solving problems in Mathematics till the wee hours of the morning, and though they tried to keep their eyes open for Rudra and Shweta, they had fallen asleep an hour before the duo arrived.

Rudra was getting impatient since Nidhi was still not up, and he hadn't had an altercation with his sister in so long that he was yearning to hear her voice, however irritating. Though Shalini told him to rest first as there was no rush in meeting Nidhi, he knew time was what he was running low on. Nine days. He only had nine more days to live his life, and he purposed to enjoy every bit of the limited time.

Hence, he shot up the wooden stairs nevertheless, disregarding the raucous creaking under his feet. Nidhi was inside her room, sprawled on the bed with her lips parted and drool hanging on the corners of her mouth. Fast asleep she was with no frown lines adorning her forehead, and he was prompted into sitting by her side and caressing her hair. Back in Delhi, she had been so troubled due to the repeated attacks of the lady in red, but coming to Shimla was a boon for her as she could finally be unburdened from Rudra's past life and all the negativity he had brought along with him into the Sharma household.