Who Was She?

"We've reached our destination, Sara." A handsome man in his early twenties said, as he stopped his car in front of an old, palatial villa which presented a marvellous example of traditional architecture.

"It's splendid! Shivam." Sara said as she took off her sun-glasses and stepped out of the car.

"How was the journey, Chotte Sahib?" A man in his early fifties appeared by the side of the maginificiently sculptured large wooden doors of the villa, wearing traditional dhoti- kurta and a saffron turban on his head.

"It was good, Mishraji." Shivam smiled gaily. "She's my friend and classmate Sara. Being born and bought up in a metropolitan city, she had no idea what a village looks like. So I brought her here along. And Sara, he is Mishraji, my grandpa's PA and caretaker of our estate."

"So pleased to meet you, sir." Sara greeted Mishra with a polite smile.

"Where is grandpa, Mishraji?" Shivam asked as he followed Mishra into the house along with Sara.

A mini battalion of servants took Shivam and Sara's luggage to their rooms.

"He is at the Kali temple for the rituals." Mishra said, "you must be tired. I'll take you to your rooms."

"Can you please give us a tour of the house first?" Sara's avid eyes implored.

"Of-course." Mishra nodded and showed them around.

"What's that room downstairs?" Sara pointed a finger at the enormous lock hanging by a huge door.

"It's the cellar," Mishra toned down his voice to low whispers. "Nobody is allowed to go there. Sahebji had kept many evil spirits locked in bottles in there by the power of scared hymns."

"What?" Sara's perplexed eyes turned to Shivam.

"Oh! I forgot to tell you," Shivam slapped his forehead, "my late great grandfather Adinath Shastri was a famous tantric. He was a master of occult sciences."

"And the most barbaric spirit among them is that of Yamini." Mishra visibly shivered as he uttered the name.

"Who is Yamini?" Sara was intrigued.

"Yamini was once the most beautiful girl of our village." Mishra smiled as he thought of her riveting beauty. "She was in love with a man from our village. Nobody knows who he was. Yamini had kept it a secret all her life. But the man betrayed her and she committed suicide by drowning herself in the pond by the end of our village. Her revengeful soul became thristy of every young man's blood who belonged to our village. She won't be at peace till she kills the man who had betrayed her. She used to lure them by the charms of her besuty and then slash their throats. Even your grandfather was also brutally attacked by her restless soul. Then our Sahebji captured her soul by the power of his hyms and locked her inside the bottle. Everyone in the village was relieved when they were fred from the menance of that atrocious Yamini." Mishra himself let out a sigh as he concluded his story. "Let me take you to your rooms."

That night, Sara sneaked into Shivam's room after everyone in the house had retired to bed.

"Shivam, let's go down to the cellar and see what lies within." Sara cajoled.

"That's a brilliant idea." Shivam was excited. "You wait here, Sara. I'll go and steal the key from Mishra. The drunkard must be fast asleep by now."

A few minutes later, Shivam came with the key and both of them tip-toed towards the cellar.

"It's unbelieveble!" Sara was dazed by the sight she saw in the cellar.

There were numerous small glass bottles neatly arranged on shelves throughout the cellar. All of them were glowing with light of different hues.

"Are they the real spirits?" Sara asked as her eyes poped out of their sockets.

"Non-sense," Shivam smirked, "hadn't you heard of luminiscent chemicals?"

Sara picked up a bottle that was glowing with a bright golden light.

"Shall I open this one?" Sara asked looking admiringly at it.

"Go ahead," Shivam chuckled.

As soon as Sara took off the cork from the bottle, the golden hue vanished into thin air. A fierce wind started blowing outside and a loud clap of thunder roared. The whole house shook several times and the bottle fell down from Sara's hand and crashed on the ground.

"What is this?" Sara was terrified.

"It's an earthquake," Shivam held on her hand and dragged her out of the cellar.

He quickly locked the door of the cellar and kept the key back in Mishra's drawer. The weather outside had returned to normal by then. Both of them quietly rushed back to there rooms as if nothing had happened.

"Shivam," Sara came running to the dinning table, the next morning, "I've to go back, Mom is not well."

"I'll drop you at the railway station." Shivam promptly rose to his feet.

"And please don't forget to pick my friend Tina from the airport." Sara said as she sat in the car. "She's coming to India for the time."

"Okay," Shivam nodded as he started the car.

The flight from London was delayed by 2 hours and Shivam waited impatiently outside the airport holding a placard with Tina's name on it. He had never met her and had no idea how she looked.

"Hi!" Shivam turned as somebody called him from behind.

"Tina" A girl said pointing towards the placard held in his hand.

Shivam's eyes stayed riveted on her for quite sometime by the spell of her bewitching beauty. Her amiable nature made them friends in a matter of minutes and her charming demeanor swiped him off his feet. Those were the most beautiful moments in his life and Shivam was as happy as he was never before. He doubted whether he was falling for Tina. They spent the whole day touring around the village and cherishing its scenic beauty. It was late when they reached back home.

As he was absolutely tired, Shivam fell asleep soon. In the dead of the night, Tina noiselessly pushed open the door of Shivam's room and walked inside with stealthy steps. The moon came out of the clouds and it's silvery beams of the moon fell on the knife Tina was hiding behind her. It's blade sparkled in the light. She stood near Shivam's bed. He was sleeping calmly unaware of her presence. She pulled her knife out and aimed it at his throat. She was about to stab him when she heard the creaking noise of the door of the villa. She looked out of the window and saw Rajnath Shastri walking towards his room.

After taking a warm water bath, Shastri sat on his bed and folded his hands in prayer. His lips silently murmured a few hymns and then switched the lights off.

"Your game is up, Raj."

Shastri gasped as he heard as a female voice that came piercing through the silence of the night.

"Who are you?" Shastri shivered and tried to see through the dark.

"Yamini"

A slender silhouette of a young lady approached him as he struggled to breath.

Shivam opened his eyes to a brightly glowing sun the following morning. He found a letter on the table by the side of his bed.

'I've to go now. Goodbye.

Tina'

Shivam was disheartened by Tina's sudden and unexpected departure. He was still staring at the letter when his cellphone rang.

"Hi, Sara," Shivam's voice was gloomy, "how's aunty?"

"She's fine now," Sara sounded cheerful.

"Your friend Tina..."

"Oh! I'm so sorry, Shivam," Sara cut him off before he could finish. "I forgot to tell you. Tina couldn't make it to India. She died in a car crash on her way to the airport."

"What?" The phone fell from his hand.

"Then who was she?" Shivam murured incoherently to himself as his lips shivered.

His terrified eyes turned to the letter he held in his hand. The letters written on it had faded by now and the paper was blank.

"Chotte Sahib!" A panicked Mishra came running to Shivam, "we've found your grandpa's body in the pond at the end of the village."