Chapter 16
The impending doom…
Silently tip toeing towards the attic, Geet and Anne were looking around for any signs of those irritating maids coming by. Even though Geet was their master's daughter and that gave her an untold power, she wasn't that stupid to not understand whose bidding they would eventually do when the time came. For them, their master's fury was more unbearable than his daughter's anger and they were not to be blamed. But being on guard was always the best.
"Why are we walking like prisoners about to escape a jail?" Anne whispered, tired of walking on her toes.
"Coz I don't want anyone spotting us coming near the attic," Geet whispered back.
"I mean seriously, your dad isn't here and none of the maids are here…then why?" Anne sometimes never understood the deep logic running in Geet's mind.
"Oh you never know Drooly! These pesky maids can never be trusted," Geet waved off the casualness in Anne's tone, "what if they by chance, what do you call that, "slip" their tongue in front of bauji?" she intensified the word by showing the sign of quotes in her hands.
"Oh, yeah, right!" Anne understood…
They walked like clouds hovering above in the sky and silently came to the attic. The wooden door was locked with a heavy, old fashioned brass lock, "try any of those in the bunch," Anne whispered to Geet who stood there observing the lock and the keys in the bunch she was holding.
"Drooly, I don't think any one of these keys is of this lock's!" she whispered sadly.
"How do you know?" Anne questioned.
"Look at the lock, it is huge, made of brass, having a triangular hole in the apex of the key portion," Geet murmured softy pointing at a small triangular hole, unlike the round ones in the normal locks, "None of these matches with that."
Anne was sure that a triangular lock wasn't possible, "Geet, this is not a Swiss bank locker to have a triangular lock. This, I think is a trap!"
Geet did a double take and then looked again at the lock, "I think you are right…someone wants us to apply this logic and get confused."
"Try it with those big keys first…surely one of them will match!" Anne encouraged her.
Geet agreed and started to try the keys one by one but none of them, as she had guessed, matched with the lock. "I guess, bauji has taken its key with him…don't you think it's odd?"
"I do, Geet!" Anne nodded, "I can think of only one reason, something very grave's up there…but I don't understand! He gave you the key bunch which had the keys of the basement warehouse but not of the attic?"
"Something's missing Drooly," Geet whispered and motioned her to get to her room to discuss their further plans and both quietly tiptoed downstairs.
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Rajdeep stared at the hollow eyes of Mohan Handa with extreme terror. Those hazel brown eyes reflected horror and fury, which made his knees buckle and lips quiver. Ratan was equally in fear, nervously running her hand over her stomach, thinking about that unborn, who was about to lose a battle without facing it at all. That little life would never see the light. Her stomach knotted in fear and anxiety as she stared at her brother who was menacingly looking at her husband.
"Tumne socha ki tum sone ki pedh ke phal khaloge," jeered Mohan "aur hum kuch nahi karenge?"
Mohan's voice sent chills through the Khurana couples' spines. They both looks at each other and gulped hard, standing with their heads down, hoping that God would do some miracles.
"Woh…hum…" Ratan choked out when Mohan screamed in anger "CHUP!"
Ratan recoiled and fell silent and Mohan began to circle around them as if evaluating what best a punishment could be given to them. His eyes were spitting out fire and his nose was flaring. He looked as though, in just a second he could behead them both and make them fall on his feet.
Mohan came near Rajdeep and hit hardly on his head with the back of his Rowle 32 mm pistol he was carrying his hand. A sharp pain shot up through Rajdeep and he fell on his knees on the muddy ground below. Mohan's servants were laughing, gloried at the suffering of Rajdeep.
He clutched his head to feel drops of blood oozing out and looked at Mohan with pleading eyes. Mohan smirked in triumph, held his chin roughly at the end of his pistol and questioned "poori duniya mein tumhe meri behen ke alava aur koi ladki nahi mili?"
Blinking his eyes furiously and trying to block out the pain, Rajdeep faltered "hum dono ek doosre se pyaar…" but before he continued he felt a terrible pain in his groin, where Mohan had kicked him hard with his buckled boots.
"Pyaar?" he leered "tumne soch kaise liya ki tum Ratan se pyaar kar sakte ho? Aakhir kya hasiyat hai tumhari Handa parivaar ke saamne?"
"Mujhe maaf kardejiye Handa sahib," Rajdeep whipered "par pyaar hasiyat se nahi dil se kee jaati hai.." and yet again felt a terrible pain in his stomach as Mohan bent down and punched him in the gut.
"Hasiyat se nahi dil se kee jaati hai?" Mohan croaked "ab tum mujhe sikhoage ke pyaar kaise ki jaati hai…"
"Bhaiyya…" Ratan whispered, "unhe kuch mat kejiye…" and felt a sting of a hard slap on her cheeks as she fell down reeling from the force.
"Ratan…" Rajdeep screamed as he got up but was pushed hard to the ground by Mangal. He fell face down on a stone and slammed his nose on it. Howling in pain, he looked at Ratan helplessly as she sat there, crying.
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His stomach was growling. Chintu got up slowly and looked around the room in confusion. He was terribly hungry but he wasn't accustomed to ask anybody because he never had that chance of asking. He had always been used to food thrown at him, which he had to eat no matter how it tasted. Now, with his master not visible around, he was clueless of what to do. Blinking his little eyes, he swallowed hard when he saw the door open and a plate of food being pushed into the room.
Chintu ran to the plate and started shoveling the food into his mouth, forgetting to feel how wonderful the food tasted in his mouth. It wasn't anything he had tasted earlier in his life. Within seconds, the whole plate of Veg Biriyani had been finished by him and he drank the whole jug of water kept near the plate.
Geet was standing near the door with a small, painful smile adorning her face as she saw the way chintu had been literally pushing the food down his throat, with hiccups being rising often. She wiped her tears with the corner of her skirt and silently pushed the flask of mango juice into the room and hid behind the door, watching him.
Chintu stared at strange colour of the liquid in front of him. He panicked but didn't scream. Instead, he slowly went to the jug, dipped his finger into it and licked the juice. As soon as the taste of sweet mangoes hit his taste buds, a warm smile spread across his face which gave Geet all the signs she was looking for. She saw him lift the jug and drink all the juice happily. She did a happy jig and ran out from the room to tell Drooly that he had finished everything on the plate.
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Mohan caught his hair and pulled his face up and whispered in an ice cold voice that made gooseflesh erupt on Rajdeep's skin, "tumhe saza milegi…"
"Handa Saheb…." He muttered, shaking all through, "hume maaf…"
"Maaf!" Mohan screeched and kicked him in the stomach causing Rajdeep to stutter in pain, "Maaf? Mere behen maa ban gayi hai aur uskeliye main tumhe maaf karu?"
"Woh mera baccha hai, Handa Saheb…" Rajdeep pleaded, "Main uska poora khayal rakhoonga…"
"Baccha tumhara hai?" his voice was dangerously silky, "Tum uska poora khayal rakhoge?"
"H..ha…"
"Accha? To hamare khandan ke maryaada ka kya?"
"Apko aapki behen ki khushi se zyaada apne khandan ke maryaada pyaari hai?" Rajdeep felt disgusted of himself.
"Haan!" screamed Mohan, "haan! Ratan se zyaada mujhe Handa parivaar ka izzat, uska rutba pyaari hai…"
"Handa sahib…" started Rajdeep and immediately felt a strong blow on his jaw. His eyes started watering in pain.
"H…Handa sahib, please hume mat mariye…hume maaf kardejiye…" Rajdeep heard himself saying in spite of himself.
"Kisne kaha ki main tumhe maaronga?" Mohan asked, highly amused.
Rajdeep looked up in confusion but Mohan's eyes were dancing in happiness which made Rajdeep shift uneasily.
Mohan slowly bent towards Rajdeep, running his hand lovingly over his pistol and whispered dangerously, "I wont let you die this easily, Khurana…!"
Ratan looked up in alarm and muttered, "Bhaiyya.."
"Nahin hoon main tumhara bhai!" Mohan screamed in fury, "Meri behen mar gayi hai…"
"Bhaiyya…" she whispered again when she saw Mohan squat next to her husband and look menacingly into his eyes, "Khurana…I wont let you die this easily…I am going to show you what punishment you get when you dare to mess with Mohinder Handa!"
The servants started laughing loudly as Mohan got up and looked at Mangal, "Mangal, inhe lejao aur basement main band kardo!"
All the protests of Ratan and Rajdeep fell into deaf ears as Mohan's servants started dragging them into the city with their hands and legs tied and mouths gagged and they had nothing left to do except pray.
PRECAP:
6 mahine…6 mahine keliye tum log yaha se bahar nahi aaoge! 6 mahine ke baad tum dekhoge ki tumhare khoon ke saat kya hoga!
A/N: okay, so how bad was it? This is the last decent update from next it is heavily violent and grotesque…please refrain from reading if you cant handle it :D
Pms later :D
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