He doesn’t knows she’s not Parineeti, how to tell him? How to make my daughter sad? If I say that maybe he won’t play with her again. All of a sudden,he also vanished and I sat back on the bed lost in thoughts. I am going to unlock the other door as well, maybe there’s something more there, I will have to check Mohan’s cupboard too. There can be something related to past.
I slept back. The alarm rang and I got off the bed waking Shivani as well as it’s her school today. The biggest coincidence was that I had admitted her in Bombay Model School. I had a little strange feeling about this. I prayed to God for her protection. She woke up and went to freshen up, when she came out, I went and when I came out, I saw her sitting on the cupboard looking at me angrily. “Shivani, what are you doing there? Come down”, I said trying to get her down. “I am not Shivani”, she said in a ghostly voice making me jump.
”What are you saying?”, I asked shocked. “I am warning you not to dig in the past else I will kill your daughter”, she said glaring at me. “Shivani”, I heard Abeer call her and her expression changed from angry to happy. “Yayy, papa woke up”, she said in a normal voice. “Why are you both up? Anything special?”, he asked. “Shivani has school today, so I woke her up and when I came from washroom, she was on cupboard”, I replied. “Shivani, don’t trouble your mumma, get down, Meher, do it”, he said to me and I lifted her and put her on floor.
“I don’t remember how I reached the cupboard”, she said. “Leave it, come let’s have breakfast else you will be late”, I said. “Are you sure you will drop her?”, Abeer asked opening his one eye. “Yeah I will, c’mon Vani”, I said taking her out of the room. She had her breakfast and we both headed to her school. We took an auto to reach there and soon we reached, the moment I entered with her, she stopped at the entrance. “I have come here before as well”, she said looking around. “I felt this before also when I came for admission”.
“Sometimes it feels like that, now let’s go find your class”, I smiled and said, but my mind was telling me she’s right. I dropped her till her class and waved her bye. I went back to Dream Villa and drowned in my thoughts that how Shivani spoke to me in morning, this wasn’t Shivani. Her voice was different, she said don’t try to dig in past else I will kill your daughter. This must be Mohan who captured her body.
I was going to my room when I collided in a rock hard body and it was Abeer. “Where are you lost?”, he asked raising his eyebrows. “Nothing”, I said trying to go but he held my arm. “You can tell me”, he said and I narrated everything to him. He started laughing. “I used to tease you that whenever you’ll cough, the sleeping souls will wake up, you took me serious”, he said laughingly.
“This isn’t a joke, it’s about our daughter and you are finding it funny?”, I said angrily gritting my teeth. “You are imagining things”, he said. “Oh, then why don’t you come and see what I saw, come on”, I said pulling him upstairs but he yanked my hand. “Hey, it’s nothing ok”, he said. “I am telling the truth, ghosts live here, do you remember that scary music? Mohan was playing it”, I said. “Take some rest, maybe you’re stressed”, he said and went downstairs while I kept calling his name but he said he’s getting late for his job. I stormed off to our room and felt dejected that my husband is not believing me.
At afternoon, I went to pick Shivani and there she stood with her hands covered in mud, she had a box in her hand. On seeing me, she ran to me. “Mumma, I told you I have come here before, look at this box”, she said and I took it from her hands and there were the same photographs I saw in Rohan’s album and the same necklace. “A girl gave it to me and said I look like Parineeti, who’s she?”, she asked.
”Shivani, let’s go home and discuss all this”, I said and took her out of school, we sat in auto and went from there. “Mumma”, she said sitting next to me in auto looking up at me while the auto took us towards our house. “Yes?”, I asked. “This boy is Rohan, how do I have pics with him?”, she asked the second time. “You trust me?”, I asked her and she nodded her head in positive. “I will tell you everything”, I said and she hugged me.
Later at night, I was sitting on the railing of terrace looking down to have a view of the road. I felt two hands grab me. “You will fall”, said the voice, it was Abeer. “Leave me, you don’t believe me right, get lost”, I said jerking his hands. Just then another hand grab me with a different touch, I turned to see Shivani, her hair were open blowing behind her. Her eyes showing anger and I got scared as she held my neck lifting me off the ground away from the railing about to throw me. I screamed.
”Shivani, leave me, what are you doing?”, I asked. “Leave her Shivani, she’s your mother”, said Abeer. “I am not Shivani, I am Mohan, tell her to stop digging in past, else now she will be killed instead of Shivani or Parineeti or whatever her name is”, said Shivani as Mohan in ghostly voice while I continued shaking my legs that he will throw me off the balcony. She was out of control.