Link to the 9th chapter : https://www.tellyupdates.com/where-secrets-lie-chapter-9-who-is-he/
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With the controls going haywire, Riddhima was struggling to keep the car under control. Fortunately, the road was relatively empty with not many vehicles out there, but still Riddhima did not know till when she’d be able to keep the car on tracks.
The high speed at which the car raced made her head to spin violently in circles. A strange sensation hit her stomach and she understood that she’d end throwing up if the car went any faster.
Riddhima tried to brake again. This time for some unexplanable reason, the speed magically started coming down. She thanked her stars for saving her life as she was finally able to regain the controls.
Exhausted from all the driving, she brought the car to a complete stop. She couldn’t understand what the heck just happened with her. One moment her car was almost flying through the streets and the next moment everything came back to normal.
Was she really turning mad as the others were suggesting?
Wanting to bask in some fresh air to relax her extremely muddled and stressed out mind, she stepped down the car and took a look at her surroundings. In her panic of controlling the speeding car, she had driven right into a seemingly deserted place. There was literally no one around her.
After what happened with her when she was in Dr. Sharma, the Chairperson’s cabin, she was weary of being left alone.
And then, she saw him. Standing at a far distance away from her. Dressed in his regular black clothes. With an emotionless expression on his face.
“Vansh!” she gasped.
Seeing like that in front of her, she lost all her senses and started walking up to him. She even forgot that he was already dead and she wasn’t supposed to see him. Like a spellbound creature, she continued advancing towards him.
She stopped a few inches away, her eyes full of love admiring him, trying to take in each and every little feature of his beautiful face.
“Am I merely imagining you?” she asked him with her transfixed gaze. “Or are you for real?”
“Touch me, Riddhima,” he said huskily. “What do you feel?”
She obediently brought her fingers close to his face. The warmth of his skin, the softness of his lips, the prickliness of his beard, she could feel everything that logically speaking she should not.
“B-but…you are dead, aren’t you?” she faltered.
He replied, “But I’m alive in your heart, in your memories. Forever…”
Riddhima shut and open her eyes quickly, and also pinched herself twice to make sure she wasn’t dreaming or hallucinating. But in spite of that, Vansh remained there, standing in front of her sight.
It had rained in the morning perhaps, as indicated from the damp soil under their feet. The air surrounding her had a perfume of sandalwood intermixed with the petrichor.
A quick, sudden shuffling of steps behind her caught her attention. She turned around to see Yash rushing towards her.
“Why are you following me? Why are you here? Go away!” she said harshly.
Yash was still panting and puffing with all the running. He caught hold of Riddhima’s hand.
“Come, let us go.”
“Noo! I won’t leave my Vansh and go anywhere!” She tugged at Vansh’s coat tightly, refusing to budge from there.
Yash glanced around him in plain confusion. “What are you talking about? There is no Vansh here.”
She cocked her head towards Vansh who continued to stare at her in an impassive way.
“No, he is there. Right in front of me. Look!” she remarked.
“There is literally nobody around us except the two of us,” he pressed his lips together. “You’ve started hallucinating yet again.”
Yash began hauling Riddhima away, while she kept on crying and resisting his clutches, looking over her shoulder at her dearest Vansh.
“Don’t make me away from my Vansh. Please…” she begged him.
But Yash wouldn’t listen to her at all. Undeterred, his hold on her got rougher and rougher until she couldn’t bear it any longer.
“Aah! You are hurting me!” she winced in pain.
Yash worriedly let go off her hand with a jerk, the inertia making Riddhima to tumble backward. She landed on the soft, wet soil with a thud, right in front of Vansh.
What she saw, shocked her to the core. Vansh had worn a thick plastic cover over each of his shoes.
Her eyes travelled to the soil behind him, and sure enough, there wasn’t any footprint visible to the naked eye.
Gripped with sheer disbelief, she raised her head at the tall, towering figure looking down at her with the same blank expression.
If Vansh was either a figment of her imagination or a mere spirit, then why on earth had he covered his shoes with a plastic wrap? She suddenly remembered how Seher had told her about Vansh’s missing footprints around the house in the jungle.
Before she could process about what exactly was happening with her, Yash began dragging her along with him. Stupefied from her recent discovery, she let go off her body, allowing him to take her wherever he wanted. Time and again, she turned behind only to see Vansh standing there motionlessly.
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Once Vansh was out of her sight, realization dawned upon her, causing her to free her hands from his grip with a jerk.
“Why did you lie that you couldn’t see Vansh? He was right there in front of us!”
“No, he wasn’t. You are just imagining things,” he replied.
She grabbed his collar and began shaking him back and forth. “You blo*dy liar! Why are you doing this to me?”
She screamed and wailed at the top of her voice, pounding her fists as hard as she could on Yash’s chest.
“Dr. Riddhima!” A voice from behind made her to stop her madness. It was Dr. Sharma.
“Control yourself. You can’t manhandle him like that.”
“I am not manhandling him.” She raised a finger in Yash’s direction. “B-but he’s lying to me and playing a huge game with me…”
Dr. Sharma cut her off, now starting to address Yash. “Can you elaborate what is she talking about?”
Yash took a deep breath and began, “Even though Vansh has been dead since long, she still claims to see him around her every now and then. We’ve tried explaining to her umpteen number of times that it is all in her head. But she never listens to us.”
“You bastard, I’m gonna kill you!” She charged at him with her hands trying to grasp his neck.
But fortunately, she was held back by Dr. Sharma, who started berating her. “Is this kind of unruly behaviour fit for a doctor?”
Riddhima raised her hands up in desperation. “It is not, it is not. But you must understand that Yash is purposely trying to prove that I’m mad when I am not! I saw Vansh right there behind the trees with my own eyes.”
Dr. Sharma slowly walked in the direction where she had pointed at.
“There is nobody here,” he said after carefully scrutinizing the entire area nearby.
“Obviously, he’d have left now. But he was here just a few minutes ago. Trust me,” she requested him.
Yash who was silent until now, pounced upon the situation. “If as Riddhima claims, Vansh was here just a while back, then why aren’t there any footprints around to indicate his presence?”
Dr. Sharma squatted and examined the ground. Sure enough, it was still damp from the morning rain. Three pairs of footprints were strewned across the place – Riddhima’s, Yash’s and his own. There wasn’t any sign of any fourth person there whatsoever.
He stood on his feet and looked towards her dismally.
“Sir, I can explain that. Actually…” she tried to say.
“Enough said and done!” He raised his hand in air. “I’ve been observing your erratic behaviour. You’re clearly hallucinating and losing your mental banance. The incident that took place in my cabin today was at least tolerable. But now things are getting worse, your health is getting worse Riddhima. You are becoming a threat to the society.
We all saw how recklessly you were driving your car through the streets and how you even began assaulting Yash in your anger. You won’t accept your illness, nor will will you get yourself treated.
And now, there is only one option left…”
Riddhima rolled her eyes in frenzy when a group of nurses came from nowhere and surrounded her from all sides.
“What’s happening? You can’t do this to me! This isn’t right!” She yelled and moved about wildly as she realized what was going to be done to her. “Yash is fooling all of you. Don’t believe him…”
Before she could do anything else, she felt her hand being yanked and a sharp needle was pierced into her skin.
Her vision started blurring and her muscles were becoming flaccid. Her wails gradually became meeker and finally her body collapsed.
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Riddhima opened her eyes, the familiar medicinal stink making it’s way to her olfactory receptors. She glanced from one person to the other doing their work with utmost seriousness.
She sat up straight with a jolt and saw numerous attachments to her body. She peered down to find herself dressed in the hospital gown.
The nurse hurried towards her to make sure she was fine.
“What is this place?” asked Riddhima.
“The City Mental Asylum.”
Riddhima felt the ground beneath her feet slip. What the hell was she doing in a mental asylum?!
She frantically tried taking off the IV drip from her hand.
“Madam, what are you doing?” the nurse tried to stop her.
“I won’t stay here, I want to leave!” she howled.
Watching her throw a fit like that, the rest of the staff ran towards her, and in no time, both her hands were tied to the bed side rails.
But she wouldn’t stop struggling or shouting. She tried her best to wriggle out of the handcuffs but in vain.
Just then, Ajay arrived at the scene, appearing all distraught to see his only daughter in this state.
A ray of hope rose in Riddhima’s heart to see her father. He’d save her from this mess. Yes, he surely would.
“Papa, please save me from this place. I am absolutely fine but these people…”
Ajay caressed her face with welled up eyes. “It’s only a matter of few months. Once you become completely alright, no one can stop me from taking you away from here…”
Riddhima’s eyes widened at his implication.
“But Papa there is nothing wrong with me…”
Ajay continued paying no heed to her words. “Don’t worry. I won’t let anything bad to happen with you. I will ensure you get all the required comforts over here.”
Planting a quick kiss on her crown, he walked away, while Riddhima kept calling upon him.
“Papa, please come back. Don’t leave me here, please. Don’t believe that Yash…he’s a scoundrel! He’s making all this up. Vansh was really there, I’ve seen him with my own eyes…”
She saw her father’s figure pass out through the door. He left her all alone, yet again.
Taking pity upon her own helpless state, she began sobbing hard.
All of a sudden, she had an epiphany. Yash was always known to be really close to Ajay. In fact, Yash used to act like a little subservient of his, doing everything as he said.
What if whatever Yash was doing with her was done as per Ajay’s orders?
Riddhima’s hands and feet turned cold, hot tears started flowing down her cheeks and she was beginning to feel light-headed. How could her own father do this to her? Just how?
The more she thought about this, the more convinced she felt about her father’s involvement in all this.
And what about Vansh? She had seen him for real, right? Was he alive? And if he was, why was he doing this drama? Was he also betraying her like the others? Why was every freaking person around her keen on breaking her trust?
And most importantly, how should she escape out from this mess?
All these thoughts creating a stampede in her mind when Riddhima saw her bestfriend entering the room.
“Seher!” she sounded half-relieved, half happy. She was sure she was the only person in the world she could blindly trust upon for now.
Seher deftly took her in her arms. Riddhima buried her head in her stomach and cried inconsolably.
“I don’t…what…is happening…me,” she cried in her broken speech. “Yash…Papa…they are….betraying me….”
“They aren’t betraying you. They only mean well for you,” said Seher slowly.
Riddhima parted away from her, looking aghast.
“No, no! You’ve been mistaken and you must listen to me…”
Seher interrupted her, “No, God damn it! It is you who is mistaken and you are going to listen to what I say now. Jeh has got the name of Vansh’s old landlord.”
“Who?” she asked emotionlessly.
Seher fidgeted with her fingers.
“It is…you.”
Riddhima just stared at her in bewilderment. “What nonsense!”
“It isn’t nonsense, but rather the truth. The registree says that both the house as well as the land where Vansh and his family used to live earlier, were in your freaking name.”
“But if that house belonged to me, how come I know nothing about it?”
“Because you are suffering from amnesia,” Seher cried out. “You don’t remember any of the things properly. On top of that all your hallucinations…”
“I am NOT hallucinating. That’s what I’ve been wanting to tell you. Let me explain…”
“I don’t want to listen to you anymore, Riddhima,” said Seher. “Whatever you are saying, nothing can be relied upon. You are confusing your subconscious memories from the past with the present.”
With that, she turned to leave but not before asking Riddhima to take care of herself and that she’d come to visit her often.
Riddhima tried to stop her from leaving, but just like the others, she turned a deaf ear to her pleas.
She flung herself on the bed, shedding uncountable tears.
“You swore to me Seher, that you’d stay by my side no matter what. Then how could you break your promise so easily? Are you also betraying me like the others?”
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Seher came back to her house and slumped down upon the couch. She weeped remembering Riddhima.
Riddhima wasn’t only her bestfriend, but she was also like her soul sister. Even though she had been friends with all the three – Riddhima, Yash and Neeti since high school, it was always Riddhima with whom she had felt that special, unbreakable connection.
And today, watching her like this in such a vulnerable state did her no good.
She recalled how before meeting Riddhima in the asylum, she had gone to confront Ajay Sareen…
“How could you get her admitted in a mental asylum?” Seher had scolded him.
“I’ve done this for her own good. Trust me dear,” Ajay had replied. “I myself am a psychiatrist. I know that my daughter is suffering from psychosis.”
“Psychosis?” she blurted out.
“Yes. Hallucinations, delusions, and her constant bizarre behaviour. All these symptoms point to only one diagnosis. She is slowly and completely losing her touch with reality.”
“But I thought that perhaps it was Vansh’s spirit that was making it’s appearance before her…”
At this, Ajay had started laughing. “Ghosts and spirits? Seriously Seher, you are an educated, young girl. I didn’t expect you to believe in such age-old century myths.”
“Alright, there are no ghosts or whatsoever around us. But tell me one thing, why did you all hide the fact that Riddhima was suffering from amnesia?”
“There’s a reason behind that. Riddhima used to love Vansh a lot. And when she came to know about his death, she had become very traumatized. You should have seen her state that time. Of course, you weren’t there here and it was only left to me, Yash and Neeti to take care of her. Riddhima’s mind couldn’t bear the trauma anymore, and all her memories related to Vansh were flushed off.
We didn’t want her to bear the same pain again, so when she finally recovered, we thought it was in her best interest if we didn’t ever mention either about Vansh or her amnesia in front of her.
Tell me, as a father, what wrong did I do?”
Seher was brought back to the present with the shrill ringing of her phone.
“Hello?” Jeh’s tensed voice came from the other end.
“What happened, baby? Is everything fine?” asked a concerned Seher.
“I’ve been digging deeper into Dr. Ajay Sareen’s life,” he spoke in a hushed tone. “He isn’t as civil as he chooses to show off in front of the world.”
“What do you mean?”
“The property which is on Riddhima’s name as of now, is actually being managed by Ajay without her knowledge.”
“What?!”
“Apparently, that property belonged to Riddhima’s mother, Uma Sareen. A few days before her death, she had made a will for the property to be passed on to Riddhima as soon as she turned 25 years old…”
“And now Riddhima is 28 years old,” said Seher.
“Yes, that’s right. According to some inside sources, Ajay Uncle has been having his eyes on that land since many years. In fact, some people also say that he was the one to kill off his wife in order to acquire that property.
But because Uma Aunty had made Riddhima as her sole heir, Ajay couldn’t lay his hands on it.”
Seher almost fell off the couch listening to all this.
“Oh my God! If that property meant so much to him, then there is high probability that he was the one to murder Vansh and his family.
What do we do now?”
“We must inform everything to Riddhima at the earliest,” he said.
Seher hesitated. “But Riddhima has been admitted to an asylum…”
She could hear Jeh groaning with frustration. “Shit, shit! This is even bad, Seher. With Riddhima being proved as mentally insane, now it would become much easier for Ajay Uncle to get the property. Do you understand?”
All things began to make sense to Seher. It was all Ajay’s plan to make Riddhima appear as a retarded person in front of the world so that he can make her property on his name.
“Also, I think that Ajay Uncle has got the hang that I know a lot about him, which I shouldn’t. So if anything happens to me, just remember that it must be him!” With that, he ended the call.
Seher’s mind on the other hand was completely stuck. She realized that it was upto her now to save Riddhima but she didn’t know how.
______________________________________
The sun had gone allowing the dusk to intrude upon the city. But along with the darkness, this night also brought in loominess into some people’s lives. And Riddhima was one of them.
Her hands and feet secured in cuffs, she lay on her back staring at the fan rotating above her. The ceiling had a few cracks in it through which a tiny part of the dark night could be seen.
She had counted all the tiles on the floor – 200 in all. She had reminisced the olden days, when she could remember everything and things around her were quite normal. She did everything to pass her time and to divert her mind, but boredom, agitation and loneliness was soon getting into her skin.
She glanced towards her left, at the bedside table. Her clothes from the morning were neatly folded and kept on top of it. And that’s when something caught her attention.
A lone, medium-sized black button was placed on top of the pile of clothes. Even though her hands were tied down, she still could manage to grab the button and hold it in her palm.
It was the same button that she had seen on Vansh’s coat today! Perhaps it had gotten stuck to her dress when Yash was pulling her away from Vansh.
Yes, this could be the proof that she wasn’t hallucinating or something. This was the evidence that whatever she had seen was hundred percent real.
She wonderes as to how she could pass this information on to a trustworthy person outside the asylum, who in turn could help her get out of this hell.
Just then, the door to her room opened wide, and a hooded figure stood at the entrance.
Riddhima squinted her eyes to get a proper look, but she couldn’t make out who it was in the dim light.
Shutting the door behind him and with his head bent down, the hooded person took giant but quiet steps towards her bed.
“Who is it?” Riddhima asked in a quivering voice.
And then, he lifted off his hood baring his identity to her.
“Vansh!” she choked.
The same face, the same grey eyes, the same lips, the same beard concealing his dimples. He was there right in front of her!
But one thing that was different was the manner in which he gazed at her. There was no love in his eyes, but rather pure evillness.
Without any warning, he forced her palms open, trying to snatch the black button from her.
“What are you doing? Stop!” she tried to scream but no sooner she did that, his other hand roughly slammed upon her mouth.
But Riddhima was a fighter. She dug her nails into his skin earning a wince from him. However, she was no match for this tall, sturdy fellow and she lost out to him.
Vansh smirked rolling the said button between his fingers.
“The only thing that could prove that you are very well sane, is now with me.”
“Who the blo*dy hell are you?” she growled trying to grasp the end of his shirt in her hands. But he backed away at the right time.
“You needn’t know that, sweetheart,” he said menacingly.
Donning the hood over his head, he exited the room, but not before winking at her mischievously.
*
Hello everyone! The more I’m trying to cut short the story, the more it is keeping on extending. Lol.
Also, I guess things seem pretty confusing right now, but everything will get cleared out in the next chapter. Most probably.
Anyways, do comment.
Peace out!