By Pravashi Khare
Nothing could have gone wrong it was a perfect day, with an open sky, cold breeze, and a wonderful journey ahead - at least, that’s what they thought.
Raghav and Aditya were setting off on a trip they had been planning for ages, and finally, this weekend, they were going to their dream destination.
"I can't believe we’re finally going there..." Raghav said excitedly, driving the car.
"Yeah… I’ve planned a whole list of things we’re gonna do there..." Aditya replied, humming his favourite song.
Aaisha was grabbing her bag and getting on her brand-new bike, looking forward to an adventurous weekend.
"Here I come... mountains!" Aaisha shouted on the empty highway.
Nikhil and Naina, on the other hand, were regretting their decision to go on a full family trip.
"I told you we should have not come, we could have nicely stayed at home and enjoyed." Naina said, sitting on the last seat of the bus beside Nikhil.
"Now we can't do anything—just listen to Bua's bhajans and keep singing." Nikhil said, irritated.
They all are going to none other than the famous Rainbow Mountains. People have been talking about it all the time. It is a hill station, far away from the main city, that has just gotten popular. It felt as if one day there was nothing, and by the night, beautiful mountains suddenly emerged. The news about this new tourist spot spread like wildfire because of the amazing view it has; no matter what the weather is, you can always see a rainbow from the hilltop.
Later that day,
"Where are we? This map is also not working … there’s no signal!" Raghav shouted, standing outside the car and trying his best to find a signal. "Come on, Adi, take out your phone and check..."
"Calm down, see… no matter how hard you try, a signal won’t magically come. We’ll go and try to find some people who can help us..." Aditya said calmly. "Come on..."
Both of them set out in different directions, but when they returned, the sun and their hopes had set. Using the torchlight, they located the car and decided to turn the car and park it at the side, but luck was definitely not on their side. The car broke down right in the middle of the road. Despite their best efforts, nothing seemed to work. Now they had no other option but to stay in the car until the next morning. They were Trapped.
Aaisha was moving forward toward a new adventure. Her face was glowing even in the darkness, and no sign of exhaustion could be seen on her body-until she realized she had taken the wrong route. The unpaved road in front of her kept shrinking in width, and there was a moment when she was sure she would crash into the empty, worn-out huts that were lining both the sides. Then, like a magical glow, another road came into view, leading toward the highway. Without hesitation, she turned and kept moving forward on the dark path. Aaisha, who had been expecting an adventure, didn’t know that God would take it very literally and leave her in a barren land where no one or nothing existed. She had no petrol left and no signal on her phone to call anyone for help. She was Trapped.
Nikhil and Naina got off the bus with their family for dinner; they had stopped near a Dhaba on the highway. While their aunts, uncles, grandparents, and parents sat together, they both weren’t sure whether they could handle them for much longer. Their saviour was a call from their cousins. “You guys having fun??” said a bold but sweet voice.“We’re missing it all...”came another voice, which was squeaky. Nikhil took Naina and walked over to the bus, blurting out angrily, “You guys said you would come, and fun... ooo, if you call listening to bhajans all the way fun...” Naina snatched the phone. “Why didn’t you guys come?” she asked patiently.
"Mmm... well, I had exams... so..." and the call got disconnected. Naina, irritated, handed the phone to Nikhil. "You know they don't have any exams," Nikhil whispered.
"Don’t think about them. You know they always do this..." she replied strongly.
They both decided to skip dinner and go for a small walk, but what started as a brief stroll with lots of talking soon turned into a bad decision, as they found themselves in the middle of nowhere. They looked around, and all they saw was an old woman sleeping by the roadside. Nikhil tried to call their parents, but there was no signal. After ten long minutes of trying to find a way out, with no other option left, Naina went over and patted the shoulder of the old woman, who was completely covered with a black cloth. But the woman didn’t show any movement. Scared, Naina shouted at Nikhil for help; he came running, his phone’s flashlight turned on. As they pointed it toward her face, the old woman suddenly sat up erect, her hands rising, and she began chanting some verses. Both Nikhil and Naina stumbled back in extreme shock, as all of it happened within mere milliseconds. Naina, who had fallen on the road, got up, her palms painfully scraped. The old woman then rose to her feet and stared right at them. Nikhil, gathering all his courage, held the flashlight toward her, revealing an extremely odd face, covered in wrinkles. She was wearing a black saree that covered her from head to toe. She waddled toward them, and Naina quickly moved to Nikhil, grabbing his hand. Both of them stood frozen, staring at her with numb minds, regretting their decision to go for a walk.
"Ghum gaye ho kya?" the old woman asked in a high-pitched voice, her eyes staring straight at them. When no one responded, she asked again, this time a bit louder: "Kho gaye ho?"
"Nahi... hum... to... basss ghoom rahe the..." Nikhil said, moving backward.
"Jhoot na bol..." she gave a weird giggle and said, "Humne to aise hi pucha... Kya hai na, yaha sab raat ko jaldi ghar pahuch ke so jate hain... Nahi to..." She laughed a little and then started moving in the opposite direction, with the same strange gait.
“Nahi too.. kya..” Naina slowly spoke up with hesitation.
"Nahi to..." she laughed and kept waddling. The siblings had a brief discussion and decided to seek help from the old woman. She led them with her through long, dark avenues. As they moved further, the roads began to shrink. The old woman didn’t say a word until they reached a narrow path, surrounded by broken and old huts. At that moment, both Nikhil and Naina realized—“We are on the wrong road...” Naina whispered softly, hoping the old woman wouldn't hear her. Nikhil gave a scared nod; he, too, had realized they were in danger. "Hum sahi jaa rahe hain... dar mat..." The woman's words sent chills down their spines. They both wanted to run, but the road behind them split into five paths, and they had no idea which one they had come from. They were trapped.
The cold, spooky chills of the night and the uncomfortable car forced Aditya and Raghav to abandon the vehicle and wander in search of shelter nearby. They walked for long distances, only to find trees, leaves, and stones. It was about 4am in the morning when neither of them had the courage to move forward; their bodies had no will but to sleep, and their eyes could hardly stay open.
But then, they came across an old mansion, standing tall in front of them. It had three floors, each with five windows. Its entrance was through a huge, 10-foot gate. The mansion seemed decades old, with broken windows, doors, and even peeling paint.
"Let’s go in... we’ll have a nice sleep and then find someone to help us with the car," Raghav said, walking happily toward the mansion.
"Wait... you don’t know who’s in there..." Aditya said, grabbing Raghav's shoulder and gently pulling him back.
"Or what’s in there..." said a very sweet voice, followed by a small giggle from behind them. Aditya turned around to see a beautiful girl standing behind them. She was wearing black cargo pants, a black top, and a shirt over it.
"Hi, boys… I’m Aaisha, sorry for the sudden shock..."
"Hi... that’s not a problem," they both said, shaking her hand. "Aditya"
"And I’m Raghav... If you don’t mind me asking, how did you end up here?"
"Well, my bike broke down last night, just a few meters behind this mansion… I came here to look around… you know, buildings like these are interesting to explore..." Aaisha said, moving toward the mansion gate. “You guys not coming?”
“Yaaa… we are…” Both of them said in a sink, yet with a doubtful and scared voice.
The main hall was huge, with webs everywhere—on the windows, doors, ceilings, and the broken furniture. As they opened the door and entered, a strong gust of dusty wind almost knocked them off their feet. They stepped in, leaving footprints in the dust accumulated on the floor. Sunlight streamed through the broken windows at the far end of the hall. There were narrow staircases at both extremes of the hall, but no visible room doors on that floor. Instead, there were dusty old paintings, vases, and artifacts.
"Is it a palace of some raja or something??" Raghav asked, looking at the enormous, royal-looking hall.
"Mostly..." Aditya replied, rather enchanted by the artifacts.
"It’s a Sander’s house, not a palace..." Aaisha said, examining the paintings. "This is smaller..."
"Come on, you call this small?" Raghav responded.
"I’m not calling it small," she said, irritated. "Palaces used to be large, huge, and bigger..."
"Got it..." Raghav said, smirking.
All their sleep faded away as curiosity took over. They began examining things all over the huge hall. Aaisha and Aditya occupied themselves with old books they found on a dusty bookshelf. But Raghav had different interests. He found things that made both Aaisha and Aditya scream - a bone from an unknown animal, a dead rat, and spiders of various sizes and colours. Then, all together, they looked at the broken artifacts and damaged paintings. While wandering, they noticed slits in the walls on all three sides; they turned out to be openings to long corridors.
“I am going up… you wanna come?” Aaisha asked Aditya turning towards him.
"Do you think we sh..." Aditya started, but was interrupted by Raghav. "Are you scared to go upstairs alone, Ms. Google?"
"Don’t call me that, and I’m not scared... never mind." She said, frustrated, as she moved toward the stairs. Aditya had felt a growing unease ever since he’d first entered this unknown, abandoned, and mysterious building. This anxiousness made him rush up the stairs and grab Aaisha’s hand. Before he could say anything, there was a loud THUD! on the main door.
For a moment, all three of them were stunned, transfixed in their positions. Aditya's grip on Aaisha's hand tightened, and Aaisha also moved closer to Aditya. They were sure they were experiencing the last few minutes of their lives - ready to face some monstrous figure that would enter, and with just one enormous breath, they would all perish.
Then, the door opened, and two normal-sized, non-monstrous creatures entered—in fact, they were humans. They were panting and sweating, as if they had run miles to get there. They quickly closed the door and threw themselves to the ground.
It took both parties a moment to absorb the shock they had just received, as neither knew who the other was—maybe they were demons or evil spirits haunting the place.
"Don’t move a step forward..." Raghav started, raising his hand and pointing toward the strangers. "I... I... am... tell...ing you, do... not... move... a... step... for...ward..."
Raghav’s warning, like a magical force, made the boy stand up straight. He extended a hand to the girl. They both stood in full defence, and their energy and power could be felt through their eyes.
"Adi... stay still, they might be doing some internal magic," Raghav said in a tone he thought was low, to Aditya, who was still standing beside Aaisha, totally confused.
"We are not magicians or monsters," the boy exclaimed.
"Ooo... every monster says the same thing," Raghav said, striking a heroic pose.
"Monsters don’t speak..." Aaisha quietly whispered from behind.
"Some do... I guess," Aditya added.
The girl had to break her silence, as the conversation was getting bizarre. "Okay, stop. I think there's been some misunderstanding, but we are just tourists who came to visit the Rainbow Mountains." Her sweet but strong voice silenced everyone. "I’m Naina, and this is my brother Nikhil. We came here with our family, but then we got separated from them."
"You don’t need to tell them everything... you can’t trust everyone here..." Nikhil yelled.
"No... they can help us..." Naina shouted so loudly that her voice echoed. "SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO TRUST PEOPLE!"
Naina then tried her best to explain to Aditya, Raghav, and Aaisha what had happened to them the night before. "The old lady was mad. She just kept laughing and walking weirdly... then she took us to a small hut, which was probably her house. There were no other houses or people nearby, and somehow both of us knew something was wrong. So, we just ran - ran as fast as we could - and ended up here..."
"Do you think she was a witch?" Raghav exclaimed.
"Why do you always think so monstrously and negatively?" Nikhil laughed and said.
"Exactly..." Aaisha exclaimed, happy to see someone who shared the same opinion. Things went well after that.
At three or four in the afternoon, a loud bang echoed through the mansion, waking all five from their deep sleep. It sounded as if something huge had fallen and broken into millions of pieces. Before any of them could process it, a clap of thunder rang out outside - it was about to rain. With an unspoken understanding, the five divided their paths to find the origin of the sound.
Aditya and Raghav went through the door beside the bookshelf, while Nikhil and Naina chose the exact opposite door. Aaisha went through the door situated between the stairs. As it began to grow dark outside, they realized there were no lights in the mansion and had to rely on their phone flashlights.
As they kept moving forward, their paths began to widen. Broken, dusty, and stained paintings and artifacts lined every few steps. In the middle of the corridor, there was a door that led into a bedroom. The room contained a king-size bed with a satin cover and many pillows. There was also a huge cupboard, a table, and a chair.
"Go on, open it..." Aaisha said to herself.
"I don’t think it’s right, Raghav," Aditya said hesitantly.
"Come on, you always say the same thing," Naina said, annoyed with Nikhil.
And when the three of them opened the cupboard, they were shocked—it was nothing like what they had expected. On the top shelf, there were a few saris and dhotis, while the drawers contained old jewels, bangles, and necklaces.
Aaisha noticed something wooden and solid, and as she bent down—there was a LOUD SCREAM. She grabbed it and rushed outside. Even Nikhil and Naina had reached the main hall, which meant either Aditya or Raghav had screamed. When the three of them arrived, they saw Raghav lying on the floor, petrified.
"Well, we were looking through the cupboard, and he touched a lizard..." Aditya said, sounding rather weird.
Aaisha tried to control her laugh, but nothing worked—she burst out laughing, followed by Nikhil and Naina, who couldn't hold it in either.
"I’m sorry..." Aaisha said, still trying to stop her laugh and, say something but her words were unclear.
“What’s in your hand?” Aditya asked, trying to stop her laughter.
"Ooo… this," she said, finally stopping her laughter. "I found it in the cupboard... it was just like this one—in the room... which was also just like this one..."
"Even the corridor was the same," Nikhil added.
"So the three paths are replicas of each other," Raghav said, trying to get up. Aaisha's face turned red.
"I’m sorry... no, really," and she meant it. She offered her hand, and Raghav accepting her apology, and got up.
When they examined the object, it seemed like nothing more than a block of wood. But Aaisha was sure it was something important—else why would someone keep it in the cupboard with their jewels? She kept scratching its corners and staring at it, sitting alone in the corner with her phone’s flashlight. Meanwhile, the others sat around a candle, talking about how weird their trip had been so far.
Aditya went near her and before he could say a word “I know this is something, it is …” she said, looking towards him sorrowfully.
Aditya sat down beside her and noticed something – he called everyone there and showed them a symbol which was carved very lightly on the wood.
“I saw this before… somewhere,” Aaisha said, thinking very hard. Then it struck her. She got up and headed toward the bookshelf—splat and thud!
“Where did the water come from?” Raghav exclaimed. Aaisha had slipped and fallen.
“Are you all right?” Aditya carefully extended a hand and helped her get up.
Naina hurried too, and slowly, they both lifted her, Naina gently guided her away from the wet area and helped her sit down.
“Thank God nothing bad happened” Naina sighed and headed towards the boys.
“Someone opened the gate…” Nikhil suggested.
“Really? Who? We all went inside…” Raghav snapped, staring suspiciously at Nikhil. “Or were you here?”
They yelled, shouted, and barked until...
“Guys look...” It was Aaisha, standing near the bookshelf with a book in her hand, which had the same symbol that was barely visible. The smudged text inside was tiny and was near to impossible to read. Nikhil took out his phone and tried to zoom in, but it just got more blur. Raghav tried to read the text through a broken piece of glass, Aaisha, Aditya and Naina also tried to read it, yet the only words they all could figure out were the last four words of the last page.
“I think it means… ‘it all’…umm” Aaisha said, struggling to find the meaning of the ancient Hindi used in the book.
“You know this language?” Raghav asked, unable to understand a single word.
“It’s ancient Hindi … was used decades ago…” Aaisha added, still in deep thinking.
“I think it means… ‘ends here’…” Aditya suggested, hoping he was right.
As soon as they decoded the words, an unfamiliar, muscular goosebumps giving voice from behind them hollered something in an anonymous language. They saw a wet, middle aged man who was mostly a villager. He had decent clothing, but the horrifying part was the scar on his face, tearing his face from his forehead to chin. Behind him, were few more people standing outside the door. Without saying another word, the middle-aged man went up through the right side stairs. The five just kept staring the group of men who had now entered the hall and closed the door.
“Who do…” Raghav started in a very low voice.
“Shhh...” Naina interrupted.
“They don’t understand us I think …” Aaisha purred.
“Me too…”Aditya added.
“Me three…”Nikhil also agreed.
“So, who do you think they are?” Raghav asked in a low whisper.
“Villagers”
As the murmurs were being exchanged, the man at the top of the stairs gave a whistle to the people standing down, and they all rushed towards him. But after some talk between them on the stairs, two men turned back and came near the five. They said nothing, lunged forward, seized Aditya and Nikhil’s hands, and yanked them forcefully towards the corridor beside the bookshelf. Aaisha and Naina shouted and tried to pull them back, but Raghav ran to the door and stood there covering it. The two men, however, were incredibly strong, and soon they had got hold of Aaisha and Naina as well. Raghav was obviously scared, four of his friends were caught by two unknown strong men, and now they were heading towards him. Despite all his efforts, the men dragged and threw them inside the bedroom and locked them inside.
“You all fine?” Nikhil said, sitting up straight and helping Naina get up.
Aaisha and Aditya had fallen on each other, and Raghav was lying near the door.
“Ya…” Aaisha and Aditya said in unison, struggling to get up.
“Me two…” Raghav said, who had fallen again after getting up.
They had no idea about what was going on outside and were trapped in the room, helpless.
“You call this trapped??” Raghav shouted. “we are caged...”
“What are we supposed to do now?” Nanina asked, concerned.
“Try and open this” Aditya said, taking out the wooden box from inside his shirt.
“With the help of this..” Aaisha took out 2 to 3 books and smiled at the others.
They both had planned it and stuffed the books and the piece of wood inside. Now, the five set to work, trying to find clues or hints about the wooden box and the mansion. About half an hour passed, but all they found were random un-smudged words that made no sense.
Soon, Nikhil felt vibrations in his pocket. It was his phone, which had connected to a signal and was flooded with hundreds of messages and calls from his family. While he and Naina replied to their family, the others also checked their phones and saw that all of their phones were connected to a weird named network. Raghav started searching for their location, Aaisha about the village and it’s history, and Aditya searched for helpline numbers.
“I told them we are with a friend of mine. They are leaving …” Nikhil said.
“Guys, this village is not on the Google maps!!” Raghav exclaimed.
“Listen to this … the Rainbow Mountains is a point of debate between the villagers and the scientists” Aaisha explained. “A scientist visited this place when it first got popular. He then felt something was wrong with it and investigated the area…”
“Listen, he also gave this statement –‘The mountain’s atmosphere is nothing special to have a rainbow at every given moment. It’s not scientifically possible’ ” she showed them the phone and then put it away. “After that, he came here with a team to investigate properly. But the villagers didn’t let them in, and people say when they returned, they were not even recognisable.”
“There is no proper police helpline over here. If we need any help, we will need to go to the city…” Aditya sighed.
“So, there’s no information about this village at all on the web…” Naina concluded.
“But guys look, do you think this is the map of this mansion?” Nikhil said, pointing at an opened page of one of the books.
“But the place we are in is not so clear…” Naina added, passing the book to Aditya, Aaisha and Raghav.
“I think we can still figure out where to go because all three sides are replicas” Aaisha suggested.
“So, what are we waiting for… let’s get moving…” Raghav said.
They banged and banged, and within minutes, the old door broke. They all stepped out and moved opposite to the closed corridor entrance, as they moved forward their path kept increasing in the width. Soon, they stood facing a hall of medium size with a huge chandelier on the top; it was not as huge or grand yet was beautiful. It had many bookshelves filled with old books. They all looked around – pickup a book, flipped through it and kept it back.
“Look at this…” Naina shouted. She had picked up a book, and while placing it back, she found a key.
“Where could it go…?”
Everyone tried different spots, but it didn’t fit anywhere, until Raghav lost his balance and fell on one of the bookshelves. He was fine, but the bookshelf fell down. Then, they all noticed a small hole in the wall. Raghav bent forward and placed the key inside it. The wall then smoothly moved itself to reveal a room that had books in it but, not old ones. They were books of science, maths, lots of notebooks, charts and posters. They all entered in and looked around-
“I think someone lives here. All these books are new, not old at all” Nikhil said.
“Whoever does is definitely hiding something...” Aaisha added.
“May be this…” Aditya called everyone and showed them a chart with a sketch of a machine on it. “It was behind this...”
“What is it?” Aaisha and Naina asked.
“Don’t know, doesn’t even have a title” Nikhil shrugged.
“This proves that this guy is definitely hiding this and maybe something else” Raghav suggested.
Aditya was just looking around when a block of wood fell on him from the ceiling. Aaisha rushed to check if he was fine, then picked up the block of wood and immediately realized that it was something related to the other block of wood she had found. She bought it and put them together on the desk. There was a glow from the borders of the blocks, and an extremely bright light; so intense that they all had to cover their eyes; illuminated from the centre. When they removed their hands from their eyes, the light was not that bright, and the two blocks had joined together seamlessly. Naina picked it up and tried to figure out what it was, but nothing happened. It didn’t open, break, or indicate anything.
“Are you kidding me! “ Raghav was annoyed “are we supposed to try anything else, burn it maybe? Or is there another secret room in here with another part?”
No one answered, because neither of them had any idea, they themselves were as tired and annoyed as Raghav himself. They all just sat down, feeling hopeless, with no energy left within them- they hadn't eaten in the past twenty hours, had no water for hours, and no proper sleep at all. They just sat there, speechless, just staring at each other or the walls or the books. All they wanted was to get out of there and return back safe and sound to their families.
The door opened, and two men entered the corridor, walking straight to where they were sitting. They didn’t say a word, just entered in the secret room, grabbed the charts and notebooks and left. However, because their hands were full, they couldn’t close the corridor door. They all saw each other, got up, rushed towards the door and reached the main hall.
“Grab your stuff and get out of here…” Naina said, pulling on her jacket and rushing to get her purse.
“Are you sure we should leave?” Raghav questioned in a rather genuine way “I mean with all this going on”
“I don’t know, I am okay with whatever you guys decide” Aaisha added.
“Don’t think we have an option. We must leave … who knows who those people are?” Naina said, looking at Nikhil. “We can’t trust people all the time.”
“Wait, but where will we go…? It’s dark and cold outside. Plus, it can rain once again, it’s all cloudy outside” Aditya added, confused.
Everyone regretted not leaving, as five men were coming down the stairs, looking furious. As always, they didn’t say a word; they just grabbed the five of them and took them upstairs. They were thrown into a pitch dark room. They heard a few murmurs behind them before the lights turned on. When their eyes adjusted to the light, they saw the back of a man, around the same age as theirs, standing in a formal black suit.
“So, how are you all?” He said in a bold, malicious voice. “Well, I don’t have time for all this formality.” He turned around, now staring at them with his pointed eyes and his hands folded.
“How did you guys open the room? And how did you break it?” Nobody replied, as even they didn’t know what he was talking about. He got furious and asked the same question again. This time when on one replied, he became violent, picked up a vase from nearby, and threw it to the ground.
When they were finally escorted back downstairs, they hurriedly grabbed all their stuff, stuffed it into their bags, and left.
As they stepped outside, they felt a different sense of relief and peace. It had stopped raining, and the clouds were slowly moving away. When they exited through the ten feet gate, a huge crowd started shouting and howling, as if they had won the Olympics and returned. The crowd came forward, greeted them, and handed them a bunch of stuff – sweets, flowers, letters and snacks.
They tried to figure out what exactly was going on, but the people just wouldn’t listen to them. It took about ten minutes for the entire crowd to disperse. And, at the end, came an old women, Naina and Nikhil stepped back and gasped; she was the same woman from whom they had escaped.
“Aaa... Kaise ho?” She asked them in a rather sweeter voice, without any giggles. She understood from their reaction that they didn’t actually know what they had done. So, she took them with her to a mountain cliff, it had an astonishing view, a view which could take your breaths away. She made sure they were sitting comfortably, and offered them some hot tea, and sat opposite to them. No one picked up the cup of tea even though they were starving. She began speaking, and this time, surprisingly in English.
“These mountains were always as beautiful…” She sighed, looking towards the mountains. “But this place was always hidden. In fact, no one here knew about the outside world. The ancestor had made a rule that no one would come in, and no one would go out for any reason. So, people started working here, and slowly, all their needs were fulfilled right here. Years and years past, and no one objected this rule; everyone just followed it happily. But then, a game changer was born, the one who objected this norm …the 5th generation of the Mansion’s owner. As a child, he wanted to go out and explore the world. He was an amazing author, he wrote many books in ancient Hindi, about his dreams and future life. But when his father died,” She took a long pause “he wrote the last line of his last book.
“Things changed after that. The village started falling apart – there were fights, droughts and fires …” Her eyes got wet “He took on all the responsibility of the village and gave up the thought of leaving. But his son, ‘Rahul’, was stubborn. After his parents died, he left the village, went to the city, and studied hard … He returned to solve the problems of the villagers, but they didn’t allow him to come back, no one accepted him.”
“He used to work in that old mansion, hidden from everyone. He built something … a machine that made the rainbow in any season, at any time. Later, a machine that could control the weather, just in case the rainbow machine broke. So, he could cause extreme weather to force the tourists to leave. When he suggested making this village a tourist destination, the people agreed.” She took a sip of her tea.
“Easily?” Naina asked, who was deep into the story.
“No… not at all. He had to wait for years. After that, this place became famous. Everyone loved him and thanked him. But his machines that placed on the top floor of the mansion effected all the villagers who lived near the mansion. They asked him to find a solution for it…”
“What did it do?” Aaisha asked.
“Ask me what it didn’t do… all their businesses were shut down, because tourists were not allowed in that area. They protested, but … nothing worked.” She continued “Slowly, Rahul grew selfish, now he didn’t even give a penny to the villagers for their labour and hard work. Everyone pleaded him, but he was arrogant, he started torturing people.” She took a pause then smiled and looked at them “So, when you broke the machine, everyone was very happy.” she concluded. But then she noticed the block of wood in Aditya’s hand. “That box… it had the key of the room where the machines were placed. Well done.”
She got up and left, leaving them all alone, deep in thought.
“We didn’t …” Aaisha said, opening the box and finding it empty, except for a note written in excellent cursive:
“I am sorry, but I had to do it—for everyone and for you. Always remember your values: help people, be kind to them, and use your wisdom properly. Go on and live a happy life."
“Excuse me, ma’am…” Raghav shouted, getting up and moving toward the old woman, who was not that far away. “How did you know the key was in this box? Who are you?” But the old woman just smiled, left, and slowly disappeared into the fog.
“Yes ma… I am fine” Aaisha said to her mother on the phone call.
“But what about your solo trip?” her mother asked.
“Sometimes it’s better to have friends with you,” she said, looking at the others and smiling.
“Adi… well we were not able to do the stuff you planned…” Raghav said, disappointed.
“Well… sometimes it’s exciting to have unplanned adventures,” he said, putting his hands over the shoulders of Raghav and Aaisha.
“Well, Bua, we will miss your bhajans on the way back,” Naina said, giggling to her family on the phone. “And next time, Banty and Ritu will come along… okay bye,” Nikhil added from behind.
They also came and sat near the other three. They had found the best spot on the mountain and were sitting on the slightly wet grass in silence, and enjoying the amazing view in front of them. It started drizzling, and even the sun shined brightly. Everyone knows what happens when the sun and rain meet - it forms a RAINBOW.
“You were right... trusting the unknowns Sometimes is best” Nikhil whispered to his sister, smiling. She hugged him like never before.
The five of them sat together, their hands resting on each other’s shoulders, a silent promise shared among them. They didn’t need words—everything they had been through, all the moments of laughter, silence, and mystery, were woven into this simple, perfect scene. As they sat together, watching the bright rainbow, they knew that this moment would stay with them forever. And deep in their hearts, they all felt the same truth: sometimes, the best friendships are the ones you never see coming.
-----End-----
By Pravashi Khare
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