Link to the previous chapter :
https://www.tellyupdates.com/where-secrets-lie-chapter-1-her-fears/
Returning home after having her little adventure in the forest, all Riddhima needed was a warm scrub bath to calm herself down. She turned on the shower, letting the little droplets seep into her skin. She closed her eyes, trying to bask in this rejuvenating experience. Suddenly, the unknown man’s face flashed in front of her eyes making her startled. The same man in black who had saved her today.
What was wrong with her and why was she thinking about him, she mentally berated herself.
Coming out of the washroom, she got dressed into her night suit. That’s when, she heard the doorbell ring.
Feeling a little skeptical as to who it could be at this hour of night, Riddhima went up to the door and glanced through the peephole. It was her dad, Ajay Sareen.
She opened the door and greeted him warmly.
“Papa! How have you been? And what brings you here so late in the night?” she said beckoning him over to the sofa.
Yes, Riddhima stayed alone by herself in her own apartment. People around her found it strange that instead of living with her only family, her father, in his lavish mansion, she was living alone in this small place. But frankly speaking, Riddhima was tired of staying under the shadows of Dr. Ajay Sareen, one of the renowned psychiatrists in the entire country.
She loved her father of course. But she loved herself too. Was she selfish when her father pleaded her to return to his house ample number of times? Maybe yes. But Riddhima wanted to prove to herself that she could do very well in her life without her father’s support.
Ajay drank the water from the glass that Riddhima had offered him. Between the sips, he said, “Yash told me about what happened today in the jungle. How did you not deem it important enough to share such a vital piece of information with me?” He sounded terribly miffed with her.
Riddhima clenched her fists. That stupid Yash! Why did he always have to act like her father’s little informant every single time? Why?
Trying to hide the irritation from her voice, she said, “It’s okay Papa. I’m absolutely fine. See?” She did a swirl in front of him to prove her point.
Her unbotheredness got to his head and he started blasting her. “Fine? Like seriously? You were almost going to get attacked by a tiger, and you say that everything is fine?” He took a pause in order to catch his breath. “Thank God for that noble man who saved you! I’d forever remain indebted towards him….”
That man, yeah that impeccably gorgeous man, she thought to herself.
A gentle tap brought her out of her trance.
“I am not only your father, but even your mother as well. After she left the world when you were just a toddler, I’ve played both the roles for you with utmost love and efficiency. Don’t I have even this much right that I get to know about this life threatening incident you just happened to face few hours ago?”
Riddhima hugged her father, comforting him with her words. “Papa, just relax. I’m a big girl now and can take care of all my problems by myself.”
“I will never forgive that guy, whatever his name is, who took you to such a place which you have always been phobic of,” Ajay gritted his teeth.
“His name is Jeh and he’s a nice guy,” said Riddhima. “It’s just that he’s very cool headed. Plus, I believe in letting bygones be bygones.”
She wanted to say something more, but Ajay’s phone began to ring.
“It is the minister’s phone. Apparently, he wants to consult me regarding one of his close relatives. I’d have to leave Delhi for that. My flight is just four hours from now.”
Planting a quick kiss upon her head, he left her apartment, leaving Riddhima a little hurt. She had wanted to discuss with him about how strangely her saviour, the man in black had acted today. But as usual, he was busy, leaving her all alone once again.
Even though she understood that being such a famous doctor was not easy for her father, she really wished that he had given her the much needed time and attention during her growing years.
Although Ajay believed that he had done a good job playing the father as well as the mother to Riddhima, she thought otherwise.
As far as she could remember, she had always felt that void in her life. She dearly missed her mother throughout her childhood and subsequently her teen years. She never told this to anyone, but often she used to cry quietly under the cover of her blanket.
That was one of the prime reasons why she wanted to do super specialization in child psychiatry. She did not want any other child or teen to feel lonely, neglected and worthless like how she had felt. She did not want anyone else to go through the same pain of loneliness that she went through and in fact, still goes through….
A new day, a new beginning. Riddhima punched her fingerprint in the biometric machine. She heaved a sigh of relief when she found the green tick mark on the screen in front of her. Phew! She was just 1 minute short of missing her biometric attendance today. Being on time was something Riddhima struggled hard with since her childhood days.
After carrying out all the morning rounds in the wards which went on till about two hours, she straight away headed into her cabin, where she’d be seeing the outpatients.
As rang the table bell as a signal for the nurse to start sending patients into her room, she found the door being opened and someone entering inside.
“You?” she asked not able to hide the annoyance from her voice. “Yash, you should know that I’m busy with my patients and this is no way to disturb me.”
Yash knew that he’d have to do a lot of explaining, when he received a series of angry messages from Riddhima last night.
He looked at her timidly and pulled out a chair. She appeared no less than a raging lioness ready to pounce upon him.
“I know that you’re upset with me, but you should understand that Ajay Uncle is your father. And he has every right to know what goes on in your life.”
“And who gave you the right to go and spill each and every news about me to him?” she snarled. “There is something called privacy in life. We can’t share everything with everyone. But of course, a fool like you won’t be able to understand this. Always you act like this perfect secret informant for Papa.” She leaned towards him, her blazing eyes making him even more intimidated. “Perhaps Papa is paying you a hefty amount for your services!”
“Riddhima!” said Yash feeling quite hurt. He was her friend and this was what she thought about him?
Waving her hand in his direction, she said, “I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Just leave. And yeah, don’t waste your time calling or messaging me, because I won’t be entertaining any of those.”
Feeling utterly dejected, Yash moved out of her cabin. Just then, his phone pinged. It was a message from Neeti :
Did you speak to her?
.
Yes. But she’s still very angry and doesn’t want anything to do with me….
.
Oh God! Why does Riddhima always behave so rudely with you? And you….you need to stop fooling around and tell her about how you consider her more than just a friend and how deeply you feel for her.
.
No! I can never reveal my feelings to her. It is true that I love her, but I also know that she doesn’t do the same. I don’t want to do anything that can further mar our friendship.
.
Riddhima was intently listening to the patient sitting ahead of her. She never interrupted her patients and let them speak their hearts out. One of the main tactics to become a good psychiatrist was to become a good and a non-judgemental listener first.
Riddhima’s eyes welled up when she heard her patient’s ordeal. Apparently, that woman had suffered years of abuse at the hands of her husband and was now suffering from suicidal thoughts.
“Why is this world so cruel? Why can’t people let others live peacefully? Don’t know what pleasure few people derive from making others’ lives as living hell!” Riddhima sadly thought to herself.
She pushed a glass of water towards the lady’s direction as she broke down in front of her, not able to continue her story further.
“Here, here. Everything will be alright,” Riddhima comforted her.
“Doctor, am I turning mad?” the lady asked her.
This was what Riddhima absolutely hated. There was still such a taboo around mental health, that any person taking psychiatric help was deemed to be “mad”.
“No, absolutely not! Depression is just a disease, like how you have other treatable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, etc. You have suffered years of abuse and this was bound to happen. Don’t blame yourself. You deserve to live, you deserve to enjoy each and every moment of your life….”
She handed out a prescription of medicines to her.
“Take these on time. Also, I’m putting you on weekly therapies which you will have to attend without fail. And….” Putting her hand atop the patient’s. “Remember that we all are there to help you. But unless you yourself don’t make up your mind to get out of this, nobody can do anything. You don’t know but you are much stronger and much more worthy than you think.”
The lady smiled a little. This was the first time that someone had listened to her outpourings and had said such kind things to her.
Riddhima scribbed something over a piece of paper. “Here is my number. You can call me whenever you want. And whenever you feel that the suicidal thoughts are getting out of hand, you must try to contact someone from your family or friends and immediately rush to the hospital. Okay?”
The lady thanked her profusely and exited the cabin.
Riddhima let out an exhale and leaned against the back of her chair, closing her eyes. Even though all her patients were done, but still she had to wait in the hospital until her stipulated working time, ie 9PM.
To her dismay, she found that her mind was still abuzz with the previous day’s memories. How she was running for her dear life and how she fell right into that mysterious man’s arms, and how she felt bewitched by him…..
She couldn’t understand what was happening to her. Why was she thinking about that man day and night? What kind of magic had he done upon her that his heavenly face kept appearing before her eyes every now and then? His perfectly chiselled jawline and his captivating, grey eyes…..even though she had only seen him once, but everything about him was clearly etched in her mind….
“I think I am the one who is growing mad,” she said clutching at her hair. “What the hell is even wrong with me? But I need to talk to someone about this before I lose my sanity further.”
She couldn’t call her Papa because he was busy and plus he’d get paranoid too. Yash was out of the list because she just had a fight with him. She could call Neeti up, but instead of understanding her predicament, she’d start giving her a long lecture about how she was acting stupid.
So the best person to talk to right now was none other than Seher. She picked it up in an instant.
“Hey Ridz what’s up! Done with your patients?”
“Uhm yeah. Will be going back home within some time.” Riddhima was thinking of a way to broach upon this topic. “Actually, I needed your opinion over a matter.”
“Yeah go ahead.”
“Well….there’s a patient who encountered a beautiful man few days back and now she can’t stop thinking about him. What should she do?” she lied through her teeth.
“Does she know him?” Seher enquired.
“No. She doesn’t even know his name. In fact, she didn’t even get to speak a single word with him.”
Seher excitedly said, “Then this means that your dearest patient is in love with him! And I think, she should try meeting him again and try working out things with him.”
Riddhima almost started choking. “Love? What, no! I mean this is not possible. Love is a beautiful emotion which takes days or sometimes even years to develop. How can someone fall in love at the very first sight?”
“Wait! You are the one who never believes in love-at-first-sight…..that means….” Seher gasped when she understood everything. “That means you weren’t talking about any God damn patient, but rather about your own self! Omg Riddhima! Don’t tell me that you are still thinking about that man from the jungle!”
Riddhima felt embarrassed listening to her friend catch her lie.
“I don’t know what’s happening to me. I’ve always been this practically thinking girl, then how could I fall in love with a man who I only saw once and know nothing about? To be honest, I’m actually feeling ashamed of myself,” she honestly confided into her friend. “I know I shouldn’t be thinking about him, but that’s what I’ve been doing for the past two days.”
Seher processed all that her friend was telling her over the phone. Even she was surprised by her behaviour. Perhaps that man was really a beauty to behold.
“Listen. First of all, just stop blaming yourself, okay. You might have found him attractive and desirable, but you never know how he is in real. He might be a murderer, a terrorist, or even worse, a rapist! Every good looking man need not be good at heart too.”
“Of course, I know that!” said Riddhima in frustration. “But it’s not only his appearance that is making me feel this way. It is something much more than that. And I don’t know what it is.”
“You know what, you should stop worrying about all this. Tomorrow, I’ll come over to your place and we’ll talk about this in detail over a cup of coffee,” offered Seher. Riddhima agreed to this.
Before hanging up, Seher warned her, “Don’t take my words seriously when I gave the suggestion of going up and meeting that unknown man once again. You should know that I was just joking. You won’t do anything of that sort.”
“Oh my God Seher, I’m not that dumb okay! Of course, I’d never do something as silly as that. Plus, I don’t even know where that man lives and I’d never want to go back to that jungle again just to look for him or something. Especially, after what happened yesterday.”
Saying this, Riddhima ended the call. But she was disappointed with her friend. How could she think so lowly of her? She was a freaking psychiatrist for crying out loud. She’d never take any decision in haste.
With these thoughts still running in her mind, Riddhima drove back to her house. She wasn’t feeling very hungry, so she instead had a sandwich and went off to her bed.
“Don’t think about HIM,” she said to herself. “Think about beautiful trees, flowers, forests, that beautiful man…..no, no! Gosh, not again!” She slapped herself in order to jerk those thoughts away.
“Riddhima! Get a grip over yourself, girl!” she grumbled.
After a lot of failed attempts, Riddhima finally managed to fall asleep. But she had no idea about what the future held for her.
Riddhima felt a sharp, stabbing pain in her left foot. She groaned with her eyes still closed. She became puzzled as she felt some dampness against her body. She stiffened as she could sniff the petrichor in the air.
With a lot of difficulty, Riddhima opened her eyes slowly and she was shocked at what she saw.
She wasn’t in the comfort of bedroom. Rather she was in an eerie looking forest!
She pinched herself twice to make sure that it wasn’t one of her nightmares. But no. This seemed real. Even more real than she herself.
It was pitch dark with the rain continuing to pour mercilessly. Riddhima looked at her bleeding foot that was caught in the wheel of her bicycle. What was even happening? And how had she reached here?
Did she pedal all the way from her house to this place? Why couldn’t she remember anything? Wait….was she sleepwalking all along?
As reality struck her and she began to register all the events that must have occurred, Riddhima’s fear resurfaced. Her worst nightmare was now beginning to turn true.
Tears started flowing down her cheeks, as she realized the gravity of the problem. She was stuck helpless in this God forsaken place, and had no means to contact someone for help or to even get out of this mess.
Her phobia got the better of her, and she started gasping for air with no voice coming from her mouth. Her whole body was turning cold and clammy and she was beginning to lose all her basic sensations. Her head was beginning to throw itself in violent whirls, and she knew that she would pass out any moment.
Just then, a ruffling sound through the grass caught her attention. She understood that some deadly creature must be advancing towards her and this made her even more terrified. Her heart began to pound harder against her chest, as she kept trying to free her foot from the wheel of the fallen bicycle. But nothing was working.
Her eyes widened up when she saw the same unknown man in black from yesterday, appear in her sight. She felt she got her breath back after seeing a human being in front of her. But then, panic started gripping her again. What if he tried to take advantage of the situation and harmed her?
The man was himself drenched in the rain, his otherwise neat hair now turned messy. He was dressed in black yet again.
He kneeled besides her, looking straight into her eyes. She did the same, and soon she found herself drowning in the ecstacy of his grey eyes, beckoning her to a world of fantasy.
She let out a shrill cry when she felt him pull her foot out with a sharp force. No sooner had she done that, he slammed his hand against her mouth.
“Be quiet! The bears are known to hunt at night and if they hear us, then we will be reduced to nothing but mere food for them.”
His voice, it was as enchanting as his eyes. It was the first time that she had heard him speak, and she knew that she could hear him talk for hours at a stretch.
“What is this place?” she uttered without thinking.
“Australia,” he said with a bored expression.
“What?”
Giving her a pointed look, he said, “This is a very old and filmy question. You are in the same jungle where you and your friends were camping yesterday, Riddhima.”
She almost started moving away from him, her eyes filled with newfound terror.
“H-how d-do you know my n-name?” she stammered.
“I heard your friends calling you out when you had gotten lost in the wilderness of these woods yesterday,” he replied matter-of-factly. “Now enough of your questions. This place isn’t safe at all as it is supposed to be the hunting grounds of bears and panthers. Come, let me take you to my house.”
“Your house?” she blurted out. “Where do you stay?”
“Right here in the jungle.”
Riddhima narrowed her eyes at him. This just wasn’t looking right.
“Which sane person abandons human civilisation to live in a jungle?”
“I do,” he said, his voice becoming manacing. “And you are going to come with me because you have no other option left right now. Firstly, you are hurt and you need some bandaging to be done. And secondly, because of the heavy rains, all the exits from this jungle have been blocked. You can return to your city only when the rain stops pouring, that is most probably tomorrow afternoon.”
He saw the doubt that she held in her eyes for him.
“Don’t worry. You can trust me.”
Saying this, he helped her get up and supported his hand around her waist.
Riddhima limped through the way, her head resting against his broad shoulder. She herself did not know what she was doing at the moment. But right now, she was busy basking in his lovely sandalwood fragrance.
“What is your name?” she asked him, looking at him longingly.
He stopped walking and peered down at her, melting her in his intense gaze.
“Vansh,” he replied in his husky tone and continued walking.
“Vansh….” she smiled snuggling close to him as he continued to lead her ahead.
Precap : “I am nothing but a blazing fire. You’ll burn yourself if you come near me. So better stay away.”
“If the price for loving you is to get myself burned, so be it.”
Hello everyone! So that is it for today. Do comment below about how you found this chapter. So many of you had rightly guessed the unknown man to be Vansh.
Question for you all : What do you think about Vansh? Is Riddhima making a mistake by trusting him?
Peace out!